From Manchester’s Boardwalk to Britpop infamy: A timeline of the anarchic Oasis story
Rock and roll might have been invented across the Atlantic Ocean, in the patriotic land of stars and stripes, but the music was certainly perfected in the United Kingdom. Countless iconic artists have come and gone over the years, each leaving their own unique mark on the landscape of British rock. However, over the last three decades, it is difficult to think of any group that has enjoyed the same enduring popularity and legendary status held by Britpop heroes Oasis.
From their formation in 1991, Oasis always strived to go against the grain, establishing their own unique sound, which thousands of pretenders would emulate. Driven by the often tumultuous partnership between brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher, the history of Oasis is storied largely by arguments, anarchy, and, above all else, defiant rock and roll music. With the release of their debut album, Definitely Maybe, in 1994, the Gallagher brothers helped to define the Britpop age, but they did not stop there.
Following Definitely Maybe, Oasis seemed to become increasingly popular every day. Nevertheless, the band’s line-up was plagued by musical differences, brotherly conflicts, and a rotating cast of members. The Gallagher brothers were always the key, but countless accompanying artists came and went over the years to help deliver the ever-changing sound of Manchester’s favourite band. This, coupled with the exhaustion of being on the road for most of their lives, surviving on a cocktail of cigarettes, alcohol, and plenty of drugs, meant that Oasis could definitely not live forever.
Their musical material witnessed a steady decline in quality over the years, thanks both to the waning popularity of guitar-led indie music and the simple fact that Noel Gallagher could only write so many songs. However, Oasis always maintained an incredibly dedicated following, even in the dark days of Heathen Chemistry, Don’t Believe the Truth. So, when the brothers finally broke up the band after years of feuds and harsh arguments, their absence left a deep and notable absence within the rock scene of the United Kingdom.
After years of firing shots at each other in interviews and live performances during their respective solo careers, the Gallaghers finally set their differences aside and organised a reunion for Oasis in 2025. The comeback tour for the band is set to expose the revolutionary sounds of Oasis to an entirely new generation, many of whom weren’t around to witness the colossal rise to fame experienced by the band from their establishment in 1991 to their iconic dates in Knebworth back in 1996.
With that in mind, there has never been a better time to reflect on the tumultuous history of the Britpop giants, charting their existence from their first demo tapes to the straw that finally broke the camel’s back in 2009. So, dust off your Parka, crack out the bucket hat, and come with us on this deep dive into the story of one of Britain’s defining rock bands.
A timeline of the Oasis story:
1991
The Rain and Oasis Leisure Centre
As the airwaves of Manchester are dominated by acid house, friends Paul ‘Guigsy’ McGuigan, Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs, and Tony McCarroll decided to start a band. After recruiting local lad Liam Gallagher, Oasis were officially born, having reportedly taken their name from an Inspiral Carpets poster, which featured the Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon as one of their tour dates.
Rooting themselves in the rehearsal space of the Boardwalk in Manchester, the band began to jam together, recording a three-track demo cassette which attempted to evoke the sounds of groups like The Stone Roses or even The Smiths. Ultimately, the tape was pretty lacklustre, and the band knew they needed somebody with a bit more songwriting talent under their belt to guide them. Enter Noel Gallagher.
After recruiting Noel – who had, until that point, been a roadie for Inspiral Carpets – the first Oasis line-up was complete, and the band quickly set about writing some son
May 1993
King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
For the first few years of their existence, Oasis were roundly ignored locally and nationally. Other than a few mentions in local music rags around Manchester, the band had failed to make much of an impact at all, despite the strength of Noel’s songwriting at the time.
This would all change after fellow Mancunians Sister Lovers invited the band to play with them at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow. For a local guitar band in Manchester to score a gig outside the city during this time was a big deal, made all the more so by the fact that Creation Records boss Alan McGee was in attendance at the show.
McGee was immediately taken with the group and offered them a contract with his iconic indie label that very same night. Although it would be another few months before the group officially signed to Creation, that chance meeting set the stage for Oasis’ rise to fame.
1994
Definitely Maybe
After releasing ‘Columbia’ as a white label demo through Creation, Oasis began work on their stunning debut album, Definitely Maybe. Reportedly, McGee pushed for ‘Bring It On Down’ to be the band’s first official single due to its punk attitude, but recording issues meant ‘Supersonic’ was the song that introduced mainstream audiences to Liam Gallagher’s distinctive tones.
The single was followed by the equally successful ‘Shakermaker’ as well as ‘Live Forever’. So, by the time Definitely Maybe was eventually released in August 1994, the band were already one of the most talked about groups in Britain. Expectedly, therefore, the album sold incredibly well, becoming the fastest-selling debut album of all time upon its release.
September 1994
If you’re going to San Francisco…
The intense success of Definitely Maybe meant Oasis were constantly on the road, touring the album and converting audiences around the globe. However, the pressures of becoming so successful so quickly, caused a few fractures within the group. During a doomed tour of North America, tensions within the band, exacerbated by the member’s heavy drug use, came to blows.
During a performance at the legendary Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood, the group fell apart live on stage. Liam, who had been snorting crystal meth for most of the tour, was barely coherent and fairly aggressive, insulting audience members and throwing a tambourine around like a ninja throwing star.
The gig went down as Oasis’ worst, and it caused Noel to temporarily leave the band, flying back to San Francisco to get away from it all. This excursion to San Francisco inspired the track ‘Talk Tonight’, which showed a more vulnerable side to the Britpop misfits, which would be built upon going into their next album.
August 1995
The Britpop wars
Following up on an album as successful as Definitely Maybe would not be an easy feat, but the prolific songwriting talents of Noel Gallagher dragged the band, kicking and screaming, into a new era. In fact, the very first single to be released from their sophomore record, ‘Some Might Say’, became their first ever number one in the UK.
This new age for Oasis coincided with the ousting of original drummer Tony McCarrol after Noel claimed he was struggling to adapt to the sound of these new tracks. McCarrol, who was replaced by Alan White, kicked up a colossal fuss, and the departure became a target for the tabloid press, who had already identified the Gallagher brothers as people to keep an eye on.
The press became increasingly interested in the world of Oasis, which culminated in a manufactured beef between the band and their fellow Britpop giants Blur. The respective singles ‘Roll With It’ and ‘Country House’ were pitched against each other in some kind of sales battle. Ultimately, ‘Country House’ became number one, but that would not be the end of the press’s role in the Oasis story.
October 1995
(What’s The Story) Morning Glory
Recorded at Rockfield Studios, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory was Oasis’ magnum opus. Imbued with the adolescent rebellion of their debut but with hints at more mature and considered songwriting in the form of songs like ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, the album formed a perfect mix of rock authenticity and mainstream appeal.
The album was a huge success, becoming one of the best-selling albums in British chart history and earning the band a level of worldwide recognition that they had not achieved with Definitely Maybe. This recognition took Oasis all over the globe, including a less disastrous tour of America, which saw Guigsy temporarily leave the band to be replaced by Scott McLeod, who also departed during the very same tour of the US.
August 1996
From Knebworth, with love
The culmination of Oasis’ rapid rise to fame came in the summer of 1996 when the band played two open-air concerts at Knebworth House in Hertfordshire. Nearly five per cent of the UK population applied for tickets to the gigs, which sold out incredibly quickly.
Oasis performed to a record-breaking 125,000 people at Knebworth, showing just how far the band had come from their early 1990s rehearsals at Manchester’s Boardwalk. The line-up for these iconic gigs also included the likes of The Prodigy, Manic Street Preachers, Ocean Colour Scene, The Chemical Brothers, The Charlatans, Manic Street Preachers, Kula Shaker, Cast, Dreadzone, and a Beatles tribute act to boot.
August 1997
Be Here Now
After the colossal high of Knebworth, Oasis could not get much higher. They were the biggest band in the country by a long stretch, and they were firmly cemented in a life of rock and roll excess. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll had never been quite so well exemplified, but, as a result of that, the songwriting was affected.
Noel had no shortage of lyrics during the early years, but by 1997, his musical mind was exhausted. Nevertheless, the band went to Abbey Road Studios to begin work on their third studio album, Be Here Now, which was largely overshadowed by vicious arguments between the Gallagher brothers, all of which the press latched onto.
Be Here Now was released in August 1997 and became the fastest-selling album in British history upon its release. However, on closer inspection, the record largely failed to live up to the expectations set by Definitely Maybe and (What’s The Story) Morning Glory. Overblown, overproduced, and uninspiring, even the band themselves have since denounced the record. After its release, Oasis shrank into the shadows for a while, releasing the compilation album The Masterplan to keep the hoards happy in the meantime.
1999
The beginning of the end
As the new millennium approached, Oasis returned to the studio to work on their fourth record, Standing On The Shoulders of Giants. Although the album produced the fairly successful singles ‘Go Let It Out’ and ‘Who Feels Love?’, it was not the same Oasis who had sold out Knebworth three years prior. Both Bonehead and Guigsy left the band during the album’s production, which drastically altered the sound of the band, changing the very foundations of Oasis
Gem Archer was brought in to replace Bonehead, and Ride’s Andy Bell took the role of Guigsy, but Standing On The Shoulders of Giants failed to capture the spirit of Oasis that fans adored so much. Despite this, the album still reached number one in the UK album charts, and so the band valiantly carried on.
2002
Heathen Chemistry
Standing On The Shoulders of Giants had been the beginning of Oasis’s end, but Heathen Chemistry managed to elongate that sense of grief. Again, the album performed very well commercially, but its musical content was pretty lacklustre, to say the least.
Perhaps the only notable part of Heathen Chemistry was the single ‘Songbird’, which was the first Oasis single not to be written by Noel, having instead been penned by Liam. Noel’s step away from songwriting duties would be controversial, but collaborations and mixed songwriting credits would story the remainder of Oasis’ discography.
2005
Don’t Believe The Truth
Removing the final remnant of the band’s golden age, drummer Alan White was asked to leave the group during the production of the band’s sixth studio album, Don’t Believe The Truth. He was replaced by Zak Starkey, son of Ringo Starr, but Starkey did not seem to gel well with the band’s material, and the absence of White was incredibly noticeable both on the album and the tour which followed.
Most notably, that tour included a spot at Glastonbury Festival, during which the band half-heartedly delivered a setlist of their greatest hits. The performance was rightly panned, and it offered a depressing look at an exhausted band desperately trying to cling on for dear life.
2008
Dig Out Your Soul
The production of Oasis’ final studio album, Dig Out Your Soul, was unsurprisingly disastrous. Tensions between the Gallagher brothers were at an all-time high, and the quality of the band’s materials was at an all-time low. Shortly after the recording was finished in 2008, Starkey left the band to be replaced by Chris Sharrock.
When the album was finally released, it performed well commercially, but once again, its content was incredibly disappointing for fans. The success of Dig Out Your Soul prompted a new recording contract with Sony for three albums, which would never be fulfilled.
2009
The End: a death of a Britpop giant
In August of 2009, Oasis was scheduled to appear at V Festival in Chelmsford but dropped out at the last minute after Liam had contracted laryngitis. Many more festival dates were scheduled for the tour, celebrating the release of Dig Out Your Soul, but Oasis would never appear again.
On August 28th, 2009, at the Rock en Seine Festival in Paris, Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke announced onstage that Oasis had split up.
The news shocked music fans across the world, and reportedly, it was Noel who finally ended the group. In a statement, the songwriter wrote, “It is with some sadness and great relief…I quit Oasis tonight. People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.”
2010
Beady Eye and The High Flying Birds
After the death of Oasis, Liam and the remaining members morphed into Beady Eye, releasing two albums between 2009 and 2014, both of which were incredibly forgettable.
Meanwhile, Noel established his own solo career under the name Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, with which he achieved an admirable level of success and recaptured some of the songwriting genius he had possessed during the early days of Oasis.
Following the misguided efforts of Beady Eye, Liam Gallagher released three solo albums between 2017 and 2022, which largely attempted to evoke the sounds of Oasis. Particularly after the release of 2022’s C’mon You Know, Liam seemed to dedicate himself wholly to performing Oasis tracks, touring the world celebrating the music which gave him a name.
August 2024
The long-awaited return
Over the course of their respective solo careers, both Liam and Noel have hinted at a potential Oasis reunion multiple times. The success of Liam’s solo material and tours clearly showed that there was an appetite for an Oasis reformation, but many fans lost hope after the 20th-anniversary tour of Definitely Maybe was completed by Liam Gallagher in a solo capacity.
Then, after his performances at the Reading and Leeds Festival, a cryptic message displayed on stage gave credence to a new wave of reunion rumours, which were confirmed mere days later.
Oasis will reform for 14 live shows across the United Kingdom and Ireland in the Summer of 2025, with many more dates set to follow if all goes swimmingly.
What’s next for the Gallagher brothers?
At long last, Oasis have finally announced a reunion tour for the summer of 2025. The exact line-up of the group is, at the time of writing, unknown, but both the Gallagher brothers will be together onstage for the first time since V Festival back in 2009 when Noel Gallagher decided to leave the band once and for all. Of course, a reunion has been rumoured ever since Oasis first split up, but many fans had started to lose hope after the anniversary of Definitely Maybe came and went without any plans for reunification.
However, when a cryptic message appeared onstage following Liam Gallagher’s solo appearance at Reading and Leeds Festival, it could only mean one thing: Oasis were on their way back. Soon after, the band announced 14 tour dates across the United Kingdom and Ireland, including four days in their hometown of Manchester. It is thought, too, that many more dates are on their way if the Gallagher brothers can remain amicable for long enough.
It is too early to tell whether this reunion will lead to Oasis returning to the recording studio at any point. The solo careers of both Liam and Noel Gallagher show clearly that they have both maintained a certain level of songwriting talent that could easily be adapted into a new Oasis project.
However, if you look at The Stone Roses reunion back in 2016, the new music produced was severely lacklustre, and rumours of a new album were quickly forgotten. It is not unimaginable that any new Oasis material would have the same effect.
Seemingly, fans are more than happy with the promise of seeing the Gallaghers performing a variety of their best-loved hits together without much thought of new material. Whether the 2025 reunion tour will be the start of a new era for the band or it will simply provide an opportunity for fans to hear ‘Live Forever’ as it was meant to be heard remains to be seen. Either way, it is difficult not to get swept up in the excitement of the reunion, particularly given how long fans have had to wait for that fateful announcement.
