The Icon of 90s Britpop returned from a decade-long feud
[Concert Image. Photo Credit to Rawpixel]
On 27th August 2024, the English rock band Oasis announced their reunion, 15 years after the band broke up in 2009.
Oasis is a band that mainly comprises the Gallagher brothers—Liam (lead vocals) and Noel (lead guitar and vocals).
Founded in 1991, the band led the 90s Britpop movement, releasing multiple hit tracks including “Don’t Look Back in Anger”, “Wonderwall”, and “Champagne Supernova.”
However, in 2009, Oasis broke up after many years of conflicts between the Gallagher brothers, with Noel Gallagher officially leaving the band just before a performance at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris.
“People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer,” Noel wrote in a statement.
When he later recounted a backstage argument, he told the press his younger brother grabbed his guitar and started “wielding it like an axe,” attributing the band’s dissolution to Liam’s “verbal and violent intimidation.”
Since then, the Gallagers have taken different paths in their life.
According to the press, the brothers reportedly did not speak to each other for years and were never seen in public together.
Yet, both brothers continued pursuing their music careers: while Liam and other former Oasis members formed a new band called Beady Eye, Noel founded his own band named High Flying Birds.
Although they still performed their old hits such as “Don’t Look Back In Anger,” they did so individually, not as the band Oasis.
In 2015 and 2018, Gallagher brothers inconspicuously hinted their reunion, but none of these plans materialized, leaving them to keep censuring each other online.
However, this time it proved to be true.
On 21st August, during Liam’s performance at the Reading Festival in Reading, England, the onstage screens displayed a video announcing an event on 27th August.
Six days later, on the morning of August 27th, exactly 15 years after their split, the Gallagher brothers announced they would perform at 17 shows in the summer of 2025.
Both brothers posted identical videos of “Oasis live ‘25,” advertising their upcoming concerts in cities across the United Kingdom and Ireland including London, Manchester, Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Dublin.
The year 2025 will mark the 30th anniversary of the release of their second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory.
The reunion of one of the greatest rock bands imbued a wide range of people, ranging from teenagers to those in their 50s with joy and exhilaration.
Notwithstanding the expanding enthusiasm to meet the 90s rock legends once again, some concerns have emerged around their reunion concerts.
As part of the “Oasis live ‘25” tour, the band is set to play five concerts at Heaton Park, one the Europe’s largest urban open spaces in Manchester – the hometown of the Gallagher brothers.
However, since the park is located in the middle of residential districts, a BBC interview with the locals divulged their ambivalent response with regards to the upcoming large-scale events.
In the interview, the district’s councilor, Sean Thorpe, said: “The disruption for our residents over two weekends is a stretch”.
Moreover, Robert Younge, who lives opposite Heaton Park, said he “can’t stand it anymore” after he noticed a boy and girl urinating in his back garden during a previous event.
He said they swore at him as he “chased them off”.
“Whenever I talk about it, I get stressed. There are hordes of them and the noise is horrendous,” Younge added.
As such, the concerts are predicted to confront prodigious local opposition despite the sense of enthusiasm they are imbuing in the rest of the world.
- Choisung Park / Grade 10
- North London Collegiate School Jeju