Laying my cards on the table, I was an Oasis fan in the summer of 1994 when my knowledge of contemporary music came via the limited influences of Top of the Pops, The Chart Show and my elder relatives. I bought their debut album Definitely Maybe on the day it was released and promptly fell in love with it. At the time I needed a band of my era because otherwise I was fixated on Queen, The Beatles and Ziggy Stardust period Bowie which, aged sixteen made for limited conversation with my classmates. Otherwise, the British music scene was still preoccupied with bands like Suede or The Smiths and Nirvana so that, unless you were a Manic Street Preachers fan, you’d be left with the kicking sound of Bradford in Terrorvision or the relatively pedestrian Shed Seven.
Nobody else seemed to like Oasis at school but that changed quickly. My other favourite band of the era Blur also became mainstream property as ‘Parklife’ was a youth club smash hit and one felt like they’d been lost to just becoming normal bands that were gossiped about in the tabloids. Luckily a whole plethora of exciting new bands and acts were coming through thanks to the ground Oasis and Blur had laid so there were new treasures to be unearthed while entire crowds were singing ‘Wonderwall’ out of tune in unison.
I found Oasis refreshing in that they were loudly melodic and rough around the edges. Liam’s vocals were iconic and the wall of noise that accompanied him was powerful and like a surge of ethanol through the veins.
Their release of the single ‘Whatever’ long after Definitely Maybe had done the rounds demonstrated to me that here was a hard working band who were going to make their mark. It was unashamedly Beatles-esque but this kid from the suburbs (an avid Beatles fan) didn’t care. By April 1995 they had their first UK no with the rather basic earworm that was ‘Some Might Say’ and never looked back.
Yet there were always creaking doubts.
While their second album ‘What’s The Story? (Morning Glory)’ was a massive hit, for this listener it was a disappointment especially after the brilliance of ‘Whatever’. Undoubtedly the singles were extraordinary. As a whole it covered a lot including late 60’s pop rock (Roll With It, She’s Electric) and early 90’s Northern soul (Hey Now) and charged up the British music scene. A self-indulgent record, it set them up to be the biggest UK rock band on the block and eclipse their rivals like Blur in the process.
There will be some reading this that think my analysis is or was crazy yet one would argue that they’d set the standards so high on their first five singles, ‘Definitely Maybe’ and the B-sides, this listener had ridiculously high and probably unrealistic expectations of them.
Two years later in 1997 the much heralded ‘Be Here Now’ was released and now this was a band believing their own hype after the awards and epic live events of 1996 at Maine Road and Knebworth. The overly produced and long songs met with mixed reviews from the critics and had original fans like oneself baffled. The Beatles obsession had gone way too far. As had the borrowing whereby so many songs were ridiculously derivative – Magic Pie (All The Young Dudes), Around The World (Hey Jude). There was a contrast between public and press as the former mostly loved their music still but the latter were now going after them. Even then there was a divide in the media as the trendy mags all defected to The Verve and Radiohead. Meanwhile the red tops dared not upset their readership and continued to sing their praises. That didn’t stop them from stalking the brothers with Liam in particular becoming paparazzi fodder as would be the case for several years subsequently.
The emergence of quieter rock (Radiohead, The Verve, Coldplay) during the approach to the millennium and beyond suggested the swagger and retro-rock of Oasis was probably going out of fashion yet they continued with the laudable ‘Standing on the Shoulder of Giants’ in 2000 and then seemed to build from the ground up again with new line ups and further success in the noughties.
These ever changing line ups, which had begun as far back as 1995 when Alan White replaced Tony McCarroll on drums, only cheapened the brand that was Oasis. Their reputation as a Beatles parody (brutally captured on 1996’s Spitting Image) went beyond that once they’d drafted in Zak Starkey on skins.
Nonetheless, 2005’s ‘Don’t Believe The Truth’ illustrated how mature Oasis and, importantly, Noel were becoming. Far from perfect, when a new Brit-pop wave was emerging (The Libertines, Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand) their album along with the Damon Albarn’s second Gorillaz work ‘Demon Days’ put things in context. The Kings of British rock had reclaimed their respective thrones.
But, following that, a break of three years was telling and in late 2008 Oasis put out ‘Dig Out Your Soul’. The title was sadly ironic as the album was soulless and one sensed this was the death knell for the band. To return to my lack of excitement about their reunion, it was dirge.
A boring act of two old rock stars going through the motions with their session musicians. Liam lived his John Lennon fantasy yet again (‘I’m Outta Time’ – too right sunshine) while Noel simply felt disinterested. Listen to that album and tell me seriously are you excited by the reunion?
The reality is that Liam’s distinctive voice might be exactly that but it is thin and nasal. In the midst of Britpop, this correspondent recalls reading that a singing coach was helping him and Jarvis Cocker, remarking that the former had a “head” voice because he didn’t use his throat and chest enough. Nearly thirty years later, that voice hasn’t really evolved and cannot have improved given all the late nights and shenanigans that come with being a rock star.
Meanwhile his older brother remains a phenomenal musician. One of the few in an elite group containing Paul McCartney, Graham Coxon or Paul Weller that can play any instrument going while having an engaging singing voice. His solo work has been of a very high standard.
The careers of the brothers since 2008 have been mixed it would be fair to say.
Liam persevered with an Oasis lite group in the shape of Beady Eye and their 2011 and 2013 albums were spirited updates on the dog’s dinner that was Dig Out Your Soul. One had to listen and accept it just wasn’t gonna be as good as Oasis and that was a pre-meditated contract one took out but it was all still pretty decent.
Elsewhere, Noel embarked on a respectable Paul Weller-esque solo career with his ‘High Flying Birds’ albums and, unsurprisingly, the compositions were superior to those of his younger sibling.
Beady Eye seemed to be over prematurely by 2013 and then the younger Gallagher was away from the music scene but returned with a solo album and Oasis songs that reached a peak in 2022’s Knebworth gig. He then went onto work with old Stone Roses guitar maestro John Squire on an album that received mixed reviews.
Therein lies another problem with the Oasis reunion.
Oasis is merely a brand name for the brothers because they’ve had so many line ups it is dizzying. They might as well have returned as ‘The Gallaghers’ or some other moniker but have cynically stuck to their band name that is similar to Fleetwood Mac or The Kinks in terms of how many members have contributed over the years. It’s their brand – I get it – but it seems faintly ridiculous now.
Onto more regrettable and pedantic complaints about the “band”.
Liam hasn’t really cut it without Oasis. Noel has carved out a respectable elder statesman like career but, due to his age, isn’t going to be doing the numbers like Dua Lipa or the Arctic Monkeys.
The reunion feels like a superficial one. Ostensibly about money and opportunistic timing. There’s been no talk of the brothers bringing together the knowledge and experience they’ve presumably gained while apart. No album or singles then. If you want to hear the strained vocal chords of Liam doing Wonderwall while his older brother dutifully supports him, there will be plenty of venues in 2025 to hear or see it. He’s already been under fire following his short stint at Wembley Stadium before the Joshua and Dubois heavyweight bout. Fans complained that his voice wasn’t up to the task and that is barely a surprise given previous calamities. Liam didn’t respond to the criticism gracefully which gives one food for thought: if thousands of people are parting with hundreds of pounds to go and see Oasis and Liam isn’t up to it, the criticism will be far greater and will Liam even remain on board? Noel is more than capable of going it alone should he be forced it.
It would be more compelling with new material. Indeed, when the two have collaborated vocally on songs like ‘Acquiesce’ and ‘Let there be Love’, the results have been extraordinary. Why couldn’t they have joined forces on the songwriting front thus giving the new generations of fans who the older ones are snide about, a set of songs of their own that they can own and love?
Instead this smacks of a big pay day. The ‘Never Say Never Again’ of reunion tours.
Is any other band reunion different one might ask? Don’t they all do it because they have mortgages to pay or they’ve squandered the riches they accrued? Or there is a divorce to pay for?
Well yes and no. But after all the histrionics from the Gallaghers over the years, the timing of this is dubious at best and one wonders if they might have put if off for a bit longer? Their management and marketing people probably could not resist but the process descended into farce fairly early on with older fans claiming that ticket availability should be greater for them over younger fans. The pissing contest was embarrassing amidst the dynamic ticketing policy used to sell to the general public for the live gigs which, while not directly a fault of the brothers, removed much of the romance about the reunion.
Therein lies the sadness. Along with the photo image of the brothers which was used to promote the tour. Any Oasis fan worth their salt knows Liam is taller than Noel yet the pair were framed together as if the same height almost like they’d been hurriedly photo-shopped. Post Covid, in an era where live music is embraced by the music going public, the shackles of their division going back to 2009 have been conveniently and quickly thrown aside. One cannot shake the suspicion this is where they wanted to be for many years thus taking their fans for granted.
But the coming back for the money smacks of the kind of move acts that Oasis rallied against back in the nineties. It’s the sort of thing that Phil Collins (much maligned by the Gallaghers) would have done.
Suffice to say, while no new material is apparently forthcoming, they’d better deliver once they reach the big arenas and stadiums next year, otherwise the parody will be complete.
Athon 