Money, nostalgia, a curse to overcome… 5 hypotheses on the return of Oasis

And suddenly, the drama is over? 15 long years after their cataclysmic separation, it seems that the Gallagher brothers are back for a concert tour. In any case, that’s the rumor that has been growing all weekend, fueled by the media, (a little) by the brothers, and which keeps all the thirty-somethings in need of English rock, Manchester accents and fratricidal scandals on tenterhooks. At the origin of this rumor, an article in the British newspaper Sunday Times who claimed on Saturday, August 24, that the Oasis duo “seemed to have settled their differences”, and would be about to announce huge concerts in London and Manchester in 2025. A rumor that is already (almost) no longer one, since the two brothers shared on their respective Instagram accounts a visual indicating tomorrow’s date. Announcement to come. Money, timing, curse… what is the reason for this return? Let’s speculate.

For the legend…

Let’s be honest, when we talk about Oasis, we think as much about their legendary albums and Manchester as about their legendary arguments. In the podcast Backstage d’Arte Radio, which tells the adventures of tour managers, Philippe Guerreiro tells how he experienced a “bad dream” : the last fight of the Gallagher brothers. Five semi-trailers of equipment, a tour bus by brother to avoid arguments and a last date at Rock en Seine, the scene is set for an apotheosis ending.

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At 8:30 p.m., just moments before going on stage, the two brothers, at the height of their tension, came to blows under the huge portrait of their mother that hung in the dressing room. Liam smashed one of his brother’s guitars, which had also been given to him by Eric Clapton, and said the following sentence to his stage manager: ” you’re off ” The rest is history: end of the ball, end of the festival, end of Oasis. A loud, violent, rock separation.

For a handful of books?

Of course, every time a band, a duo, or even a single artist comes back, the assumption comes back: they must need money. Let’s face it: the 10 concerts at Wembley announced by the Sunday Times should bring in an incredible sum for the two Mancunians.

Judge for yourself: the attendance record – held by the singer Adele in 2017 – is 98,000 people. If we achieve this attendance 10 nights in a row, which is absolutely certain, at an average ticket price of 100 euros… we are approaching a billion euros in revenue. If we add that the “temple of football” will probably not be the only place where the two musicians will be a complete success, that makes a few zeros…

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Can we, however, deduce that it was money that reconciled the two enemy brothers? Probably not, as the hatred between the two was so immense until then: Liam had taken the habit of insulting his brother copiously on X.

Above all, the explanation, a prioriworks little. Noël and Liam Gallagher are far from being broke. The sales of their albums throughout the life of Oasis, and then – to a lesser extent – ​​in their solo career, have brought them a considerable fortune (consider that their first album, Definitely Maybesold seven million copies alone). In 2020, the Daily Mail reported that Noel Gallagher had turned down a whopping £100 million offer to reunite Oasis for a tour. So the reunion comes from a more humane reason?

Because after that it will be too late

Yes, the timing of the band’s reunification falls so well, maybe that’s the reason for this unexpected announcement? The story was too good to miss: 2024 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the legendary Definitely MaybeOasis’ first album, which immediately propelled them to the top of the charts. Rock’n’Roll Star, Supersonic, Live forever… The album packed with hits, released on August 30, 1994, marked an entire generation, and established Oasis as the kings of britpopin the 1990s when the British kingdom regained its pride, football « is coming home » with Euro 1996 (where the Three Lions ultimately failed in the semi-finals) and Labour’s Tony Blair moved from opposition to 10 Downing Street.

Artistically, the brothers’ reunion also comes at the right time. Liam Gallagher released his latest album in March of this year with artist John Squire, historic guitarist of the Stone Roses. The same goes for his big brother who released his fourth “solo” album last June. Both have proven that they are capable of making good albums without the other. It’s up to them to prove that they can also put aside their resentment for the pleasure of their tens (hundreds?) of millions of fans.

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Another detail, the Christmas divorce in January 2023 may have also had its role in the story of their surprise reunion. The singer’s second wife, Sara MacDonald, has never hidden her antipathy for Liam Gallagher. And then, since we are in private stories, the children of the two prodigies are adults now. As we know, there is no age for a good family reunion, especially in front of an Oasis concert.

Nostalgia, perhaps?

If it’s not money, or happy temporality, maybe it’s just nostalgia for a time when rock triumphed, before the hegemony of rap. There had to be an Oasis in the dreary plain that rock has become – yes, it’s easy. If a few groups like The Strokes (and the Arctic Monkeys) have, at least for a time, breathed new life into rock in our century, with their musicality, their leather jackets and their too-tight jeans, rock has well and truly left its place.

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So will a British-English tour by a past glory (sorry fans) like Oasis be enough to revive rock or, failing that, the britpop ? Surely not. Perhaps the release of a new album by the Gallagher brothers would help, but this hypothesis is, for the moment, not even a rumor, and is not mentioned at all in the article of the Sunday Times.

No matter, for a few evenings, Liam Gallagher’s iconic posture in front of his microphone and his big brother’s riffs and lyrics will be enough to take fans from all over the world back to their teenage years. A return to the future for all those who were too young to see their favorite artists live, before their tragic separation at the Rock en Seine in 2009.

Overcoming a curse

There remains a more… mystical hypothesis. Oasis could return to break a curse. That of failed rock band comebacks. What could be better than returning for a month of sold-out concerts, playing all the classics that fans love, and packing up for good, on the most beautiful of saturated notes of electric guitar?

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The performance would be all the more remarkable since there are only a few exceptions to this damnation of old bands attempting their comeback. The Pixies are among the only ones who have given the lie to the curse of comebacks that we would have preferred never to experience (or hear). After eleven long years of absence due to tensions between singer Black Francis and bassist Kim Deal, the group reformed and began several years of thunderous tours. But similar examples are very few. Guns N’Roses, the Sex Pistols and The Who had all, upon their return, made us regret their reformation.

Whether the return goes well or the two brothers tear each other apart in the Wembley dressing rooms, the end of Oasis can now only be legendary, just like them.