Oasis: What’s the story? “A man with a fork in a world of soup” • FRANCE 24 English

Oasis: What’s the story? “A man with a fork in a world of soup” • FRANCE 24 English

Next, Oasis played the first gig in 16 years this weekend, kicking off the Oasis 25 tour in Cardiff on Friday. 14 million people reportedly trying to get tickets online just for the UK leg alone. 1.4 million tickets available. Some paid an arm and a leg, too, because of dynamic pricing system. Up to £400,500 a ticket. They formed in 1991. Liam came up with a name after seeing a poster listing the Oasis Leisure Center in Swindon as a music venue. Two years later, they managed to squeeze onto a bill of the bands playing at King Tuts Wawwa Club in Glasgow, playing four songs in front of a crowd of 12, including the staff. And then the local band promoter, Alan McGee, happened to be there seeing another band, but by Oasis’s second song. He decided to sign them. A Japanese tourist was watching and filmed one of these tracks. [Music] The sky looks [Music] the first album came out a year later. A cover still regarded as one of the most memorable of the ’90s Brit pop era along with Blur’s pop life. This is what Null and Liam said when they were asked in 1994 what people should expect from their music. 12 songs that are just um honest good off the roll songs about everyday things and about nothing about being alive and having a good time about being happy about enjoying yourself and then about being sad really about but knowing that you can get better about everything just life. Seven world tours later, seven studio albums and reported $200 million earned between the bands. By 2009, a quick to flare at brothers had had enough of each other. And it was on the road here in Paris at the rock and send concert that this happened. Liam and Noel Gallagher just had a huge big fight together in the dressing room. The band is not going to play tonight and cancel the rest of the Euro tour.
So null quit. His take was that Liam was arguing and wielding guitar like a maniac. Null later claimed he was the angriest man in the world. memorably calling Liam a man with a fork in a world of soup. Liam’s take of course completely different. So he got his ball and he ran home and split the band up. But the reason why no left the band is nothing to do with an argument. You’d have to ask him when he comes in if he ever comes out of his house again. But I think null didn’t want to be an Oasis. I think he’d had enough. You know what I mean? But he didn’t have the balls to tell the fans or his band. And he just dramatized another silly argument that we had. He’s made out as if it’s the worst argument ever. I’ve had bigger arguments with me toenails. You know what I mean?
So, we’re 16 years on and after making headlines last year around the world again when they announced the guns had fallen silent. The band’s back together. Here we are kicking off in Cardiff to rave reviews, burnishing their legacy, some might say. Let’s bring in Dominic Men, former editor of The Sun, who’s interviewed Oasis 25 times over the year and was at the opening gig in Cardiff on Friday. Dominic, good to have you on the program. and welcome to France 24. First of all, how was the opening night? Yes, it did not disappoint. It was spectacular. It was emotional. It was bombastic, but it was a bit slicker and a bit more professional than I’ve seen them in the past. So, I think uh it’s the least that the audience deserve with the amount they spent on the ticket prices, but it just felt a little bit more polite, a little bit more polished to me. Tell us about the crowd as well that the type of people we were seeing because the Oasis they seem to attract a particular type of crowd. You know who who are the people around you? The ones with the mobiles up in the air as well as the beers. It was a mixture. I mean outside it felt very much like to me like a World Cup kind of knockout game. People were pitching up early of all ages uh packing the pubs around the uh the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. But I did notice as well as it being men of of a certain age I.e. my my age. Uh there were also a lot of groups of sort of stareyed youngsters as well, lads and and girls all clad in kind of the merchandise and football shirts. So I did feel it was quite a mixture.
Now tell me Dominic, because I think your story goes back to when you were working for a magazine called Spiral Scratch at the time, weren’t you? And you were interviewing the Spiral Carpets in a pub and in there was a roadie called Null. Yes. This was back in 1989. Um, and I remember interviewing in Spiral Carpets, but I was very taken with a young man who worked with them who was really mocking me endlessly and I was forcing me to buy buy him Guinness with his mop top haircut. And um, I later realized that that was actually null because he he obviously worked as a as a roadie for them back in that day and really kind of maybe used them as a bit of a blueprint for for for modeling Oasis. And then I first saw Oasis in 1994 and I didn’t actually make the connection at that point that this was the same guy who had been mocking me mercilessly only a few years earlier.
And when you when you started to interview them together, what did you make of them that connection between them? Um, and did you always get on in those interviews as well? Um, I’ve had my moments. I mean, you never quite know with Liam, particularly which Liam you’re going to get because you can go from being charm personified to trying to take your trousers off in front of photographers and pouring beer throwing a Guinness at your head. Um, but actually if you get him on his own and I actually had a very memorable interview with him in Tokyo. I actually flew to Tokyo to see the band when they opened one of their tours and I I I sat down with him for two hours and he was charm really really charming guy and very it was a very touching interview that showed a softer side to him but that’s because there weren’t that many people around who he felt he had to show off show off to. I mean with null it’s a kind of different story really. I mean null’s obviously um incredibly witty man um and you know he’s he’s a he’s got a bit more to say. What was it clear to you? I mean, you talked about, you know, dodging the dodging the the Guinness sometimes. Was it clear they weren’t getting on during the interviews that they were always combustible? To be honest, I never interviewed them that much together. It was always sort of snatched moments with them separately. To be honest, in fact, I was thinking about this the other day. I haven’t actually seen them together that much over my career, you know, in apart from really being on stage. I mean, yes, they would turn up at awards ceremonies and things like that together, but there was never really that much interaction, I felt. And I noticed that obviously on stage on Friday, there’s it’s a bit of a military operation where they’re they’re trying to keep the the brothers apart. I mean, they’ve changed this the kind of uh dynamic between them on stage. So, Bonehead, the guitarist, is actually between them um as a kind of barrier or or a bouncer to to kind of prevent any sort of clash, I think. and and it was there was some videos as well of Liam sort of left the stage immediately and got in a chauffeer driven car and disappeared to a different hotel uh to the one which null was staying in. So, I think we’re seeing a bit like the Rolling Stones, you know, these big corporate tours where there’s so much money at stake. They’re leaving nothing uh nothing to error and and I think that there’ll be you know, there’s different dressing rooms, there’s different seating areas for their friends and you null’s friends, Liam’s friends, as I say, different hotels. So, I think they’re not taking any chances. What fascinates me as well, Dominic, and you’ve touched upon it a moment ago, is the fact that they’re so combustible, the fact that they, you know, the way they had different chaperones effectively, there is this sense of the energy that gives, not just in the UK, but the amount of enthusiasm for it seems to go way beyond, you know, up to people talk listening to interviews with, you know, Brazilians the other day, waiting, desperate for tickets, loving the story that these two brothers that came from nothing, that talked about changing the world, being the greatest band in the world, you making it, you know, stratospherically. And interesting as well that they broke up in Paris and it went pear-shaped back in 2009. And it’s not on the tour this time. I want to mention that. First, I want to just let you listen to this. This is Liam talking about Paris being his favorite city in the world. So, that also begs the question why they wouldn’t come back. This is his take when he was interviewed back in 2018 for Noisy by a group of school children. I know what your brother’s um band is called. What is it called?
I flying birds.
Oh, that lot. Yeah. Do you like them?
Yeah.
What do you like them?
You don’t really do you warm me up, aren’t you? You want me to kick off? You want me to kick off, don’t you?
I like
Go on then.
What’s the song you most enjoy playing?
I like playing a song called Live Forever, which is I think it’s about my mom, so it’s a nice song to sing for my mother.
Sweet. And what’s your favorite part in the world? I like Paris cuz I like the Eiffel Tower.
I like it.
Yeah. Have you been up it?
No. No.
Dominic, are you surprised Paris has missed off the tour? I look Look at the moment the dates that they have announced are obviously Britain and Ireland. Uh and then they go to uh America, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Japan, Australia. So they that not only they haven’t announced any in Paris yet, but they also haven’t announced any in in wider Europe, Italy, Germany, Spain, etc. But what I anticipate is I think they will hold it together. I’m being asked a lot, is it going to implode? Will this at all be cancelled? I don’t think it will. There’s too much at stake. The they’ll get these 41 dates out out of the way which take them to the end of the year. And then if everybody’s happy, I would imagine 2026 you will see dates announced in France, in Germany, in Spain, in Italy, etc. Um because, you know, they they they’re popular in all these countries. And then I think they’ll possibly come back to the UK because next year’s the big year really because it’s the 30th anniversary of some amazing concerts I was privileged enough to attend at Main Road which is was was the home of their beloved Manchester City Football Club and then also the Nebwa 30th anniversary which I I can’t believe that they won’t want to mark. Um so look all the French fans out there hold your breath. I think you I think I think you might be seeing them next year, but whether they’ll avoid Paris or not, I’m not sure.
Well, here’s the thing.
It will hold some uh memories.
Well, you’ve kind of touched upon it, which is this. I saw the most liked YouTube comments from one of the viral videos of the gig in Cardiff, saying that I think the brothers staged the row to maximize the drama for 16 years, that this was always the master plan of null Gallagher, and I don’t mind. I don’t dislike them any less for it, was the comment, and it was the most uh most light. What do you make of the theories that this was always intended? No, I don’t think this is the case. I think that there is real acrimony. We’ve seen it, you know, we saw it develop all through the kind of year the 2000s really up until the implosion. And it was quite actually telling that the most recent song that they performed in that set at Cardiff was from 2002. It’s as if they had erased the sort of memory of the 21st century. But no, there’s real beef between them. I’m certain of that. Um, but you know, I think that, you know, as you mentioned, there’s a fascination with there’s always been a fascination with sibling rivalry. You know, it goes back to the Bible, the story of Joseph, you know, falling out with his brothers and then being reconciled. So that, as Liam might say, you know, there something quite biblical about this story. And I think that obviously, you know, that acrimony, which is genuine, you know, is obviously what has ramped up the price of of of of the deal. And you know, actually, if you look at the I think some of the money has been underestimated because if they’re doing 41 dates, say average 75,000 crowds, average ticket price 250 quid, which is probably on the conservative side, that comes to like 800 million. And you know, if there’s other dates on top of that, that is a hugely grossing tour.
Well, you mentioned Joseph in the Bible. Jo Joseph isn’t doing as well on Spotify. I mean, this points to the cultural phenomena of this. Just to give some figures here about the total streams of Oasis. So Spotify and Apple together uh 15 to 30 billion uh total streams the same as the Beatles interestingly and way above Blur also interesting. They’re in the Spotify billionaires club. Three tracks in that category. One the Wall Don’t Look Back in Anger. Champagne Supernova played the most. And before the reunion the band had 26.4 4 million monthly listeners and that’s increased since by 690%. So that gives you a sense, doesn’t it, of kind of this the comments about burnishing their legacy. I
mean, I think what that illustrates is that they’re a bigger band than they’ve ever been and globally in in multiple territories because, you know, we were always told that Oasis never cracked America, but you know, they’ve sold out some of the biggest stadia in in on the East Coast and the West Coast and in between. Um, so I think that they are reaching a new audience. It’s significant as well that you mentioned those three songs because the closing trilogy was Don’t Look Back in Anger, Wonder Wall, and Champagne Supernova. And that’s probably no coincidence that they’ve, you know, that matches with with those figures. And, you know, really, if you look at those three songs, I don’t see that there’s many bands in modern music that can that can produce the caliber of that music. and and you know it seems to be as we saw in the crowd on on Friday and Saturday translating to a to a younger audience. In fact, there was a I don’t know if you saw it there was a very funny video. So Richard Ascro from The Verve supported them. Yeah. And he was playing his biggest song, Bittersweet Symphony, that kind of is famous around the world. And there was a group of young people and they were shazaming it to find out what the song was, you know, and and and they’re being ridiculed for it because it’s kind of like, doesn’t everybody know bittersweet, didn’t we? But in a way, that was quite sort of there’s a slight innocence and beauty about that and it just shows the longevity of the of the Brit movement.
Dominic, quick final question. Do you like Blur? I do like Blur very much. In fact, I did I actually hired Alex James, the bass guitarist, as the food critic of the sudden newspaper when I was working there. And I’ve I I actually once sang Wonder Wall on karaoke with him at a Christmas party. So yeah, I do I know if I did see Blur in 1993, actually, you know, a year before I saw Oasis. So I think these bands are not mutually exclusive. You can like them all. I mean Pulp are great, too. Breaking the mold. Dominic, really lovely to talk to you. Thank you for your time. Dominic Murin, former editor of The Sun, who’s interviewed Oasis 25 times over the years. And it was the opening gig in Cardiff on Friday. Thank you, Dominic.

Oasis played their first gig in 16 years this weekend, kicking off their Oasis25 Tour in Cardiff on Friday. Reportedly, 14 million people tried to buy tickets online for the UK leg alone, with only 1.4 million tickets available. Some fans paid a hefty price due to a “dynamic pricing system,” with tickets going for as much as £400. France 24’s Gavin Lee spoke with Dominic Mohan, former editor of The Sun, who has interviewed Oasis 25 times over the years and attended the opening show in Cardiff on Friday.
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