(What’s the story?) Oasis glory?
This is it. The wait for seemingly countless years is over. The two Gallagher brothers finally followed their own advice and didn’t look back in anger – at least for a while.
I was lucky enough to see Oasis live in the emblematic Wembley Stadium on the first London leg of the band’s Live ‘25 Tour. And what a legendary night it was!
Starting just after 8:15pm, the band returned to Wembley Stadium for the first time in 16 years and, far from surprisingly, was more than welcome to do so.
In what appeared to be a sign of burying the hatchet, Liam and Noel Gallagher showed up on stage holding hands for a brief moment before performing for two hours straight.
The show fittingly opened with the 1995 song “Hello” which goes on to reiterate something most of the world would agree on:
“Hello, hello
It’s good to be back, it’s good to be back”
The setlist was a well-curated combination of Oasis’s most prominent tunes from their first two studio albums, “Definitely Maybe” and “(What's the Story) Morning Glory?”, in addition to a few songs from their compilation album “The Masterplan”.
Perfectly timed visual and light effects contributed to the production of this impeccably organised show. And while the Gallagher brothers had their typical demeanour of not engaging and interacting with the audience much, each of them showed some level of appreciation about being there and making it all happen. However, it did seem, at least to me, that this concert (and perhaps the tour as a whole) is just ‘business as usual’: no mentions of how long fans might have been waiting for this, no heartfelt speeches of what it means to them to perform live again and to sell out numerous Wembley dates, or how much they are grateful for the fans to continue their, in some cases, fanatic support throughout the years.
Another key moment that left me with such an impression was that whenever Noel would take centre stage and perform as the main vocalist (such as during “Don’t Look Back in Anger” and “Half the World Away”), Liam would go missing. Was that a sign that the brotherhood and the professional niceness are all so temporary and just to make it through a tour for the sake of it (and huge profits, of course)? Could it be that Liam cannot stand a note coming out of Noel’s mouth or he just couldn’t care less about these particular songs? Is it a sign of disrespect or Liam had a valid excuse to do this, repeatedly? Or perhaps Noel didn’t want him around while he was singing his stuff? I guess we’ll never know and that is completely fine, it just makes one wonder - to what level is this tour actually going to patch things up in the Gallagher family? And should we expect a lot more quarreling after this is over?
81,000 people during the first show of Oasis in London since 2009
Regardless, what matters now – at least to the massive fanbase especially in the UK – is that Oasis have come back. In some way. They might not have plans to record and release any new music, prepare for another world tour or spend more than a two-hour set on stage when needed. But the feeling about them has come back.
With that being said, the biggest star at the Oasis gig was not the band. The key element wasn’t even the fact that the Gallagher brothers didn’t insult or throw things at each other. The main highlight of this show was the audience – an 81,000-strong army of voices who knew exactly why they were there. They knew the importance of such a comeback finally happening, if only for a fleeting while – just enough to soothe the nostalgia wound. And man, did nostalgia hit hard – with virtually each attendee singing from the top of their lungs and the bottom of their hearts.
So kudos to the Wembley audience – it put on a show that is for the history books. Because, let’s admit what we’ve all been thinking – it is definitely maybe that this was a one-of-a-kind event that we’re not going to experience again (subject to family feud fate).