For any music fans out there too young to have lived through Oasismania in the ’90s, back when brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher conquered the world with the best of what Britpop in all its loud, anthemic glory had to offer, know this: The band was basically the UK’s answer to the Beatles.
I kid, I kid, but Oasis fans know what I mean. If guitar-based rock was your thing, Oasis certainly delivered that in spades across seven albums — starting with their debut, Definitely Maybe, which was released 30 years ago this week. The band offered simple, often singalong melodies, complemented by at-times maddeningly obvious homages to the Fab Four, from the Mancunians’ haircuts to their brazen … repurposing, let’s call it, of Beatles lyrics (“Fool on the hill and I feel fine,” anyone?).
And while it’s sort of true to think of them as the Beatles of the 90s, here’s another way to think about how insanely popular the band remains ahead of the long-hoped-for reunion tour that’s just been announced: The headline of one UK news outlet confidently declared, in the wake of the bombshell reunion news, that demand for Oasis tickets “will absolutely dwarf” what was seen during Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
Anyone who’s still not convinced, for whatever reason, of how fans around the world continue to hold Liam (the singer) and Noel (the songwriter) in high regard would do well to check out Oasis: Supersonic, an A24 documentary from 2016 about the band that was directed by Mat Whitecross, Asif Kapadia, and James Gay-Rees. Packed with interviews, archival footage, concert videos, and much more, this fan-favorite and critically acclaimed documentary (available to stream on Max) tells the story of a band whose songs about wonderwalls and champagne supernovas still remain all-time Britpop classics.
Via A24: “From the Academy Award-winning producers of Amy and Senna comes this essential and entertaining look at the meteoric rise of the seminal 90’s rock band Oasis.
“The film immerses us in the raucous rock stars’ fast-paced world of electrifying music, wild debauchery, and epic fraternal feuding, weaving never-before-seen concert footage with candid interviews and an astonishing firsthand account of the backstage sibling rivalry that threatened to destroy the band.”
Now that the reunion has been made official, of course, the story in that documentary ends differently. And about that ending — or, rather, what’s still to come: I imagine that I speak for Oasis fans around the world, when I say that it sure would be nice if Tommy Shelby himself could maybe pop by and speak to the boys before the first show to remind them of just one teensy thing: “The main thing is, you bunch of f*****s, despite the provocation from the cavalry … no fighting. Oy! No fighting. No f*****g fighting. No fighting. NO. F*****G. FIGHTING!”
