Oasis’ upcoming reunion after a 15-year split because of brotherly feuding has made the headlines and got a ton of coverage from New Zealand media this week.
That’s quite extraordinary considering we’re 18,000km from the relaunch of one of Britain’s biggest and most successful bands of the 20th century.
Some Might Say we’re talking about it in east Auckland, too.
We’ve seen the memes on socials (The reunion you got – The reunion you wanted, etc), and there have been numerous conversations about it in the local hood, all centred on how long the reunification will last. Guess it’s the same All Around The World.
It’s also an indication that British pop-culture still has a large appeal to a Kiwi audience 60 years after the Fab Four got everyone twistin’ and shoutin’ in Beatlemania.
My take: I loved Oasis from the start. In London, I was in my late 20s and caught up in the electrifying wave of Brit-Pop music of the mid-1990s. Those were significant years for UK music. The power of that movement overflowed into pop-culture and society in a positively uplifting way, as it had in the 1960s.
The first time hearing Rock and Roll Star represented to me that the rock guitar was well-and-truly restored front and centre to the British rock mix, with a voice having significant snarl to soar over the top to literally punch you in the ears.
Would I go and see them now? Hypothetical, as a tour by Oasis of New Zealand anytime in the future is of course a very remote possibility. They’ve got to get through these upcoming shows in the UK first, banking a reported multi-million-Pound sign-on.
Yes, will they get through the tour without a fight between the Oasis brothers Gallagher, Noel and Liam? Their scrapping is legendary even by rock n’ roll standards, which led to the long hiatus, as they’ve gone separate ways and run with their own bands, Noel flappin’ with the High Flying Birds.
There have already been many quips that it could be over at the first concert, the first song, even. Hope not.
They owe it to themselves to get back on stage and do what they’re good at. Oasis, in top form, is an exceptionally powerful musical experience. And they have anthems, swags of classic rock songs that people adore.
It’s Noel’s guitar riffs and sounds, the massive cut-through vocal attitude of Liam, and the groove of a rhythm section pounding them out of a Wonderwall of sound peaking on edgy distortion. Everything’s wound up to 10 on the dial. Do You Know What I Mean?
I was with the band for three albums, and had a copy of the fourth but didn’t quite take to it. I’d moved on, as you do with music and artists, plus the original backline musicians had gone. Bonehead and Guigsy had played their considerable parts in getting the band to the top of the charts.
On Wednesday, when news was breaking about the impending comeback, I dug out the 30-year-old t-shirt and the three first albums – out of curiosity – to see if I’d reconnect with the music of Oasis.
The lyrics are memorably still there. Many anthems. They sure could write hooks and riffs, and the chord progressions in the arrangements are still smooth and just right.
But I’d forgotten how sharp and loud and lacking in beefy toneful bass is in the mix. Liam’s vocal can get on your nerves if you’re not in the mood, and they eek out every last inch of giving from those guitar riffs over five- and six-minute songs. A jammin’ guitar riff band, our Oasis.
It’s going to be Champagne Supernova interesting to see how this getting-the-band-back-together operation plays out, but so far, they’re talking it up and the Gallaghers look sharp in their promo shots.
Their marketing has always been incredibly good and impactful, with statements like they’re the biggest band in the world, in the mid-1990s. Then again, they used to say they were. I was never overly convinced by that.
But by the sheer fact that we’ve been talking about their return, in east Auckland in 2024, 30 years after the release of Definitely Maybe, is a sure indication they were and are big.
If Noel and Liam can Roll With It and Don’t Look Back in Anger, this unexpected reunion may have a shot at success. Everyone in those stadiums in the UK will be singing their lungs out and that’s got to count for something.
