Be honest, you never thought it would happen. But it has. Oasis are back. Liam and Noel have patched things up to announce a gargantuan stadium tour of the UK and Ireland, beginning with two nights at Cardiff's Principality Stadium next July.
Also on the running order are shows at Edinburgh's Murrayfield Stadium and Dublin's Croke Park, with four nights planned at both Manchester’s Heaton Park and Wembley Stadium in London. In a statement, the brothers Gallagher said: “The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised.”
In anticipation of some potentially era-defining rock shows, we thought it wise to wind the clock back to Oasis bangers past. Here are five gigs that shaped their legacy, from an early instance of being in the right place at the right time to an iconic hometown set and the one that ended it all (the first time around). See you down the front.
Up in the Sky - King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 1993
Alan McGee was only at King Tut’s to show his support to a pal, Debbie Turner, whose new band Sister Lovers (named after the Big Star record, naturally) were playing their first show. When he got there, a then-unknown Oasis were arguing with bouncers. They weren’t on the bill, but had made the trip up from Manchester to Glasgow and wanted to play. In his memoir, McGee recalls thinking Liam was a “proper Adidassed-up mod” who must have been a drug dealer because “nobody in a band looks that good”. McGee says he talked the promoter into letting them play four songs. That’s all they needed to convince the Creation Records boss to sign them — one song to get him interested, two to hook him, three to assure him it wasn’t the booze talking, and four to seal the deal.
Acquiesce - Maine Road, 1996
With ‘Definitely Maybe’ and ‘(What's the Story) Morning Glory?’ still riding high on the albums chart, it was a massive moment for the brothers to play at the old Maine Road, home of their beloved Manchester City. Back in the mid-1990s City weren’t petro-state giants like they are now — they were scrappy, with a chip on their collective shoulder given the dominance of the city’s other team, United. Basically, they were very Oasis. On a musical note, this gobby, transcendental take on Acquiesce — The Best Oasis Song™ — captures in amber why, at their peak, they went beyond exciting and into something that truly reshaped British music. Noel hitting the chorus, Union Jack-emblazoned guitar at his waist, while Liam spins away with his tambourine like the most aggro percussionist of all-time, is a defining Britpop image.
Some Might Say - Knebworth, 1996
If Maine Road was of enormous personal significance to Oasis, then Knebworth was their chance to write their names into the history books alongside the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Queen et al. Across two August nights they played to the sort of crowd that’s difficult to compute — the story goes that 5% of the country’s population went in for tickets, but 250,000 got them — and they looked at home up there. On the Sunday Liam selected a classic fit in the shape of his big cream jumper, influencing a generation of dads to get into knitwear, and the band sounded like they couldn’t lose. That night’s run through Some Might Say, their first number one single in the UK, was perhaps the pick of the weekend: muscular, anthemic, celebratory. Looking back now, it feels like the beginning of the end, Everest conquered.
Be Here Now - Earl’s Court, 1997
‘Be Here Now’ has been a lot of things over the past couple of decades. It’s been regarded as a critical hit, a critical flop, later a critically-reappraised ‘interesting’ third album. It’s often been held up as the perfect example of cocaine-fuelled excess. One thing that’s indisputable about it, though, is that it’s massive. Its release was an event and, even if repeated listens revealed as much self-aggrandising bloat as they did decent tunes, Oasis still had the juice to produce show-stopping moments live. The sight of the group — which would soon undergo major surgery with the exits of rhythm guitarist Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs and bassist Paul ‘Guigsy’ McGuigan — emerging from a red phone box as the opening sample of Be Here Now reverberates around Earl’s Court in London will still be seared into the memory of anyone who saw it. Even watching back now, knowing what came next, you can almost taste the excitement in the room.
Rock En Seine, 2009
It seemed, for the longest time, like a set at V Festival in Staffordshire would be the last Oasis show. Liam pulled out of the second leg (set to be staged in Chelmsford on the Sunday night) due to laryngitis, but was expected to recover in time to headline Rock En Seine in Paris the following week. Of course, it was backstage at that gig that the brothers had their famous guitar-wielded-as-an-axe falling out, leading Noel to walk and leaving Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke to gleefully announce that Oasis had cancelled. “I’d like to dedicate this next song to anyone who really wanted to see those inbred twins,” he said, winning the bands’ long-standing war of words by default. In many ways, it would have made sense for Oasis’s story to end like this. But now they have a chance to rewrite that final chapter.
Oasis Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Fri July 04 2025 - CARDIFF Principality Stadium
Sat July 05 2025 - CARDIFF Principality Stadium
Fri July 11 2025 - MANCHESTER Heaton Park
Sat July 12 2025 - MANCHESTER Heaton Park
Sat July 19 2025 - MANCHESTER Heaton Park
Sun July 20 2025 - MANCHESTER Heaton Park
Fri July 25 2025 - LONDON Wembley Stadium
Sat July 26 2025 - LONDON Wembley Stadium
Sat August 02 2025 - LONDON Wembley Stadium
Sun August 03 2025 - LONDON Wembley Stadium
Fri August 08 2025 - EDINBURGH BT Murrayfield Stadium
Sat August 09 2025 - EDINBURGH BT Murrayfield Stadium
Sat August 16 2025 - DUBLIN Croke Park
Sun August 17 2025 - DUBLIN Croke Park
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