Oasis is back. After 15 years of petty feuding and several failed attempts at reconciling, the Britpop juggernauts have returned. Frontmen Liam and Noel Gallagher have announced that the band has reunited after weeks of speculation following cryptic posts on social media. The band has confirmed a massive world tour set for 2025, set to start in Europe, before embarking on an American leg and continuing in Australia.
Formed in 1991, the Manchester band exploded onto the UK music scene with a string of successful singles including smash hits such as “Supersonic” and “Live Forever.” Their raw and simple sound, paired with their arrogant and rockstar personas, popularized the music genre of Britpop. Britpop was defiant of the current trends in rock music, pushing against the serious nature of American grunge and indie shoegaze with loud and catchy tunes about British life and culture. The band became tabloid stars as the movement (and their antics) grew. Bickering in interviews turned to violence quickly when during a Los Angeles performance; Liam began hurling insults, and Noel smacked him on the head with a tambourine. These conflicts would continue to mar the band for decades.
Although the biggest band in Britain at the time, Oasis faced heavy competition from fellow bands, specifically Blur. This led to massive chart rivalries with the bands publicly feuding during interviews, award shows, and in magazines. The dubbed “Battle of Britpop” was spurred by the bands releasing their respective singles on the same day. Blur came out victorious, selling a reported 274,000 singles compared to Oasis’s 216,000. But Oasis still proved triumphant with their album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory selling four million copies and becoming the fifth best-selling album in the UK of all time. They also managed to reach international success with their popular song “Wonderwall,” which became a ubiquitous hit. They later played massive shows in Britain, including the famous Knebworth concerts of 1996, where 250,000 were in attendance.
While the band seemed to be on top of the world, it all soon became make-or-break with their follow-up to Morning Glory. The heavily anticipated third record was expected to break all prior records held by the band and cement them as one of the biggest of all time. But in 1997, Be Here Now was released. To call it a flop would be outrageous for any other group. It sold 424,000 units by the end of its first day and became the fastest-selling British album of all time. But Oasis had just come off their most commercially and critically successful album ever and had mounting pressure upon them to outdo themselves. Because of overly lengthy tracks and poor production choices, however, the album was met with a less enthusiastic response. It also failed to meet sales projections in America, where Britpop had never quite been popular. The disappointment of the album is cited as the end of the Britpop movement, as the public would be more focused on the arrival of the Spice Girls and the release of Radiohead’s Ok Computer.
Although never failing, each record afterward failed to reach the success the band had in the mid-1990s. The brothers began having more public fights and the band was losing its popularity as the years went on. Right before a 2009 performance at the Rock En Seine festival in Paris, it was announced that the band had broken up. Following an incident involving leather jackets and guitar-swinging, the brothers had parted ways, with Liam starting Beady Eye with the remaining members and Noel forming Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. This arrangement would more or less continue throughout the 2010s as the brothers continued to feud from afar. Between calling each other potatoes and sharing threats on social media, there would be constant questions about a potential Oasis reunion. Seemingly every time that any one of these rumors would pop up, something would happen that only drew them farther apart. Although slowly, these rumors would grow stronger as Noel and Liam seemed to reconcile. Announced only by a single date reposted online, the band would reveal that they were getting back together for Oasis Live ‘25, a mere two days before the 30th anniversary of Definitely, Maybe. If the story of Oasis says anything, it proves that even the most difficult relationships can be patched and music can bring brothers back together – for the small price of a tour with a potential gross profit of £400 million.
