Recommendations of the Editorial team
“Something like this will never happen again” – repeated this sentence Liam Gallagher Several times when I met him in Berlin a few years ago for an interview for Rolling Stone. Liam meant less an Oasis reunion per se, which was at the time at the time and seemed rather unrealistic, but the feeling of shows such as those legendary Oasis concerts in Knebworth in 1996. Sure, we are talking about a time before Napster, streaming and mobile phones-a time when rock stars did not have to brew themselves. Other times. But “Never Gonna Happen Again”? Nevertheless.
You would like to counter him almost a quote from Bob Dylan (which Mag Liam apparently only meant so), which once sang: “You can’t repeat the past? What do you mean you can’t, of course you can!” Because even if there were countless smartphones and videos and photos in the Wembley Stadium on this evening and Cool Britannia has long since become a nostalgic memory-what, if not that, was this evening on August 2, 2025 in the Wembley Stadium? With 90,000 people who-just like on the preliminary evenings, the other Wembley shows as well as the concerts in Cardiff and Manchester-made a lot of pilgrimage in order to experience a perfect evening together in all respect.
Liam Gallagher in top form
At the beginning, Liam holds up the Maracas, makes a sacred gesture as if he would bless the audience with it. Later he crosses himself with water from his cup. A man of the people, fookin ‘biblical – only without papal miter, has with bucket and with parka instead of talar. He is the largest living rock star, probably the only one we still have.
Vocal? Top form.
Parka? Sits.
Tambourin? Clear.
We don’t need to lose many words about the setlist – it is flawless. It hailed anthem about anthem, hit after hit. The band is well teamed up, the guitar wall (how nice that Bonehead is back) is official. Noel always takes over the lead parts. He plays a lot of very attractive Gibson guitars-in addition to the famous red ES-335 with Bigsby-Vibrato and a Les Paul, which I would classify as a burst, he also has this great black les Paul with him again, which has metal p-90 tone buyers and hopefully becomes a new signature model. Joey Waronker on drums makes his thing absolutely solid.
The visuals on the oversized monitors are also great-only with “Whatever” is it more loud: Liam’s head hovers like the teletubby sun over a meadow that is reminiscent of the Windows 95 background. Otherwise, it couldn’t be better.
Oasis in London: Perfection
It is the same two hours that the Oasis have been playing since the beginning of their tour. From “Hello” to “Champagne Supernova”, football coach and Gallagher friend Pep Guardiola are on stage as a pappp, again this time the “Octopus’s Garden” interpolation at “Whatever”, the addition block with the Argen hits-as if before there wasn’t enough arge hits before. The audience doesn’t need to get warm for a second anyway – I can’t remember having experienced such an enthusiastic one. There is no need for escalation, but of course there is also “Wonderwall” – and of course everything escalates a little more.
In the end, Oasis play “Champagne Supernova” as usual. Where we were when they were high? At that time, many were amazed and singing, others experience Oasis live for the first time today. Supernova has no one in the sky, but fireworks at the end.
Again: yes, there were the mobile phones, and many photos and selfies were taken. But somehow it was almost as beautiful as before, in the mid-1990s. You lie in your arms with strangers-I am, for example, with my colleague from Manchester next to me, who enthusiastically and surprises me that the guy next to him is Manu fan, but he is mancity fan-and still understand you incredibly. I have never done more high fives with strangers at a concert. A better organized stadium than the Wembley? Difficult to imagine.
In the end, when we stuck in front of the Metro in the eternally long human snake, a policeman sticks the megafon to his cell phone and plays music from Oasis. There is one or two crooked choir on the train. Oasis, all concert goers seem to agree on that, the perfect reunion is celebrating.
So, Liam, honestly now: it did happily again – and it’s nice to have been there.