I’ve been lucky enough to see Oasis three time so far this summer – starting with gig number one in Cardiff, then Manchester and London. Every gig has been spectacular – I honestly think that Cardiff was one of the best nights of my life. The Live ’25 tour has turned July and August into a rolling street party throughout the UK with some very positive consequences for UK hospitality. In fact, there was a 242% surge in hospitality spend around the Heaton Park dates alone.

Barclays said fans attending the UK legs planned to spend an average of £766 each across tickets, travel, stays, outfits and, importantly for our purposes, about £75 on food and drink. Multiply that by stadium after stadium and you have hospitality’s version of the golden hour – stretched across a fortnight. Barclays put the total UK fan spend north of £1bn, which is Taylor-Swift level spending – and that’s before a single bucket hat has been purchased.

It’s been forecast that the Oasis dates would pour £9.3m of beer across UK venues before you even get to wine, cocktails, snacks and that late-night “shall we get a kebab?” decision that fuels the local takeaway economy. Tour nights are basically pop-up bank holidays for pubs and bars. 

Even outside the stadium footprint, nearby neighbourhoods catch the overflow: watch parties, tribute bands, “Oasis brunch” menus and “Gallagher hour” promos all add cash to operators’ tills. What’s interesting is that the Oasis effect isn’t just happening inside the turnstiles. The reunion has become a national social plan. Fans organise mates’ reunions they’ve been threatening since 2009, book staycations built around a gig and treat the whole thing like a mini festival: pre-gig pints, post-gig curry, hotel breakfast debriefs and a new bucket hat purchased “ironically” (sure, Dave).

If you’re a venue, how do you capitalise on this glorious reunion? First, lean into the soundtrack. A simple “Oasis Night” playlist and a tongue-in-cheek menu (Cigarettes & Alcohol-free lager, Talk Tonight tacos, Don’t Look Back in Bangers & Mash anyone?) turns pre-gig trade into a themed experience. Second, open the taps early and the kitchen a touch later and you’ll catch those day-trippers arriving on afternoon trains and the euphoric hordes hunting for chips at 11pm. Third, partner with nearby hotels on bundle offers; concert tourism spikes room demand, and the cross-promo (“show your room key for a free side”) can nudge casual interest into actual bookings. The data around concerts and travel is crystal clear: live events trigger concentrated spikes in destination spend, and hospitality wins when it’s visible, frictionless and innovative.

You can also ride the wave even if you’re hundreds of miles from a stadium. Put the gig on the screens (post-rights-friendly highlights, pre-show build-up, fan cams after), host a local covers act the same night and position your place as the “couldn’t get a ticket but got a table” destination. There’s a clear unmet demand story here – just ask anyone who sat in an online queue for hours – so giving fans a communal Plan B keeps the party (and the card machine) humming. 

A word on pricing and fairness, because gig punters do talk: the 2025 ticketing circus has focused the public on value, not just cost. If you’re a pub or restaurant, transparent specials, fair set menus and the occasional “tour night pint” at a sensible price will buy you repeat visits. Remember, a big chunk of fans said they’d cut other spending just to make gigs happen – so give them an experience that feels worth it and they’ll come back when the amps are switched off.

It’s been a joy to watch a band that basically soundtracked British nights out return and, in doing so, supercharge the very places where we celebrate – pubs, bars and restaurants. The Oasis reunion hasn’t just been a nostalgia trip; it’s been an economic shot in the arm for the UK’s night-time economy. 

So, here’s to the venues stocking up on extra glassware, the chefs prepping double batches of curry sauce, and the bar teams who know that on Oasis nights, the queue is long, the jokes are daft and the vibes are amazing. For a few glorious months in 2025, the nation’s hospitality scene has had a swagger again. Long may it continue, because when a legendary band gets back together, it turns out the whole country gets together too.

Whenever my family and I venture out into the country on short breaks, my priority when booking the accommodation is the close proximity of a pub. This caused slight issues on our recent cycling trip, as the lovely Horse & Jockey in Manton, Rutland, was about 50 metres away from the Airbnb that I’d booked, whereas the nearest grocery store was about three miles away.

 

I’m clearly not alone in the desire to have a pub close at hand, because 36% of people would not put in an offer for a home if it was too far away from a pub, with 0.7 miles regarded as the perfect distance and one mile being a deal-breaker for many home-buyers, according to Zoopla. 

 

Those drinking types in London are even less inclined to walk far, with as many as 17% of people believing a distance of more than 0.2 miles to the nearest pub would be a stretch too far. The countrywide picture shows the powerful pull of the pub as the survey found 42% of people across the UK believe the quality of the local pub is important when buying a home, a figure that rises to 48% for men. 

 

As many as 36% of homeowners say they have previously visited a pub before or after a home viewing. No surprise there really, because on the TV programme Location, Location, Location, the homebuyers are invariably filmed in a pub for all the scenes outside the actual property viewings.

 

Despite this backdrop and largely universal love of the pub, the powers-that-be – government, landlords, property developers, local councils and assorted NIMBYs – have, over the years, conspired against the pub. That’s why we are in the dire scenario of pubs  continuing to close at a rate of more than one per day.

 

Among those who visit their pub, 69% do so because they believe pubs are a reflection of the community. Clearly, having no pub in an area is a pretty poor reflection of the community. Maybe this is being increasingly (and not before time) recognised by people. The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) found 41% of people fear losing vital community spaces should their local pub shut its doors for the last time. There is a growing belief by these people that pubs are being dealt a poor hand – again and again. As much as 72% of the adult population feel the current business rates paid by pubs are unfair, according to the BBPA, and the Campaign for Real Ale found 61% of people believe the government should be doing more to protect the existence of community pubs.

 

For many people, they are not just community pubs, but the community manifest. As churches, post offices and shops have, over the years, closed in villages and towns around the UK, it is often the pub that is left as the last vestige of community in those locations. When people leave towns and cities and move to more rural locations, they are willing to give up many things, but the pub is one of those things that they do not want to lose. As we all know, circumstances and pressures have led to far too many closing. What was often the last pub in the village has all too often called last orders for the final time, and the last community asset for those local people has been lost.

 

It was heart-warming to read in Country Life magazine recently of evidence from its “Countryside Crusader” columnist of a revival in country pubs in Suffolk. The writer found that within an eight-mile radius in mid-Suffolk, a number of pubs have recently been reopened by locals not wanting to live in pub-less villages. In Framsden, with a population of 331, the Greyhound was reopened by locals as a community enterprise, while in Rendham, population 229, the White Horse was reopened by a couple of locals who bought the place. It’s a similar story in Debenham, with The Lion back trading after a 25-year hiatus, and the Ten Bells, four miles from Debenham, will reopen as a pub and general store.

 

Such positive news is not exclusive to the countryside, because there are green shoots sprouting up in London, with figures from the Office for National Statistics showing only ten fewer pubs trading in 2024 versus the previous year, and across the capital, 11 boroughs, including Westminster, Lambeth and Southwark, recorded increases in their pub numbers. 

 

Sadly, the prognosis looks very clear for the near future – there will undoubtedly be more closures across the country as long as the government persists with its unjustifiably harsh treatment of the hospitality sector, and pubs are unfortunately in the eye of the storm. But at least various surveys are showing greater numbers of people are valuing having a local pub, so let’s hope their actions speak as loud as their words and they go out and support their nearby pubs by spending more time in them. 

Central kitchens have, I think, become a dark (no pun intended) secret of our industry. We somehow believe that it reduces our credibility if we admit that we use a central kitchen to produce some of the items for our menu. But really, there are several great reasons to have a central kitchen – or even use one of your kitchens, if you have multiple sites.

 

The first reason is quality. If one person knows how to make a difficult dish really well, then why not get them to make it all the time? If someone is an ace at making brownies, they should make them for everyone, because the guest will notice. And the same goes for fish pie mix, or for the marinade for ribs, and maybe even the cooking process too. Even now, this makes my mouth water – I love ribs. But of course, there is a downside. If the whole fish pie is made centrally, then perhaps the fish pie will turn mushier and the fish will fall apart if it is cooked twice. I think the best fish pie has raw fish added to the mix and then cooked fresh.

 

So, we have to be really careful about what is made or cooked centrally, and far more importantly, what isn’t, based on the value equation for our business. That is the risk; the perception is that the central kitchen is taken too far, and rather than quality being enhanced, it is reduced. After all, time can be either an enhancer of a dish or a destroyer, as we all know from eating our stew or bolognese on day two.

 

Our real challenge is how to communicate our kitchen processes and practices well enough. And so, in truth, if we haven’t communicated at all, what’s the point of them? I think we could do a better job and take this on in a positive way, by naming the chef and showing him at work. Social media could make a real difference here, and I always think it is better to find a positive way to deal with the PR, rather than letting a cancerous negativity pervade. There is a chain of quite high-end restaurants in Harrogate that has lost the battle on central kitchens. All rumour, but there is nothing to counteract it.

 

The second reason is consistency. If a dish is hard to make, then why not do it in one place? For those chains that require consistency for the brand values, then it is essential. I couldn’t imagine McDonald’s making their burgers on site or cutting their chips. For some, of course, the requirement for complete consistency is not an issue. It is expected that each chef might want to do things slightly differently. But even then, if you like it one way, you will probably be disappointed. I prefer my rib falling off the bone!

 

The third is people cost. There is a significant saving in cost if you can get this right. You can buy expensive kit and use it far more often if you are doing it in one place. We don’t really want highly paid chefs chopping onions the old-fashioned way if we can help it. You can make batches of dishes that take little more time to do in large quantities than in small ones and so gain big economies of scale. And naturally, labour costs may be lower, as kitchen staff may not require traditional chef training – they’re primarily operating machines.

 

The fourth reason is premises cost. When rents are sky-high in city centres, why would you want to use that space for kitchen prep if it can be done in a cheaper location elsewhere? It is best to have more covers and drive greater sales. This could add, say, another ten covers to a 100-cover restaurant, which is a significant sales growth opportunity.

 

For the smaller brands, there are versions of this that can be utilised. Items could be prepared in one kitchen for the group, for any of the above reasons. You don’t have to have another premises. We need to do this anyway for our wedding and outside catering business, so we are learning how to do it.

 

I think we need to get on the front foot in our industry about what we do where. Any hint or rumour of a central kitchen will draw us closer to the M&S comparison. And if we drive the positives, both cost and revenue, then we can, and will, make our industry a better one.