Blog #13 Oasis is Back !!

Hey welcome to my thirteenth blog!

I’m sure lots of people have seen, Oasis is back! For me this is huge, Oasis is my favourite band. Becoming an Oasis fan inspired my love for music at a whole other level compared to any artist before. I consumed their music like nothing else and became an absolute mega fan in my last couple of years of high-school.

In 2022 I got as close as I thought I would get to seeing Oasis. That year the band's frontman Liam Gallagher decided to go on a run of huge stadium and open-air gigs across the UK. The summer tour was meant to achieve a few things: capitalise on the rising popularity of the band across my generation and the demand for the big Oasis gigs from the 90s and 2000s that we never got to see. Promote his new solo album, and commemorate the 25th anniversary of the band's legendary record-breaking Knebworth gigs.

The tour included two nights at the Knebworth site. The first time either brother had played there since the weekend 25 years prior. I somehow despite crazy demand managed to get tickets and made it my mission to get enough savings to fund a trip over to the UK and watch these gigs.

The trip was incredible and due to the crazy time of year I went over, I was able to watch the band's guitarist Noel Gallagher in Dublin two days after the Knebworth gig. I was over the moon, I had seen both of my heroes and had an amazing holiday.

I genuinely believed that I was never going to see a reunion and this was as close as I would ever get. The band split in 2009 when the two brothers who had famously had explosive and violent fights over the band's history reached their breaking point. In the past 15 years, there had been no direct contact between the two of them only harsh comments and japs delivered through the media or Twitter.

The next year a bunch of bands who were contemporaries and rivals of Oasis such as Pulp and Blur saw the obvious demand for this period of music and sold out massive shows that summer. This to me was even further proof Oasis would not reform. Not even the insane demand and eyewatering sums of money were enough for the brothers to reconcile their differences and get in the same room, let alone go on the road again.

Over the past couple, of years my fandom for Oasis had calmed down a bit. I will always love their songs but I had stopped keeping up to date with rumours and speculation. I had seen both brothers live, Liam twice and believed that I had done the best I could as a fan to get the Oasis experience and I was happy.

The recent 30th anniversary of their debut album Definitely Maybe and the eventual 30th anniversary of their most successful album What’s The Story (Morning Glory) next year kicked up the rumour mill again. In a recent interview to celebrate the anniversary. Noel said some of the nicest things he has had to say about his brother since the band split. In recent years he has even refused to use his brother's name instead referring to him as “the singer” or “the other guy”. Fans saw this, the open space in both brothers' calendars next year and the 30th anniversary of their most celebrated work next year as the stars aligning. Shortly after the interview the Oasis social accounts and those for both Liam and Noel all posted a mysterious video of the Oasis logo and the date “27. 08. 24”.

Something was set to be announced but no one was 100% sure. The majority of people including me felt like it had to be the band getting back together. If the band really chose to use this type of marketing simply for a remaster or re-release there would be chaos. It was in the air, it had to be a reunion. On the 27th I was at work on my lunch break hitting refresh on the band's website. The whole site had turned into just an image of the promo. Once it hit 3 pm the site reloaded and what I saw brought me so much joy. It was a poster featuring both brothers (IN THE SAME ROOM!!!) announcing a UK & Ireland tour next year.

This news really hit me out of nowhere. In a couple of days, I went from being completely sure the two brothers would never reconcile to stressing about getting tickets. Tickets were something to worry about. Estimates stated that those wanting tickets had between a 2-7% chance of actually getting tickets. Unfortunately, I was not given pre-sale access so the pressure was on. Between my phone, laptop, desktop and multiple tabs on each, I somehow managed to get tickets to two nights in Manchester.

The site was slow and full of people at one point I sat behind over 200,000 in the queue. I would hate to imagine how many I would’ve been behind if I had selected a London date. The site eventually allowed me to select tickets but I kept getting error messages. After a frantic few minutes going through the checkout on my desktop and phone, the site took me to my upcoming events page and I saw two nights at Heaton Park in Manchester secured !!

I was not purposefully planning to do two nights straight but I am so grateful for how it worked out. This couldn’t have worked out better. I get to see my favourite band return to their hometown for the first time in 16 years for two nights in a row. You cannot ask for more.

The timing of this announcement and these gigs could not be better either. I have known for a while now that my plan is once I graduate I want to build up some savings and eventually, work, live and travel abroad. I had up until now lacked direction somewhat but now I have dates for when I have to be in the UK.

I’m so excited to wrap up my final semester, begin saving money, and start travelling. I did not expect that an Oasis reunion would be the thing to give my travels direction and agency but I could not be more grateful that this is the case.

Is there a band or artist you wish would make music or get back together again? Let me know!!

Thanks for reading.