Oasis Live '25

Noel's price of admission: total creative control, every song, no argument.

Liam Gallagher joined the Rain, a band featuring Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs, Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan, and Tony McCarroll, in Manchester. They renamed themselves Oasis. Liam's older brother Noel, fresh from roadying for Inspiral Carpets, agreed to join on one condition: he would write all the songs and have final say on direction. The deal was struck. Within two years, they had a record contract with Creation Records after Alan McGee saw them play King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow in May 1993.

86,000 copies sold in a single week; not bad for a band who already knew they were the biggest in the world.

Released on 29 August 1994, Definitely Maybe went straight to number one in the UK, shifting 86,000 copies in its first week. It was the fastest-selling debut album in British chart history at the time. Tracks like "Live Forever", "Supersonic", and "Rock 'n' Roll Star" announced Oasis not as hopefuls but as a band that already believed they were the biggest in the world. The confidence was infectious.

They lost the battle of the singles chart; they won the war with 22 million copies sold.

Released on 2 October 1995, the second album sold over 22 million copies worldwide and remains one of the best-selling albums in UK history. "Wonderwall" and "Don't Look Back in Anger" became generational anthems. The album arrived at the peak of Britpop, weeks after Oasis and Blur went head-to-head in the so-called "Battle of Britpop" chart war. Oasis lost that particular singles battle but won the war: Morning Glory outsold Blur's The Great Escape many times over.

One in every 25 Britons applied for a ticket; most went home empty-handed.

On 10 and 11 August 1996, Oasis played to 125,000 people each night at Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire. An estimated 2.6 million people applied for tickets, roughly 4% of the UK population at the time. It remains one of the largest concert occasions in British history. The band were at their absolute zenith: untouchable, ubiquitous, and utterly convinced of their own greatness. For many fans, Knebworth was the high-water mark.

Nearly 700,000 copies sold in a week, yet Noel himself couldn't defend it.

The third album arrived on 21 August 1997 with colossal expectations. It sold 424,000 copies on its first day in the UK alone and 696,000 in its first week, setting records. Initial reviews were ecstatic. But the consensus shifted quickly. Critics and fans alike began to see the album as bloated and overproduced, a cocaine-fuelled excess that marked the beginning of Oasis's commercial decline. Noel Gallagher himself later acknowledged the album's shortcomings.

Their best notices since Morning Glory, and Liam finally had writing credits to his name.

After years of diminishing returns, Oasis released their sixth album to the best reviews they had received since Morning Glory. Don't Believe the Truth was a genuine collaborative effort, with songwriting contributions from Liam, Gem Archer, and Andy Bell alongside Noel. The album reached number one in the UK and spawned "Lyla" and "The Importance of Being Idle". It proved the band still had something to say, even if the world had moved on from Britpop.

Fifteen years of "when, not if" started with a row behind a festival stage.

On 28 August 2009, minutes before Oasis were due to headline the Rock en Seine festival near Paris, Noel Gallagher issued a statement announcing his departure. A backstage altercation with Liam was the final straw in a relationship that had been fracturing publicly for years. Noel's statement was characteristically blunt. The remaining members briefly continued as Beady Eye, while Noel launched his High Flying Birds project. For fifteen years, the question was not whether Oasis would reunite, but when.

Fifteen years of silence, ended in four sentences; 41 shows followed.

On 27 August 2024, exactly fifteen years and one day after the split, Oasis confirmed their reunion via social media. The announcement read: "The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised." Initial UK and Ireland dates sold out almost instantly, crashing ticketing websites and sparking a national conversation about dynamic pricing. Further dates were added across Europe, North America, South America, Asia, and Australia, bringing the total to 41 shows.

Forty-one dates, five continents; the Gallagher brothers are very much back in business.

The Oasis Live '25 Tour launches on 4 July 2025 and runs through to 23 November 2025, covering 41 dates across five continents. The lineup features Noel and Liam Gallagher alongside returning original member Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs, plus Gem Archer and Andy Bell. Support acts include Richard Ashcroft and Cage the Elephant among others. It is, by any measure, one of the biggest rock tours of the decade.