The Guinness flows, Noel Gallagher is beaming and, somewhere in the corner, Jack Grealish is blasting Westlife tunes.
Backstage at Oasis’s reunion shows has felt, by all accounts, less like a rock tour and more like a rolling wedding reception – a curious mix of euphoria, nostalgia and surprise civility.
Sixteen years after their last London show, Liam and Noel are back on stage together, hand in hand, basking in the adulation of fans and critics alike. With friends, footballers and Britpop royalty in tow, the champagne-fuelled party seems to be in full swing – and, for once, without any obvious drama.
The Oasis Live ‘25 tour, which was announced in August last year, was the biggest concert launch ever seen in the UK and Ireland, with more than 10 million fans from 158 countries queueing online in the hopes of bagging tickets.
After kicking off the reunion tour in Cardiff at the beginning of this month, the Britpop icons went on to play five triumphant homecoming shows at Heaton Park in Manchester between 11 and 20 July.
Sources told The Independent of the chaotic but jubilant scenes backstage after each show, where football stars such as Jack Grealish and Phil Foden rubbed shoulders with Noel and his longtime friend Richard Ashcroft, who has been opening for the band each night.
After the first Heaton Park show on Friday 11 July, Manchester City star Grealish apparently hooked up his phone to a speaker and regaled the other guests – including singer Shaun Ryder of Happy Mondays fame, former Man City captain Vincent Kompany, and defensive midfielder Rodri – with Westlife tunes. They were joined by the members of Cast, who have been playing before Ashcroft each night.
“It’s been a proper love-in backstage,” one source said. “There’s a friends and family bar which is basically free booze – Guinness on draft (of course), beer, wine and champagne. It’s like going to a wedding every night.”
They continued: “Cast and Richard Ashcroft are having the time of their lives – it’s been so nice to see Noel and Liam’s guests vibing off each other. Everyone’s been making new friends.”
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Another source said they’d “never seen Noel smile so much” as when he gets to revel in the success of each gig, where he has been joined by girlfriend Sally Mash.
The celebrity events planner – who also runs a private members’ club in London – has been cheering him on during renditions of classic hits such as “Champagne Supernova” and “Little By Little”.
Noel and Mash are believed to have begun dating over a year ago and have been spotted out together at celebrity haunts including the Chiltern Firehouse in London. The pair got together following Noel’s split from his second wife, Sarah McDonald, in 2022 after 12 years of marriage.
One absent member of the Gallagher circle is Noel and Liam’s mum, Peggy, who has yet to see one of their shows but is still spending plenty of time with her sons. A source said that she is planning to attend one of the Wembley gigs, while Noel earlier said he hoped Peggy – who is Irish – would also make their gig in Dublin.
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The party atmosphere backstage is in stark contrast to earlier media rumours that Noel and Liam were being kept far apart from one another, over concerns that their now-mended feud could flare up again.
However, the once-warring siblings have seemed perfectly comfortable in each other’s company so far, even holding hands as they walk out onstage each night.
Instead, it appears that Liam has been making himself scarce in order to avoid the free-flowing booze on offer after each gig, as he is “determined” to ensure he remains in peak condition for each concert.
Far from demanding the cliched rock star rider, Liam has apparently been sticking to his preferred concoction of apple cider vinegar with honey, turmeric, cayenne pepper, “a squirt of lemon” and hot water.
Liam has credited the drink with warding off side-effects of Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune condition of the thyroid gland that can cause the voice to grow hoarse.
“Liam has been completely zen, focusing on his voice and arriving shortly before each show then getting straight off to avoid temptation,” a source told The Independent.
Reports ahead of the reunion claimed that a “military-style operation” would ensure they remained at a distance apart from when they were performing.
“You might be seeing Oasis on stage but you will not be seeing Liam and Noel together afterwards,” The Sun claimed. “Each of them had a VIP list where their friends and famous fans could buy their tickets. But depending on which brother you got your ticket off, it’s their green room and after-party you’re invited to.
“So if you’re on Noel’s list but fancy going across to say hello to Liam, it’s going to be a case of trying to blag entry. It seems like they are totally separate events. It’s gutting for people who want to hang out with both of them but it seems they’re keeping it all at a distance.”
Liam responded to this claim with a typically sharp-tongued retort on X/Twitter, writing: “After party’s are for w***ers I’m getting straight off after the gigs get my beauty sleep this level of sexiness doesn’t happen by staying up talking bollox to bellends [sic].”
In a five-star review of the first Oasis show in Cardiff, critic Mark Beaumont wrote that 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,” he said.
“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.”
Oasis will play the first of five shows at Wembley Stadium in London tomorrow night (Friday 25 July), performing a setlist that will include Nineties anthems such as “Rock and Roll Star”, “Cigarettes and Alcohol”, “Slide Away” and “Morning Glory”.
They will return to the capital following gigs in Edinburgh and Dublin, as well as a string of international dates, for their final two UK shows at Wembley on 28 and 29 September. The first London gig will take place almost 16 years to the day since their last Wembley performance, on 12 July 2009 as part of their Dig Out Your Soul tour.
