Music Appreciation

-snip-

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.

That was the mark of a true phenomenon; in comparison, punk was but a (extraordinarily influential) flash in the pan. And – uniquely – it’s a phenomenon that the bucket hat-wearing hordes of Cardiff’s Principality Stadium get to relive authentically on Friday night. Unlike the recent Blur and Pulp reunions, the euphoria involved in watching the Gallagher brothers together onstage after 16 years of virulent animosity is little to do with hearing these songs played live again. Although, over two hours of Oasis hits uninterrupted by solo material is a massive fan rush that has much of this mixed and surprisingly unladdish crowd roaring along like Britpop warriors throughout. There’s not much of the setlist that you couldn’t have heard any time in the past 10 years or so performed by one Gallagher or the other. Yes, there is a life-affirming Hollywood ending to the sight of warring brothers united after such a long, vicious and tawdry online soap opera, described by one hysterical backstage newscaster as “Shakespearean”. But that too is only a third of the “Morning Glory” story.

The real underlying thrill is of a historical moment fully revived. For all the laddish boorishness that Oasis undoubtedly encapsulated, the Britpop era, for Millennials and Gen Zers alike, is as halcyon as Beatlemania or the summer of love – a time of vivid colour, jubilant melody, political stability and affordable flats. And to be a part of this second wind of torrid Oasismania, hyped by effusive press coverage and leading to historic shows such as this one, is as close to actually “being there” as it’s possible to get. For this multi-generational crowd, both nostalgia heads and those who’ve waited a whole lifetime to spend a day in the Gallaghers’s reflected sunshine, Oasis in Cardiff is their bona fide Shea Stadium 1965. Two million wanted Knebworth ‘96 tickets; 14 million wanted tickets to this tour. This generation’s Oasis moment is now.

-snip-