The biggest reunion tours in music history

The UK music business has been abuzz with talk of an Oasis reunion over the past few days, with an announcement teased for 8am tomorrow.

Rumours of a reconciliation between Liam and Noel Gallagher have been frequent since the Britpop icons split following a backstage bust-up at France’s Rock en Seine in August 2009.

But this time there does appear to be substance to the speculation, first reported by The Times over the weekend, which cited industry insiders claiming the brothers had agreed to a run of open-air concerts in London and Manchester next summer.

Oasis would join a long line of music greats to put years of acrimony aside and reunite. Fellow Manchester legends The Stone Roses got back together in late 2011, having disbanded in 1996 – an almost identical period of estrangement to the Gallagher brothers.

The Roses’ three nights at Manchester’s Heaton Park in the summer of 2012 were reportedly the fastest-selling UK rock gigs of all time, with 220,000 tickets being sold in just 68 minutes. The band continued to perform until 2017, when they quietly went their separate ways once more.

The highest-grossing reunion tour to date is Guns N’ Roses‘ mammoth 2016-19 Not in This Lifetime… Tour, which featured the “classic” lineup of Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan for the first time since 1993. Billboard data shows the Live Nation-promoted tour grossed US$584.2 million from 5,371,891 ticket sales, making it the third highest-grossing tour in history up to that point.

Where UK comebacks are concerned, Take That‘s 2005 return is still the gold standard

The Police‘s 2007/08 Reunion Tour, which followed their 1986 split, was a similarly monster success, taking the crown for the top-grossing tour of 2007 after generating $362m in total, according to Billboard Boxscore, while The Eagles‘ 1994-96 Hell Freezes Over Tour – their first jaunt in 14 years – garnered £152.9m.

Elsewhere, Fleetwood Mac‘s 2014-15 On with the Show, which saw Christine McVie rejoin the group for the first time since 1998, pulled in $199.2 according to Pollstar figures.

Other famous reunions include Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band (1999-2000), Black Sabbath (2012-14), Van Halen (2007) with original singer David Lee Roth, Iron Maiden, whose singer Bruce Dickinson rejoined in 1999 following a six-year absence, and Genesis (2021/22). In addition, Led Zeppelin played a one-off gig at The O2 in London in 2007, while Pink Floyd briefly regrouped for a performance at Live 8 in 2005.

Away from the rock realm, Jonas Brothers continue to do stellar business since returning from a six-year hiatus in 2019, while the Spice Girls have held two triumphant reunions – 2007/08’s The Return of the Spice Girls tour, which netted $70.1m from 45 arena concerts, and Spice World – 2019 UK Tour, which grossed $78.2m from just 13 stadium shows.

But in terms of lasting success, Take That‘s 2005 return remains the gold standard in their homeland. Their 2011 Progress Live tour with Robbie Williams, which saw all five original members perform together for the first time in 16 years, grossed $185.2m, with more than 1.8m tickets sold across 29 sold out stadium shows. Thirteen years on, it is still the biggest tour in UK history.

CAA’s Paul Franklin spoke to IQ about the roaring trade of reunion tours earlier this year.

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