Inside The Oasis Reunion

2 Sep 2024 · 49 min

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Podcast Notes

The Rest Is Entertainment - Inside The Oasis Reunion

Episode Overview In this episode of "The Rest Is Entertainment," Richard Osman and Marina Hyde discuss the recent reunion of the iconic British rock band Oasis, the controversy surrounding their ticket sales, the latest film failures from Apple, and the complex dynamics of toxic fandoms.

Key Topics Discussed

  1. Oasis Reunion
  2. Noel and Liam Gallagher have reportedly reconciled and are set to tour in 2025.
  3. The ticket sales for the tour sparked significant controversy, including:
  4. Ticketing Issues: Fans faced long queues and dynamic pricing which drastically increased ticket costs from £148 to £355.
  5. Management's Response: Oasis management has restricted resale options, leading to skepticism about enforcement.
  6. Public Reaction: Discussion around whether the band genuinely needs the money or craves the attention that comes with fame.
  1. Apple's Film Failures
  2. The podcast critiques the recent Apple film "Wolfs," featuring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, which is facing limited theatrical release issues.
  3. Financial Background: Despite Apple’s wealth, the podcast questions their continued investment in films that do not perform well at the box office.
  4. Discussion on the cultural impact of streaming services like Apple TV+ versus traditional box office performance.
  1. Toxic Fandom
  2. Chapel Roan’s statement about setting boundaries with her fans ignited conversations about the expectations placed on public figures.
  3. Marina and Richard reflect on:
  4. The nature of modern fandom and its invasive tendencies.
  5. Historical context, comparing current fandom dynamics to earlier eras, such as those experienced by The Beatles.
  6. The need for public figures to reclaim their boundaries without the burden of fan entitlement.

Key Takeaways

  • Oasis Reunion: The band's reunion highlights a complex relationship with fame and the music industry’s financial pressures.
  • Apple's Movie Strategy: The discussion raises questions about the sustainability of Apple's film investments considering recent box office failures.
  • Toxic Fandom: The episode emphasizes the importance of recognizing the humanity of artists, as they navigate fame while setting necessary boundaries.

Recommendations

  • Marina: *Beetlejuice* (Streaming)
  • Richard: *Freddie Flintoff's Field of Dreams* (iPlayer)

Social Media

  • Twitter: [@restisents](https://twitter.com/restisents)
  • Instagram: [@restisentertainment](https://instagram.com/restisentertainment)
  • YouTube: [@therestisentertainment](https://youtube.com/@therestisentertainment)
  • Email: therestisentertainment@gmail.com

Production Credits

  • Producer: Neil Fearn + Joey McCarthy
  • Executive Producers: Tony Pastor + Jack Davenport

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This episode reflects ongoing conversations about the intersection of entertainment, economics, and social dynamics, making it essential listening for fans of pop culture and media critique. ```

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0:03When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets Mom's 60th. And never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end-to-end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Learn more at whatsapp.com. This episode is brought to you by Jack Daniels. Jack Daniels and music are made for each other. They share a rhythm in the craft of making something timeless while being a part of legendary nights.

0:40From backyard jams to sold-out arenas, there's a song in every toast. Please drink responsibly. Responsibility.org. Jack Daniels and Old No. 7 are registered trademarks. Tennessee Whiskey, 40 % alcohol by volume. Jack Daniel Distillery, Lynchburg, Tennessee. Lowe's knows how to get you ready for holiday hosting with up to 35 % off select home decor. And get up to 35 % off select major appliances. Plus, members get free delivery, haul-away, basic installation, parts, and a two-year Lowe's protection plan when you spend$2 ,500 or more on select LG major appliances. Valid through 10-1, member offer excludes Massachusetts, Maryland, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Florida.

1:20Installed by independent contractors. Exclusions apply. See Lowe's.com for more details. Hello and welcome to this episode of The Rest is Entertainment with me, Marina Hyde. And me, Richard Osman. How are you, Marina? I am very well. How are you? Yeah, very well. I'm very excited about some of the things we're talking about this week. We have got quite a lot to talk about. We are talking inevitably about Oasis. Little story, heard of them? Yeah. The ticketing fiasco or Triumph, if you've somehow managed to get tickets. And also why they're doing it. I think the answer to which is certainly more interesting than it's been painted.

1:55Yes. We are also going to talk about toxic fandoms. Chapel Rhone has said that she has to set boundaries with her fans, which even in itself sparked a fan backlash. So we can talk about that and why things have changed. Obviously, there's always been fandoms, but why things have got so bad. And we're going to talk about Apple and how much money they lose on movies. So why they keep making movies and will they continue to do so? Right. With that, let's get into it. Oasis. you may have dimly been aware of the fact that they are reforming and they're going to play some concerts and on saturday the tickets finally went on sale they had a sort of pre-sale thing on the friday night and saturday morning at nine o 'clock was the queue for everyone to get in the queue the websites were crashing before they even went up people spend all day in queues and then one of the particularly controversial things if you were one of the people who finally got through they did this sort of dynamic pricing thing and tickets that were supposed to be 148 pounds are suddenly 355 pounds and you've got to sort of make the decision there or then and you've been waiting for 12 hours yeah and you've been waiting i mean let's get this clear this is kia starmer's second big crisis isn't it i think i mean this is huge hashtag starmer must resign well right now but if this story runs for 10 days then you can be sure people will be calling for it i'm only slightly joking but people were also being wrongly accused of being bots so they were being chucked off the cues for that i think if we knew in the old days like how long we would have to spend of our lives trying to prove to computers that we were not computers i mean how many traffic lights have you had to identify how many like their motorbikes in this square and there's what is like the bottom of the mudguard of the motorbike does that count as a motorbike i reckon i get like 10 of recaptures I can't do them.

3:42When you get one, though, the thrill. And what a buzz. Finally, I'm through. Yes. But you know what? The top of the bridge was a bridge. Yeah. Yes. Called it. Now, they have said, Oasis Management, you can only resell the tickets on Ticketmaster or Twickets at face value, to which I would say good luck with that. People seem to think that this is true, even though you can already see tickets priced at thousands of pounds on ViaGoGo and StubHub and things like that. And now Oasis Management have said they will be cancelled. This is unenforceable. What are they going to do? Have endless photographic ID for every person going into Wembley Stadium?

4:14Well, that's what they threaten to do, don't they? They always say this. They always say your tickets are not transferable. If you like the queue for tickets, you'll love this one. Yeah, and at the end, you have to watch Oasis. What a Saturday. I know your thoughts on this. No, listen, just before we get onto ticketing, this is my thoughts on the queue. I am a fan of Oasis, okay? I'm a man of a certain age. I get it. I was absolutely, I'm a huge fan of Noel Gallagher's songwriting and Liam Gallagher's voice and their general mood and spirit. Yeah. Okay, I like them as a group. And they're a band, Richard.

4:45They're a band. They are, and we talked about the death of bands. This is what you get with bands. They do break up. Adele can't break up with herself. That's true. Although it would be a great album. She is taking a huge break, by the way. Yeah. She has said, but we'll get onto that in toxic fandom, I suspect. Yeah, I just wouldn't be that fussed about going to see it. If I had to queue for like five minutes outside my local hour price, which is how you used to get tickets in the 90s. Even then I'd be like, do I really want to go and see two hours of Oasis? I just listen to the records. I don't get it.

5:12I don't get the absolute obsession with it. I think there's a mania that's happened. I think we all like Oasis, but I'm not sure we all love Oasis. Well, then they've done it brilliantly, haven't they? Oh, yeah. I think, okay, I think you can't create, there's a level of hype you can create. And they have actually done it quite cleverly. They were fortunate with a number of, like there's no news events. All the newspapers were running live blogs of the ticketing story, which tells you something about their good fortune in the news grid and the news calendar, because this was sort of front page news for everything.

5:41I want to talk a little bit about that dynamic pricing because it is bullshit. It's really awful. Because it sounds good, dynamic pricing. It does, yes. It's so dynamic in our pricing. That sounds like the sort of pricing that I would like. Companies like Uber do this. And what they say they do is that when demand is high, they put the prices up, which will hopefully draw more supply in the form of e.g. Uber drivers to the area to which I'd say, have you ever used Uber? But anyway, here the supply is fixed, right? Wembley doesn't get magically bigger just because lots of people want to go to it on a certain day.

6:13And by the way, I'm afraid to say that the band has agreed to this because you can't do this unless the band has agreed. So breaking, whilst Ticketmaster deserves some of your wraths, also so do Oasis Management. And Oasis. And Oasis, who will pretend they didn't know anything about it. Let's assume that Oasis management, however tough they might be, would find it hard to persuade both Liam and Noel to agree to something they didn't want to agree to. Yeah, but would you like some more money seems to be a fairly good question. But to queue all day for tickets and not know how much they cost. OK, this is obviously bullshit.

6:43And Lisa Nandy has... Resign. On the brink, Lisa Nandy, hanging on, has said we're going to do something about ticketing. Which, as you remember, we did talk about a little bit of this because Ticketmaster in the US are facing a massive antitrust thing. and the whole Taylor Swift debacle where something similar happened in America, where, by the way, there is no limit on reselling. You can do whatever you like. It's much more Wild West. It's much more Wild West in the Wild West. Now, we have to say that before the election, back in the spring, they said we're going to have it so that tickets can't be resold at more than 10 % above their face value.

7:15And then that was sort of watered down by the time of the manifesto, I think after administrations by a group, a lobby group called Coalition for Ticketing Fairness. Ah, the CTF. Yeah. Our friends at the CTF. Yeah, it's a little bit like calling your tobacco lobbying group the Coalition for Lung Health. These are the people who work on behalf of the ticketing industry. And anyway, the manifesto commitment was quite watered down. You can make it totally illegal in loads of European countries. You can only sell it at face value or just above to kind of cover any incidental costs you might have had.

7:46So I think they are going to have to do something like that because what the ticketing websites want to be is they don't want anyone to talk about them. What everyone has now done for two days is talk about these people and what they're like and what their practices are. They really want you to kind of be slightly pissed off at the end that you've got to pay a£5 fee or something and that's it. But they've been really front of centre the story. Well, I think that it's maybe fortunately for fans has put a lot of focus on those websites. It's a good thing that the government might have to deal with because it's not expensive.

8:15This is not an expensive policy and people will like it. This is a cheap win. This is a cheap win. So you can be sure they will try and do something about this. Interestingly, the whole thing about the ticket prices as well And, you know, as you say, Oasis being complicit in these things being kind of hiked up at the last minute. Everyone has been sharing, you know, ticket stubs from the 90s when they went to see Oasis for£22. So they went to Nebworth for£30 or they saw him at the electric ballroom for£7. And you think, yeah, that's because you were buying the albums in the 90s. And so they were making money.

8:46Now you're not buying the albums anymore. They literally they don't have any other way of making money from this music other than charging you a load of money for tickets, which is why all tickets for all bands are now so much more expensive because there is no other way of making money. So it's sort of that massive kind of overinflation of tours and of tickets and of merchandise to go with it comes from necessity. And having to own your own merchandise stores. I mean, that Taylor Swift one that was at Wembley, which, yeah, was so confusing getting in that you sort of felt you had to go through it.

9:18Like it was illegal. Yeah, it really was the sort of obverse of exit through the gift shop. You have to enter through the gift shop. Maybe there was another way in that I just didn't quite get it, but it seemed like we all had to trip through there. Anyway, so why are they doing it is the question. So that's ticketing, and there's going to be lots more about that, I suspect. Maybe they will legislate, but it's up front. We knew what was happening. Everyone's involved in it. The ticket people are involved in it. Oasis are involved in it. That's the price it costs to go and see this band if you really, really, really want to go and see it.

9:45Why are they doing it? The big thing is, oh, it's for money. yeah noel's had a divorce liam's had divorces you know they have you know these kind of lifestyles where they have to spend an awful lot of money newsflash oasis are loaded oasis are really really loaded um even liam is loaded he didn't write the songs okay so noel is really really really loaded so those first uh three albums he wrote every single song liam didn't write a thing until little james on standing on the shoulders of giants liam didn't write a thing the first two albums Gary Glitter makes more money from the publishing than Liam Gallagher does because he gets a co-writing credit on that hello well that's an insult for Noel's back pocket when it inevitably falls apart yeah well so Noel definitely doesn't need the money no okay because firstly he's got a lot already secondly at some point very very soon he'll be able to do the deal that Dylan has done and everyone's done where he sells the publishing rights and he'll be able to sell them for a quarter of a billion i mean i think it's 2025 that they're able to isn't aren't they it's really soon yeah yeah when better to do the tour well well i mean there is some truth in that so they don't need the money no doesn't really need to lend liam money no one's not sitting there thinking yeah listen i've got 250 million coming but poor liam our kid i think the reason they're going back on tour genuinely is because they want to be back in the conversation They had this incredible run in the 90s, an incredible run.

11:12I mean, they were so beyond huge. And there's four or five years of it when everyone wanted to see them, to be them, to meet them. Every single thing they said was reported. And that doesn't happen anymore to them. It's fascinating. I looked at the album charts last week. So the news had been all Oasis all week. So you think, OK, all the Oasis albums are going to smash back into the top 40. And actually, three of them did. So at number three, you've got Oasis's greatest hits. At number four, you've got What's the Story, Morning Glory. And at number five, you've got Definitely Maybe. Okay, so the two smash albums from the 90s and The Best Of.

11:48The next album in the chart was number 86. It was Be Here Now. Ogbry overplaced. Yeah. When we think of Oasis, we think of those two albums. Yeah. It's the truth. That's what we're thinking of. We think of a very particular point in time. We're thinking of a very small group of songs. And listen, they went on, they did other great songs and there's great stuff on other albums. But that's what we think about when we think about Oasis, that incredible supernova that they had and that incredible group of songs. And everything beyond that, we're not that interested in, is the truth. Well, you can see on Spotify that Fleetwood Mac is doing a million times better than you or whatever it is.

12:24Well, the Oasis stats on Spotify are interesting for two reasons. Firstly, this. So they get 27 million listens a month. I love that you know this because I don't know this. Not bad at all. But Radiohead get 28 million, for example. Killers get 28 million, Green Day 34 million, Chili Peppers 35 million, Arctic Monkeys 52 million, Coldplay 81 million. Okay, so Oasis on Spotify, they're big, not like super, super massive big, but they have that very, very concentrated group of songs that everyone went crazy for. Now the Spotify listens for their follow-up acts, so Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, who I'm a fan of, 1.2 million listens a month.

13:03BDI, Liam Gadigas, banned 112 ,000 listens a month. So what they've done since Oasis doesn't put them where Oasis put them. They do not need the money. They really, really don't. Noel doesn't need money. Liam doesn't need money. They have got 90s money. They sold a lot of records. And they haven't wasted all of that cash. Listen, it's nice to have money. But you're so right. They want to be on stage every night and, like, slagging off Coldplay. And there'll be how many journalists? 100%. Well, instead of sitting on social media, will actually just be in the audiences trying to take down every single thing they say and get 14 news stories every single day.

13:37And actually, obviously, because of all the hype and everything, their Spotify numbers will go way up. Will go way up. Yeah, it's an addiction to the attention of the thing. And I don't mean that, I'm not saying they're narcissists or they're terrible people. It's just very, very natural that they've got to a sort of an age where they had that incredible cauldron, that huge crucible of massive, massive fame. Bit by bit, it went away. And now they're sitting at a point where they're going, oh yeah we do sort of nice corporate gigs don't we and like i release a record but then you know there's like a quote in the daily mirror but that's about it i just remember how it used to be where just everything we did you know we were followed everywhere and i know something about them as celebrities a bit like elton john who actually say things yes exactly they don't care and they say what they think um and again we'll come into this in toxic fandom there's a reason that many many people don't like to say anything that they think these days they will say what they think and there will be a bracing element to that, I'm sure.

14:30Keir Starmer will go, obviously. Oh, he has to go. Well, he gets freebies all the time. Oh, I see what you mean. I thought he was going to resign. Oh, yeah, he'll go. He'll go for this. If he hasn't gone for this, he will go to the concert. Sorry, yeah, you're right. I should have made that. I think he will go and then he will resign. And then he will, yeah. When it becomes apparent quite how much his ticket, how much his free ticket should have cost. Yeah, yes. Starmer must go. Nandy must follow. Nandy must follow. Did she get free tickets for Taylor? Oh, did she? Prince William went to Taylor Swift.

14:57Ooh. I tell you what, two other warring brothers. Hold on a minute. Hold on a minute. What if out into that box on that first night. Interesting. Keep talking. Slime light stealing like that you wouldn't believe come two other warring brothers. Two princes. Yeah. That's great. If I was Netflix, I'd be all over that documentary. Come on, just do it. Yeah. Noel, I guess Noel has to be the Prince William of the piece. Yes. I'm afraid he does. And Harry as Liam. Wow. Incredible that I haven't written this as a column. I've seen almost every other take in the whole world. Well, if you do write about that this week, then we have an answer to where do you get your ideas for your columns from.

15:40It was just that. But I think this is a great thing. I think it's such a lovely thing to have right in the middle of our culture. I think Oasis are a force for good. I think whatever you think about their music, they came along like an absolute rocket. and you know wrote these things that people fell in love with and now i love a mania get to have all of this but it's funny that it happened so quickly after taylor swift it's almost like our generation were like wait wait wait a minute we could do that yeah we'd love to do that yeah it's lovely in the same way that oasis are coming back i think because they want things to be like they used to be i think that's where people are going as well because they want things to be like they used to be but i genuinely honestly i'm just not a huge fan of going to gigs so for me it's a it's the greatest joy because on saturday morning it was just a spectator sport because it's genuinely what you know things about yourself that you know are different to other people yeah and you're like i absolutely get i understand why other people do that i understand the appeal of that this i'm like i don't know why you're getting your knickers in a twist over it for five hours just to go and see a gig it's just oasis and that's you know who i'm a fan of but you can just listen to the records and there will be loads of other gigs oh and they'll yeah and you know so you can get tickets to those um they'll obviously do north america and europe and you know and who you know, so much more.

16:56Yeah, of course they will. Unless they split up on the second night, so it's... Well, exactly. Do you know, funnily enough, we had a question for the question and answers edition about when one gets paid when one tours. And I think with Oasis in mind, because, you know, it's very possible they might not make it through the tour. And I've got... Can we answer that on Thursday? On Thursday. Okay, very good. I have a detailed answer to that in specific relation to Oasis and the slight risk that they might not make it all the way through the shows. But that's the thing. I think if they were desperate for money, then they would see the tour through to the bitter end.

17:25But you could absolutely see, because they love the drama of the thing. Yeah. That's perhaps one night when they're in Antwerp, and they think, we've done 47 shows, we've got six to go. I mean, do we really need to do those other six? Wouldn't it be more fun if we had a massive fight, and suddenly we're in the papers again for a year, and then we can reunite again in 15 years? Yeah. That's what I do, Antwerp. You heard it here first. But genuinely, this is one of those things I think is a good news story. I think it's a really lovely thing to be happening. It brings lots of energy, and good luck to the two of them as well.

17:53where they came from and what they did, what they achieved, and the joy they've given. I think it's one of those stories that is just, other than expensive, I think it's fun. No, it's lots of fun. Yeah, yeah. And we'll be talking about it more as it comes down the slope way. Thank you, Noel. Thank you, Liam. Okay. Right, shall we have a break, Richard? Oh, I think we should. At Sierra, discover great deals on top-brand workout gear, like high-quality walking shoes, which might lead to another discovery. 40 ,000 steps, baby! Who's on top now, Karen? You've taken the office step challenge a step too far.

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19:40I'm Christian McCaffrey, pro running back, and Abercrombie is an official fashion partner of the NFL. I'm not kidding when I say NFL by Abercrombie broke the internet last year. And I think this season's lineup is even cooler. And so does my wife, who keeps stealing all my hoodies. Stay fit for the season and Abercrombie's newest arrivals. Shop NFL by Abercrombie in the app, online, and in store.

20:13Welcome back, everybody, from those dynamically priced ads. Marina Apple have been in the news this week. Yes. The latest Apple movie is Wolves, starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney, who are two obviously very big stars, stars as we used to know them. And it had its premiere, this movie, at the Venice Film Festival, which is kind of pretty prestigious. It had a whole red carpet thing. It was scheduled for a big, wide release. And just before the premiere, they said, yeah, they're going to put it out for a week. in extremely limited number of theatres. And then a week later, it's going straight onto Apple for streaming.

20:52So it's quite expensive. They were paid tens of millions of dollars each to do it. And this is of a piece with a lot of stuff that Apple have done, okay? Apple have been in the movie business for five years. Quite why they're in the movie business is interesting. One of the things about Apple that is interesting as a company compared to lots of other companies that people write about is that they're quite a black box. People don't fully understand what's in there, why the decisions are made. So this is an example. I mean, first of all, this is quite humiliating for its stars who have had to, and the director, John Watts, who did all the big Spider-Man ones recently, they had to say, oh, yeah, we're not going to theatres, but we're sort of cool about it, which they're obviously not, by the way, because stars want to be in theatres.

21:32Yeah, and directors really want to be in theatres. Really want to. What has said, I've made it for theatres. It's made to be seen in theatres. That's the point. When I'm shooting it, I'm shooting it for a cinema screen. I'm not shooting it for a home screen. And that's what they've been told all the way through. And, you know, if you're Clooney and Pitt, you're used to getting your way because you're Clooney and Pitt. But no one else wants to make your type of movie anymore. So Apple have looked like they have bottomless cash. Well, they are. They're like the world's biggest company. They're like Noel Gallagher.

21:59And you get theatrical release. So stars are like, yeah, they're like Noel Gallagher. We can go back to how it used to be. We can be paid huge amounts of money. We can have theatrical release. And also the other thing they did in order to slightly disrupt the market, they don't have development executives in the same way that any of us would understand them in the other Hollywood studios who are kind of going to get up in your grill as a creator and say they sort of let creators do what they want now are they otah friendly or otah indulgent that's unclear but they've had a run of not successful I mean you can't have bad box office if you're not in the box office so maybe Wolf's has been saved a humiliation well that's the thing I mean you look at the money they're spending and this is the crux of it this is why it's an interesting thing is is Killers of the Flower Moon, the Scorsese movie.

22:43They spent$200 million on. By a rough rule of thumb, you have to clear about three times that before you make a profit. So that would have to be$600 million. Because of marketing of theatrical release. Sorry, we should say that the reason that theatrical release has been pulled for this movie is because it is very expensive. Very expensive. And they're worried they won't make their money back on the theatrical release. So Killers of the Flower Moon, $200 million, needs to take about$600 million, made$157 million. which by the way is a perfectly good box office but not if you just spent 200 million making a film.

23:14Fly Me to the Moon which is the very recent one they did with Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum which is a very good movie as is good as The Flower Moon. They're making good films that was a 100 million budget, made 41 million. Argyle the Matthew Vaughan movie, these guys had hit movies before, again they say 200 million, I can't quite see how it's 200 million but that's certainly what they say. I can work out how that was. That made 96 million. So Apple are That was a huge flop, okay. And they've had a run of flops. And this is the thing with Wolves. So Apple are saying, well, we'll give you the money, so that's great.

23:49Obviously, we'll release them in the theatres if we want, but that's great. They've got to the point where Apple employees high up have said, we are worried about our exposure to public disappointment if we release a film in the cinema. So they finally got round to the point where they go, I mean, listen, 200 million to them is literally nothing. it's zero paying Brad Pitt and George Clooney 70 million between them is absolutely nothing to them but reputationally they're just going oh hold on so if we put this movie out in the cinema it gets reviewed everywhere and everyone says it's bad and then everyone sees the box office receipts and those are bad and that becomes a story well we don't want that we're happy to spend a billion pound a year but we don't want anyone having a go at us and that's what's happened here that's what they've taken Wolfe out of the cinema because they're like if we just put it on Apple then we spend all the money that we're very happy spending it because we like going to you know premieres and we like hanging out with actors which is why they spend a lot of money yeah but what we don't want is people saying we've made a bad film and actually if we don't show it to people in the cinema then nobody knows we made a bad i agree they're the world's biggest company and they think they should be with the world's biggest stars they massively care about prestige supposed quality things like that and stars love that because they've said oh we'll put you in theaters whatever agents love them and i'll tell you what this is an interesting aspect of it.

25:07Agents love them because these are movies that aren't really being made anymore by the major studios, which ding dong tells you something. And what agents can now still do with these things, because Apple don't have this huge infrastructure for making movies, they sell them a package. Now, packaging is something that, again, nostalgia. In the franchise era, this has been impossible. When you're packaging something, you say, we've got a package here. We represent the script writer. We represent the director and George and Brad want to star in it. You're getting paid all the times over. Yeah. And also, and by the way, if you're Apple, you're going, oh, great, then we'd have to then we don't have to do anything right it's all dealt with so this can be in the franchise era of filmmaking this has not been possible because the ip has been the star so with you know something like spider-man marvel and sony can turn around and say well we've just shown you that not any old three guys can play spider-man in fairly short order but you can see that they can so no you don't get to tell us who's going to direct this movie we will rent your star but that's it so agents have loved it for that reason and they've got paid but now agents having to turn around and say to their clients yeah you're not sorry george and brad you're not going to be in theaters don't worry the biggest movie by the way that apple has been involved with it by a long way is coming out next year and is the formula one movie with brad pitt in it there's no way that's not going to theaters but the other thing i'm going to say is that all these streamers they spent lots of money to acquire scale and to whatever and they could say it doesn't matter if it doesn't make a huge and i'm sort of slightly with this on killers as a flower moon it was an awards play they were nominated for a ton of stuff they won a ton of stuff that is so prestigious if they can make money back on streaming.

26:33That's marketing money for them. They're saying it makes Apple look good and their marketing budget is huge anyway, so why not spend it on that? That's worth it. Like Argyle, you know, Matthew Vaughan now says, oh, it's doing well on streaming. It's doing well on streaming on Apple TV +, okay, which accounts for a tiny fraction of viewership. Netflix, it makes sense. You put it in theatres for a week because you want it to have an awards, you want it to be eligible for awards or whatever it is, but you are going to make it back on streaming because you have built your audience. Netflix built a massive audience, So it makes sense for them to do these kind of things, except they're really out of theatrical release.

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27:05They don't really bother doing it anymore. Amazon have done the same thing. You might have noticed that whole controversy with remake of Roadhouse, you know, and Doug Liman, the director of that. Now, Doug Liman has, you know, he's done all the Bourne movies. He's done loads of amazing things and he had this big sort of remake. And he then, when they said, oh, by the way, you're not having your theatrical release, wrote a big column in which he said, contrary to a public statement, Amazon has no interest in supporting cinemas. They asked me in the film community to trust them and their public statements about supporting cinemas.

27:34And then they turned around and are using Roadhouse to sell plumbing fixtures. You know, if you can't get the creators, they wanted product. All of these people had to have product at the start. They had to spend and they had to borrow, you know, as we say, cheap money and it was easy for them. But Netflix built an audience. You're not going to make this money back on Apple TV Plus. You can't make it back. So why are you still here? But we don't want to say that bit out loud because actually having Amazon and Apple putting all of this money into movies is keeping an enormous amount of people in jobs.

28:03It is creating films that would not have been made otherwise, many of which are very, very, very good. There's great TV and great films coming. People don't want to see them, Richard. Yeah, but. Are they good if people don't really want to see them? I mean, by your logic. Gosh, that's a think piece. But I don't see, maybe people don't want to go. I have to say they make a lot of films that I think, huh, if this was the 90s, I might have gone to the cinema and seen that. And it's not to do with me having children or being older. They don't feel like the sort of thing I would go to the cinema anymore.

28:32Apple have actually won Best Picture with Coda, a movie that, don't tell me you've seen. Coda? Yeah. It's, have I seen Coda? Nobody's seen it, okay? They did put it in limited theatrical release so that they could be eligible for the awards, okay? And they didn't disclose its box office. So let me disclose for you, nobody watched this thing. And yes, it won Best Picture. Things are winning Best Picture now that nobody sees. I just think, though, creative people, listen, hits are going to come from creative people. OK, that's always been the case. So there'll be people sitting wherever they're sitting in their back rooms somewhere, writing, writing, writing, and a hit will come from them.

29:05They need people to fund those things. The studio system that always funded it is sort of collapsed. A lot of the linear television people who funded it has sort of collapsed. For the moment, we have two of the biggest companies in the world, Amazon and Apple. and also, by the way, Disney and other players like that, who are funding these things in a way that makes no economic sense. But I'd rather we had another few years of that and let a couple of people just have some, you know, you never know what big hit comes out of that pool of money. But at some point, they will say to themselves, and it's exactly this thing of saying, we don't want the public humiliation of this coming out.

29:42They will at some point say, it's been lovely spending all this money. We like hanging around with actors. We like being in this business. It's fun. It brings us a lot of joy. It brings us good reputation. But if the downside starts getting worse than that, then that money goes away. And if that money goes away, there's a huge domino fall where there's no money left. There's a big chicken franchise in America, Chick-fil-A, the chicken company, are starting to fund movies and TV shows. So big companies are coming in to fund movies. People have had success in other areas, which by Amazon and Apple went into movies.

30:14They thought, we've had success everywhere else. Surely we can do this. when that money goes i think they got into it in order to sell you their core business for sure and but i i think suddenly they realize oh we have to spend 200 million yeah to do this which is uh which is a lot so i would say to both of those companies it does reputationally make you look great doing movies i love it keep doing it keep funding them by the way apple over here the tv offering is brilliant run by jay hunt you got slow horses which we all love you got bad sisters uh there's so many good shows coming out of it so jay hunt is running that as a someone who has utter experience in development.

30:49You know, some of the film unit in Apple in America is run by a sort of acquisition, a former acquisitions guy who used to program film festivals, which is not to disrespect him, but you're not having the same development within the studio that you would have in other studios. So sometimes movies that are quite indulgent and that at some point someone should have said no. And by the way, as we all know, necessity is the mother of invention. And sometimes notes come down that you have to work around and actually everyone combines to make something great. Movies, there's a situation, I'm not going to name this director, but there was a director who said...

31:21I love it when Marina starts with, I'm not going to name. I'm not going to name this director, but there was a director who made a film which I thought was unbelievably indulgent. But he said to a friend of mine at the time, this is the point at which they normally say, someone normally says to me, no, but no one has said no. Well, you know, somebody should have said no at some point, not to the whole film, but to various bits of it. And if you're allowing people to just giving them all the money and a level of creative freedom. Executives can be creative, as we know. So if they had more creative development executives, then I think something better would come out and maybe something that they feel that, having spent all that money, they could actually put it in theatres for longer than a week.

31:59But do you think they haven't hired those people because there is a hubris, which is we've succeeded in every area we've tried. So honestly, we've got this. We don't need the traditional Hollywood infrastructure. Netflix hired people who were more rooted in traditional... But that's because Netflix had not, they weren't sort of a company that, they weren't Coca-Cola or someone that said, look, we're masters of the universe already. We know how to run a business. They were like, this is our core business. So we're going to do this as well as we possibly can. If you're Apple or Amazon, you are saying, oh, listen, I'm sure Hollywood's all well and good, but we really know how to run a business.

32:32Well, they're going to need to do something now because they've had how many on the bounce that look like either they're chickening out or that when they put them out, people have laughed at them. They should really maybe get you in as an advisor. Don't you think? On a stipend. I don't. I'm sure I'd collapse their company in. I'd do if they're interested. You reckon you could collapse Apple? Go for broke. Do you know what? That's such a reverse narcissism. Yeah, it is. You say, me? Oh, me? I'm so talentless. I don't think I could. I could bring down the biggest company that ever existed within weeks.

33:04So, listen, the point is, it doesn't quite make financial sense for them to make movies. It makes reputational sense, but we're at the stage now where the worry is it's not making reputational sense either. And if it doesn't, then there's going to be a big collapse in money going into the movie industry. So hopefully they can find a way through. Shall we talk about toxic fandom off the back of an amazing post by Chapel Rowan, one of these big new superstars? Yes, I find it very sad. And actually anyone remotely connected to the public eye will recognise a lot of things about this. She, by the way, two years ago was a bit famous.

33:41Then I read someone saying she became gamers. And now she is absolutely mega, huge, famous, number one all around the world. Yes. So she said she wanted to set boundaries with her fans. And she said, I'm talking about predatory behavior that's disguised as super fan behavior, which has become normalized because of the way women who have been treated in the past. And she says, when I'm on, when I'm on stage, then I'm there for you. but I don't owe you anything. If you see me as a bitch or I'm grateful or if my entire statement upsets you, baby, that's you. And people have got really angry about it.

34:15Someone like Hayley Williams from Paramore said, please read this whole post. This is exactly what every woman in the public eye feels like. And without any question, we can all see over the past few years, and yet again, you know, you have to talk about social media, but fandom has changed. In that, obviously, there were always obsessive fans and there have been songs about obsessive fans and fandom has always been a sort of haven for people who can feel in some ways marginalized in other ways so there are sometimes people who are you know maybe not entirely rational about the way they behave in these situations stars are more accessible because they have these social media they're able to communicate directly with their fans and this is always sold as a universal benefit it's not necessarily but the internet itself where you know in the old days people used to be in these little pockets of places where they do fan fiction and fan art and they're expressing your fandom sort of tentative ownership of that star was done in a little corner of somewhere the internet is incredibly centralized now there's about five sites on which everything takes place so it's never been more easy to find each other and there's a huge backlash against her even saying this which i find extraordinary people's is such a failure of imagination and she she has basically said if I am off duty don't touch me don't be weird around my friends and family don't pursue my friends and family don't pursue my friends and family give me a bit of peace which listen you can understand people say yeah but you know you're a pop star this is the thing you wanted but what she's saying actually very deep down is very very gentle and very simple and very just I'm not a zoo animal she said very clearly I've never felt less safe and you have to say that it's really hard to know when to be scared.

35:53Another thing I think has changed that people have grown up issuing death threats from the age of about eight. I mean, I don't want to make a humorous thing, but little One Direction fans who probably first, their first precious death threat issued from their pink decorated bedroom, not really understanding what they've done, but they're weird digital natives in that way. Fans now understand how to organize, they have huge path, they can review bomb things. So it's a much more sort of scary landscape out there. And many other people have felt like this. There was a really interesting interview I read, you know, Shonda Rhimes?

36:26She's the creator showrunner of originally Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, Bridgerton. Okay, she's just a huge, towering television figure. Okay, she will not now say what state she lives in. She's had to move. She long ago left LA. She said social media changed, fans have passionate feelings. I was always fine with that. I understand that characters felt like their friends. But people just had very strong feelings about what happened with their friends. But then it became weird. Now, she got to the point where at the end of every season of Grey's Anatomy, season, not the end of the whole show, she had to have police cars outside her house because people were so angry with the way that season had ended, right?

37:04It then moved to having to have security inside the house with her and her children. She's a single mother of three children. Because of this, she has moved to another state, which she will not name she will not name the entire state yeah um and it's totally affected her interview persona she just doesn't want to be we've talked about this before and they you don't want to say anything interesting yes this is so ridiculous people feel scared all the time and nobody helps you and it's not quite clear for these people you know you could say you can go to the police i mean i don't know she obviously feels unsafe and why shouldn't she be allowed to say this.

37:39And what you were just referring to there, that thing of people say, yeah, but this is what you wanted. I find that fascinating. Of course, there's a group of people who just want to be famous, but most people who become famous are famous because they're good at something. So if you're Chapel Rowan, she's an unbelievably great musician. So she wants to make music and she wants to make music as well as possible. And she wants people to listen to that because that's what music is for. And when some people listen, she wants more people to listen. And that's very, you know, seductive. And she's excited that she's making this music that people love.

38:07And she's excited that she's putting across a message that is resonating with people and she can see in people's eyes that she's having an impact on an audience and so all of that stuff is part of her talent that's the thing she wants to do in the same way that a footballer starts playing football when they're seven years old and then you know you sign terms with man united or chelsea ladies or whatever it is and then you become a professional footballer and then you're famous but you're not famous because you wanted to be famous you're a really good footballer or you're if you're Shonda Rhimes you're an amazing writer and an amazing producer and the more that you do the more famous you become because you're really really really good at what you do and the fame is just obviously the fame brings money we see that the more people who are following what you do the the more money goes into your bank account but you are not going the thing that I love here is people thinking I'm great is people knowing who I am what you're actually thinking is people are enjoying my work and almost everyone who becomes famous it's not oh they really wanted to become famous it's they wanted to do their job as well as they possibly could do it and they happen to have a particular skill i i agree with you and i think it's interesting that you brought in football there because it this slightly reminds me of people who will scream absolutely disgusting things at footballers and on the basis that we pay your wages yeah now that you know i have a all and the other thing that reminds me of in terms of football is that sense that because of the big backlash from her fans to understand that if you're not like that she's not talking about you this is like when like England fans try and burn down Marseille sorry a small minority of England fans and if you don't say a small minority and if every pundit if every news person doesn't say it then England fans go nuts that they're all being tired of the same you know it's a real not on when thing and you slightly feel like okay don't worry if you didn't throw a piece of cafeteria furniture at someone's head they're not talking about you okay so don't worry if you're this angry about maybe being you know then maybe you are your anger is also a problem and I think that's definitely the case with her fan backlash where people are saying it's not me i don't do this but i'm really angry with her as well try and listen try and understand such a failure of imagination to not be able to understand if you're receiving a billion messages people are touching you people are grabbing you these days people are tracking them everywhere that's the other thing that technology has enabled that kind of you know used to sort of stand outside the stadium and see if you could see their limousine drive past yeah if they were playing there now people can do locate their stars in about four seconds okay it's a very scary world there is a darkness to fandom and there always has been but people feel it's closer than ever now because of various of these barriers have come down i find it absolutely extraordinary that anyone could criticize her i mean someone like doja cat said her theory is that if people just think that they they don't have a proper relationship with you a proper social relationship with you so they have this very warped one where they think they own you she really called out her fans all the hub super fans and she lost something like 200 ,000 followers and she said, I feel free.

41:00Yeah. Because she didn't want those. COVID did something as well where people forgot their outdoors manners. Yes. And all of these things have contributed to, I can see why she's never felt less safe. I think lots of women in the public eye have never felt less safe. Well, it's interesting. If you take it down onto a very personal level, you know, we all know lots of relationships that are codependent and that can be often very healthy as well. So there's definitely lots of acts, certainly acts who are from an older generation who have a fan base with which that codependency works beautifully the act loves the fans the fans love the act they're respectful to each other they understand what each other wants that works for everybody but the second that is not a codependent relationship and chapel roman is saying right now this is not codependent that i am not getting joy from this some bands get joy from being screened at airports and people going crazy and for some bands and some acts that's terrifying you could say that's what you want to you think but it isn't I wanted to sell a lot of records.

41:55This is not something that I bought into. So some acts like it, but the second an act says, this is not for me, then fans who need that, just head elsewhere. If you really love this act, then you'll stick with them and you'll be respectful. If the thing that you love was not the act, but your relationship with that act, then maybe go and have that relationship with another act. Mitski is really interesting. You know Mitski's work? Yeah. And she found something similar. So she's an amazing act, slightly more indie maybe than Chapel Rowan. and she got to the stage where she began to understand things were getting too big and she was starting to get a fan base that was slightly out of her control and where the codependence was was not working and she sort of went to ground a little bit and she just she had to reclaim what it was that she was loving about her career which is the music and the fan base who appreciated it chapel rome is doing the opposite thing which is equally valid which is saying this is too much for me i wonder if you could have a you know a thought about your behavior but you know good for this again this generation where they call stuff out right it's like democratization of sort of therapy speech so when they talk like this they say i you i need boundaries i need yeah people as you say lots of bands didn't necessarily enjoy this or artists in the past yeah but without sounding patronizing maybe didn't have the words for it yeah we understand much more what is happening and much more how to say things having said that it's never been like this because of technology it is a completely different experience.

43:20Well, the band that went through the closest to it probably were the Beatles. Yeah. Because they got big at an era when society was changing and teenagers became far more of an economic force. So suddenly, like today, something weird, a new fissure opened up between the generations. And so they had just, you know, their life was sort of almost unlivable for about two or three years. And they responded to that by going, you know what, we're going to smoke a lot of dope, we're going to go to India and we're going to make difficult music and we'll lose some of that fan base, which is absolutely what they did.

43:52And then, of course, you know, Mark Chapman shoots John Lennon and you just think they live the whole thing with parasocial relationships. Yes. But we are in another of those eras now where a big fissure has opened up, a big new force has opened up, and these acts, I'm glad to say, are starting to take things into their own hands a little bit more before, you know, we have other tragedies like that. Any fans that can't understand that they're not being talked about, if you're angry because you think you're being talked about, then maybe it's you. Again, it's always women in the public eye. And I think that that is something really worth bearing in mind and to listen.

44:30You don't just listen to the music, listen to what they're saying. But you know what? That's the other interesting thing. We've talked a little bit before about quite how huge female solo artists have become in the last 10 years and how they're absolutely the dominant force in music in almost every single market. and that has led to this directly because suddenly you go you know they're not being you know run by svengali's you know they are in charge of their own career and they're speaking in more interesting and unusual and open and honest ways and it leads to this sort of leads to mitski and at least a chapel row and it leads to you know an intelligent discussion about what it is to be a star and what it should be to be a fan and it's it's what you were saying again it's related to that thing about bands there's so many solo artists and then you're on your own there's no one else in the band going through it with you you don't have that inbuilt community that's traveling with you you may say that i have a peer group in terms of other female artists but you've got to get in touch with them i mean you know this is not it's not the same thing you're out there on your own but if you haven't read chapel rowan statement it's really really worth reading the whole thing in full it's on it was on instagram but you'll find it anywhere and also if you don't know her music i would strongly recommend it she's amazing and also mitzki as well i'd also strongly recommend two recommendations right there yes talking Good recommendations.

45:42Any recommendations for this week? I watched a lot of old late 80s and 90s movies this weekend. I re-watched Beetlejuice in preparation for next weekend when the new Beetlejuice comes out. I fear it might be a diminishing return. I never read reviews of something before I'm going to go and see it, but I can see from the small star count that the new Beetlejuice might not be as good. But I remembered what I loved about the old one, and my children absolutely loved it. And so can I honestly recommend a film? Of course you can recommend Beetlejuice. I recommend Beetlejuice. And then if you do go and see the new one in the cinema, which I still think will be a big hit in terms of how many people go, but it's clearly not a critical hit, and it might be interesting to have a look at those two properties.

46:23I will recommend just a beautiful series on iPlayer. It's the second series of Freddie Flintoff's Field of Dreams, where he takes a group of kids who don't play cricket from Preston and he turns them into a cricket team. That was the idea behind it. Suddenly he's going to find this cricket team, and they never got good at cricket, these kids, really. There's a couple of ringers in there. and in this series he takes them out to India so you think well I don't want to watch a series about some people who are not very good at cricket not playing cricket very well it is one of the most beautiful things I've seen about what it is to be a young man on the cusp of adulthood and what it is to be a young working class man with very little power on the cusp of adulthood it also so happens that during this series is when Freddie Flintoff had his accident and you see what happened to Freddie you see it makes him so dreadfully vulnerable and and and questioning of himself and he obviously doesn't want to continue the project but then he thinks he should and he's been such a lovely mentor to these kids and then they slightly become mentors towards him and they kind of look after him and it's very very beautiful on the difficulties that young men have in communicating and the difficulties they have in navigating the world as it is today and it's very beautiful on seeing an older man freddy also having those feelings of being vulnerable and not wanting to talk about things and there's the occasional bit of cricket here and there and there's the occasional bit of you know them trying um you know indian food and not enjoying it uh so there's some nice travel log stuff in there but it really it's it's it's a really beautiful portrait of a of a young generation and you feel so deeply for for so many of the kids in there absolutely i second that well with that yeah shall we encourage people to send us questions for the questions and answers edition on Thursday.

48:08The address is therestisentertainment at gmail.com. And we look forward to answering those very much. That was fun. Thank you for the day. That was great. Yeah. And if you did get OSS tickets, congratulations. If you are Noel and Liam Gallagher, congratulations as well. And if you didn't, don't worry, it will be televised. Yeah, exactly. And also, it's just a gig. That's what I think about. I'm going to stop you before you... Or go to your local pub and watch a band. I'm going to stop you before you have to set boundaries with people. There's loads of you, exactly. I'll see you all on Thursday.

48:37See you on Thursday.

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From the publisher

If you missed it, Oasis are back. Noel and Liam Gallagher appear to have buried the hatchet and reformed one the UK's seminal bands for a tour in 2025. Tickets for said tour sold-out but note without controversy. Richard and Marina discuss the ticketing situation and the possible reasons for the Gallagher brothers to get the band back together.

'Wolfs' starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt seems to be another flop from Apple. Why are one of the world's biggest companies still making movies?

Finally this week we get into toxic fandom. Singer / songwriter Chappell Roan released a statement expressing her discomfort at the level of attention some fans believe they are entitled to. This has caused a bigger conversation within not only her own fans, but in the wider entertainment world about the access fans have, or expect.

Recommendations:

Marina: Beetlejuice (Streaming)
Richard: Freddie Flintoff's Field Of Dreams (iPlayer)

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