On August 25th, the socials for Oasis, Liam Gallagher and Noel Gallagher all posted "27.08.24. 8am" in the classic Oasis font. The Internet collectively gasped as fans around the world quickly reposted this cryptic message to their IG stories. It had to be a reunion, right? Right? Right? When I first saw the post, I literally got goosebumps and also lost my mind.
The joke memes made the rounds - that they were announcing a new greatest hits boxset was my favourite - but the faithful, including myself, were convinced. This was it, the brothers were burying the hatchet and getting the band back together for the first time in 15 years. I was primed for this announcement, even if 8am was Great Britain Time, thus 3am Eastern Standard Time. No matter, I was setting my alarm so I could experience the announcement live. Come 8.05am (3.05am), the socials had it all - Oasis were reuniting in 2025 for live shows across England and Ireland. Tickets were going on sale August 30th, this time at 9am GBT. Seeing Oasis in England is a bucket list dream for me. The alarm was once again set, this time for 3.30am EST. I was definitely going to get tickets. For sure. But like many, I was not successful as after waiting for 5 hours in the queue, I was promptly kicked out. But apparently there were North American dates coming...including Toronto. More on this in a minute. Or a few, as I can be verbose.
Let's explore the 15 years Oasis was apart for a minute (or maybe more, again, verbose). Oasis released "Definitely Maybe" on August 30th, 1994. They broke-up on August 28th, 2009. Give or take, that is 15 years of being a band. They then waited almost 15 years to the day to reunite. Being away 15 years in music is like a lifetime. The 15 years have kinda flown by a bit as the Gallagher brothers each built and maintained successful solo careers, racking up #1 albums in their native England, selling out arenas, playing high profile festivals. I guarantee that they were asked if Oasis was getting back together in every interview they did supporting their solo efforts over the past 15 years. Personally, I felt they never would, and I was okay with this because their solo output has been at worst, good and in many cases, very good.
Liam was first out of the gate with Beady Eye, which was essentially the 2009 line-up of Oasis, minus Noel. They released their first album, "Different Gear, Still Speeding" in February 2011. In fact, it was released on the 28th of February, which is 15 days after my son, Liam, was born. There's that number 15 again. Wow. This album is good, solid meat and potatoes rock, with a couple of real gems in "Bring The Light", "The Roller", "Four Letter Word" and "The Beat Goes On". I saw them on this tour at Rebel/The Docks in Toronto and they played zero Oasis songs. And I was okay with it.
Noel Gallagher's first solo album, under the moniker Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, was released in October 2011. This was a more lush and mellow affair vs. Beady Eye, but that made sense to me given Noel's b-sides were generally more acoustic and mellow. I saw Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds at Massey Hall in Toronto and it was excellent. A great mix of solo songs from the album and Oasis tunes. Still, this debut is not my fave NGHFB album, even though the singles boast some incredible b-sides.
Beady Eye returned in June 2013 with their second album "BE", which is a more experimental effort vs. their debut. I like it well enough, but for me, it didn't have a lot of staying or repeat listening power. After not playing Oasis tunes on their first tour, they started sprinkling some in their set, likely to try to generate more interest. They did not come to Toronto on this tour cycle and in 2014, disbanded without a lot of fanfare.
In 2015, NGHFB returned with my fave of his solo albums, "Chasing Yesterday". One, 4 years is a long time to wait in this day and age. Two, at least the songs delivered. From opener "Riverman" to closer "The Ballad Of The Mighty I", every song is great (even "The Mexican"). I know I wrote about this album on the blog in 2015 so I won't get into too much detail. But it did seem Noel's star was continuing to rise while Liam's had dimmed.
Fast forward to November 2017, when NGHFB released "their" (or Noel's?) most experimental album in "Who Built The Moon?". It was weirder, but I still dug it. Also, the "bonus" track "Dead In The Water" is one of my fave Noel songs EVER. And that's a straight ahead acoustic tune.
Literally a week before or two before "Who Built The Moon?" came out, Liam Gallagher released his first proper solo album in "As You Were". This album was not credited to Beady Eye or Liam Gallagher and Band, no, this was the return of Liam Gallagher. And this seemed to be what everyone wanted in the first place, Liam in all his glory. This album was a hit in England and he even did a small North American tour. I saw him again at Rebel/The Docks and I have to say this is the worst concert venue I've ever been to. Not to mention the show was like 70 minutes as Liam bailed before the encore due to "sickness". But the album is solid, with "Bold", "Chinatown" and "For What It's Worth" my faves.
At this point, I'm like it's fine there is no Oasis, both brothers are releasing really good music. Of course, after his comeback, Liam started going at Noel on Twitter (X?), calling him a "potato", and claiming that Noel refused to entertain an Oasis reunion. Noel released some EPs that continued his experimental streak and Liam released two more solo albums, "Why Me? Why Not?" (my personal fave) and "C'mon You Know". Oh, he also headlined Knebworth for 2 straight nights. Noel's new direction frustrated some of the Oasis faithful, while Liam full-on embraced the nostalgia, playing many key Oasis hits consistently at all his shows.
The tables were turning. In 2023, NGHFB released "Council Skies", which is my 2nd fave of theirs (Noel's?). After a year, this album continues to be a great listen. Again, lush instrumentation, great melodies and lyrics. I was still quite fine with Liam and Noel continuing on their separate paths. Then news came of Noel's divorce and he seemed to be softening on his Oasis never getting back together stance. "Liam's people were to call his people". Which brings us up to the present.
What lead to this unbelievable turn of events? It's likely a combination of things. One, the 30th anniversary of "Definitely Maybe" was on the horizon, and Noel did an interview from a record shop (I want say it was in England) talking about the longevity of the album. Two somewhat surprising takeaways from this interview - a) he was super complimentary towards Liam. b) he said Oasis is still popular because of the fans, not the record company or anyone else. Link to that video is below, or at least the trailer, I can't link the video for some reason!
Two, the 30th anniversary of "(What's The Story) Morning Glory?" is right around the corner. Three, if you have seen footage of Liam performing on his "Definitely Maybe" anniversary tour (or maybe you were lucky enough to go), you would see his sounds pretty damn good, so maybe they want to strike while the iron is hot. Four, maybe the money was too good to turn down.
But I like to think Noel captured the key reason in that interview: that Oasis and their music still matters to people. And not just people my age who grew up with it. I can speak from experience that their music has found a younger audience. Sample size of 1, my 17 year old daughter loves Oasis and she discovered the songs mostly on her own through streaming. And she doesn't just love the "hits", but album cuts like "Slide Away" and "She's Electric", b-sides like "The Masterplan". I recently listened to a great podcast "Introducing 60 Songs That Explain The 90s" (thanks to my friend John for the pro tip), and one of the songs covered, naturally, was "Wonderwall". This song is the 2nd most streamed song of the 90's, very close to "Smells Like Teen Spirit", with over 2 billion streams.
People my age who could not get tickets for the UK/Ireland gigs complained that young people shouldn't be allowed to have tickets. I fully disagree. Oasis has found a new audience, mostly because their songs do not sound like the "90s". "Wonderwall" or any of their other tunes could come out today and still resonate. That is the power of music and that is why Oasis is once again the biggest band in the world, 15 years after their demise.
Will we get new music? Will the brothers play nice and finish the now 33-date world tour? For the former, I don't necessarily need new Oasis music. For the latter, I sure as hell hope so (that's likely where the money comes in). Or that at least they make it to night 1 in Toronto, as my daughter and I will be going to see them*.
It's been nice to have those mid-90's vibes take hold even for a little bit, and to know they will continue into next year as the tour launches.
Also, this post comes 10 years and 9 days from my first Oasis post on this blog!
Until next time...thanks for reading.
* full shoutout to my friend Matt's girlfriend Oksana who is a Tickemaster ninja and got me a pair of tickets for Toronto night 1, while I managed to get shutout gunning for night 2!