Up in the nosebleed seats of Cardiff’s Principality stadium in Wales, watching Oasis reunite for their first gig in 16 years was a sight.
Fans were overcome with joy; on their feet, dancing, questionable amber liquid spraying through the air. It was pure emotion for what feels like the biggest music reunion of my generation. The crowd bellowed the moment brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher arrived together on stage for the first time since breaking up in 2009.
On hearing the din from the stadium corridor, I could have killed my brother. I was stuck in a queue for his pint. But in the spirit of great sibling reunions, look, it’s water under the bridge.
For us, this concert was a Big Deal. At 28 and 30, we had never seen Oasis perform live before, but their music was always around us growing up in Manchester; those first nights out in school years when Wonderwall was always the DJ’s last tune, and in the car on Irish summer holidays in counties Roscommon and Mayo. As my brother put it, it’s like a time capsule.
RM Block
Nostalgia poured in not just from the set-list, but from the stadium screen visuals too. The home of Welsh rugby was transformed with thick memories of Manchester’s redbrick terrace roofs and high-rise flat blocks.
It looked just like the scenes from the area where my grandparents raised their six children in Old Trafford and later Stretford. My aunt once said the Gallagher brothers got chatting to her on a night out in The Conti Club, or New Continental club (now gone), in Manchester in the early 1990s. She says she doesn’t remember the brash brothers painted in the press, but a polite pair – who would have then been in their early 20s – with big dreams for their band.
Another familial connection appears on screen in images of Charlestown, Co Mayo. The Gallagher brothers’ mum, Peggy, is from the same cohort of Charlestown emigrants as those of my grandad, John Finn, who settled in Manchester. My grandad was later repatriated, alongside my grandma, Margaret, to St James’s church, near the town. Meanwhile, in the town centre is John Finan, who runs JJ Finan’s, one of Charlestown’s pubs where Liam and Noel Gallagher have visited and performed. He has been kind enough in the past to humour our curiosity about the brothers and share his memories, as he also did on the band’s Supersonic documentary.
Safe to say, Noel’s performance of Half the World Away found its mark all the way up in the Principality stadium’s high-altitude rows. As someone growing up in the Manchester-Irish diaspora, it feels like family. Although I thought there might be a nod to the Royle Family’s Caroline Aherne, with whom the song is now synonymous. It was notable too, that Liam’s shout out to fans from home soil was met with mild booing: “Anyone from Manchester here? Anyone from Burnage?” Burnage must be saving itself for the hometown dates.
Oasis have proved their appeal to fans has huge international reach. Their Live ’25 tour was reported as the biggest concert launch ever in the UK and Ireland, with more than 10 million fans from 158 countries queuing to buy tickets after they went on sale last summer. A South Korean fan told me on the flight back from Bristol to Dublin, that the band is particularly popular with younger listeners and teens there.
For me, it was the best gig I’ve ever been to, and coming from the same neck of the woods made it even more special. And you know what? That questionable amber liquid was probably just beer.
