‘Magically, exhaustingly uplifting': what the papers say about Oasis

The Guardian

6 hours ago

Even the most optimistic fans had begun to suspect Oasis would never go on stage again, given that as recently as January 2024, in this newspaper, Liam was pacing around slagging off his brother at considerable length. But the Oasis reunion did indeed come to pass, and the reaction has universally been one of wonderment. You'd expect that from fans – if you ended up spending north of £300 on a dynamically priced ticket, you'd decide you were going to have fun – but critics have also been united in their praise.
★★★★★
'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,' the Guardian's Alexis Petridis said in a five-star review. '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.
★★★★★
The set took on extra resonance given everything that has happened since [Oasis's split in 2009]. Noel may have once called Liam a man with a fork in a world of soup, and Liam accused Noel of being a potato, but Acquiesce is a song about the fact that they 'need each other' — and they do. Noel has a soul complex enough to write beautiful songs. Liam has a soul simple enough to deliver them with pure feeling. They are, ultimately, stuck with each other … As for Supersonic, the song that started it all, it encapsulated everything the Gallaghers evoked, perhaps without even realising it: attitude, surrealism, familiarity, the madness of the everyday.
★★★★★
Stop the clocks, the stars really did align, because yes, Oasis are back - and they've just reclaimed their crown as rock'n'roll stars. You can throw as many cliches as you like at this show and it still wouldn't quite sum up what the 60,000-plus fans cramming into the Principality Stadium in Cardiff saw, heard and felt, on Friday night. It was biblical, celestial, majestical – all of the superlatives that Liam likes to self-anoint himself with. But on this occasion, it was no hyperbole … I think it's the first time I've seen a mosh pit stretch to the entire floor and right up into the seats such was the constant bouncing energy of an elated crowd not quite believing this was really happening, and that they were really here.
★★★★★
As the flares light up for Don't Look Back In Anger into the spoils of colossal closers Wonderwall and an everlasting Champagne Supernova, the sweet escape comes to an end. Lord knows we needed a taste of that halcyon 90s hope and abandon in 2025 – especially for the raving and craving gen Zers. The world is a rotting shitty bin-fire and tomorrow never knows, but tonight, you're a rock'n'roll star.
★★★★★
I don't think anyone who managed to get their hands on a ticket for this reunion could feel short changed. Because really it was a reunion between an audience and their favourite band, a reunion between Britain and rock'n'roll … It was very loud, it was simplistic to the point of banality and it was magically, exhaustingly uplifting.
★★★★★
The real underlying thrill is of a historical moment fully revived. For all the laddish boorishness that Oasis undoubtedly encapsulated, the Britpop era, for millennials and gen Zers alike, is as halcyon as Beatlemania or the summer of love – a time of vivid colour, jubilant melody, political stability and affordable flats. And to be a part of this second wind of torrid Oasismania, hyped by effusive press coverage and leading to historic shows such as this one, is as close to actually 'being there' as it's possible to get.
★★★★★
The set list made me feel like I was being punched in the face - repeatedly - by the Nineties. Liam's vocals were out of this world - he ought to pie off Clarks and get an advertising deal with Halls Soothers because whatever he was sucking in rehearsals clearly paid off. And Noel, who has never failed to impress me performing live, was the cherry on the cake with his masterful ability on the guitar sure to inspire generations of young musicians to come.
★★★★★
Today, reports of gen Z loving Oasis have not been overplayed. There's been a cross-generational vibe around these shows. Like Noel's dream of melding dance music communality with punk rock attitude to kill off grunge in the 90s, seems to have been rebooted. Turn off and on again, and the aggro violence has gone, and what's left is something fresh and cool and utterly exciting.
★★★★★
The city of Cardiff had been on a wave of excitement and bucket hats all week and the soundchecks coming out of the stadium were sounding class, proper bristles up on the back of your neck type stuff. But the real thing was intense and immense. A wall of sound burst around the closed Principality Stadium … and Liam's voice was faultless.
(No star rating)
The band sound, to use Liam's favorite phrase, absolutely biblical. Within half an hour, we're through Acquiesce, Morning Glory, Supersonic and Cigarettes & Alcohol at tremendous volume. Oasis's arsenal of generation-defining hits is hardly a secret, but when confronted with them one after another like this, it was truly overwhelming.