Noel and Liam Gallagher have landed on The Sunday Times’ annual Rich List with a combined net worth of £375m after their long-awaited Oasis reunion tour swept through stadiums this summer. The brothers, who reunited on stage in July after 15 years apart, were ranked number 11 among the richest people in UK music.
The ranking reflects the money poured into the comeback. More than 10 million fans from 158 countries queued online for tickets to the 41-date run across 17 cities, a demand surge that helped make the tour the biggest sale in Ticketmaster history. The brothers are thought to have taken home more than £50m from ticket and merchandise sales, while trade magazine Pollstar said the tour brought in over £297m.
The list placed Emily Eavis and her family at number 10 with £400m, ahead of Ed Sheeran on £410m. Keith Richards and Sir Mick Jagger were both listed with £450m, Sir Elton John with £480m and Lord Andrew-Lloyd Webber with £516m. Sir Paul and Lady Nancy McCartney were in fourth place with £1.055bn, followed by Sir Cameron Mackintosh on £1.4bn and Clive Calder on £3.25bn. Sir Leonard Blavatnik topped the list with £26.9bn.
The Gallagher brothers’ return carried more than nostalgia. They had been famously estranged for years before getting back on stage, and the tour reopened old arguments about how concert tickets were sold. Many fans said they had queued for hours only to face prices more than double the face value, and they accused Ticketmaster of using dynamic pricing.
That backlash prompted scrutiny from the Competition and Markets Authority, which investigated Ticketmaster. The company later committed to changes meant to give fans more information before and during the purchase of concert tickets. For the Gallaghers, the reunion has already turned into one of the most lucrative comebacks in British music. The next test is whether the industry’s ticketing rules change enough to stop the same dispute from following the next major tour.
