The end of August may mark the end of summer for most, but for those of us who grew up with a penchant for Britpop we’ve only seen sunshine since Oasis went public with their plans for a 2025 stadium tour on August 27th.
So far, the band have announced nineteen concerts next summer, including six nights at Wembley alongside dates at Croke Park, Murrayfield and the Principality Stadium.
The announcement was made a day shy of fifteen years since the band’s split, which famously occurred backstage in Paris at Rock en Seine. It was reported that the Gallagher brothers had argued that night over an ad for Liam’s fashion brand. The show was cancelled; the band was a ruined relic of 90s Britpop rather than a survivor. Until now.
On September 9th, X account OasisMania tipped news that Andy Bell, Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs and Gem Archer will join the Gallagher brothers on tour.
Fans of Definitely Maybe – Oasis’ second studio album – might be hoping for the return of Tony McCarroll, who was the subject of many a Google search in late August as prospective ticket buyers frenzied to confirm Oasis’s original drummer as part of the presale ballot enrolment.
Alan White is another contender; his debut album for Oasis was (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, upon which he featured as the main drummer on every song aside from ‘Some Might Say’. He is Oasis’s longest-serving drummer, but not their most recent.
White was replaced by Zak Starkey – son of Ringo Starr, and another former band member tipped by OasisMania – and subsequently Chris Sharrock, who toured with Oasis between 2008 and 2009 before joining Beady Eye from 2009-2014 and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds in 2016.
There has been no news on Guigsy – Paul McGuigan – just yet. McCarroll, Bonehead and Guigsy are original band members, though Bonehead has been the most consistent on the music scene post-Oasis. The NME has named several other former band members as potential returners for 2025.
As for the all-important setlist, it’s highly likely the band will play a good mix of their two most commercially successful albums, Definitely Maybe (notably ‘Live Forever’, ‘Supersonic’) and (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? (‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, ‘Wonderwall’, ‘She’s Electric’) alongside their B-side compilation, The Masterplan, (‘Half The World Away’, ‘Acquiesce’).
I’ll have my fingers crossed for Be Here Now’s ‘Stand By Me’ if I’m there to see them next summer, and ‘Champagne Supernova’, another fan favourite. Oasis’ music was made to be performed live; it’s likely fans will be happy with any setlist (so long as both Gallagher brothers actually make it to the stage).
Speaking of the “getting to see them” part, the first general sale for tickets on September 1st didn’t exactly go down a treat. According to Fortune, ‘fans faced huge hikes in ticket prices’ as ‘websites crashed due to sheer weight of demand’.
The government have said they will be conducting an investigation into dynamic pricing, a mechanism used by Ticketmaster which bases ticket prices on demand and saw face-value more than double last Saturday.
Oasis have now announced an invite-only registration for the chance to get tickets for the band’s most recently announced dates on September 27th and 28th at Wembley.
Many of us will be banking on this, but the invitation email explicitly cites that ‘a code does not guarantee tickets, which will be sold on a first come first served basis’.
In true Oasis fashion, everything’s up in the air for many fans right now, with lots of us hoping we aren’t ‘Married With Children’ before we get the chance to see them live again.
