Key events
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
And here’s Alexis’s five star review:
Thanks so much for following along this evening – what a magnificently loud and forthright return, and genuinely strange as well as glorious to hear those Gallagher voices in tandem again. If you’re going to Cardiff tomorrow, or indeed any of the upcoming dates, have an absolute blast.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Alexis has filed his review – we’ll have that up in the next few minutes.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Is this really a one-off world tour? Or are the bookies right and Glasto 2027 is in the offing? The Gallaghers have allowed for a tiny guest list on this tour and very few tickets for media. When asked by an X user, “Are you looking forward to meeting all the posh wankers your brother has on the guest lists?”, Liam replied: “There isn’t a guest list you not heard they’ll be paying like everyone else.” Coupled with the fact that it might be a means to juice the value of Noel’s songwriting catalogue (see my earlier post), the brothers are clearly wringing every bit of revenue out of this tour. Does that suggest it’s the only time they’re going to be doing it? Or is it just the canny start of a longer-term return? Impossible to say – perhaps it’ll depend on how much they keep enjoying going back out there.
Fans react to Oasis’s first gig back
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
And here’s Laura’s full report from talking to the fans on the way out.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Joyous scenes outside the stadium!
Laura Snapes
I’ve been speaking to fans as they leave the gig. I’ll collate them all for a story, but for now, this one really resonated.
Couple Jarvis and Valentina had travelled from north London for the show. “It was absolutely incredible,” he said. “Liam’s voice hasn’t sounded that good since the mid-90s. At the end of the 00s his voice was shot. That’s incredible.”
The pair knew what they were talking about: Valentina said they saw them about 40 times during their initial incarnation. She had moved from Italy to the UK in the year 2000 because of her love for the band. “We used to follow them everywhere,” she said of herself and her teenage girl friends. Once in Florence, she said, they snuck into the band’s hotel “and spent the afternoon drinking with them.”
She clarified: “There was no malice. We were good Italian girls. But Liam was drinking from 2pm until 7pm, and by the end I was seeing double. We talked about the Beatles. We would follow them everywhere and if we didn’t have a ticket, they would say, ‘Girls, do you have a ticket?’ and get us in.”
Tonight’s show, she said, brought back “so many memories of happy, better times, lots of us cried. They’re a working-class band and they attract that audience: no band has touched a generation like that.”
“If I’d dreamed it,” said Jarvis, “they couldn’t have been better.”
Our football writer Jonathan Liew has got in touch, with some advice on how to go about things tomorrow when you’ve got Wales v Netherlands at 17.00 and Oasis v pints at 20.15.
Look, we get it. You like Oasis. You like football. You like Wales. And you’ve got a problem. Because tomorrow Oasis are playing the Principality on the same night Rhian Wilkinson’s team play their first ever major tournament game against the Netherlands. Two defining events in Welsh cultural history, sadistically scheduled against each other. Can you do both? Is it feasible? Is it wise? Does something have to give?
The good news is that you’ve got a little leeway. And in many other respects, the cards have fallen in your favour. Wales kick off at 5pm, just as the turnstiles click open at the Principality. Avoid the rush and take advantage of the fact that Cardiff’s central square mile has a higher concentration of pubs than anywhere else in the UK. Watch the first half, which Wales will gallantly try to keep goalless against Vivianne Miedema, Jill Roord and co. Cast will be tuning up as the second half begins. Let’s be honest: you didn’t part with a week’s wages to see Cast. Hold your nerve, grab another drink and watch as Wales’s heroic defensive rearguard is eventually broken down in the second half.
Barring a shedload of injury time, Richard Ashcroft’s set will begin just as the football ends. If the Netherlands are several goals up by this point, you should – if you’ve chosen your establishment wisely – be able to sneak out early and get to the venue in time for curtain-up. Alternatively, stay to the bitter end and then hot-foot it over in time for Bitter Sweet Symphony. Smile smugly as you sashay through security, the smile of someone who has squeezed every last drop of entertainment out of the evening.
More on that match here from Louise Taylor.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Love this purely happy, almost genteel moshing, just vertical bunny hops as everyone stays fixated on the stage and tries to drink in that this is really happening.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
I mean, I wouldn’t call it a hug. More the kind of pat a footballer might give to a member of the opposite team who used to play for them but there was that unpleasantness with the salary negotiation. But still.
Here’s Laura’s lovely report from earlier in the day, speaking to the fans who have devoted so much energy to coming to this concert – including in some cases, coming from the other side of the world.
Outside the stadium there is another merchandise booth, where Marina, 36, and Shun, 29, are waiting holding a Japanese flag. They have flown 16 hours from Tokyo to see Oasis for the first time. It is personal for them, too. Marina translates for Shun: “He has a brother and it was not a good relationship, similar to Oasis. But they are in a band: Shun plays drums and his brother plays guitar, and they have a good relationship now. The music helps.”
At least a few fans seem to have travelled from even further away. Back in Spillers, a group of three friends are wearing T-shirts that say: “We live in desert looking for Oasis – 2025.7.5 – From Shanghai to Cardiff – 8,100km”. The trio travelled to the UK last month for their first Glastonbury and to finally see Oasis live after 20 years of being fans.
Teresa, 37, has loved the band since she was 13. “When I feel sad, their songs make it better,” she says. “The songs mean a lot – their spirit gives me the hope to meet difficult things and it can become the energy for me. I think the concert will become very important for me in my future life.”
And here’s my write-up of the night itself.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
In my liveblogging haste I made the pics rather Gallagher-centric – big respect to the other players in the band, who do really give Oasis the thunderous heft they showed off tonight.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Here’s some video of that Diogo Jota tribute.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Maybe there wasn’t all that much warmth between them on stage – but just seeing this is enough to melt even a hard heart.
Lot of love for this fella too, who did sterling work with a YouTube live stream for a fair chunk of the evening.
And a new folk hero is born.
The full setlist
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Here’s the full setlist from tonight.
And a host of pics all in one place.
Oasis end with Champagne Supernova
Laura Snapes
They made it. It’s gone so fast. Feels quite emosh. There’s the car ready to take at least one of them away!
Liam claps the front row, making a few “thank you” prayer hands, pointing at the crowd. And he claps Noel on the back and everyone screams. Liam gets in the car and it’s driving off before the final notes have even rung out.
Laura Snapes
Don’t Look Back in Anger comes garlanded with bees in yellow on the visuals – a nod to the icon of Manchester, and how the song was taken up as an anthem after the Manchester Arena attack. And then Liam’s back for Wonderwall: “There are many things that I would like to say to you but I don’t speak Welsh,” he sings.
Another really clear moment of vocal interplay between them, Liam doing “maybee” and Noel doing “you’re gonna be the one that saves me”. ONE HUNDRED SINGLE TEAR EMOJIS. Come on lads, have a hug. Liam bids us farewell: “Thank you for being with us over the years. We are hard work – I get it. Champagne Supernova. Nice one!”
Laura Snapes
The encore begins, and with Liam still off stage, Noel comes on to perform The Masterplan with “our 14th drummer, Mr Joey Waronker, and this fucking uber legend here, Bonehead. This one is for all the people in their 20s who have never seen us before who have kept us shit hot for the last 20 years.”
Following Cast’s nod earlier on, there’s another tribute to the late Diogo Jota, at the close of Live Forever.
