Gallaghers deliver rock reunion to end them all

As Liam and Noel tear through hits, it's hard to imagine another comeback tour on such a scale, says Mark Beaumont

- Mark Beaumont

A voice declares “this is not a drill”, a barrage of reunion headlines fill the stadium-wide screens. Two brothers walk on a stage hand-in-hand, one wails “hello, hello, it’s good to be back”, while the other provides grunge-glam guitar, and it’s like Caesar swaggered home.

And so, after much fan frenzy and media frothing, finally begins the rock reunion to end them all. And that’s no overstatement. It’s tough to imagine another non-pop comeback on such a momentous scale that might keep the reunion industry ticking over in years to come. Could The Smiths fill seven Wembley Stadiums overnight? A reunited Pink Floyd? Led Zeppelin, even? And what are the chances of those ever happening?

To fully conceive the significance of the Oasis reunion we must finally crystalise their place in rock’n’roll history. Throughout the Nineties they cockily aspired to be the biggest British band since The Beatles, and by some measures they were. The Stones, Queen, Zep, U2 and Floyd all had their triumphal eras and several shifted more units, but consider this - if all 2 million people who applied for tickets to see Oasis at Knebworth in 1996 had got one, the band would have played 16 nights there.