Oasis reunites, sort of

This has been the biggest story in music over the past few days, even though it's just the Gallagher brothers reuniting without any other original members of the band.  Now, I doubt there's any added money to be made by announcing the names of additional backing band members.  But Liam Gallagher has been performing "Definitely Maybe" with his own band in arenas across the UK.  Does adding Noel produce more than the sum of the two parts, i.e. an upgrade from 10K seat arenas to 60K seat football stadiums?  Apparently it does, although I have been surprised at the demand and excitement for the reunion so far.  With a year to go before the shows actually happen, the hype can only get bigger.  

Of course, (almost) everybody reunites.  Reliable estimates predict that the tour will draw 400 million pounds, with each Gallagher earning 50 million.  And that's just for the fourteen shows announced thus far!  How stupid would Noel and Liam have to be to not mend fences, at least temporarily (or pretend to mend fences!) with that kind of money at stake.  This only could have happened post-divorces (driving the need for extra income) and post-COVID (driving the demand and prices for concerts way up).  Obviously Taylor Swift and Coldplay have been able to print money with multi-year tours and ridiculous demand.  But the better comparison for Oasis would be Guns 'n' Roses, who took two killer albums released decades ago, a bitter rivalry with a miraculous reunion, and milked it for kingly sums of money for much longer than anyone thought possible.  Another example would be Jane's Addiction, whose reputation is also based on two huge albums (the post-reunion material, much like nearly anything released by Oasis after 1996, are fairly inconsequential), who have settled into a lucrative never-ending touring routine with surprisingly excellent reviews.  

And I'll say it again -- Morrissey may be insufferable and perpetually on the verge of being cancelled, Johnny Marr has a successful solo career and never hesitates to throw shade on the idea, and Andy Rourke recently passed away -- never say never to a Smiths reunion.  The money will be there, they just have to want it enough.