Don’t Look Back in Anger – What does the Oasis Reunion mean for Noel’s divorce settlement?

On 27 August, Noel and Liam Gallagher announced that they would be reuniting for an Oasis tour in 2025 which now includes 19 shows. Tickets went on sale a couple of days later, and coverage has since been plagued by controversy over the choice to use dynamic pricing.

Ahead of the ticket launch, the pair were estimated to make £50m between them. After the ticket release, some estimates put their expected profits at £400m after dynamic pricing, additional tour dates and new sponsorship and hospitality deals are factored in. But what does this mean for Noel who went through a divorce last year?

Last year, Noel and Sara MacDonald announced their separation after 22 years of marriage and reached a financial settlement of divorce. It is reported that Gallagher paid £20m to Sarah in financial settlement following their divorce. MacDonald also received their £8m house in Hampshire.

As part of the financial settlement process, Gallagher and MacDonald would have completed financial disclosure. Given the scale of wealth, this is likely to have been extremely detailed and set out with evidence in a Form E. Form E would have required them to disclose all the assets that they each own personally and jointly, from bank accounts and investments to antiques and properties.

The process also requires disclosure of significant changes in assets or income likely to occur in the next 12 months; say, for example, if Gallagher were to anticipate earning millions by reuniting with his brother after 15 years. So, the likelihood is that MacDonald knew that this tour was upcoming. But would that have affected the settlement at all?

One of the key principles when determining financial settlement is the sharing principle which, in brief, says that assets accrued during the marriage will be divided equally between the parties (unless needs require an unequal division).

In contrast, income is not subject to the sharing principle or future wealth. There are good reasons for this. The courts are keen for parties to have a clean break by being financially independent from one another as soon as possible so that they can both live their lives. They don’t want parties to keep returning their case to court every time one of them gets a promotion or comes into money.

Moreover, post-separation income is a personal endeavour that is no longer affected by marriage- it would be unfair to have an ongoing obligation to share it. And in respect of future wealth, it is not guaranteed, and a financial settlement can’t be based on something that doesn’t exist yet.

It is likely that not only did MacDonald know about the 2025 tour, but that the tour had little effect on the overall settlement because it was income and wealth that, at that stage, was not yet in existence for consideration. That doesn’t mean that Gallagher’s agreement to reunite with his brother has nothing to do with the divorce though.

£20m is still a lot of money to be paid out of your assets (plus his share of the family home worth £4m) and it is only natural to want to rebuild that wealth. With his upcoming tour, Gallagher was expected to make c.£25m which would have almost perfectly filled the ‘gap’ left from the divorce. Now his expected earnings from the tour will dwarf that figure, and who knows, perhaps the emotions of marriage and separation will lead to some new material in future as well.