Brothers in Arms

I had the great fortune to see Oasis at the Rose Bowl with Heather. What an incredible show and communal experience. 

Source: https://x.com/TaylorMod/status/1965516938727358469

From the moment I saw Liam Gallagher’s following post on X in August 2024 I could not wait to see one of the reunion shows.

I was so fired up by the reunion announcement that I even contemplated going to the U.K. and combining it with a trip to Wimbledon to celebrate my 60th birthday. To see them in the UK where they are revered in godlike fashion was so alluring to me that it was all I could think about for a period of time. Ah, but rather than following the encouragement of the narrator of Cigarettes and Alcohol when he says “You gotta make it happen”, I did the opposite by letting life get in the way and didn’t make it happen. All wasn’t lost of course as they chose the Rose Bowl for two of the five shows they scheduled to play in the United States. There was no way I wasn’t going to make that happen.

Like a lot of things in life, it’s unusual when one has very high expectations and they are not only met, but they’re exceeded. I can say unequivocally that this was the case for the Oasis concert. The venue was packed with an estimated 90,000 people. In addition to Oasis, there were two excellent opening acts, Cast, a band from the UK, and Cage the Elephant who put on a very energetic, outstanding performance. I would see both of those bands again.

Even though I had watched numerous clips of Oasis’ U.K. shows and knew that the set list was never going to change, nothing could compete with being surrounded by 90,000 fans and hearing the band’s amazing and timeless anthems live in a huge communal setting, even if there were zero set list surprises.

Oasis sold over 1.5 million tickets for its U.K. shows while millions more were shut out as 15 million people registered for tickets. The shows there riveted the nation and dominated the conversation of a country going through many challenges. It was just what the U.K. needed

One can see why this reunion has been so successful and so highly praised. The band is the antithesis of the algorithmic music selection process of today’s streaming dominated world. They also have no interest in being  packaged for this age of social media. Throw in the incredible intrigue as to whether the brothers can really make it through a global tour of over 40 shows after so many years of antipathy, particularly on Noel’s part. The breaking point was when could no longer stand being around Liam, let alone in the same band, and he famously called it quits prior to taking the stage for a show in Paris in 2009. Life in Oasis became too toxic for Noel and he cracked and left the band right then and there. After this Noel and Liam didn’t speak for approximately 15 years. Recognizing the paramount importance of this tour and the fragility of their relationship, they have supposedly done all they can to ensure they will not upset each other by doing what is necessary to prepare for the gigs and perform them while not crossing paths too much outside of those required interactions.

As I was writing this blog my curiosity was piqued about some of history’s most powerful, mythical sibling rivalries so I asked Copilot to provide me with a list of them and this is what it came up with. No question that Cain and Abel is the most applicable pair to Noel and Liam, but I found the others quite interesting to read about as well.

🔥 Iconic Mythical Sibling Rivalries

1. Cain and Abel (Biblical)
   • Perhaps the most famous sibling rivalry of all time. Cain, jealous of Abel’s favor with God, commits the first murder. A stark metaphor for envy and irreconcilable differences.
2. Romulus and Remus (Roman Mythology)
   • Twin brothers raised by a she-wolf who later founded Rome. Romulus killed Remus in a dispute over the city’s founding—symbolizing how ambition and vision can divide even the closest bonds.
3. Osiris and Set (Egyptian Mythology)
   • Set, the god of chaos, murders his brother Osiris out of jealousy and desire for power. This rivalry represents betrayal and the eternal struggle between order and chaos.
4. Thor and Loki (Norse Mythology)
   • Though not biological brothers, they were raised as such. Their relationship is marked by mischief, betrayal, and occasional cooperation—mirroring the love-hate dynamic of the Gallaghers.
5. Eteocles and Polynices (Greek Mythology)
   • Sons of Oedipus who kill each other in a battle for control of Thebes. Their story is a tragic tale of pride, power, and familial curse.
6. Inanna and Ereshkigal (Sumerian Mythology)
   • Sisters who rule the heavens and the underworld, respectively. Their myth explores themes of duality, death, and rebirth—useful if you want to explore the creative/destructive tension between Liam and Noel.

Oasis has incredible anthems that have proven to be more powerful than ever when played live 30 years after some of the most popular ones were written and first performed. The Oasis logo is so simple and in spite of this simplicity, or maybe because of it, the demand for its merchandise was extraordinary. The lines were so long and their pop up stores have been incredibly successful as well. And when I went online to buy merchandise that was sold out at the Rose Bowl, they were also sold out via that channel as well. The demand for their merchandise is off the charts and represents another enormous revenue generator for Noel and Liam.

This picture doesn’t do a great job of capturing how long the merchandise line was but, believe me, it was huge, and not just at this location, but for every one of them at the Rose Bowl. The only way we were able to get some items was to leave in the middle of the fireworks of the last song, Champagne Supernova, when, fortunately, the lines were much more manageable.

Prior to the show, and now still the case over a week later, many of their melodies and lyrics are seared into my psyche and consciousness. I can’t stop humming or singing them. Noel Gallagher has said that he wrote many of the songs from their debut, breakout album Definitely Maybe to counter grunge’s negativity and pessimism by producing positive, powerful anthems. If you listen to these songs, as well as those from their second album, you can see how he did just that. He obviously struck a chord and succeeded beyond his wildest dreams as Definitely Maybe has sold over 15 million copies and has garnered over 3 billion streams whereas (What’s The Story) Morning Glory did even better by selling 22 million copies and approximately 4 billion streams. Not surprisingly, there has been a huge upsurge in Oasis’ popularity on the streaming services since their reunion tour was announced.

Here is a euphoric sea of humanity enjoying every moment together listening to some of the greatest rock and roll anthems ever written.

I took this next photo because I went to UCLA and I used to watch the Bruins play football at the Rose Bowl when I was a student there over 40 years ago. No offense to UCLA football, but despite being there during its hey day, those games couldn’t compare to what I experienced watching Oasis.

One of my favorite songs by Noel Gallagher is Talk Tonight. It’s a beautiful composition with such a gorgeous melody sung angelically by Noel. Equally moving is the story behind it as it is quite touching and life changing for Noel personally, the band more generally, and for the world of music overall. 

Shortly after the release of Definitely Maybe in 1994, Oasis embarked upon tackling the U.S. with a show at the famous Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles. A few days prior to the gig, the band members did what they thought was cocaine but it turned out to be meth which really messed them up such that they were awake for three days. As a result, they played quite poorly and were forced to contend with equipment problems. The show was deemed a disaster by Noel and he was so distraught that he decided to leave the band and go up to San Francisco and hang out with a girl he had met at a show a few days before in San Francisco. Her name was Melissa Lim and, as this post on X shows, she deserves a lot of credit for talking Noel off the cliff and having him return to the band.

The song Talk Tonight is about that encounter.

Sittin’ on my own, chewin’ on a bone
A thousand million miles from home
When something hit me
Somewhere right between the eyes
Sleepin’ on a plane, you know you can’t complain
You took your last chance once again
I landed, stranded
Hardly even knew your name

I wanna talk tonight
Until the morning light
‘Bout how you saved my life
You and me see how we are
You and me see how we are

And one of the coolest things about the whole Melissa/Noel connection is that she attended the same show at the Rose Bowl as Heather and I, along with 90,000 of our closest friends.

Oasis went on to record and perform together for approximately 15 more years until they blew up like a Champagne Supernova in Paris in 2009. Both Liam and Noel transitioned to having solo careers but, not surprisingly, neither of them came anywhere close to the success they experienced with Oasis. I saw Noel Gallager and the High Flying Birds twice which I enjoyed immensely. The first time he opened for Smashing Pumpkins and the second time Garbage opened for his band. And while the shows were very enjoyable, there was no way they could match the energy (or crowd size) of what I experienced at the Oasis show.

Interestingly, in spite of playing to huge audiences over the years, Noel admitted that not even he was prepared for what he was getting into and how nervous he was during the beginning of the first show in Cardiff. 

The song I wanted to see most played live, and one I have written about before because of its powerful lyrics, was Acquiesce. Here is a clip of the song and the power it has on a U.K. audience. It is THE song to show the power of partnership and, in this case, the partnership between Noel and Liam as musicians, bandmates, and brothers. They appear to have gone from being brothers in arms against each other to now both bearing arms to fight together. They have proven that when working and fighting together they are unstoppable and able to produce some of the best rock and roll live music the world has ever seen.

And if we are to take what Noel says at face value and continue to see more pictures like this, the world could be the beneficiaries of these two brothers, arm in arm, along with their incredible bandmates, sharing their amazing music for more years to come.