‘Finally': Oasis returns after 15 years — fans young and old unite for epic comeback
For older fans who attended gigs during the height of the Britpop band's fame in the 1990s, the tour is a chance to relive memories of the good old days.
And for younger audiences, it is a moment they never imagined experiencing live after hearing stories of one of the music world's most acrimonious break-ups.
Matt, 25, a software engineer from Leeds in northern England, grew up listening to his dad rave about Liam and Noel Gallagher's legendary gigs.
But the prospect of seeing them live was always a 'distant fantasy' — until now.
Matt snagged tickets to the band's long-awaited return to their hometown Manchester on July 11.
'Not only will they obviously be gassed to be back in Manchester, but the fans and the locals are going to be gassed to have them back,' Matt, who did not want to share his full name, told AFP.
Lauren DeBruin, 23, from Hemel Hempstead, northwest of London, said she loved Britpop 'because that's the music my mum listened to when she was a teenager'.
'I've got a lot of fond memories of that sort of music, especially Oasis,' said the actor, who missed out on tickets in the craze that followed the Gallagher brothers announcing a reunion after a 15-year hiatus.
A sign offering the chance to win Oasis concert tickets is seen in front of some pedal boats in Heaton Park, in Manchester July 1, 2025. — Reuters pic
'Celebrity crush'
Oasis — whose hits include Don't Look Back In Anger and Champagne Supernova — kick off the worldwide tour in the Welsh capital on Friday.
It is one of 17 sold out UK shows followed by performances in the US, Japan, Australia and Argentina.
Sales platform Ticketmaster sold more than 900,000 tickets for the gigs, with outrage over sudden price hikes, known as 'dynamic' pricing, due to overwhelming demand.
'I'd already seen the best bit, so it's kind of a bonus,' said Sam Inglis, a 47-year-old sub-editor from Norwich, eastern England, who watched Oasis live four times before they split up in 2009.
'I think there's going to be a lot of middle-aged men like myself regressing,' said Inglis, who is attending concerts in Manchester and Los Angeles.
'It might take some of the younger fans... by surprise. Because things did used to get quite rowdy,' he recalled.
In the band's heyday, the Gallagher brothers' irreverent style and hedonism became synonymous with British 'lad' culture embraced by young men and football fans.
But three decades later, some of its most ardent supporters now are young women on TikTok and X sharing video edits and posts of the brothers.
Online, the fans are 'mostly young girls', said 16-year-old Liz Marina Numbela Nascimento from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
'I don't know why the girls love it so much... I think it's that classic thing of having a celebrity crush,' she added.
People walk past a temporary security fence erected ahead of concerts by Oasis in Heaton Park, in Manchester July 1, 2025. — Reuters pic
'Old 'n' young'
For younger fans like Nascimento, who will see the band in Sao Paulo in November with other fans she met on X, the reunion 'means that music is coming back'.
'We finally get to experience what we've been hearing about for the past decade,' gushed the superfan.
For many, the band's enduring appeal comes from its catchy, upbeat tunes, nostalgia for its optimistic cultural moment, and Oasis's origin story as a working-class, homegrown success.
'There's been a bit of a dearth of anything similar for quite a long time,' said Inglis.
In 2020, one of the band's most iconic tracks 'Wonderwall' became the first song from the 90s to reach one billion streams on Spotify.
Younger fans have also been able to discover their music by attending separate gigs by Liam and Noel.
Matt — who has seen both brothers perform individually — said 'they're missing the other half'.
'It feels like you're watching 50 per cent of Oasis.'
The band's cross-generational popularity has also led to a rift between some fans.
'Imagine waiting 15 years for Oasis to re-form only to lose out on tickets to Chloe, 21, from Stockport who just wants to hear Wonderwall live,' X user Billy Corcoran posted last August.
In an X post this June, Liam Gallagher said the tour was 'for everyone old 'n' young'.
Inglis shares that sentiment and called the clash between older and younger fans 'ridiculous'.
But there will be at least one point of contention between the generations, he conceded, vowing not to bring out his phone to film any of the concert.
'Absolutely not. There'll be none of that for me.' — AFP
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15 hours ago
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Oasis reunion could earn Liam and Noel Gallagher RM290mil each: reports
Fifteen years after their explosive split, British music legends Liam and Noel Gallagher are reuniting for an Oasis tour that promises not only Britpop nostalgia but also staggering revenues. While Liam has insisted that money is "way down the list" of reasons for the feuding brothers' reunion, British press reports have suggested that each sibling could pocket around £50mil (RM290mil). Matt Grimes, a music industry expert at Birmingham City University, offered a slightly more conservative estimate of around £40 million per Gallagher for the 17 UK dates alone. Oasis, whose hits include Wonderwall, Don't Look Back In Anger and Champagne Supernova, kick off the reunion tour on July 4 in Cardiff before playing several dates in its home city of Manchester the following week. Almost 1.4 million tickets have been sold for the UK shows, generating an estimated £240mil, according to Barclays bank. And that's just the beginning. Merchandise sales, from T-shirts and puzzles to baby clothes and tableware, plus six pop-up shops across the UK and Ireland could push total revenue to around £400mil, Grimes said. The 24 concerts outside the UK, including in Buenos Aires, Chicago, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto, will drive revenues even higher. Still, the money from the return of Oasis is dwarfed by Taylor Swift's record-breaking Eras Tour, which grossed US$2.2bil from ticket sales alone across 149 shows worldwide. It was "a much bigger logistical event or sets of events than Oasis are proposing", Grimes said. There was a chaotic scramble for prized Oasis tickets when they went on sale in August last year. But fans were left outraged by exorbitant ticket costs that saw sudden price hikes -- known as dynamic pricing -- based on overwhelming demand, in some cases from £150 to £350. Ticketmaster, one of the official sales websites, said the pricing decision was made by the "tour organiser". Oasis pointed the finger at its promoter. The Gallagher brothers' promotional plan, however, was minimal: two posts on social media -- one to tease, the other to confirm. "The fact that they announced a reunion after many, many years of 'will they, won't they' is enough to make the press interested," Chris Anderton, professor of cultural economics at the University of Southampton, told AFP. For Oasis there's no new album to promote, just classics to revive. "In the 1970s, even maybe the 1980s, you went on tour to sell albums," Anderton said. "Now you go on tour to make money and the album is something on the side -- if you make one at all." Definitely Maybe , released 30 years ago, climbed back to the top of UK sales charts on the back of the reunion tour announcement. Each Oasis concertgoer will spend an average of £766 on tickets and outgoings such as transport and accommodation, according to Barclays. That is set to inject £1bil into the British economy. Two key shifts help explain the rise of mega-tours, said Cecile Rap-Veber, managing director at the French artistes' rights group Sacem. On one hand, streaming "doesn't bring in as much money as the CD era", prompting artistes to look at how to make money elsewhere, she said. On the other, "the public's appetite for live shows" surged after the lockdown years of the Covid-19 pandemic. Those factors make fans more willing to spend big. Grimes sums up the choice: "Do I go to... Spain or maybe the south of France for a week's holiday that's going to cost me £600? Or do I go and see my favourite band?" – AFP
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Malay Mail
18 hours ago
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‘Finally': Oasis returns after 15 years — fans young and old unite for epic comeback
LONDON, July 2 — Fans of all ages from around the world are gearing up for the Oasis reunion tour that many doubted would ever happen, with just two days to go until the opening concert in Cardiff. For older fans who attended gigs during the height of the Britpop band's fame in the 1990s, the tour is a chance to relive memories of the good old days. And for younger audiences, it is a moment they never imagined experiencing live after hearing stories of one of the music world's most acrimonious break-ups. Matt, 25, a software engineer from Leeds in northern England, grew up listening to his dad rave about Liam and Noel Gallagher's legendary gigs. But the prospect of seeing them live was always a 'distant fantasy' — until now. Matt snagged tickets to the band's long-awaited return to their hometown Manchester on July 11. 'Not only will they obviously be gassed to be back in Manchester, but the fans and the locals are going to be gassed to have them back,' Matt, who did not want to share his full name, told AFP. Lauren DeBruin, 23, from Hemel Hempstead, northwest of London, said she loved Britpop 'because that's the music my mum listened to when she was a teenager'. 'I've got a lot of fond memories of that sort of music, especially Oasis,' said the actor, who missed out on tickets in the craze that followed the Gallagher brothers announcing a reunion after a 15-year hiatus. A sign offering the chance to win Oasis concert tickets is seen in front of some pedal boats in Heaton Park, in Manchester July 1, 2025. — Reuters pic 'Celebrity crush' Oasis — whose hits include Don't Look Back In Anger and Champagne Supernova — kick off the worldwide tour in the Welsh capital on Friday. It is one of 17 sold out UK shows followed by performances in the US, Japan, Australia and Argentina. Sales platform Ticketmaster sold more than 900,000 tickets for the gigs, with outrage over sudden price hikes, known as 'dynamic' pricing, due to overwhelming demand. 'I'd already seen the best bit, so it's kind of a bonus,' said Sam Inglis, a 47-year-old sub-editor from Norwich, eastern England, who watched Oasis live four times before they split up in 2009. 'I think there's going to be a lot of middle-aged men like myself regressing,' said Inglis, who is attending concerts in Manchester and Los Angeles. 'It might take some of the younger fans... by surprise. Because things did used to get quite rowdy,' he recalled. In the band's heyday, the Gallagher brothers' irreverent style and hedonism became synonymous with British 'lad' culture embraced by young men and football fans. But three decades later, some of its most ardent supporters now are young women on TikTok and X sharing video edits and posts of the brothers. Online, the fans are 'mostly young girls', said 16-year-old Liz Marina Numbela Nascimento from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. 'I don't know why the girls love it so much... I think it's that classic thing of having a celebrity crush,' she added. People walk past a temporary security fence erected ahead of concerts by Oasis in Heaton Park, in Manchester July 1, 2025. — Reuters pic 'Old 'n' young' For younger fans like Nascimento, who will see the band in Sao Paulo in November with other fans she met on X, the reunion 'means that music is coming back'. 'We finally get to experience what we've been hearing about for the past decade,' gushed the superfan. For many, the band's enduring appeal comes from its catchy, upbeat tunes, nostalgia for its optimistic cultural moment, and Oasis's origin story as a working-class, homegrown success. 'There's been a bit of a dearth of anything similar for quite a long time,' said Inglis. In 2020, one of the band's most iconic tracks 'Wonderwall' became the first song from the 90s to reach one billion streams on Spotify. Younger fans have also been able to discover their music by attending separate gigs by Liam and Noel. Matt — who has seen both brothers perform individually — said 'they're missing the other half'. 'It feels like you're watching 50 per cent of Oasis.' The band's cross-generational popularity has also led to a rift between some fans. 'Imagine waiting 15 years for Oasis to re-form only to lose out on tickets to Chloe, 21, from Stockport who just wants to hear Wonderwall live,' X user Billy Corcoran posted last August. In an X post this June, Liam Gallagher said the tour was 'for everyone old 'n' young'. Inglis shares that sentiment and called the clash between older and younger fans 'ridiculous'. But there will be at least one point of contention between the generations, he conceded, vowing not to bring out his phone to film any of the concert. 'Absolutely not. There'll be none of that for me.' — AFP
