Once-warring brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher performed together onstage for the first time in 16 years, as their frenzy-inducing, record-breaking reunion tour got underway in Cardiff.
The Manchester-born siblings, who were embroiled in one of music’s most notorious feuds, appeared on top form for their first of three nights at the Principality Stadium, playing a setlist packed with classic hits, from “Hello” and “Some Might Say” to “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” and “Cigarettes and Alcohol”.
The moment they walked onto the stage – after opening performances from Liverpool band Cast and fellow Britpop icon Richard Ashcroft – sparked an almighty roar from the 60,000 or so fans in attendance.
“Hello beautiful people, it’s been too long,” Liam told the audience.
Joining Noel and Liam were Gem Archer, Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs and Andy Bell, all former members of Oasis, and drummer Joey Waronker who has previously toured with Liam.
Contrary to predictions, the brothers appeared perfectly comfortable standing near one another onstage, even walking out holding their hands aloft.
Liam handled most of the crowd interactions, although these were kept to a minimum. The floor of the stadium shook during euphoric renditions of “Cigarettes and Alcohol” and “Roll With It”.
Fans travelled from all over the world to attend the first gig of the reunion tour, with many camping outside overnight in order to secure a prime spot near the stage.
Despite considerable doom-mongering that the shows would ignite a throwback to the lad culture of the Nineties, the Cardiff crowd seemed mostly on best behaviour – with the exception of a flare let off during Ashcroft’s performance of “The Drugs Don’t Work”, and plenty of flying pints.
The Oasis Live ‘25 tour, which was announced in August, 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.
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Josie House, from Birmingham, managed to secure tickets within five minutes of logging in for the presale: “I have no idea where we’re sitting,” she told The Independent ahead of the concert. “I just panicked and clicked buy.”
She and her husband picked Cardiff because they love the city, she said. “I was at their last ever gig (until now) at V Festival 2009 at Weston Park – it’s pretty cool to say I was at the last gig and now their first back too! I’m so excited for a mass singalong, it feels like such a big moment and the city already has such a buzz with Oasis songs coming from all the bars.”
Another lucky fan, Ryan, got tickets through a friend who also succeeded within around 10 minutes of them going on sale.
“I’ve not seen Oasis since the 21 July 2000 [gig] at Wembley, which was the one and only time I saw them, nearly 25 years ago,” he said from outside the stadium. “I’m buzzing – the atmosphere is electric as well.”
The last time Oasis played before the split was when they headlined V Festival on 22 August 2009.
Topping a bill that also featured Biffy Clyro, Lady Gaga and Paolo Nutini, the band were slammed by critics for their “lacklustre” performance amid tabloid reports of their imminent “implosion”, closing their set with a cover of “I Am the Walrus” by The Beatles.
The following night, they were due to play the second edition of V Festival in Chelmsford, but pulled out after Liam was diagnosed with laryngitis.
A week later, the band split – seemingly for good – after a backstage brawl between Liam and Noel in Paris before they were due to perform at Rock en Seine festival.
According to Noel, Liam had wielded his brother’s guitar “like an axe” and “nearly took my face off with it”. Noel quit the band, announcing he couldn’t work with Liam “a day longer”.
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Both brothers enjoyed success as solo artists after the split: Noel with his band High Flying Birds, and Liam as a solo singer-songwriter. Insults were traded online and in the press: “Noel Gallagher left Oasis. He couldn’t handle the vibes any more,” Liam claimed. “He couldn’t handle the rock ’n’ roll.”
Meanwhile, Noel described his younger brother as “the angriest man you’ll ever meet – he’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”
In Cardiff, the mood was decidedly celebratory – with no discernible tension from the two musicians whose physical fights once made international headlines. Both Noel and Liam each had their moments in the spotlight – Noel with a three-song run that included “Half the World Away” and a poignant singalong to “Little By Little”, during which Liam disappeared offstage.
Fans had been waiting 5,795 days for this moment, many of whom were willing to cough up hundreds if not thousands for tickets, hotels, transport and merch. When tickets went on sale in August, fewer than one in 10 fans were successful, with around 900,000 tickets sold for 18 tour dates.
Controversy then erupted as Oasis fans complained that standard standing tickets, which had been advertised for £135 plus fees, were re-labelled “in demand” as they went on sale and changed on Ticketmaster to £355 plus fees.
The row sparked an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which said Ticketmaster could have breached consumer protection law by selling “platinum” tickets for almost 2.5 times the standard price.
Ticketmaster said it “welcomed” the advice from the CMA to change the way it labelled tickets and reveal prices to fans in future. Meanwhile, Oasis ditched “dynamic” pricing for their US tour dates.
Revenue from the tour has been predicted to reach anything between £400m to £1bn, while Noel and Liam are expected to pocket £50m from the tour alone.
They have also secured lucrative deals with Adidas – the sportswear brand with which they have been associated since their Britpop days – and Warner Bros, while more money could be made from a streaming giant such as Netflix or Amazon Prime if concert footage is turned into a documentary or film.
Filmmakers would certainly have plenty of footage, not least the moment Noel embraced his brother as they closed the set on “Champagne Supernova”. The tear-jerking scene was met one of the loudest receptions of the night, surpassed only when the band paid moving tribute to Liverpool star Diogo Jota, whose death in a car crash rocked the world of football this week.
Liam couldn’t resist cracking a joke about the furore as the set reached its halfway point, quipping: “Was it worth the £40,000 you paid to be here?” His question was met with a resounding roar of approval. Despite all the hubbub over ticket prices, the Cardiff fans clearly felt they got their money’s worth.
