Don’t look back in anger—Oasis, the prodigal son of Britpop, is retuning. After years of public feuding and subtweets and alleged battery with a cricket bat, the Gallagher brothers—Liam and Noel, obvs—are working it out on the remix, with a rash of 2025 summer dates announced on their website. (This is as good a time as any to say that “Wonderwall” is a masterpiece; no notes.)
I’m not a music writer, so I won’t bore you with my clanky synonyms for “melody,” but Oasis were, of course, a cultural phenomenon. At their zenith—arguably their infamous two-consecutive-night Knebworth gigs in 1996—Oasis embodied a very particular swaggering Manchester-ness, an unmatched scally confidence that butted up against a more constructed, dare I say pretentious, British music scene. Look, most of the ’90s has a nostalgic ’60s feeling—bedrooms across the land had lava lamps and translucent inflatable chairs—and Oasis were the most Beatles-esque of the mid-century spittle that doused Britpop. And where Blur and Suede and Pulp felt art-schooled and frustrated with their own middle class-ness, Oasis were at the other end of the British spectrum, a working-class rock band chancing their luck with nothing to lose. Britpop, broadly speaking, was whimsical and essentially polite. Oasis were brash, lawless, and comprehensively out of fucks.
One of the things that makes Oasis feel so British is their knack for taking themselves incredibly seriously while also being very, very witty. Their imaginative lyricism goes beyond their songwriting, and all their spats seem hilarious. Noel described Liam as “a man with a fork in a world of soup.” Liam has more beefs than an episode of The Bear—with Damon “that dick out of blur” Albarn, the Spice Girls (Mel C offered to fight Liam at the Brits), and a seemingly never-ending feud with Robbie “that fat dancer from Take That” Williams. Liam once said “Chris Martin looks like a geography teacher,” he called Wayne Rooney “a fucking balloon with a fucking Weetabix crushed on top,” and said “Everyone [in Mumford & Sons] looks like they’ve got fucking nits and eat lentil soup with their sleeves rolled up.” But Liam reserves his burning ire for “old brown tongue” and “the Ronnie Corbett of rock n roll” Noel, who temporarily left Oasis after Liam threw a tambourine at his head.
I’m glad Oasis are back together—a bajillion people singing “Wonderwall” live will be transcendent—but, I dunno, I’m sort of hoping for a bit of drama between the bros? I just don’t think their duelling egos can relax enough for long enough—even given the rumored £50 million they’re meant to be making. It’s part of the reason their rift has been so captivating, and their reunion will be so entertaining.
