Towards the end of November, in São Paulo, Brazil, Oasis played the final sold-out show of a phenomenal world tour that was never supposed to happen. A couple of weeks earlier, they were in Sydney.
It was to be the fourth time I’d seen the band live. The previous was at Finsbury Park in London in 2002, a raucous, rain-lashed gig so wet and so warm that a swirling fog of sweat hung above the mud-caked crowd like a weather event. And the first time being the record-breaking Knebworth shows in 1996, when a band barely two years removed from half-empty local pubs played to a quarter-of-a-million ecstatic souls across two balmy, barmy nights.
But something about this tour felt even more historic. And more euphoric, too.
Part of Oasis’s early rock ‘n’ roll allure was their unpredictability, with brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher’s relationship famously volatile (no doubt shaped by growing up with appalling domestic violence – a young Noel, who bore the brunt of it, developed a years-long stammer and the songwriter would later quip that his father “beat the talent into me”). A final explosive clash backstage in Paris in 2009 saw the band – and the brothers – appear to break up for good.
Insults flew via interviews in the press, but Noel and Liam reportedly didn’t speak in person for the best part of 15 years. And then…
Two songs in – and 23 years since I last heard it live – Noel stepped up for the chorus of ‘Acquiesce’ alongside his little brother to holler, “Because we need each other, we believe in one another….” And a tear may have welled in this writer’s eye.
In August 2024, came the statement: “The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned…”
Oasis was reforming.
Shows sold out with such speed it was said to have even taken the band and their management by surprise. When they walked out for their first gig, in Cardiff, holding each-other’s hands aloft, Noel – usually composed to the point of coldness – was visibly overcome with emotion. The Gallaghers made that entry standard; footage of hardy-looking grown men in the crowds also overcome with emotion went viral.
The band landed in Australia on the back of pretty much blanket five-star reviews. In the UK, Ireland, and North America, the gigs had been compared to being at football matches where “everyone supported the same team”. Rolling Stone magazine said the tour was “all about the joy of positive masculinity” that “brought out the best in lots of dudes”.
It was no different across the ditch where it seemed you could barely walk ten paces without bumping into someone in an Oasis t-shirt in downtown Sydney. Outside the Accor Stadium, bucket-hatted crowds of all ages congregated hours before the gig to drink and dance to 90s-themed DJs in dedicated fan zones. A true festival vibe.
And then the brothers walked out to a deafening roar…
Two songs in – and 23 years since I last heard it live – Noel stepped up for the chorus of ‘Acquiesce’ alongside his little brother to holler, “Because we need each other, we believe in one another….” And a tear may have welled in this writer’s eye.
The band have never sounded more on form or alive. They’ve certainly never expressed such affection on stage. Their hopeful, communal terrace anthems like ‘Live Forever’, ‘Wonderwall’, and, of course, ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’, are designed to be sung with your arm around your best mates’ – or even strangers’ – shoulders and there was plenty of that on this most joyous, celebratory of nights.
“Thanks for putting up with us,” said Liam at the gig’s climax. And as the closing notes echoed into the ether, above us, fireworks exploded, like a champagne supernova in the sky.
WORDS — JAMIE CHRISTIAN DESPLACES
