Oasis reunion is ‘once in a generation’ moment for UK music industry

On Tuesday, Liam and Noel Gallagher officially announced the return of their Manchester-formed rock band.

UK Music chief executive Tom Kiehl told the PA news agency that the first tour since 2009 will have “a lot of impact on local economies” due to the only European dates taking place across the UK and Ireland.

Oasis will perform at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, Manchester’s Heaton Park, London’s Wembley Stadium, Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium and Dublin’s Croke Park throughout July and August next year.

Mr Kiehl added: “Having a big music event in your community has a knock on and spill over impact on the wider economy too, so great news for the UK.”

He also said it was “really interesting” that the Gallagher brothers have been able to put their differences aside following their acrimonious split.

Mr Kiehl added: “Obviously, when rumours were mentioned a few years ago, it looked very unlikely that this would ever come to pass. So it could be a really once in a generation moment.”

But Oasis expert Dr Matt Grimes, a course director for the Birmingham City University, said the band could end up breaking up before the gigs even begin.

He said: “I think we have to hold back a little bit at the moment about how far this will go, and their relationship has always been fractious at best.

“It’s 11 months until the gigs, so who knows what will happen? We might find out by Christmas time that they’ve fallen out again and the gigs are going to be cancelled.

“I don’t think (they’ve done it) for the money, they’re not in need of money, I think they’re both worth about £50 million each, maybe it’s just they actually enjoy the opportunity to perform live together on stage, something they haven’t done for 15 years.”

Noel, 57, quit the Manchester rock group on August 28 2009, saying he “simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer” following a backstage brawl at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris.

This week marks the Britpop group’s split nearly 15 years ago as well as the release of their chart-topping album Definitely Maybe around three decades ago.

Industry figures also said that the new shows will make for a different experience for fans.

Norwich-based tour manager Jon Luton, who has worked with acts including Scouting For Girls, Laura Marling and Roisin Murphy, told PA that he would be most interested in how the band tries to “enhance” their shows given developments in technology since they last toured 15 years ago.

He said: “Obviously production has completely changed in the last 15 years in what a stadium show would be.

“Back then there was just a couple of video screens either side with a live camera feed, but if you look at what we’ve got now, with what Liam Gallagher has done with Definitely Maybe, production-wise there’s a lot of custom-made video content and live mixed content to enhance the show.

“Back in the day they didn’t have anything like that, it was a band playing on stage with some flashing lights.

“Now there’s a lot more effort put into the production side of things to make it a bigger show than what it used to be.”

He went on to say the large scale of the upcoming Oasis gigs will give Liam and Noel Gallagher the breathing space they may need to stay together.

Luton added: “Generally, the bigger the bands get, the more separate everyone seems to be, because obviously you’re in big stadiums and every band member tends to have their own dressing room, and their own family hangout area and that kind of thing.

“While obviously the smaller you are the more everyone’s condensed together.

“They’re announcing these shows months in advance and obviously this has been a very anticipated tour and reunion, it’ll sell out in seconds and they’ll probably add multiple dates at all the venues.”

But despite looking forward to the band’s return, Luton added that he did not think the reunion would provide a boost to the industry.

He said: “At the end of the day I don’t think it makes a huge difference for the industry as a whole, because every year between 50 and 100 stadium shows going on, and it just means there’ll be certain suppliers that have stuff on this tour rather than being on another tour.

“Essentially the way the industry has been for the last few years, this year Taylor Swift had more stadium shows than Oasis have got over Europe and there’s the same amount of equipment and the same amount of people going around, so I don’t think it’ll do much on a grand scale for the music industry.

“The only thing it might affect is that people only have so much money to spend, so certain festivals might sell less tickets because people decide they’d rather go and see an Oasis show.”