The Legends Return: A Scene Report from the Oasis Reunion Tour
When was the last time you experienced something that not only lived up to the hype — but blew past it? Hard to recall, right? I’m here to tell you that’s exactly what happened on night two of Oasis’s reunion at London’s Wembley Stadium.
When the reunion was first announced, it was easy to be cynical. A cash grab, maybe. But lazy? Not even close. Noel and Liam Gallagher clearly took this seriously. The band has never sounded tighter—three guitars, a keyboardist, a rhythm section firing on all cylinders, and Liam reportedly working with a vocal coach. It shows. He sounded massive.
Saturday night was nearly beyond words. Some 90,000 fans packed into Wembley, many decked out in a mix of official and bootleg merch — like a Britpop Dead show. There were older fans in vintage tour tees, but also younger people in their 20s. Parents brought their young kids; there was a child no older than 8 years old in an Adidas bucket hat and a Stone Island sweater, arms in the air, singing along. It was incredible to see.
Richard Ashcroft opened with a solo set of Verve classics — “Lucky Man,” “The Drugs Don’t Work,” “Bittersweet Symphony” — and by the time he left the stage, the crowd was buzzing. We knew that was just a taste of what we were about to experience. And when the brothers walked on, hand in hand, Wembley went off the rails.
The energy was explosive. Strangers held each other, jumped up and down, and sang the lyrics into each other’s faces. Some wept. Some stared in disbelief. It was euphoric. A full-body, full-spirit release. As Liam might put it: Biblical.
And they looked cool as hell. Liam especially — green parka, bucket hat, and that trademark stance. He paused mid-set to clarify: “This isn’t fucking velvet and it’s not a fucking beanie hat — it’s jumbo cord and it’s a bucket hat.” The crowd cheered.
An opening montage lit up the screen, capturing the media frenzy and online chatter surrounding the reunion. Throughout the show, there were flashes of ’90s nostalgia — some of it psychedelic — but the stage itself was relatively stripped back. It didn’t need anything more. The songs did all the heavy lifting.
The setlist stuck to what they’d played in Cardiff and Manchester — no surprises, just banger after banger. “Some Might Say,” “Morning Glory,” “Cigarettes & Alcohol” — barely a second to catch our breath. During “Acquiesce,” Liam stood stone still as Noel sang the chorus, a tambourine balanced on his head like a crown. He had complete control over the crowd. We were witnessing the coolest man alive. One of the greatest frontmen ever.
Then Noel, along with his acoustic guitar, played “Talk Tonight” and “Half the World Away” under a sky of phone lights. And just when things felt tender, he dropped into “Little by Little” — the only 2000s track of the night — and it exploded. The entire stadium backed him on the chorus. My friends and I became even bigger fans of that song in that moment. At one point during “Stand By Me,” I turned away from the stage and looked out over the crowd. For a moment, I was hit with something harder to define — awe. Just a quiet, overwhelming sense that I was witnessing something truly special.
Overall, the brothers didn’t say much to each other on stage, but there were moments. Noel cracked smiles at some of Liam’s quips to the crowd. And in a clip I saw the next day, Liam gave Noel a cheeky slap on the backside mid–guitar solo to mess with him a bit. For the first time in a long time, they seemed like brothers again.
Then came the encore, which included the triple threat of “Wonderwall,” “Don’t Look Back in Anger” (which was the loudest sing-along of the night), and finally “Champagne Supernova.” We didn’t want it to end.
There’s been chatter that this reunion was sparked by Noel’s divorce. Maybe. But Noel has money, and this felt bigger than that. This was about legacy. And on that front, they’ve proved — again — why they’re one of the greatest bands of the last 40 years. Back in ’94, Noel told reporters that once all the hype died down, the music would “stand the test of time”. Thirty years on, in front of a packed Wembley screaming every word, it’s clear: it already has.
