We’re just a little bit over three months out from the beginning of Oasis’s first reunion tour in 15 years. It kicks off on July 4. As you’d expect from a Gallagher brother event, it has been filled with drama. First, there was the issue with ticket sales, in which fans found themselves dealing with error messages, long queues, dynamic pricing, and scalpers. Then, the band announced that they would not be doing interviews in order to avoid “intrusive questions.” A few weeks ago, we learned that Liam and Noel took pity on those of us who couldn’t get tickets and were turning the reunion into a concert film.
Honestly, none of these events were surprising to most people who were paying attention. You know who was surprised? Noel Gallagher himself. A photography book about the band, titled “Oasis: The Masterplan” comes out on April 15. It tells a visual story about the band’s evolution and features a lot of input from Noel. When talking to author Kevin Cummins about the sh-tstorm around ticket sales, Noel shared that, although he knew people would be excited for the reunion, he was “taken aback” by “how much of a big deal” it ended up being.
The continued popularity of Oasis came as a surprise to Noel Gallagher. After last year’s Oasis reunion tour announcement resulted in a ticketing frenzy for the upcoming and now-sold-out shows, Noel got candid about not expecting the level of fanfare over his and brother Liam’s band in an interview for Kevin Cummins’ new book, Oasis: The Masterplan.
“I thought it’d be a big deal, but I was a bit taken aback by just how much of a big deal it was,” said Noel, 57, in the book, out now, as reported by NME.
The tour kicks off July 4 in Cardiff, Wales and continues with stops in cities including London, Dublin, Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Tokyo, Sydney, Buenos Aires and more before wrapping in São Paulo on Nov. 23.
Elsewhere in Noel’s interview for Oasis: The Masterplan, according to NME, he spoke about his favorite music from the band’s catalog. “Heathen Chemistry had a couple of good tunes: ‘Little By Little’ and ‘Stop Crying Your Heart Out’, the rest of it is a bit ‘meh’. ‘Don’t Believe The Truth’ is pretty good, ‘Dig Out Your Soul’ kind of tails off towards the end. They’re all flawed in some way,” he said.
Oh my goodness, has Noel not been paying attention to how bad the actual ticket-buying process has become over the last 15 years? Of course it was going to turn into a hot mess. People were excited! Everyone knows how their last concert ended, so there was also general anticipation that this tour would be a wild ride. Two generations were trying to get tickets and at the time, there were only a handful of dates announced throughout Ireland and the UK. It didn’t have to be as much of a sh-t show as it was, though. They could have turned off the dynamic pricing or only allow “face value exchanges” from the get-go to deter scalpers. Like, I get wanting to create excitement and demand, but it’s so funny that he didn’t realize “how much of a big deal” their reunion tour would be. Is he just that clueless?
Noel with his daughter, Anais:
Embed from Getty Images
Photos credit: Ant Longstaff/Avalon and Getty
I was 15 when the first wave of Oasis hype came about. Now there’s another generation interested in them? It’s so weird getting older.
I’m just as surprised as Noel.
I think, it is because both brothers did their own projects after leaving the band, but none of it created much buzz. That might be why he didn’t expect too many demands for Oasis. It is totally nostalgia and the feeling that there won’t be another Oasis tour. I hope they don’t cancel.
So funny because he’s usually so cocky!! I wish I could see them