All eyes have been on the personal lives, career and net worth of the brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher ever since Oasis announced their reunion after a gap of 15 long years.
As incredibly popular as they are among scores of Britpop fans, Noel Gallagher and Liam Gallagher have also been part of many controversies due to their frequent clashes and some of their actions in public. It was, in fact, the bitter rivalry between these two enfant terribles of British music that led to the dissolution of the English rock band in 2009.
Nevertheless, it is their music for which they are loved to this day. The popular Oasis songs of the 1990s and the early part of the 2000s remain instant crowd-pullers. This is why excitement is very high for their upcoming world tour in 2025.
OASIS LIVE ’25 world tour will see the brothers perform together for the first time in over 15 years across the UK and Ireland. However, there is no clarity on whether the other members of the band, namely Gem Archer, Andy Bell and Chris Sharrock, who were with it at the time of disbandment or the original band members, Paul Arthurs, Paul McGuigan and Tony McCarroll, will join the brothers.
But the news is every bit exciting for fans. “The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised,” read an announcement by Oasis, underlining how huge the moment is for everyone — the brothers as well as the fans.
All about Noel Gallagher, his career and net worth
The first steps before Oasis
Unlike Liam Gallagher, Noel wasn’t involved with the original members of Oasis from the very beginning. The second son of Irish parents (Noel and Liam have an older brother, Paul), he had a very difficult childhood marked by mistreatment at the hands of his father. He was expelled from school and briefly got involved in bad company as a teenager. It was during a probation he received for robbing a store that Noel began exploring his talent in music.
At the age of 21, he joined English rock band Inspiral Carpets with whom he went on tours. After returning from a tour in the US, Noel learned that Liam had started a band called The Rain.
Liam invited Noel to join the band, which the latter did on the condition that he would be its principal songwriter. And thus was born Oasis.
Noel, Oasis and High Flying Birds
Oasis has eight No.1 singles and as many No.1 albums on their respective Official UK Charts. To date, Oasis albums have recorded sales of over 75 million.
The first Oasis album was Definitely Maybe (1994). It was followed by six more:
(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)
Be Here Now (1997)
Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000)
Heathen Chemistry (2002)
Don’t Believe the Truth (2005)
Dig Out Your Soul (2008)
The eighth No.1 they had on the UK Albums Chart was a compilation album, Time Flies – 1994-2009 (2010), released after Oasis disbanded.
In September 2024, Definitely Maybe returned to No.1 on the UK Albums Chart. (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? and Time Flies – 1994-2009 were also back in the top five. The band’s songs “Live Forever,” “Don’t Look Back In Anger” and “Wonderwall” were back among the top 20 on the UK Singles Chart.
Definitely Maybe is the fastest-selling debut album in the UK’s history with 5 million sales in the country alone, according to Billboard. Their third studio album, Be Here Now, sold around 696,000 copies within three days of its release in August 1997 and is to date the fastest-selling album in British history.
View this post on Instagram
After he left Oasis citing “verbal and violent intimidation,” Noel formed the group High Flying Birds. Former Oasis band members Gem Archer, Mike Rowe and Chris Sharrock are part of Noel’s group along with former Zutons bassist Russell Pritchard. Jessica Greenfield is the latest member of the band.
To date, the group has released four studio albums — Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (2011), Chasing Yesterday (2015), Who Built the Moon? (2017) and Council Skies (2023).
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, the debut album, was the UK’s second biggest-selling rock album of 2011 after Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto. Barring Council Skies, all three albums reached No.1 on the UK Albums Chart.
A costly divorce that impacted his net worth
Noel Gallagher was married to music publicist Meg Mathews from 1997 to 2001. They divorced after Noel committed adultery with Scottish publicist Sara MacDonald. According to a BBC report from the time, Mathews said she found it “intolerable” to live with Gallagher since he admitted adultery. But Noel said in a statement that he only admitted to his act to get the divorce quickly because he could “no longer tolerate her behaviour.”
According to The Sunday Times, Noel had to shell out GBP 4 million (around USD 5.2 million) to Mathews as part of the divorce settlement. Noel has a daughter with Mathews, Anaïs Gallagher, who is now a very popular model and is a known supporter of Oasis.
Noel was in a long relationship with MacDonald, during which they had two sons. The couple got married in 2011. They divorced in early 2023. A year later, speaking on Matt Morgan’s Patreon podcast, Noel revealed that the divorce cost him GBP 20 million (around USD 26 million) in settlement for MacDonald as well as his Grade II listed country house, near the Hampshire village of East Meon on the South Downs, which cost roughly GBP 8 million (around USD 10.5 million).
Following the divorce, Noel lived almost a year on rent at the posh Claridge’s Hotel in London, paying GBP 2,500 (around USD 3,250) per night. He now reportedly resides in his own apartment in Maida Vale, West London.
What is the net worth of Noel Gallagher?
In their prime in the 1990s, the band was earning around GBP 9 million (around USD 11.5 million) per year. According to The Sunday Times, which compiles The Sunday Times Rich List, Noel and Liam Gallagher had a combined net worth of around GBP 52 million (around USD 68 million) when Oasis disbanded in 2009. By 2018, their combined net worth was around GBP 60 million (around USD 78.5 million) largely due to the solo success that Noel achieved with High Flying Birds.
Now, according to celebrity wealth tracker Celebrity Net Worth, Noel has a fortune of around USD 70 million as of mid-2024. His net worth is more than 11 times that of his younger brother. However, it is not clear if the divorce settlement Noel paid has been factored in. But in case it hasn’t then his true net worth could be somewhere around USD 45 million.
Noel created the record label Sour Mash Records to release his music outside of his Oasis career. According to its financial report available at Companies House, the label has assets worth around GBP 3.4 million (around USD 4.4 million) as of the year ending 31 December 2022.
The reason why Noel has a higher net worth is simple: he is the principal songwriter of Oasis. In fact, he is the sole songwriter of the first three albums — all of which contain songs that are far more popular on streaming than the others that followed.
As a songwriter, who is behind both music and lyrics, Noel practically is entitled to a huge share in Oasis’ royalties. Due to his position in the band, Noel technically might also have a larger share in the publishing rights of the songs produced by Oasis to date. Liam, on the other hand, has almost no share in this, as he is simply a lead singer.
Additionally, Noel is also the producer and lead guitarist of Oasis. As such, he is also entitled to a share in the royalties from music sales and streams just like Liam.
All of this means that should the band decide to sell its music catalogue in the future — which could easily fetch hundreds of millions of dollars — Noel stands to take the biggest chunk of the sales. In fact, as The Sunday Times noted in a September 2024 article, Noel will own the full publishing rights of Oasis songs in 2025, according to a contract the band had prepared. He has also previously hinted at selling the music catalogue of Oasis in 2025.
The only thing that Noel needs now is the success of the OASIS LIVE ’25 world tour, which could lead to a boost in the streaming of Oasis songs, the numbers of which are currently not enticing enough.
OASIS LIVE ’25: Tour dates and expected earnings
Oasis will be touring the UK and Ireland on 17 dates. The official dates and venues for OASIS LIVE ’25 world tour are as follows:
- Principality Stadium, Cardiff, Wales: 4 July and 5 July
- Heaton Park, Manchester, England: 11 July, 12 July, 16 July, 19 July, and 20 July
- Wembley Stadium, London, England: 25 July, 26 July, 30 July, 2 August, 3 August
- Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland: 8 August, 9 August, 12 August
- Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland: 16 August, 17 August
Tickets for all of their planned 17 gigs of OASIS LIVE ’25 sold out the day they went on sale on Ticketmaster on 31 August. Such was the demand that tickets were reportedly offered in the resale market for as high as USD 6,000.
At the same time, many fans had to pay more for tickets due to the much-criticised ‘dynamic pricing’ on Ticketmaster. Fans have reportedly said that they paid as high as GBP 355 (around USD 465) plus fees for standing tickets, which were offered for only GBP 135 (around USD 177) plus fees at the start of the sale.
This prompted England’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to launch a probe into Ticketmaster’s ‘dynamic pricing’ policy in early September.
According to The Sunday Times, only 1.4 million tickets are available. Since all are sold out, the total revenue from ticket sales alone comes to around GBP 240 million (around USD 314 million). However, the projected estimate of the tour’s earnings according to other sources is around GBP 400 million (around USD 524 million).
Revenue will also include broadcasting rights, which may involve Apple or other major players in the concert industry. Merchandise sales will be a part of additional revenue, as is always in the cases of mega performers such as Taylor Swift and Coldplay.
Should Oasis decide to perform in the US, there is a possibility of several more millions in revenue for the tour. Overall, The Sunday Times estimates that the brothers could jointly earn as much as GBP 50 million (around USD 65.4 million) after taxes and other charges from the tour.
(Hero and Featured images: Anaïs Gallagher/@gallagher_anais via Instagram)
Tags
Written by
Manas Sen Gupta writes at the intersection of tech, entertainment and history. His works have appeared in publications such as The Statesman, Myanmar Matters, Hindustan Times and News18/ETV. In his spare time, Manas loves studying interactive charts and topographic maps. When not doing either, he prefers reading detective fiction. Spring is his favourite season and he can happily eat a bowl of noodles any time of the day.
Most Popular
