Definitely the must-see act of 2025... no maybes about it

The decade's biggest rock'n'roll reunion kicks off tonight as Oasis play the first of 17 UK and Ireland gigs to 1.4 million fans. Sixteen years since the Gallaghers last shared a stage, two experts look back (in happiness) at their meteoric rise

- By Matt Nixson

IAM and Noel Gallagher have missed being in the “Oasis circus” since the Manchester band’s acrimonious breakup in 2009 and their reunion, while hugely lucrative, isn’t just about money, according to two of their leading biographers. Music journalists Ted Kessler and Hamish MacBain first met the brothers in 1994 when they were playing tiny venues.

They have have since interviewed them dozens of times — tracking their incredible rise as Oasis became one of the world’s biggest bands. Now their new book, A Sound So Very Loud, gives the inside story of every Oasis song ~ plus a treasure trove of fascinating facts about the 70 million-album selling band, whose world tour sold out overnight when it was announced last August.

Talking to the Express, they shared their thoughts on why — 30 years after they formed in Manchester - Oasis still enjoy phenomenal pulling power and why it’s actually been growing, as new generations discover a “primal connection” with the music.

“[ always remember something Liam said to me in an interview about the first time Oasis played in Japan, a week or so after their first album came out,” recalls Hamish.

“He said, ‘Just hearing people who speak a different language singing your music back was mad. Say, if a Japanese band came out now, and they came over here, even if everyone was like, ‘They sound like f***ing God’, I'd be like, ‘You néed to do it in English’ But we were sounding exactly like, and they were getting it... the music was powerful. It was bypassing the language barrier, and just hitting them with the feeling’.”

Ted adds: “Generation after generation have been getting that same feeling just from YouTube clips or TikTok or whatever: Oasis just have this sort of instant, primal connection with people.”