Liam and Noel Gallagher have made a huge announcement this morning
Author: Sophie Merrick / Ellie Iorizzo and Naomi Clarke, PAPublished 27th Aug 2024 Last updated 27th Aug 2024
Liam and Noel Gallagher have confirmed an Oasis reunion, 15 years after the band split.
They are going to play gigs in Cardiff, Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Dublin with tickets going on sale Saturday.
Rumours escalated on Sunday evening after the pair shared the same video on social media, written in the Oasis style, teasing an announcement today (Tuesday 27 August) at 8am.
The same date and time appeared on big screens as Liam finished his headline slot at Reading Festival on Sunday.
The announcement comes before tracks from the first recording session for Oasis's debut album Definitely Maybe are released on Friday, marking its 30-year anniversary.
Unheard versions of songs including Live Forever, Cigarettes & Alcohol and Rock 'N' Roll Star were taken from their first recording session as a signed band, at Monnow Valley Studio in Rockfield, Monmouthshire.
The recordings were scrapped before the band re-recorded the album at Sawmills Studios in Cornwall.
Fans of the Manchester rock band have pleaded with the brothers to regroup since they disbanded in 2009, prompted by a backstage brawl at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris.
Reunion rumours have intensified recently amid the apparent thawing in the feud between the pair.
Liam has been touring the UK this summer on his Definitely Maybe tour to celebrate the 30 years since its release in 1994.
Noel has been absent from the concerts but during a show in Cardiff, Liam made a point of dedicating Half The World Away to his "little brother", saying he is "still playing hard to get".
Liam also played Oasis hits during his headline performance at Leeds Festival on Friday night.
Fans were also surprised to hear Noel pay Liam a string of compliments in an interview released last week with music journalist John Robb at Manchester's Sifters Records in honour of the album's 30th anniversary.
Reflecting on Liam's performance on a number of their hits, Noel said: "It's the delivery or the tone of his voice and the attitude.
"I don't have the same attitude as him."
He also jokingly compared Liam's voice to "10 shots of tequila on a Friday night" and his own as "half a Guinness on a Tuesday".
Formed in 1991, the Britpop group rose to fame with hits like Wonderwall, Don't Look Back In Anger and Stop Crying Your Heart Out.
They went on to become one of the biggest bands in British music history before their break-up in 2009.
The brothers went on to have successful separate careers, with Noel fronting the group Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.
Their second album may have become the UK's third biggest-selling studio long-player of all time, but with every passing year this debut becomes more established as an unassailable career zenith. Often plausibly compared with Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols, this album's cultural impact was in some ways as far-reaching (if not politically), as it reignited British rock. It also took endless tinkering mix-wise to finesse Noel's beefed-up guitars, but there was a purity and purpose to his songs on Definitely Maybe that can never be repeated. From Live Forever's gutter-level stargazing and Slide Away's desperation to Rock'N'Roll Star's magical self-fulfilling prophecy, it simply cannot be bettered.
9. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds - Chasing Yesterday
On release of his second solo record, Noel recalled how he and Gem Archer would reflect on critiques of late-Oasis stodginess, wondering, "What do they expect – space-jazz?" This, clearly, was to prepare the troops for Chasing Yesterday's expansion on solo Noel's first freedoms, to include sax solos (hear blissful, West Coast-ish opener Riverman) and two revised outtakes from a shelved collaboration with cosmic '90s dance troupe Amorphous Androgynous. Themes of middle-aged ravers regaining the old magic, and an appearance by Johnny Marr on wonderfully dreamy disco-pumping closer Ballad Of The Mighty I, sealed another chart-topping victory.
8. Oasis - Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants
The sixteenth-fastest-selling album in UK chart history got a universal kicking at the time of its release, as critics perhaps detected, of all things, a crisis of confidence in Oasis's leader over creative direction, after the "cocaine expansionist" lunacy of 1997's Be Here Now. Despite side two's Noel-sung missteps, the lumpy Gas Panic! and Little James's cheesy new-father lyrics, the rest of Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants has weathered much better than later records. Opening breakbeat instrumental Fuckin' In The Bushes is a pulse-quickening Zeppelin-esque monster, while the hazy-lazy Go Let It Out offered a superb, acoustic-rattling response to the hot post-Britpop sound of The Beta Band.
7. Liam Gallagher - As You Were
Even while Beady Eye was failing commercially, it was Noel who advised, with a winner's smirking disinterest, that his younger brother should go solo, with "his name in lights" – an obvious reference to late-'60s Elvis. The parallel wouldn't be irrelevant when Liam ultimately did so two years later. With the push of a major label behind him, a raft of elite-class songwriters helped sculpt material that essentially celebrated Liamness. Thus, while Noel's solo records sought routes away from Oasis-style rabble-rousing, As You Were simply gloried in it (Wall Of Glass; Greedy Soul), while also, on For What It's Worth, mining the singer's troubled private life with winning vulnerability.
6. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds - Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
Even on first listen, Noel's solo debut felt like a liberation. Swapping Oasis's stampede of multitracked guitars for a strummed acoustic, and his strained bark for a more natural, choirboy-esque vocal purity, …High Flying Birds birthed a sound that played to his own strengths (thoughtful, sophisticated), rather than Liam's (headlong). Everybody's On The Run and If I Had A Gun…saw him take his foot off the gas to wonder at the world, while proven pop smarts resurfaced in Kinksian whimsy (Dream On) and piano-house-like euphoria (AKA…What A Life!). Britpop's songwriting master had got his edge back.
5. Beady Eye - Different Gear, Still Speeding
Following Oasis's split, it spoke volumes that, within weeks, Liam had announced a new band alongside the other three members (guitarist Gem Archer, bassist Andy Bell and final-tour drummer Chris Sharrock), leaving the increasingly isolated 'Chief' Noel to go it alone. By the time Different Gear… emerged, its sense of 'continuity Oasis' felt mistimed – quite simply, the world wasn't ready to welcome Oasis back yet, in any guise. Beady Eye's debut is, however, something of a lost classic, delivering flagrant Lennonisms (The Roller), Who-esque thrills (titled Beatles And Stones, oddly), and piano-trashing rock'n'roll (Bring The Light) with a vitality that bespoke years of repression under the old regime.
4. Oasis - The Masterplan
A central plank to Oasis's mid-'90s dominance dictated that Noel's songbook was so stuffed with classics, the extra tracks on singles packed more chart-topping potential than any other band's A-sides. Here, as a stopgap after their 1996 Knebworth mega-gig and Be Here Now, they reinforced the point: The Masterplan trounces all later Oasis LPs, too. Three cuts – opening brotherly-solidarity duet Acquiesce, bittersweet soul-searcher Half The World Away, and the orchestral title track – really were Number 1s that slipped the net. Others, like acoustic tearjerker Talk Tonight, clearly weren't, but their variety of mood and instrumentation make a fine companion to the Oasis-in-overdrive 'proper' LPs.
3. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds - Who Built The Moon?
Following his team-up with The Chemical Brothers on '96's Setting Sun, Noel had experimented with 'going dance' in Oasis circa '03-04 via abortive sessions with Death In Vegas, then solo with Amorphous Androgynous. He doubtless felt pressure to modernise, and things eased in that direction with 2017's team-up with Belfast producer/movie soundtracker David Holmes. WBTM upheld solo Noel's sense of casting off shackles, echoing New Order, Phil Spector and The Prodigy, and, in Holy Mountain's use of the glam-y horn riff from Bryan Ferry's Let's Stick Together, reconnecting with early Oasis' 'genius steals' mentality.
2. Oasis - (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?
It's hard to overplay the breathless, pre-social media phenomenon of Oasis through 1994-95, and how their ascent was mirrored in their second LP's expansion on the debut's raw materials. Most importantly, in Wonderwall Morning Glory had the heartstring-tugging megahit to facilitate the band's crossover worldwide. At every turn there was growth, from Noel's primetime vocal debut on the anthemic Don't Look Back In Anger, to Champagne Supernova's Quadrophenia-on-steroids finale. Quite how much was 'held back' for LP2 by career mastermind Noel is still questionable, but these mighty choruses would soon resound around Earls Court, Maine Road and beyond.
0asis - Definitely Maybe
1. 0asis - Definitely Maybe
Their second album may have become the UK's third biggest-selling studio long-player of all time, but with every passing year this debut becomes more established as an unassailable career zenith. Often plausibly compared with Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols, this album's cultural impact was in some ways as far-reaching (if not politically), as it reignited British rock. It also took endless tinkering mix-wise to finesse Noel's beefed-up guitars, but there was a purity and purpose to his songs on Definitely Maybe that can never be repeated. From Live Forever's gutter-level stargazing and Slide Away's desperation to Rock'N'Roll Star's magical self-fulfilling prophecy, it simply cannot be bettered.
9. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds - Chasing Yesterday
On release of his second solo record, Noel recalled how he and Gem Archer would reflect on critiques of late-Oasis stodginess, wondering, "What do they expect – space-jazz?" This, clearly, was to prepare the troops for Chasing Yesterday's expansion on solo Noel's first freedoms, to include sax solos (hear blissful, West Coast-ish opener Riverman) and two revised outtakes from a shelved collaboration with cosmic '90s dance troupe Amorphous Androgynous. Themes of middle-aged ravers regaining the old magic, and an appearance by Johnny Marr on wonderfully dreamy disco-pumping closer Ballad Of The Mighty I, sealed another chart-topping victory.
8. Oasis - Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants
The sixteenth-fastest-selling album in UK chart history got a universal kicking at the time of its release, as critics perhaps detected, of all things, a crisis of confidence in Oasis's leader over creative direction, after the "cocaine expansionist" lunacy of 1997's Be Here Now. Despite side two's Noel-sung missteps, the lumpy Gas Panic! and Little James's cheesy new-father lyrics, the rest of Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants has weathered much better than later records. Opening breakbeat instrumental Fuckin' In The Bushes is a pulse-quickening Zeppelin-esque monster, while the hazy-lazy Go Let It Out offered a superb, acoustic-rattling response to the hot post-Britpop sound of The Beta Band.
7. Liam Gallagher - As You Were
Even while Beady Eye was failing commercially, it was Noel who advised, with a winner's smirking disinterest, that his younger brother should go solo, with "his name in lights" – an obvious reference to late-'60s Elvis. The parallel wouldn't be irrelevant when Liam ultimately did so two years later. With the push of a major label behind him, a raft of elite-class songwriters helped sculpt material that essentially celebrated Liamness. Thus, while Noel's solo records sought routes away from Oasis-style rabble-rousing, As You Were simply gloried in it (Wall Of Glass; Greedy Soul), while also, on For What It's Worth, mining the singer's troubled private life with winning vulnerability.
6. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds - Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
Even on first listen, Noel's solo debut felt like a liberation. Swapping Oasis's stampede of multitracked guitars for a strummed acoustic, and his strained bark for a more natural, choirboy-esque vocal purity, …High Flying Birds birthed a sound that played to his own strengths (thoughtful, sophisticated), rather than Liam's (headlong). Everybody's On The Run and If I Had A Gun…saw him take his foot off the gas to wonder at the world, while proven pop smarts resurfaced in Kinksian whimsy (Dream On) and piano-house-like euphoria (AKA…What A Life!). Britpop's songwriting master had got his edge back.
5. Beady Eye - Different Gear, Still Speeding
Following Oasis's split, it spoke volumes that, within weeks, Liam had announced a new band alongside the other three members (guitarist Gem Archer, bassist Andy Bell and final-tour drummer Chris Sharrock), leaving the increasingly isolated 'Chief' Noel to go it alone. By the time Different Gear… emerged, its sense of 'continuity Oasis' felt mistimed – quite simply, the world wasn't ready to welcome Oasis back yet, in any guise. Beady Eye's debut is, however, something of a lost classic, delivering flagrant Lennonisms (The Roller), Who-esque thrills (titled Beatles And Stones, oddly), and piano-trashing rock'n'roll (Bring The Light) with a vitality that bespoke years of repression under the old regime.
4. Oasis - The Masterplan
A central plank to Oasis's mid-'90s dominance dictated that Noel's songbook was so stuffed with classics, the extra tracks on singles packed more chart-topping potential than any other band's A-sides. Here, as a stopgap after their 1996 Knebworth mega-gig and Be Here Now, they reinforced the point: The Masterplan trounces all later Oasis LPs, too. Three cuts – opening brotherly-solidarity duet Acquiesce, bittersweet soul-searcher Half The World Away, and the orchestral title track – really were Number 1s that slipped the net. Others, like acoustic tearjerker Talk Tonight, clearly weren't, but their variety of mood and instrumentation make a fine companion to the Oasis-in-overdrive 'proper' LPs.
3. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds - Who Built The Moon?
Following his team-up with The Chemical Brothers on '96's Setting Sun, Noel had experimented with 'going dance' in Oasis circa '03-04 via abortive sessions with Death In Vegas, then solo with Amorphous Androgynous. He doubtless felt pressure to modernise, and things eased in that direction with 2017's team-up with Belfast producer/movie soundtracker David Holmes. WBTM upheld solo Noel's sense of casting off shackles, echoing New Order, Phil Spector and The Prodigy, and, in Holy Mountain's use of the glam-y horn riff from Bryan Ferry's Let's Stick Together, reconnecting with early Oasis' 'genius steals' mentality.
2. Oasis - (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?
It's hard to overplay the breathless, pre-social media phenomenon of Oasis through 1994-95, and how their ascent was mirrored in their second LP's expansion on the debut's raw materials. Most importantly, in Wonderwall Morning Glory had the heartstring-tugging megahit to facilitate the band's crossover worldwide. At every turn there was growth, from Noel's primetime vocal debut on the anthemic Don't Look Back In Anger, to Champagne Supernova's Quadrophenia-on-steroids finale. Quite how much was 'held back' for LP2 by career mastermind Noel is still questionable, but these mighty choruses would soon resound around Earls Court, Maine Road and beyond.
0asis - Definitely Maybe
1. 0asis - Definitely Maybe
Their second album may have become the UK's third biggest-selling studio long-player of all time, but with every passing year this debut becomes more established as an unassailable career zenith. Often plausibly compared with Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols, this album's cultural impact was in some ways as far-reaching (if not politically), as it reignited British rock. It also took endless tinkering mix-wise to finesse Noel's beefed-up guitars, but there was a purity and purpose to his songs on Definitely Maybe that can never be repeated. From Live Forever's gutter-level stargazing and Slide Away's desperation to Rock'N'Roll Star's magical self-fulfilling prophecy, it simply cannot be bettered.