“Oasis vibes in the area! Manchester vibes in the area!”
Sometimes in life we’re faced with difficult decisions. When the Oasis reunion was announced last August the question wasn’t whether to try to get tickets but which show to try for. The opening night in Cardiff would always be legendary, one of the Wembley dates sentimentally fell on the the twenty ninth anniversary of my first ever Oasis concert and no trip to Edinburgh is ever a wasted trip. But the lure of the homecoming shows in Manchester proved irresistible and so ten months of eager anticipation later I found myself heading to Heaton Park for the fifth show of the return of a band eager to reclaim their position as one of the biggest bands on the planet.
Walking around Manchester centre on the afternoon of the show it was clear that something special was in the air. Whilst the midweek show had its capacity capped at fifty thousand compared to the eighty thousand for the weekend concerts, it was still barely possible to walk down a street without bumping into someone in an Oasis t-shirt, themed shop front or poster display. The prodigal sons were coming home and the city was ready to celebrate, scenes that would have been unbelievable barely a year before when the possibility of a reunion seemed as far away as ever – Noel himself playing down the prospect of getting back together when I saw him at the Halifax Piece Hall in August 2024. The opening nights had garnered rave reviews, heightening the sense of excitement for those fortunate to have succeeded in getting their hands on the golden tickets for the show.
As always with attending large outdoor shows, my main anxieties were fixed on how well the site would be set up for the number of people in attendance. Recent experiences had shown that for some their organisation is still stuck firmly in the nineties (Finsbury Park, I may well be thinking of you) the set up at Heaton Park was as good as could be expected for the sheer number of fans present. There were no queues to get in when I arrived at around five, food and drink was surprisingly not too overpriced, the one minor complaint being that someone had decided to position the troughs in the urinals at a height that even at 5 foot 11 tip toes were required for my pre-show toilet visit. Even at the end of the night the route to the shuttlebuses back to town was long but efficiently handled and by keeping people moving frustrations that no progress was being made were quelled.
Supporting any band on such a huge tour is always a tough ask, so to find performers up to the occasion Oasis got out their old phone book and called up Cast and Richard Ashcroft, bands who supported them back in their heyday. Both put in admirable stints to try to warm up the crowd, but it was only at the culmination of Ashcroft’s set that things took off, with renditions of The Verve classics The Drugs Don’t Work and Bitter Sweet Symphony sparking the first crowd singalongs of the day. But as it was those reactions were dwarfed by the sheer outpouring of emotion that the headliners would generate.
Then the moment that the majority of the audience had waited over a decade and a half for – Liam and Noel, hand in hand, leading out the band whilst “This is it… This is Happening… Manchester” flashed up on the giant screens behind them. Launching into Hello two things became obvious – that having a third guitarist on board made the Oasis sound even larger than before and that what could be heard of Liam’s voice over the crowd singing back each and every word showed he was in particular fine form. Even the marginally lesser known songs (is there such a thing as a lesser known Oasis song?) was hollered back passionately by an audience who knew every last inch of the back catalogue and were determined to make up for all the shows they had missed out on since the Gallaghers last graced a stage together.
From there, much like the nights at Loch Lomond and Knebworth three decades ago, the set effectively split into two halves showcasing the best of the different sides of the band. First up the heavier, rockier songs and whilst the audience may not have been as raucous as in earlier years (sorry, my calves just won’t let me bounce for two hours like they did when I was a teenager) the likes of Acquiesce and Cigarettes and Alcohol still received an exuberant reception. The latter half of the night then focussed on the slower, often more tender songs, showcasing their beauty against the slowly darkening skies. That was always the genius of Oasis, one moment they’re convincing you that the world is there waiting for you strike out and claim it as your own, the next tugging on your heart strings and telling you there’s nothing more precious than chasing the sun with your special one.
Probably the most remarkable thing about the set was that over the course of two hours containing twenty three songs there was no dip in quality, no lull in the audience reaction – a performance where it was a struggle to see the peaks because everything felt like the top of the mountain. The only minor complaint with the song selection was the lack of material from the band’s later years, with only one song performed from the last four albums; this was a chance to rehabilitate the reputation of their latter output but instead it felt like an admission that their post 1997 material wasn’t up to scratch. Indeed, it was divisive Be Here Now lead single D’You Know What I Mean which gained the most from being included, pulsing with hidden menace in the way you imagine the band had originally wanted it to sound. It’s easy to believe that the likes of Lyla, The Hindu Times or The Importance of Being Idle would not just have gone down superbly but helped to position them amongst the band’s classics rather than as footnotes in their history.
Having grown used to the glitz and glamour of modern large shows watching Oasis did feel like quite a throwback, in that there was very little to actually watch. Liam prowled the stage carrying slightly less threat than his younger self, whilst the rest of the band performed almost motionless and definitely without any pre-planned choreography – if Noel cracked a smile during the show I missed it. The band members barely acknowledged each other’s presence and the interaction with the audience was minimal – whilst Liam was on stage Noel kept quiet let him do all the talking, depriving us of the return of their slapstick double act. Whilst the gigantic screens showed various animated backgrounds to add a little flair to proceedings this was a concert that went back to fundamentals, where the entire point is the music – and the celebration of the music.
All good things eventually come to an end though, after an epic finale of Champagne Supernova it was only fitting that a night that had seen banger after banger concluded with a grand firework display. Oasis were back, utterly triumphant and sounding as good as ever – the cynics who claimed these shows would be nothing but a soulless cash grab had been well and truly disproven. For many in the crowd it was their first sighting of the Gallaghers together, for others it was a chance to reacquaint themselves with a band that they may have never expected to see live again, but from what I could tell not a single person went home utterly enthralled. It hadn’t quite brought me back to being the keen eyed fifteen year old who saw them at Loch Lomond many years ago, but it had reminded me why Oasis were my most important band during my teenage years.
Where Oasis go from here is still unclear – tour dates are booked up for the remainder of the year but there’s been no confirmation of live shows into 2026 or whether new music is at all a possibility. What the reunion concerts have shown is exactly why they were the powerhouse that dominated the nineties music scene, that when the drama and the the caricatures were discarded they were propelled by the sheer quality of their musical output. Nobody could touch them in those few golden years when they peaked and in my life time no artist has come close to releasing in so many era defining songs in such a short time span. Whether this is the start of a new chapter or the final pages of the story this tour has succeeded in cementing the group’s legacy and bringing joy to those fans who always believed that this was a band who would never throw it all away.
Were you there? Feel free to leave a comment below. And if you want more Oasis then click here for a retro review of their classic Loch Lomond concert from 1996.
Oasis performed:
Hello
Acquiesce
Morning Glory
Some Might Say
Bring It On Down
Cigarettes & Alcohol
Fade Away
Supersonic
Roll With It
Talk Tonight
Half the World Away
Little by Little
D’You Know What I Mean?
Stand by Me
Cast No Shadow
Slide Away
Whatever
Live Forever
Rock ‘n’ Roll Star
***
The Masterplan
Don’t Look Back in Anger
Wonderwall
Champagne Supernova
Alex Reviews Gigs 
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