Kentish Town 1994. Earl’s Court 1995. Maine Road and Knebworth 1996.
Now add Cardiff Principality Stadium 2025 to that glimmering list.
The Oasis reunion gig in Cardiff will go down in legend[/caption]
Fans from around the world gathered for the momentous occasion[/caption]
Dominic with Liam during Oasis’ 90s heyday[/caption]
Friday night’s unveiling of the unforeseen Live ’25 tour is right up there in the pantheon of classic Oasis shows I’ve been privileged to witness over the past 31 years.
They were deafening, bombastic, supreme, commanding and unleashed, with that trademark brooding arrogance, delivering the tunes we wanted but feared we would never hear again, dispatched with no nonsense or histrionics.
This was the best I’ve seen Oasis since 1997.
I know it’s a big call but I’m making it.
Let’s analyse why.
There is no new material to promote so this was a brazen playlist of the Oasis anthems – the most recently penned track they performed was Noel’s Little By Little from 2002.
It was if 21st century Oasis had been erased from memory and we were treated to a raucous 90s set, largely served from the peerless 1994 album Definitely Maybe and 1995’s (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? The Gallaghers granted us our deepest wishes and, with those ticket prices, so they should.
The latter Oasis albums had some gems but their live shows declined as the years rolled by because they were laden with new tracks that didn’t measure up to their meteoric early canon.
Not on a balmy summer’s evening in Cardiff, where anticipation and exhilaration hung in the warm air.
One of the biggest worries ahead of these shows was Liam’s voice.
Fear not.
As he sang as if his life depended on it, his vocals sounded more honed than they have for many years and eclipsed recent solo shows.
Let’s hope it holds.
The outfits are the same and the swagger still there but his engagement with the audience more courteous and respectful, a contrast to the barrage of drunken abuse and gobbledegook audiences would often face.
We were treated with a classy, gleaming, professional and more mature set by brothers on their best behaviour.
I met fans from Japan, South Korea, Italy, Peru and Canada who had flown in to join us on this holy pilgrimage to hear Noel’s stirring council estate hymns, which defined our wild youth, and served as reminder of simpler and more colourful times when we were blissfully unaware of pandemics, iPhones and TikTok.
Outside, it felt like the build up to a World Cup knockout game, Cardiff’s pubs packed from lunchtime and communal singing echoing around the buzzing streets.
There’s something about Cardiff when a massive event like this is staged, the gargantuan stadium rising from the riverside and overshadowing a city centre stuffed with thronging bars and restaurants.
A logical choice for such an anticipated reunion, 16 years in the making.
Lager-swilling once-lads, clad in Stone Island, CP Company, football shirts and Adidas, dominated proceedings but there were also starry-eyed groups of young men and women present, being seduced by a Gallagher onslaught for the first time.
We mingled with football managers Sean Dyche and Steve Cooper, Noel’s ex-Meg Mathews and daughter Anais, Johnny Vaughan, Danny Dyer, Kasabian and Alan McGee.
It was like the glorious 90s were back.
Inside, Cast, who I first saw supporting Oasis in 1994, and The Verve’s Richard Ashcroft set the tone with engaging performances, again shunning new material and the latter delivering all the classics from his band’s creative highpoint Urban Hymns, closing with a peerless Bittersweet Symphony which felt like a headline act’s encore.
There was no messing about from any of the acts that night.
Instrumental F*****’ In The Bushes, from Standing On The Shoulder Off Giants, then exploded from the speakers, a video montage of newspaper and online headlines flashing on the gigantic screens, the first of many goosebump moments triggered by Noel’s masterful songwriting.
Witnessing the feuding brothers then stepping onto the sweeping stage, Liam’s left arm on his older sibling’s shoulder and his other aloft clutching maracas, is something that will live long in the memory, the Cardiff roar heralding the burying of the hatchet, the biblical brothers back together in front of their families and a worshipping congregation.
What a moment – and one I felt I had to witness after documenting the highs and lows of Oasis for The Sun, thirty years of mad encounters, unforgettable interviews, reviews, run-ins and joy, seeing them perform in Tokyo, California, Manchester, Oslo, Milan, Majorca and even Exeter. This was up there with the best.
We debated whether they would open with Hello, it seeming apt with a singalong chorus of It’s Good To Be Back, but concerned about its controversial association with Gary Glitter, who has a songwriting credit on it.
But it was impossible to resist, followed by that stirring anthem of brotherly love, Acquiesce, a song Noel tossed away as a b side, when his songwriting seemed unstoppable.
These spiritual paeans capture a moment in time and unleashed something within 74,500 souls, transfixed and on our stomping feet throughout a polished two hour set under the roof in this cavernous arena.
Yet it somehow felt intimate – there was hugging of strangers, arms held aloft with lifelong friends and the spilling of expensive drinks as we joined the thundering choruses of Slide Away, Don’t Look Back In Anger and Champagne Supernova.
It felt like this was a climax to sixteen years of soul-searching by the brothers, a coming to the senses about their relationship, their inimitable band and what the British public want, even giving a respectful on-screen nod to their former drummer Tony McCarroll and the Water Rats venue where they debuted in London, on Rock ’n’ Roll Star.
A realisation that life’s too precious and short for tantrums and feuding, this encapsulated touchingly on Live Forever, accompanied by a tribute to Liverpool ace Diogo Jota, killed in a car crash aged 28.
Noel’s fabled guitar solo pierced the mesmerised stadium and we were all 24 again.
At times, the crowd – particularly on the pitch – seemed a little passive and static particularly during Supersonic which was surprising, something I don’t anticipate being repeated in Manchester or at Wembley.
I’d rather have heard Shakermaker, Stop Crying Your Heart Out or Columbia, a fans’ favourite and setlist no-brainer over the years, than Fade Away but I’m maybe, no definitely, nitpicking here.
Andy Bell, Gem Archer and Joey Waronker were workmanlike and took care of business but our tired eyes were only on two people.
There was less prowling from Liam, with bouncer Bonehead a barrier separating the siblings, between whom there was little interaction during the set itself.
Noel dispatched Talk Tonight and Half The World Away with aplomb but the climax of Don’t Look Back In Anger, Wonderwall and Champagne Superova is one of the great closing trilogies in the history of modern music.
We were left spellbound after witnessing the biggest British rock reunion of all time, never likely to be eclipsed.
I’m confident that the Gallaghers’ professionalism, newly-found maturity and several hundred million other reasons, will see them sail through this tour, which will surely stretch into 2026.
That would mark the 30th anniversary of their pinnacle, celebrating an era where music, fashion and art was better, life was less complicated and the world was a more contented place.
That’s the story.
