Because We Need Each Other

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!

If Oasis Can Reunite, Then I Can Certainly Restart This Blog

I last posted on this blog on December 22nd, 2016.  That is almost 8 years ago. Initially, I started Meat & Potatoes Rock as a creative writing outlet, with most of the topics about music. The first post on this blog was September 14th, 2014, which was an announcement that I was starting the blog.  Incidentally, I also joined Instagram in September 2014, unleashing my first post on September 25th. It was of The Gaslight Anthem, who I had recently saw at Rebel. On IG, I initially posted sporadically, without any consistent theme, but around 2015, I started focusing on posting music, specifically vinyl records.  Maybe you follow my Instagram account @teddybvinyl (likely because the link to this blog is in my profile now & how else would you find this place?!). 

Anyway, this return blog is about the blog but as you may gather, the blog and IG are interconnected. But back to the blog: the first 4 months of the blog yielded 6 posts, most of which were fairly in-depth as I had topics swirling around in my head for YEARS, so they were pretty much written already.  2015 yielded only 5 posts and 2016 saw the return of 6 posts, with the promise of more. However, I was also posting a lot on Instagram, gaining new followers and making real life friends. It was much easier to post on Instagram - you take a picture of a record/cd/cassette, write a couple of lines, hit post and viola, done. The blog requires you to sign-in, write more in-depth stuff, maybe have a theme, maybe try to hyperlink something, maybe include a few images; it's just more effort. I never said I was stopping the blog, but I also never logged into Blogger again, until today, that is.

For years, posting on Instagram was part of my daily routine.  I participated in monthly vinyl challenges, I commented on posts, replied to comments on mine, and discovered (and purchased) a whole lot of music. About a year ago, as Pulp sang, something changed. There was the dreaded algorithm, yes, and maybe because of this, a lot of my OG IG #vinylcommunty friends left the platform or at least stopped interacting on it. I still have a lot of great friends on IG, but I miss seeing posts from people that initially welcomed me into the community. I also felt, why does anyone care what I think about the new Olivia Rodrigo album? Did anyone really care, ever? This was an existential crisis. I took more breaks from posting; I even announced that I was stepping away at the end of February. Which lasted 3 weeks, until like Tom Petty, I came crawling back. 

Then I took another month off (no announcement this time, sometimes I like to be mysterious), before quietly returning in August of this year, around the time my favourite band of all time, Oasis (see blog post #2, October 15th, 2014, for the details), announced their return. Also, holy shit, Oasis actually reunited! A subject for another blog post (yay, there will at least be one more post). And I was on a good roll, posting daily and joining a September vinyl challenge, curated by my friend Trudy. And then I stopped again. This time, it wasn't the dwindling engagement or losing followers who were likely bots anyway, it was life. I don't really get into personal stuff on IG or online but I've been making a lot of trips from Pickering, where I currently live, back to my hometown in Burlington (Ontario, Canada, for you non-Canadians reading) and spending some good quality time at Joseph Brant Hospital. So regular posting on IG has stopped - with the exception of highlighting when there is a new blog post. Isn't it ironic, don't you think?

Back to the blog again, sorry for all the cross-cutting, I tend to do this a lot!  During one of my hospital visits, I typed in meatandpotatoesrock.blogspot.com and started reading the old blog posts. Three things stood out: one, I seem to be able to retain a lot of random information about where, when and who I was with when I bought literally every album in my collection. Two, when I wrote a post, it was full commitment to the subject, with no stone left unturned. Three, the writing was not bad. And I remember it being fun to write a blog post (ok, that is 4 things now).

One of the last blog posts I wrote was called "Music For Commuting Vol. 1", where I attempted to chronicle which CDs I listened to that week on my daily commute from Pickering to Toronto (where I work). Oh the days where you had to go to the office everyday...while I miss seeing people, I don't miss the drives. My car then had a CD player, as it does now, given it is the same car. This was going to be a regular column on the blog.

On a good day, the drive from Pickering to Burlington is one hour. I drove down initially on Saturday September 7th. I was in a rush, and only had 2 CDs in the car. They were both by The Wallflowers, a band I have not listened to in forever. The albums in question were "Breach" (my hands down favourite Wallflowers album, seriously needs a vinyl reissue) and "Rebel, Sweetheart" (also solid). My parents live about 5 minutes from the Beat Goes On, so after a hospital visit, I decided to buy a few used CDs to act as the soundtrack on the return drive to Pickering. I picked up 4 used CDs for $25 CAD all-in, pretty good value. 

So, after 7 long-winded paragraphs of writing, the subject of this blog is "Music For Commuting Vol. 2, Eight Years Later".

First I listened to The Watchmen's "Brand New Day", which I picked up for $3.99. This was a CD I bought on release day in 1996, but I must have sold it in the late 90's when I needed beer/KD money because it was the only Watchmen album missing from my collection. And that just won't do as The Watchmen are a kickass band (they have been featured in previous blog posts).

The big hits on this album were "Incarnate", "Shut Up" and "Zoom". And this trifecta is still awesome. But my favourite on the album is the piano ballad "Beach Music". Close to 30 years after release, it still hits in all the right ways. I hopefully have it hyperlinked below (hey, it's been 8 years). 

Beach Music

I then listened to R.E.M.'s "Life's Rich Pageant", which was $4.99. R.E.M. are one of my all-time favourite bands, but I got into them during the Warner Bros. years in the 90's, thus I only have ever owned compilations of their IRS years on CD. I have all the IRS albums on vinyl and play them regularly. Guess I gotta complete the CD discography now. Anyway, I have many favourite R.E.M. songs, and "Fall On Me" is defnitely one. Ditto "Cuyahoga". Just a killer album through and through.

I also bought "Fables Of The Reconstruction" for $4.99. "Driver 8" is another all-time fave and, hey, The Watchmen have covered that tune in concert. Full circle moment. 

My most expensive pick-up of the day was the Beastie Boys' "Hello Nasty" for $8.99. I used to think that "Ill Communication" was my fave Beasties album, but then I got "Hello Nasty" on vinyl and damn, it is incredible. I'm a late bloomer in my appreciation for the Beastie Boys, and I fully regret that my parents caught us as we were trying to sneak off to Lollapalooza in 1994 when they were the headliners or at least on the bill, as I never saw them live. My favourite tune on "HN" is "The Move", which samples the Los Angeles Negros' "El Rey y Yo" at the end. I think it took me 3 years to realize this was a sample...just incredible, especially when the beat kicks in. Hyperlink below!

The Move

I then headed back to Burlington on the Wednesday morning and after my hospital visit Thursday, decided to go to my high school record store, Looney Tunes. One quick point. I think everyone deals with stressful situations in their own way. A record store always calms me, even if it's just aimlessly browsing. For 30 years, this has been my go to stress reliever. Looney Tunes is an awesome shop, still run by the owner Paul, as it was in high school. Looney Tunes also sells used CDs so I grabbed a couple for $8 each. 

First in the player was Dire Straits, "The Very Best of Dire Straits". I like Dire Straits, but only own a couple of their albums on vinyl. This hits package ticks a lot of boxes for the casual fan in me - "Romeo & Juliet", "The Sultans of Swing", all the "Brothers In Arms" hits, plus some killer live tracks. Perfect driving music.

I will def get flak for my second Looney Tunes pick-up (sorry Christopher Bean), "All The Way: A Decade Of Song" by Celine Dion. Look, Celine's voice is awesome. The video for "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" rules. As does the song "To Love You More". We likely do not need to speak about her duet with R. Kelly again, but the other hits on this comp slay.

To Love You More

I always look in the Oasis section at any record store I'm in - both vinyl and CD (and if there's cassettes, I look there also). The Beat Goes On was no different and imagine my surprise when they had the CD singles for the "Dig Out Your Soul" songs "I'm Outta Time" and "Falling Down", which are 2 of the 4 Oasis singles I'm missing. For some reason, the first time I visited the Beat Goes On, I left them, tempting fate. So when I went back and they were still there, I quickly grabbed them and paid.

I now realize I bought 8 CDs in the span of 3 days. They were all used, but I can't remember the last time I bought a CD. I think the last few weeks being in my hometown has definitely brought back some nostalgic feelings and CDs were a huge part of my 90's musical awakening. So maybe it does make sense. Plus, you can't play records in a car. At least not safely. 

As for the blog, I don't know if people even write (or actually read) blogs anymore, like Hall & Oates sang, I could be outta touch. But I'm going to work to keep this up for a bit. It's encouraged me to start writing with some structure again, which is a win.

Thanks for reading. Until next time.