Oasis Live '25 Tour

Oasis formed in Manchester in 1991^[1] and became one of the defining bands of the Britpop era and one of the biggest bands in the world, releasing seven albums in the 1990s and 2000s. Its constant members, the brothers Liam Gallagher and Noel Gallagher, had a tempestuous relationship.^[2] The brothers split acrimoniously in 2009 during their Dig Out Your Soul Tour, between an appearance at V Festival^[3] and a scheduled performance at Rock en Seine in Paris^[4] on 28 August 2009.^[5] After the group disbanded, the Gallagher brothers each formed their own bands, Beady Eye and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, while regularly insulting each other in the press.^[2]

In 2024, around the time of the 30th anniversary of Oasis's debut album, Definitely Maybe, speculation grew that the brothers would reunite. At first Liam denied the stories, though his tweets became more open-ended over time. On 27 August,^[2] two days before Definitely Maybe's anniversary,^[6] the band announced a series of dates in the United Kingdom and Ireland between 4 July and 17 August 2025, including five dates each at Wembley Stadium in London and Heaton Park in Manchester. A press release stated that the band planned to visit other continents outside of Europe later that year.^[2] Three subsequent dates were announced for 16 July, 30 July, and 12 August due to high demand.^[7]

Much of the media reaction focused on the Gallaghers' relationship, increasing the odds of getting tickets, and whether younger female fans deserved to be there.^[8] The last of these prompted Noel's daughter Anaïs Gallagher to accuse some fans of ageism and sexism.^[9] Alexis Petridis suggested that the brothers' reunion could have been precipitated by Noel's divorce from his wife, which had cost him £20 million.^[10] Manchester's nightlife economy adviser Sacha Lord expressed appreciation that the reunion could bring £15 million to the region.^[11] The Maldron Hotel chain in Manchester was accused of cancelling bookings in order to resell rooms at inflated prices, prompting them to state that the rooms were overbooked.^[12] Live Nation UK came in for criticism from housing activists and politicians in Edinburgh for scheduling that nation's dates during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, as the city's hotels and Airbnbs were already stretched during its duration.^[13]

Some felt that the band's return was an unwelcome 1990s throwback. The Independent's Ashley Davies suggested that fans worried about the Gallaghers assaulting each other should turn their attention to men assaulting women, as the era was notorious for laddishness.^[8] The Guardian's Simon Price called Oasis "the most damaging pop-cultural force in recent British history".^[14] The same paper's Barbara Ellen wrote on 31 August that, in four days, the band had been "castigated for everything from bad haircuts and 'football crowds' of middle aged fans in parkas and bucket hats who walk funny, to boorishness, sexism, the demise of 90s music culture, and spreading laddism like a virus". She described the tour as "the most controversial band reunion since the Sex Pistols' 1996 Filthy Lucre Tour".^[15] Brendan O'Neill wrote on Spiked that he welcomed the reunion due to what he perceived to be the dominance of middle-class artists with conformist views, such as The 1975.^[16]

On 30 August, Time Flies... 1994–2009, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, and Definitely Maybe re-entered the UK Albums Chart at numbers 3, 4 and 5, respectively, and "Don't Look Back in Anger", "Wonderwall", and "Live Forever" re-entered the UK singles chart at numbers 16, 17 and 19, respectively.^[17] Time Flies and Morning Glory spent a further week at those positions, while Definitely Maybe peaked at number one the following week due to a 30th anniversary re-release;^[18] additionally, "Live Forever", "Don't Look Back In Anger", and "Wonderwall" peaked at numbers 8, 9, and 11, respectively. The new "Live Forever" chart position constituted a new peak for the track, as it had only managed number 10 on its original release.^[19]

Between 19:00 and 22:00 on 30 August 2024,^[20] select tickets were released during a pre-sale, with seats selling for between £73 and £205, standing tickets for around £150, and premium packages costing up to £506.^[21] These tickets went on sale via a ballot,^[15] with fans asked how many times they had seen the band and required to identify the name of the band's original drummer, Tony McCarroll. All of the presale codes had been allocated by 14:30 that day.^[20] Within minutes of these tickets being released, presale websites were selling them for several thousand pounds; tickets for their 26 July show were being sold for £6,000, prompting responses from the band and the resale company Viagogo.^[21] General sale tickets for the Ireland gigs were released at 08:00 BST on 31 August 2024, while sales for the gigs in Great Britain opened an hour later. Sales were handled by Ticketmaster, Gigs and Tours, and See Tickets, while resales were handled by Ticketmaster and Twickets.^[22] The tour was promoted by SJM Concerts, MCD Promotions and DF Concerts, all of which had links to Ticketmaster's parent company Live Nation Entertainment.^[23] At 13:23 on the day of the public sale, Ticketmaster Ireland announced that their Dublin gigs had sold out,^[24] and at 19:00, Oasis tweeted that all tickets had sold out.^[25]

Some users reported having over one million people ahead of them in the queue, and others reported waiting in a "queue for the queue".^[22] Some users additionally reported 503 error messages^[24] and being mistaken for bots.^[26] Ticketmaster attracted criticism for selling "In Demand" and "Official Platinum" tickets for inflated dynamic pricing,^[27] a practice they defended;^[26] The Guardian's Josh Halliday reported having only ten seconds to make his purchasing decision.^[28] As a result of users complaining about their experiences, "#shambles" started trending on X^[29] and several hundred fans complained to the Advertising Standards Authority.^[30] Twickets also received criticism for their high reselling fees, prompting its founder to announce that they would cap their fees at the lower of "10% + a 1% transactional fee" or £25.^[31] On 1 September, Loudersound reported that two nosebleed seats for their 26 July gig were available on Viagogo for £23,603 each,^[32] and the government of the United Kingdom announced that they would probe the practice of dynamic pricing.^[33] Three days later, the band announced two additional dates at Wembley Stadium that would have an invitation-only ticket sale,^[34] and the day after that, the Competition and Markets Authority launched its own investigation as to whether Ticketmaster broke the law.^[35] In late October, the band's promoters announced that they would cancel over 50,000 tickets and put them back on sale at face value via Ticketmaster.^[36]

On 26 September, NME revealed plans to extend the tour to cities in the Americas, Asia and Oceania;^[37] the North American dates were confirmed four days later,^[38] while the Australian dates were confirmed on 8 October.^[39] Alongside the announcement of the North American dates, the band's management also confirmed in a statement that they would not be implementing Ticketmaster's dynamic pricing system for those shows in an attempt to avoid a repeat of what happened with the UK and Ireland shows.^[40] Cage the Elephant were announced as their support act two days later.^[41] Upon their release on 4 October, all of the North American dates sold out within an hour.^[42] The Independent claimed on 13 October that Richard Ashcroft and Cast would support the band on their UK and Ireland tour, Cast first,^[43] though these were not confirmed until 21^[44] and 28 October respectively.^[45]

On 4 November, ads started appearing in South American cities along with a post on the band's official social media, teasing an official announcement for the next day.^[46][47] Dates in Buenos Aires, Santiago and São Paulo were officially announced on 5 November.^[48] With 132,000 tickets available in total, both Brazilian dates were sold out in under 60 minutes, which prompted rumours of a third and final date in the MorumBIS stadium.^[49]

On 22 November, Asian shows were announced on the band's official media. Dates for South Korea and Japan were officially confirmed.^[50]

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