“The guns have fallen silent”: English rock’s arch-sworn brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher are ending a 15-year feud to reform Oasis, with the announcement on Tuesday of a world tour by the legendary Britpop group in 2025.
Fans no longer believed it after years of rumors and attacks by the media. But the return of the group that marked the 1990s was made official with a video on social networks titled: “It’s happening!” (“It’s confirmed!”).
The 14-date tour will kick off on July 4 in Cardiff, Wales, with four shows in their hometown of Manchester and four 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.
The brothers, now in their fifties, from a working-class family in the north of England, are not scheduled to perform at the Glastonbury Festival, which is held every year in late June and is the UK’s music event of the year.
Tickets for confirmed dates will go on sale on 31 August at 9am local time (8am GMT) in the UK and 8am local time (7am GMT) in Ireland.
“The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised,” the group said, releasing a new black-and-white photo of the brothers, side by side in dark jackets.
“Awareness”
The tour announcement, which promises “a set full of classics,” 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 songwriter.
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 sworn enemies 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 great revelation”, but “a gradual realization that it is the right time”.
Asked in 2016 what it would take to allow a reformation, Liam seemed less than optimistic: “I’m not going to change so I guess the kid would have to change,” he said. “I’ve moved on (…) it’s just a band.”
In early 2023, Noel was still keeping the suspense alive. “You should never say never,” he said. “It would take extraordinary circumstances.”
In an interview last week, the same man complimented Liam, praising “his tone of voice and his attitude.”
Speculation accelerated this weekend with a Sunday Times article that the brothers themselves shared on social media with ambiguous comments.
Then Liam Gallagher, 51, dedicated Oasis’ ‘Half the World Away’ to Noel, 57, on Sunday night at his gig at the Reading Festival, west London. Liam performed several hits from ‘Definitely Maybe’.
At the end of the concert, the social media message “27/08/24. 8am” was shown on the big screen, hinting at Tuesday morning’s announcement.
