In Pictures: Oasis fans gather in Cardiff for first much anticipated reunion gig
The PA news agency is in the Welsh capital along with tens of thousands of the Britpop band's fans soaking up the atmosphere.
Tonight's gig has been 16 years in the making. Many fans feared it would never come because of Liam and Noel's stormy relationship.
And the wait has been so long that some of the band's younger fans are seeing them for the first time on this tour.
With a penchant for parkas and bucket hats, many fans have been eager to join in with the band's distinct sense of fashion and style.
Some even took it a step further by imitating Liam's look completely.
Fans have come from far and wide to see their idols in Cardiff.
Huge sums of money have already been made from ticket sales alone. And this will be bolstered further when sales of merchandise are factored in.
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The Guardian
30 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Their songs are rousing, trippy, witty, moronic. I've sung along to them all': Simon Armitage hails the return of Oasis
In retrospect it all seems so obvious. Form a band, plunder the Beatles' back catalogue for riffs, guitar tabs, chord changes and song structures, then bang it out in a key that a stadium crowd could put their lungs into but which suited the subway busker, too. The resulting success now looks so inevitable. In 1994, dance music flooded the UK charts but not everyone thought a rave DJ wearing oversized headphones and playing records counted as a gig. Some people – a vast number, it turned out – still yearned for meat-and-two-veg pop-rock with guitars and drums, and for songs played by groups. Throw in some Manc bluster, the death throes of a Tory government that had occupied Downing Street since for ever, and the first glimmers of a cooler Britannia, and hey presto: Oasis. Even if the dates don't quite stack up, that's how cultural theorists tend to describe the preconditions for one of the world's biggest ever acts, staring at them through the rear view mirror of musical history after their 2009 implosion. But luck must have played its part, as it always does, along with something more elemental to do with brotherhood and chemistry: the sparks that flew between the Gallaghers were the same sparks that lit their creative drive. Oasis made seven studio albums, all hugely successful. The third, 1997's Be Here Now, was released with so much fanfare and expectation that a commercial triumph was guaranteed. But it felt bloated and indulgent, and even if it wasn't quite a parody of the group's status and smugness, it had enough calculated familiarity to make them sound like their own tribute band. Upstart effrontery and spiky provocation are evidently hard to maintain when the millions are rolling in. Undeterred, Oasis pressed on, the music going through its motions with only the odd gem to be discovered here and there. The first two records, though, remain magnificent. I can't really remember (and don't care) which is which – they were two halves of the same whole, both full of pounding, adrenalised songs that sounded great on a transistor radio and unbelievable on a proper stereo system. When most bands enter the studio, start dickering with all the toys and turn it up to 11, sonic elements usually get distorted or drowned out. The audio clarity on Definitely Maybe and (What's the Story) Morning Glory is astonishing – it feels as if you're in the room with them. The lyrics are … interesting: rhyme-driven breeze block couplets for the most part, ranging from the rousing, to the mysterious, to the trippy, to the witty, to the laughable, to the moronic. And I've sung along with them all, at the top of my voice, especially in the car, where Oasis are the perfect in-vehicle karaoke. Maybe Noel and his studio engineers had figured this out; he always maintained that to be mega successful you need to appeal to the dudes and the squares, and a lot of the squares are motorists with cash to splurge. In 1995, Oasis and Blur slagged each other off and slugged it out in the singles chart for the Battle of Britpop, Blur coming out on top among accusations of retail skulduggery on both sides. It made the news headlines, because this wasn't just a popularity contest, it was a media-framed fight between rock'n'roll cats and dogs. Blur were the feline, slippery, ironic, unbiddable, enigmatic art school smart Alecs, and Oasis the muscular, barely-house-trained mutts with a bark and a bite (Suede's Brett Anderson called Oasis 'the singing plumbers'). Characterised by some as a battle for music's very soul, Blur v Oasis was also seen as a conflict between north and south, and I probably wanted Oasis to triumph for regional rather than aesthetic reasons. The Oasis back line came and went in the years that followed, with no noticeable effect. Most of its members turned out to be interchangeable and disposable, with fans not really caring who was beating the skins or twanging the bass. In essence, Oasis are the brothers Gallagher, like the twin stars of Sirius, pulsing in the firmament, forever revolving around each other in captured orbit but never able to embrace. Liam was the couldn't-give-a-toss gobshite, with not so much a potty mouth as the oral equivalent of a sewage works for a large metropolitan area, and that was OK because he had the cockiness and looks to back it up. He also had a fantastic voice: all tonsil, adenoid, teeth and tongue, loud enough to crowd-surf to the back of a stadium, sharp and sneery enough to enunciate. Noel took the role of scheming mastermind and ace guitarist. It was his idea to conquer the planet and his compositions that would do it. When he stepped into the rehearsal room of his kid brother's wannabe outfit, he found a shambles, and he gave them material, discipline and direction. That's the received wisdom, at least – he couldn't have done it without a frontman like Liam. The brothers' obscenity-ridden slander was a joint enterprise, tearing into other artists and bands with merciless and sometimes hilarious savagery, calling out banality, mediocrity and inability with a refreshing lack of caution. But for all of Liam's bladed comments and boorish behaviour there was something funny and even innocent about him. Noel, by comparison, seemed wily and defensive; the role of lovable arsehole never came as naturally to him as it did to his younger sibling. Across two decades the weird psychodrama of their fraternal dynamic has been hard to keep up with. Noel stormed off more than once, sometimes returning to the lineup when only the diehard aficionados knew he'd quit. And the barneys weren't just artistic flouncing or creative hissy fits, they were proper brawls with weaponised tambourines, guitars and cricket bats. It felt tiresome on occasions, especially as Oasis's significance waned and cultural sensibilities shifted, but undoubtedly it's one of the elements that make the planned reunion so compelling. Because the enmity can't simply have melted away, can it? There was genuine bad blood between Noel and Liam, which found expression through genuine violence. It's not impossible to imagine the upcoming tour abandoned on day one, with the brothers in separate luxury hotels, one soothing a bruised fist with a packet of frozen peas, the other with a cartoon rib-eye steak on his face taking the sting out of a shiner. But when Oasis do finally appear together after a 16-year absence, fans will be back on each other's shoulders or arm in arm, singing gnomic phrases and occasional nonsense, united by some irresistible bond. If they play Acquiesce – the verses sung by Liam, the choruses by Noel – it's interesting to wonder what silent thoughts might pass between the warring siblings when they get to the bit about needing and believing in each other. The roar of the crowd, hymning back the lyrics, will be telling them it's true. This article was updated with a correction on 4 July: Armitage is the current rather than former poet laureate. We apologise for the error.
Sky News
34 minutes ago
- Sky News
Oasis reunion: Support act Cast takes to the stage as tour gets under way
Cast dedicate song to Diogo Jota Oasis's first support act Cast have dedicated one of their songs to Liverpool player Diogo Jota who died yesterday in a car crash. The band, who are from Liverpool, played Walkaway for the 28-year-old forward, saying: "Take it easy, brother." Jota and his brother Andre Silva both died in the crash in Zamora in northwestern Spain. 1990s nostalgia is in full flow By Gemma Peplow, culture and entertainment reporter Cast are doing a great job of kicking things off, starting with their 1995 hit Sandstorm - and it is pretty loud in the stadium already. Contemporaries of Oasis back in the day, they're used to the crowds their shows bring - but this one might be a little different... They're playing Walkaway now and the 1990s nostalgia is in full flow. Give us one word to describe Oasis Chaos, biblical and expensive - that's how some fans described Oasis today. We asked them to sum up the band in one word - and give us their best and worst songs. Watch their answers below and tell us how you'd describe Oasis in the comments box above. Oasis's reunion tour is now under way The show has officially begun with Britpop band Cast taking the stage to warm up the crowd. The Liverpool-based group have a long history with Oasis, performing at one of their Knebworth Park shows in 1996, and supporting Liam Gallagher on his Definitely Maybe 30th anniversary tour last year. Big in the 1990s, they had seven UK Top 10 singles, including Finetime, Alright and Sandstorm. In pictures: 'Because Cardiff is the b***** Cardiff has been celebrating the arrival of Oasis today with the city full of anticipation for tonight's show. Murals have appeared, including one showing a post on X by Liam Gallagher talking about the Welsh capital. It's not long until the first support act of the night takes the stage and people are still filing into the stadium Where are Oasis playing tonight? Oasis are starting their world tour in Cardiff, but where exactly will they be playing in the Welsh capital? The Principality Stadium has a capacity of more than 70,000 and even features an iconic retractable roof. The stadium is also the home of the Welsh rugby team. Oasis are also returning to the same venue tomorrow night. 'I thought it was all over - that's why we paid over the price' Our culture and entertainment reporter Gemma Peplow has been catching up with fans as they wait outside Cardiff's Principality Stadium to open. Jake Hereford, 28, from Rhondda, said: "I can't believe it to be honest. I thought it was all over. That's why we paid over price, we just couldn't believe it was happening." Here's at the concert with his friends Charlie Thomas, 30, and Ross Jones, 29. "My cousin introduced me to them and ever since I've been a massive fan. I've never seen them as Oasis but I've seen Noel live and seen Liam live and now this. I can't wait," Charlie said. "They just remind me I want to Live Forever. It's cool how it works out, them coming to Cardiff," Ross added. And the gates are open... Excitement for tonight's show has been building all day and fans have been allowed to start filing into the Principality Stadium early - well, by about 10 minutes. In around an hour, we're expecting the first act of the night, Cast. They will be followed by Richard Ashcroft who will be the final star to perform before the Gallagher brothers reunite on stage. We'll bring you all the latest updates throughout the show. Football shirts and long-sleeved tees sell out as fans wait to be let inside By Gemma Peplow, culture and entertainment reporter The furore over dynamic pricing when the first tickets went on sale is all but forgotten outside the Principality Stadium today. Merchandise stands outside have already sold out of some of the most popular items, such as the football shirts and long-sleeved tees. The Oasis logo is everywhere you look from the backs of T-shirts to bucket hats. A busker opposite the stadium is belting out Oasis hits - and a few from The Verve, too - and the city is buzzing with anticipation. In pictures: The best Oasis T-shirts on display in Cardiff Here are some of the latest pictures from Cardiff from our culture and entertainment reporter Gemma Peplow. She's been snapping some of the best Oasis-themed T-shirts.
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Oasis 'hire Justin Bieber's bodyguard and Madonna's chef' for sold-out tour
Liam and Noel Gallagher have reunited for an epic tour, with Oasis' first gig in 16 years starting at Cardiff's Principality Stadium and they also have a very big team Oasis have reportedly hired Justin Bieber's bodyguard, Ian Norrington, and Madonna's chef, Darren Staats, for their reunion tour - which starts today in Cardiff. Ian was the Peaches singer's bodyguard during the height of his fruitful career as well as Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss. The Muay Thai enthusiast will be looking after Liam and Noel Gallagher, and band members Paul Arthurs, Gem Archer, Andy Bell and Joey Waronker, during the long-awaited tour following their 16-year feud. "Oasis know the tour is going to be absolutely frenzied so there is no one better to look after them than Ian," an insider claimed. Liam and Noel will reportedly also be joined by Madonna's former 'clean-eating' chef Darren, who 'knows exactly what the band want on tour', The Sun reported. The Mirror have reached out to Oasis for comment. The Mirror recently reported that the main Oasis line up was as expected with Liam as the frontman and Noel on guitar alongside close pals and regulars Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs, Gem Archer and Andy Bell. The new drummer is Joey Waronker, who performed with Liam Gallagher and John Squire last year on a tour. In the tour programme, there are a few more musicians playing with Oasis, including Christian Madden on keyboards, Jess Greenfield on backing vocals, Alastair White on trombone, Steve Hamilton on saxophone and Joe Auckland will be playing the trumpet. The Mirror understands Jess will no longer be on stage with a source close to the group saying she was only listed in the earlier drafts of the programme and won't be going on tour. An insider said: "The band are not using backing singers anymore. Noel has worked loads with Jess in the past but after final rehearsals were done and the set list was drawn up it made more sense for Noel to do the backing vocals for Liam on the songs. Click here for the Mirror's live updates on the Oasis tour. "It's a shame for Jess but it's likely there will be other opportunities for her with Noel in the future. They just didn't need her in the end." Speaking on the Behind The Curtain podcast, Jess spoke about the reunion and said: "I found out pretty much when everyone else did. I'd heard rumours and then I heard for definite two days before through someone else. Yeah It was definitely a shock. 'I'd love to go. Hopefully Wembley cos it is Wembley. It's amazing and the last time they performed those songs properly was in the Nineties when I was a teenager and I didn't go to the gigs back in the day. 'So it will be nice to see it as an adult. I'm really looking forward to it.'
