Y’all,

I swear, I have the attention span of Dug, the dog from Up, whenever he sees a squirrel…SQUIRREL!

Two posts ago, I wanted to highlight my Roman adventures, then I segue into a rant about the end of a friendship in my most recent post. I really, really wanted to (and finally) talk about all things Roman, but the news that dropped after my last post has taken precedence, and, what’s even better is that it is absolutely, 110% super historical and shit.

At least, I think it’s super historical and shit, so deal with it.

(So…yeah, Rome’s gonna have to wait. AGAIN. SQUIRREL!)

I’m talking, of course, about the news of the recent epic reunion of the boys from Manchester…

The Brothers Gallagher.

Liam and Noel.

OASIS.

90s Britpop is back and I am THRILLED. On the morning they announced the reunion, I ran into Lisa’s classroom when I got to work screaming repeatedly “OASIS IS BACK TOGETHER!” and she and my coworkers looked as me as if I had grown a second head.

If you don’t know the story, Oasis broke up in 2009 after yet another bust-up between the volatile Gallagher brothers. Liam and Noel traded insults moments before they were to take stage at the Rock en Seine Festival in Paris, France (even though just two weeks prior, Noel had said in an interview that Oasis would never ever break up). Noel confirmed the break up on the official Oasis website two hours later, stating:

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.

Liam and the remaining Oasis members started a new band, the underwhelming Beady Eye. They broke up in 2014 and then Liam started his solo projects. Liam’s vocals, of course, carried the same edge and emotion in his post-Oasis career, but the lyrics he wrote could not quite match the prowess of his elder brother.

Me, February 2018, at the Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds concert during the *Who Built the Moon* Tour (The Anthem, Washington D.C.)

Noel, Oasis’s chief songwriter (please remember - he wrote the Oasis hits, not Liam) and guitarist, created his own band, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (NGHFB) and dropped four albums. He toured extensively with the High Flying Birds as well. It was clear that from the albums he produced from this musical foray that he did, indeed, carry plenty of weight in Oasis. The High Flying Birds albums, particularly Chasing Yesterday (2013) and Who Built the Moon (2017). Those two albums are amongst my favorites of all time, and really, the entire NGHFB catalog is worth a listen. Noel’s vocals aren’t as showy or aggressive as Liam’s, however, I’ve always enjoyed Noel’s singing because there is a sense of vulnerability he carries in his voice. Overall, the NGHFB project was a success. It showed that Noel did not need Liam to continue his music career. I can also personally vouch, as I saw NGHFB on tour when they came stateside and wow…Noel really can entertain a crowd with his stage presence and talent. Let me put it to you this way…I never once bothered buying tickets for Liam’s solo projects or Beady Eye, but I saw NGHFB three times and was on his preorder email list for early bird tickets!

Noel, however, probably needed more steady money to continue funding his recent divorce from wife #2, Sara MacDonald. I’m willing to bet (as is everyone) that the Oasis reunion news we’ve all been waiting for is to reline the Gallagher Bros bank accounts with more dollar bills. I don’t even care that they’ve reunited for selfish reasons…fifteen years later, the cheerful, attitude-filled, guitar-laden sounds of Britpop are entering British stadiums to great demand (eat your heart out Taylor Swift) and more than likely, will be crossing the Atlantic for a North American Summer 2025 tour.

Rumor is, Oasis is headlining at Soldier Field in Chicago. I haven’t seen DC tour dates from what has been unofficially confirmed, but I will totally pay money to book a flight to Chicago, get tickets, and go sing my wannabe British heart out to the strains of “Live Forever.” I mean it! If the tour dates coincide with me being back in school, I will cash in my personal days and peace out to Chicago. My sister has agreed to go to the concert with me and we’re hoping to meet up with our cousins and make it a girl’s weekend. I told my mom when the news dropped that “Oasis has reunited and all is right in my world.” Really, with all the uncertainties, chaos, and unhappiness floating around due to the upcoming election, my job, my personal life, and all the global conflicts, the reunion news was something that yes, is so trivial, and yet, it transformed my whole outlook in a positive way. The world is falling apart, but Oasis is back, and maybe, just maybe, we need them to help us cope with all the problems we’re facing right now.

*Definitely Maybe*, produced by Creation Records, released 29 August 1994 and peaked at #1 in the British album charts (and did so again just this past 29 August 2024…thirty years after its initial release). This is my favorite Oasis album (I will argue with anyone who disagrees and claims that the best one is *(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?…*I will die on this hill, I mean it!

I mean, that’s kind of how they formed to begin with in the early 90s. Noel and Liam wanted out of their mundane, poverty-stricken lives living on the dole in Manchester, working dead-end blue collar jobs, and thought, hey, let’s become rock stars. They didn’t give into this “woe is me” nonsense and blame the world for their crappy situation; they rose above and just within a few years of forming, they met Creation Records producer Alan McGee during their fateful set at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow. McGee, as Oasis lore goes, was blown away by their raw talent, and suddenly, they’ve got a record deal and they started working on their debut album, Definitely Maybe. 30 years later, Definitely Maybe got a re-release almost two weeks ago on the day it debuted, 29 August. It reentered the UK Album charts at Number 1…just like it did 30 years earlier.

I, of course, was not quite old enough to enjoy early Oasis, but my brother was, and thanks to him having CDs (!) of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory, Be Here Now, and The Masterplan, I became schooled in all things Britpop. I wanted to know everything about this shortlived, but historic musical genre. I purchased in high school the highly recommended book Britpop!: Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock by the British journalist John Harris. Harris wrote about the rise of Oasis and the other less successful Britpop bands and how they contributed to the rise and popularity of the political New Labour movement. “New Labour,” led by then-Prime Minister, Tony Blair, caused a decades-long Conservative government to finally fall thanks to younger and more progressive British voters being influenced by who their Britpop idols supported politically (Noel Gallagher loved Blair and was not afraid to say so). Harris also featured the biographies of the almost-as-famous Blur, Suede, Pulp, and Elastica and their 15 minutes of fame, and discussed how all these bands would meet their demise, really, with overinflated egos and access to all the illegal substances.

Britpop, argued Harris, pretty much ended with the release of Be Here Now in 1997. Everyone thought Oasis’s third album would live up to the hype of its critically successful predecessors. Unfortunately, the lack of effort on the band’s end disappointed fans and was not worth the media anticipation leading up to the album’s release (Oasis would continue recording albums throughout the 2000s, but none of them truly were a return to their pre-Be Here Now form). The same year Be Here Now dropped, Radiohead catapulted into the British music scene with their odd sounding, but critically acclaimed third studio album OK Computer. A “new” wave of British alternative rock, led by Radiohead and Coldplay, had arrived and killed the Britpop scene for good.

Thanks to Harris’s book, I gave these other Britpop bands a listen (I like Blur and Elastica, not so much with Suede and Pulp). I also learned about Oasis’s earlier British inspirations that helped them find success. Thanks to the “Madchester” acid house/indie music scene of the 1980s and bands like The Stone Roses (do yourself a favor and listen to their eponymous 1989 debut album), Happy Mondays, and Inspiral Carpets, Oasis kept the alternative rock/guitar sound these Madchester bands pioneered. They sure would not be anywhere without the “Modfather” himself, the influence of Paul Weller. Weller, first the lead singer of the British rock/mod band The Jam during the 1970s and later frontman for The Style Council, has always been a cited hero of Oasis, and is respected by both Gallagher brothers for his talent in guitar playing, singing, and songwriting. Finally, who could forget the most obvious and biggest influence on Oasis but those four lads from Liverpool…the Beatles?

Oasis, though, got me through high school. There are a few solid tracks on the later releases that do have some semblance of their peak talent and I enjoyed listening to those songs (as well as their earlier offerings) as I slowly made my way through my public education career. Their music provided me an outlet at school; I listened to them constantly on my iPod while tuning out the racist and conceited jerks in my English classes. They inspired me to write poetry for a long-term poetry portfolio project I had to submit in 11th grade. I excitedly bought tickets to go see them on their Dig Out Your Soul tour when it came to the DC area in the fall of 2008. My mama (who loves them as much as I do) and I went together and we were blown away by their talent that night. Their works became my default albums to burn and listen to in my car when I started commuting to George Mason.

Oasis, despite the turbulence they’ve experienced and their shaky reputation, has always had a place in my heart. I quote their lyrics for life lessons and Instagram posts, I’ve since added them to a “Cool Britannia” playlist on Spotify. You will also find tracks from Madchester bands, new British alternative songs, and Paul Weller selections if you check this playlist out…

…and, of course, I still frequently and eagerly wear my Oasis/Noel Gallagher concert t-shirts. I am ready to have Oasis come back into my life now as a relatively established thirty something, having come and grown far away from my awkward and painful high school days, and I have no shame in admitting that I’ve been blasting their albums during my drive to work on Spotify (no more burnt CDs…oh how times have changed) since the reunion announcement was made. I’m ready to pay the price for whatever it will cost to get me to Chicago…

…because really, they’ll probably break up again, and I better just enjoy this glorious historical moment while I can.

Hey, what can I say? I’m being honest. I know my Oasis history and it certainly repeats itself.

Before I end this post…I now present:

10 Oasis Songs to Listen to that are NOT “Wonderwall” or “Live Forever”:

#10 - “Falling Down” (Dig Out Your Soul, 2009, Noel sings lead on this one)
Best Line: “If you won’t save me, please don’t waste my time.”

#9 - “The Importance of Being Idle” (Don’t Believe the Truth, 2005, Noel sings lead on this one)
Best Line: “I can’t get a life if my heart’s not in it.”

#8 - “Half the World Away” (“B” Side to the “Whatever” single, later released on The Masterplan, 1998, Noel sings lead on this one)
Best Line: “You can’t give me the dreams that are mine anyway.”

#7 - “Acquiesce” (“B” Side to the “Wonderwall” single, later released on The Masterplan, 1998, Noel & Liam sing alternating parts)
Best Line: “Who wants to be alone when we can feel alive instead?”

#6 - “Don’t Go Away” (Be Here Now, 1997, Liam sings lead on this one)
Best Line: “I need more time just to make things right.”

#5 - “Where Did it All Go Wrong?” (Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, 2000, Noel sings lead on this one)
Best Line: “Do you keep the receipts for the friends that you buy?”

#4 - “Don’t Look Back in Anger” (What’s the Story Morning Glory? 1995, Noel sings lead on this one…also, the “acoustic” version is just as good as the more “electric” take linked first).
Best Line: “Step outside, summertime’s in bloom.”

#3 - “Whatever” (“Whatever” Single, post-Definitely Maybe, December 1994, Liam sings lead on this one)
Best Line: “It always seems to me you only see what people want you to see.”

#2 - “Columbia” (Definitely Maybe, 1994, Liam sings lead on this one)
Best Line: “I can’t tell you the way I feel, because the way I feel is oh so new to me.”

#1 - “Slide Away” (Definitely Maybe, 1994, Liam sings lead on this one)
Best Line: “Don’t know, don’t care, all I know is you can take me there.”

Honourable Mention:

“Talk Tonight” (“B” Side to the “Some Might Say” single, later released on The Masterplan, 1998, Noel sings lead on this one)
Best Line: “All your dreams are made of strawberry lemonade.”

Maybe next time I’ll finally get around to posting my Roman experiences. Or, you know, SQUIRREL!

Until then…

Many happy returns and live forever,

-kate.