Wonderwall 101: College delivers Oasis masterclass for new generation of fans
Glasgow Clyde College has introduced a one-off course at the Innovation Centre on its Langside Campus, helping introduce the Manchester outfit to a new generation of gig-goers.
The Gallagher brothers are kicking off their sell-out UK trek in Cardiff on Friday, which includes multiple shows in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin.
Fans are predicted to fork out a total of £1.06bn to see the Oasis comeback – estimated to be the most popular and profitable run of gigs in UK music history.
Two lecturers, who have attended more than 60 Oasis gigs between them, shared a passionate retelling of the band's rise to stardom with students and what it was like to witness them at their peak.
'It has been 16 years since the brothers last played on Scottish soil,' said curriculum manager Christopher Kennedy.
'So we want to give them an indication of what it was like back then and what to expect at the gigs in the summer.
'You've got, in some families, two to three generations of fans – or parents passing on the good music to children – and now they're going to see Oasis for the first time.' STV News Oasis at Loch Lomond, August 1996
The room was decked out in the band's signature look: mannequins sporting bucket hats, parkas, denim, and Adidas sneakers.
Rock 'n' Roll Star played in the background as students were taken through the journey of how Oasis were discovered at Glasgow's King Tut's Wah Wah Hut by Alan McGee, after an impressive four-song set – including a Beatles cover.
The moment was captured by a Japanese tourist and later shared with the world.
From small venues to headlining stadium tours, their rise to fame was nothing short of spectacular.
Their iconic feud with Blur was also explored.
'Oasis dismissed Blur as Chas and Dave chimney sweep music,' said Christopher, 'and Blur referred to their opponents as Oasis Quo.'
Accounting lecturer Amy Butler also brought laughter to the session with her personal gig story.
'This is what you should not do at an Oasis show – I lost my bag in the toilet, which had my driver's license, purse, and phone,' she said. STV News Oasis are set to play at Murrayfield in August.
'I needed my driver's license to go to the next gig, which was at Milton Keynes Bowl, and I ended up taking the train. But disaster struck again – we missed the last train back and had to sleep at the train station.'
Just when fans thought there would be 'Loads More', the band split in 2009.
'I really didn't know about why they split up,' said an eight-year-old attendee, accompanied by his dad.
'Oasis is the soundtrack to my life – Slide Away was the first dance at my wedding. I've seen them 20-odd times and been to every gig they've played here in Scotland,' said another fan.
'There was a lot of stuff you wouldn't know just through the music,' said a young attendee. 'So, it was good to get a bigger aspect on it.'
Another said: 'I've seen Liam and Noel separately loads of times, but I've been waiting for this reunion for a long time.'
More than 1.4 million tickets have been sold across 17 UK dates for the Oasis tour.
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Wales Online
40 minutes ago
- Wales Online
I've made thousands touting Oasis tickets and I don't feel guilty
I've made thousands touting Oasis tickets and I don't feel guilty 'It is purely a middle-class problem that you can't go and see a band you like,' the tout told us Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher (Image: WireImage ) A tout has boasted of profiting thousands from flogging Oasis tickets at inflated prices — without a single pang of guilt. Since the Britpop legends' reunion tour was announced last year, there has been a feverish clamour for tickets. Touts, of course, have not hesitated to cash in, many of them demanding exorbitant figures from fans desperate to see the beloved rockers. One Welsh tout agreed to speak to WalesOnline on the condition of anonymity, revealing the amount he's raked in from Oasis' comeback and his justifications for his "side hustle". The tout (we'll call him Jim) has sold 24 tickets for the tour, which kicked off on Friday at Cardiff's Principality Stadium. You can read our coverage of the night here. Jim is, to put it mildly, not a charmer. When we ask how much he has been selling Oasis tickets for, he brands the seemingly straightforward question "stupid", adding: "It depends on when you sell them, where the tickets are and who you're selling them to." After some coaxing, he explains he bought the 24 tickets in the initial sale, spending between £75 and £200 on each, and then made a total profit of around £5,000, using resale websites like StubHub and Viagogo. "The process to sell them on is fairly straightforward," says Jim. "Just stick them on a website and people buy them, or stick a message into a WhatsApp group and people will reply." Article continues below Does he not feel guilty? "Not at all. We live in a capitalist society. I am not taking away anything anyone needs to survive — these tickets are a luxury." He adds: "Do you think supermarkets feel bad ripping off farmers for produce and then charging us extortionate prices for things we cannot live without?" In news that is unlikely to shock you, Jim does not think legislation is needed to clamp down on touting. He tells us: "It is purely a middle-class problem that you can't go and see a band you like. I think [legislation] is a complete waste of time." But aren't people like Jim pricing working-class people out of culture by hoovering up tickets and charging huge amounts? "Just supply and demand," he replies. "I'm priced out of a business-class flight because I can't afford it." Jim does not think he is so different to Ticketmaster, which came under fire for the original Oasis sale in which standard standing tickets went from being advertised at £135 plus fees to being re-labelled "in demand" and costing £355 plus fees. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) later said Ticketmaster may have breached consumer protection law by selling "platinum" tickets for almost 2.5 times the standard price without explaining they carried no extra benefits. After the watchdog ordered Ticketmaster to change the way it labels tickets, the US firm said it "welcomed the CMA's input". Ticketmaster's UK director Andrew Parsons told MPs earlier this year: "We don't change prices in any automated or algorithmic way." Jim claims: "Ticketmaster's 'dynamic pricing' is no different from what I did. So much criticism on me making a few quid as a side hustle when Ticketmaster can say tickets are £200 then sell them for £400 after people were queueing [online] for four hours." How much does Jim make from touting in a year? He declines to answer, though he says the aim is always to double his investment. His biggest return on a ticket has been 1,850%. Touting is not Jim's main income stream, though he says: "It did help while I was unemployed for a number of months due to the s*** job market." He has not thought about quitting his job and living off touting because "it's too unpredictable and there's no real satisfaction". Jim is not worried by the UK Government's plans to curb bulk-buying of tickets for profit by capping the price of resale tickets. The proposed cap — which could be anywhere from face value to 30% higher — would apply to tickets across the live events industry from sport and music to stand-up and theatre. "I'm not concerned," says Jim. "If the Government cracks down I'll just stop doing it. It's a side hustle, just a nice profit on the side." Article continues below According to analysis by the CMA, tickets sold on the resale market are typically marked up by more than 50%. Fans of musicians including Taylor Swift have complained of gig tickets being listed online for thousands of pounds just minutes after the initial sale ended. Government ministers have proposed a limit on the number of tickets that resellers can offer, or the number they can buy in the original sale. They are also considering action on dynamic pricing. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said earlier this year: "We are taking action to strengthen consumer protections, stop fans getting ripped off and ensure money spent on tickets goes back into our incredible live events sector, instead of into the pockets of greedy touts."
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Oasis reunion: A high-five and a hug - the gestures were there, but ultimately it was all about the music
Oasis have reunited on stage for the first time in almost 16 years - with brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher sharing a high five and the briefest of hugs as they closed a performance that for fans was more than worth the wait. After the split in 2009, for many years Noel said he would never go back - and for a long time, as the brothers exchanged insults through separate interviews (and on social media, for Liam), it seemed pretty unlikely to ever happen. But now, here they are. As they walked out on stage at Cardiff's Principality Stadium, all eyes were on the Gallaghers for a sense of their relationship - dare we say it, friendship? - now after all these years. There was no reference to their fall-out or making up, but the gestures were there - lifting hands together as they walked out for the first time. Headlines and tweets of speculation and then confirmation of the reunion filled the screens as the show started. "This is happening," said one, repeatedly. In the end, it was all about the music. Liam has received criticism in the past for his voice not being what it once was, but back on stage with his brother tonight he delivered exactly what fans would have hoped for - a raw, steely-eyed performance, snarling vocals, and the swagger that makes him arguably the greatest frontman of his day. This was Oasis sounding almost as good as they ever have. 2:56 They opened with Hello, because of course, "it's good to be back". And then Acquiesce, and those lyrics: "Because we need each other/ We believe in one another." The song is said to be about friendship in the wider sense, rather than their brotherly bond and sibling rivalry, but you can't help but feel like it means something here. Over two hours, they played favourite after favourite - including Morning Glory, Some Might Say, Cigarettes & Alcohol, Supersonic and Roll With It. In the mid-section, Liam takes his break for Noel to sing Talk Tonight, Half The World Away and Little By Little; the tempo slows but there is by no means a lull, with the fans singing all his words back to him. Liam returns for hits including Stand By Me, Slide Away, Whatever and Live Forever, before sending the crowd wild (or even wilder) with Rock And Roll Star. When the reunion announcement was made last summer, it quickly became overshadowed by the controversy of dynamic pricing causing prices to rocket. As he has done on X before, Liam addressed the issue on stage with a joke. "Was it worth the £4,000 you paid for the ticket?" he shouted at one point. "Yeah," the crowd shouts back; seemingly all is forgiven. After Rock And Roll Star, the dream that very quickly became a reality for this band, Noel introduced the rest of the group, calling Bonehead a "legend". Then he acknowledges all their young fans, some who maybe weren't even born when they split. "This one is for all the people in their 20s who've never seen us before, who've kept this shit going," he says before the encore starts with The Masterplan. Noel follows with Don't Look Back In Anger, and the screens fill with Manchester bees in reference to the arena bombing and how the song became the sound of hope and defiance for the city afterwards. 1:31 During Wonderwall, there's a nice touch as Liam sings to the crowd: "There are many things I would like to say to you, but I don't speak Welsh." It is at the end of Champagne Supernova, which closes the set, that it happens; Noel puts down his guitar, and they come together for a high-five and a back-slap, a blink-and-you'd miss it hug. 0:26 "Right then, beautiful people, this is it," Liam had told the crowd as he introduced the song just a few minutes earlier. "Nice one for putting up with us over the years." From the roar of the audience, it's safe to say most people here would agree it's been worth it.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Oasis review – a shameless trip back to the 90s for Britpop's loudest, greatest songs
The noise from the audience when Oasis arrive on stage for their first reunion gig is deafening. You might have expected a loud response. This is, after all, a crowd so partisan that, in between the support acts, they cheer the promotional videos – the tour's accompanying brand deals seem to involve not just the obviously Oasis-adjacent sportswear brand Adidas, but the more imponderable Land Rover Defender. Even so, the noise the fans make as the reconstituted Oasis launch into Hello takes you aback slightly, and not just because Hello is a fairly bold choice of opener: this is, after all, a song that borrows heavily from Hello, Hello, I'm Back Again by Gary Glitter. But no one in Cardiff's Principality Stadium seems to care about the song's genesis: the noise is such that you struggle to think of another artist that's received such a vociferous reception. So, the success of the show seems more or less like a foregone conclusion. Anyone who saw them in the 00s will tell you that the old Oasis were a hugely variable proposition live: you never knew what mood Liam Gallagher would show up in, or how the current state of familial relations might affect their performance. But evidently as little as possible has been left to chance at these reunion gigs. No one – including, to their immense credit, Liam and Noel Gallagher – seems interested in pretending this tour is anything other than a hugely lucrative cash-grab, and clearly, you only grab the maximum possible cash if the tour doesn't descend into the kind of bedlam to which Oasis tours were once prone. Liam is on his best behaviour – 'thanks for putting up with us,' he offers at one juncture, 'I know we're hard work', a noticeable shift from the days when he was wont to rain abuse on the audience – and Liam and Noel have rhythm guitarist Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs stood squarely between them on stage, creating distance. You could say that removes combustibility, the hint of potential chaos that was at least part of Oasis's appeal, but you might as well save your breath: no one would be able to hear you over the sound of people singing along en masse to a set that plays to the strengths of Oasis's back catalogue. Few bands' reputations have been better served by the rise of streaming, both in its favouring of curated playlists over albums – all the highlights and none of the rubbish, of which there was a great deal in Oasis's later years – and in the way it decontextualises music, denuding it of its accompanying story or contemporary critical responses. The much-vaunted Oasis fans too young to remember the band first-hand definitely exist – you can see them in the audience – but you do wonder how many of them believe Oasis split up in 1998, rather than grimly trudging on for another decade, to declining artistic returns. The show seeks to maintain this myth. It's very much playlist Oasis, big on the first two albums and B-sides from the years when Noel Gallagher's songwriting talent seemed so abundant he could afford to blithely confine stuff as good as Acquiesce or The Masterplan to an extra track on a CD single, and low on anything at all from their later years. Only the presence of 2002's Little By Little indicates that Oasis existed into the 21st century. You can still sense inspiration declining – 1997's D'You Know What I Mean? sounds like a trudge regardless of how many people are singing along – but far more often, the show serves as a reminder of how fantastic purple patch Oasis were. Against a ferocious wall of distorted guitars, there's a weird disconnect between the tone of Noel's songs – wistful, noticeably melancholy – and the way Liam sings them like a man seething with frustration, on the verge of offering someone a fight. Even discounting half their career, they have classics in abundance: Cigarettes & Alcohol, Slide Away, Rock 'n' Roll Star, Morning Glory. Enough, in fact, that a section where Liam cedes the stage and Noel takes over vocals doesn't occasion a dip in the audience's enthusiasm: during Half the World Away, the audience's vocals threaten to drown the song's author out entirely. It ends with precisely the encore you might have expected – Don't Look Back in Anger, Wonderwall and Champagne Supernova – which understandably occasions precisely the response you might have expected. A very perfunctory clap on the back – the only time the Gallaghers interact beyond playing the same songs – and Liam vanishes: a car is waiting by the side of the stage to whisk him away before the final notes die away, a triumph in the bag.
