Oasis reunion: What can we expect from the tour?
Months of rumours and decades of speculation have finally been put to bed. The world’s loudest rock and roll band – and the biggest, if you ask them – is back. Oasis have announced 14 dates so far for a comeback tour that looks certain to put the rest of the rock music world in the shade next year. Oasis Live ’25 is set to start at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on July 4th.
That’s one of five venues across four national capitals within the British Isles and the band’s home city of Manchester scheduled to host reunion shows in the space of six weeks during the summer of 2025. Manchester’s Heaton Park will be the site of four gigantic homecoming gigs, which will surely bring the biggest crowds out of any of the dates. Over 100,000 people could turn up four more at London’s Wembley Stadium before Oasis plays Scottish rugby ground Murrayfield. Then they’ll move to Dublin’s Croke Park in Ireland, the birthplace of Noel and Liam Gallagher’s parents.
It was mooted that the band might make their return to live performing as headliners on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage for the first time since 2004. That could still happen and would sit nicely above their current programme of gigs starting the week after the festival. But the Gallagher brothers are ones to the limelight with others, not to mention ticket sales. As prestigious as playing Worthy Farm is for any artist, Oasis have already headlined the festival three times, and their tour announcement hints that they won’t be going back anytime soon.
That’s not to say the band has finalised their full tour agenda. The 14 dates announced so far could be just the beginning of a much longer and wider-reaching run of live performances next year.
All around the world?
In fact, the statement accompanying the group’s video announcement this week makes clear that Oasis will be travelling further afield for other tour dates which are yet to be confirmed. It describes the 14 gigs we know about as “forming the domestic leg of their Oasis Live ’25 tour”, suggesting that a list of gigs around the world is being cooked up by tour managers and promoters.
For what to expect from an Oasis global tour next year, we first need to cast our minds back to the tours for their most recent studio albums, Don’t Believe the Truth and Dig Out Your Soul. These were enormous affairs spanning over 100 dates each and taking in around 25 countries.
They both included two separate legs in North America as well as the UK and Ireland, and covered more than ten countries in mainland Europe, as well as cities in Southeast Asia and Latin America. The Dig Out Your Soul tour didn’t make it to Australia, meaning the huge contingent of Oasis fans down under will have waited 20 years to see the band if they return next year.
However, the statement’s suggestion that the dates we have so far are “the” one and only “domestic leg” of the tour implies that we shouldn’t expect anything too widespread. If there are only 14 dates in the British Isles, there’s unlikely to be more than 30 additional gigs planned globally. Oasis could be testing the water for a longer-term comeback, but for now, we won’t see them reaching as many corners of the world as they used to.
Let there be love
What we can expect to see, though, no matter how long it lasts, is some peace and reconciliation between the founders of the band. Relatively speaking. According to reports, the Gallaghers have already reunited for a photo shoot this summer, and Liam’s recruitment of founding guitarist Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs for his latest solo tour suggests the possibility that old wounds could be healed on that front, too.
Bonehead left Oasis on bad terms with Noel in 1999, so it’s the elder Gallagher brother he has to bury the hatchet with. Yet he does appear in the promotional video for the tour, leading us to think that bygones are already bygones. Fans should get their wish of seeing Bonehead back in Oasis.
Of course, there’s also the possibility that the whole thing goes up in smoke almost as soon as it’s started if Liam’s incessant trolling of Noel on social media over the past 15 years is anything to go by. The Gallagher brothers were calling each other out in interviews as recently as last year, and one word out of turn could reignite the feud that caused the band’s split in the first place.
New music?
The tour announcement video focuses on the classic Oasis songs of yesteryear, specifically from the era of their first two landmark albums, Definitely Maybe and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory. These are the songs that should dominate the setlist, with a sprinkling of tracks from the band’s later for good measure.
This is the Oasis people will be paying to see, and it’s probable that this is the Oasis they’ll get. Nevertheless, given the similarity between the band’s prospective new lineup and the musicians backing Noel and Liam’s most recent solo tours, there’s a chance that the Gallagher brothers decide to include some of their own post-Oasis music in the set. That decision wouldn’t go down well with fans, though, and it’d be a turn up for the books.
On the other hand, it’s not out of the question that Oasis plays some brand new music alongside the likes of ‘Supersonic’ and ‘Wonderwall’. Noel Gallagher claims to have whole albums of new songs in the making. Could we see some of these compositions become Oasis tunes performed in the upcoming tour?
The jury’s still out on this possibility. Still, together with the history of the occasion, the combustible brotherly love at the heart of the band, and the return of other familiar faces, it remains a tantalising prospect.
