After 15 years of estrangement, English rock’s arch-enemies Liam and Noel Gallagher sent their fans and the music world into a frenzy on Tuesday with the announcement that the legendary Britpop group would tour the world in 2025.
Will they be able to stand each other this time? The return of the duo who had given up sharing the stage following yet another argument before a Parisian concert in 2009 was made official with a video on social networks entitled: “It’s happening!” (“It’s confirmed!”).
“The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come and see. It won’t be televised,” the band said, releasing a new black and white photo of Liam, 51, and Noel, 57, side by side in dark jackets.
The 14-date tour will kick off on July 4 in Cardiff, Wales, with the 50-year-olds playing four shows in their hometown of Manchester and a similar number at Wembley Stadium in London.
After the UK, Oasis will perform in Dublin, Ireland in August. This will be the only European date outside the UK but “preparations are underway to take ‘Oasis Live ’25’ to other continents later next year,” the band’s official website states.
Tickets for the confirmed dates will go on sale on 31 August at 09:00 local time (08:00 GMT) in the UK and 08:00 (07:00 GMT) in Ireland. Prices are still unknown but it has already been announced that only four tickets will be available per person.
– “Awareness” –
The tour promises “a set full of classics” and to reawaken “the charisma, spark and intensity that only exists when Liam and Noel are on stage together.”
It comes 30 years after the album “Definitely Maybe”, released on August 29, 1994, which launched Oasis, with Liam as singer and Noel as guitarist and composer.
Previously unreleased versions of tracks from the album, taken from the very first studio recordings, are due out on Friday to mark the anniversary.
After the runaway success of “Definitely Maybe”, Oasis reached the peak of their popularity with “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” released in 1995, which included hits such as “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger”.
After years of bickering, yet another altercation in the summer of 2009 in the dressing rooms, with a broken guitar, at the Rock en Seine festival near Paris, led to the separation of the group formed in 1991 in Manchester and the legendary rivalry with Blur.
Since then, the brothers have long exchanged barbs via social networks and the press, before a relative lull in recent times.
Their reconciliation, they assured on Tuesday, does not come as a result of “a big revelation” but “a gradual realization that it is the right time.”
– “Nostalgia” –
Speculation gathered pace over the weekend with a report in the Sunday Times, before a social media post promised an announcement on Tuesday morning.
The music industry is already rubbing its hands in anticipation of what could be “one of those once-in-a-generation moments”, according to UK Music industry chief Tom Kiehl. He noted the prospect of major economic spin-offs, such as US star Taylor Swift’s upcoming dates this summer.
Artistically, Times rock critic Will Hodgkinson expects a tour that will “spark at least mid-Nineties nostalgia and at most a new enthusiasm for guitar bands after years of pop and rap dominance.”
The success of this comeback, according to Guardian critic Alexis Petridis, will depend on “whether Gallagher thinks they have something to prove 30 years later, at a time when their influence on current British pop seems nil, or whether they approach it cynically as a way to make money.”
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