This was a week when it never felt cooler to be in Manchester, to be a part of Manchester
Dianne has written for the Manchester Evening News for almost 20 years across a variety of subjects. Formerly Diary Editor covering showbiz and events in Manchester, Dianne is now Lifestyle Editor, covering travel reviews, food and drink news and reviews and attending many of the biggest gigs across Manchester. Dianne loves a farm shop, and writing about all the great places for families to take children across the North West and beyond.
Oasis played their last night at Heaton Park(Image: Dianne Bourne)
You could barely turn a corner in Manchester this week without a sign of the extraordinary rock ‘n’ roll takeover that Oasis have staged in the city.
Shops transformed with Oasis lyrics and merchandise, the faces of Liam and Noel Gallagher staring moodily out from every lamppost, yellow buses and trams boasting She’s Electric.
Streets alive with excited fans, thousands soaking up the city before making the pilgrimage to Heaton Park (or Heaton Parrrkkk as I’m now destined to forever hear it in my head after hearing Liam’s tram announcements on the way in to the gigs).
This was a week when it never felt cooler to be in Manchester, to be a part of Manchester.
And to be a part of the extraordinary Oasis rock ‘n’ roll story – one that feels like it’s only just getting going again after 16 years away.
At Sunday night’s final show even Liam and Noel couldn’t fail to be moved by the reaction on home turf.
An emotional Noel summed it up in the encore saying: “For the last ten days the eyes of the world have been on this city of Manchester and I just want to say to all Mancunians you’ve done yourself f***ing proud.
“We’ve got people coming in from all over the world… what I can say by staying in the city is you’ve still f****ing got it Manchester.”
Liam earlier made his own heartfelt thanks saying: “It’s been amazing being here the last f***ing ten days, you’ve actually blown whatever brain cells I had left, they’re well and truly gone.”
It seems a long time now since that five star opening night gig in Cardiff, followed up with a simply scorching opener here in Manchester.
But as Bonehead rightly said after Saturday night’s gig: “It’s getting better man”.
So can you imagine just how turbo-charged Sunday’s final Oasis Manchester gig was going to be? Even with the prediction of a shock of the lightning (which thankfully never materialised), but a good old soaking of rain, to spice things up.
You could throw as many stars as you like at this show, it still wouldn’t adequately sum up that feeling of being there, being a part of this huge, collective experience of joy.
A Manchester moment, yes, but a moment in rock ‘n’ roll history too.
A gig experience so feverishly desired by the masses here in Manchester, that they would stop at nothing to get the tiniest glimpse, the merest muffled strains of Liam’s voice and Noel’s guitar as the winds carried it. The FOMO was rocket fuel.
Some 400,000 witnessed this show inside Heaton Park over the past week – who knows how many thousands more were listening in around the perimeters?
I mean, imagine having the brass neck to casually saunter down Sheepfoot Lane in Prestwich with an 8-ft tall ladder under your arm, to try and clamber over a fence to get in? Only in Manchester.
Yet momentum has only continued to build over the past week of gigs at Heaton Park.
Naturally, as soon as “Gallagher Hill” started filtering into Facebook feeds, it became another way for the ticketless outcasts to masterplan their way to be involved in this gig. Liam even paying tribute to them on stage ahead of Bring it on Down.
And who could really blame them? Who wants to be alone when we can feel alive instead, as Liam sings with vigour at the Aquiesce opening of this show.
And as for the show? Well, having seen it three times now I suppose I knew what to expect, but it continues to deliver the near perfect setlist for Oasis fans.
And believe the hype – they really are sounding better than ever.
Hello is the perfect opener – Liam in bombastic form leading the crowds in their first delirious bounce of the day. Could it be a more perfect song as Liam bellows: “It’s good to be back, it’s good to be back.”
Acquiese swiftly follows and the crowd are just in raptures as the raucous strains lead to yet more wild, whirling arms and hurling of pint pots (containing heaven knows what as they spray out across the bucket hats).
As Noel sings “Because we need each other, we believe in one another” could it ever have sounded more accurate for the reunited brothers on stage, who look happier and more comfortable in each other’s company with each passing gig?
But then, the lyrics of these Oasis songs is what has made them such lasting anthems – to those who first heard them 30 years ago, as much as to the teenagers of today.
They are anthems that dream of an escape to something better, to something raucous and magical away from the hum drum of life, all the more special having been dreamed up in the mind of a young lad growing up in a council house in Burnage.
His lyrics, so many different lyrics, are everywhere at this gig – they’re strewn across t-shirts, they’re emblazoned bold and loud on old school banners that are waved up at the stage, they’re on bucket hats that are as ubiquitous as Adidas stripes among the crowd.
If Noel Gallagher ever had any doubt what his lasting legacy is, then this is it.
Never more so than when Live Forever kicks in, and 70-odd thousand people are screaming every word, arm in arm, many in tears.
Every song will be someone’s highlight in this show, but Cigarettes & Alcohol has become one of THE moments of the show, Liam instructing us all to get into the poznan position before launching into one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll anthems of all time, a sea of bodies rippling with the throbbing rhythm as the song kicks in.
Noel’s acoustic moments too are the perfect tender antidote that give the show real ebb and flow. When he returns for the encore, he knows how much Don’t Look Back in Anger is going to mean to the Manchester fans, bees gathering across the video screens as a beautiful tribute to those who lost their lives at Manchester Arena in 2017.
Champagne Supernova is the finale of all finales on this tour, the perfect final singalong for fans, and with the added fizz of a firework display at these Heaton Park gigs.
Let’s be clear about one thing – this comeback is NOT a nostalgia trip. Because these gigs are not about wistful yearning for the past – they’re about living for the moment.
The feeling I’m pretty sure every single one of those 370,000 attendees leaving the park this week is left with is ‘what a time to be alive’.
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Oasis setlist at Heaton Park, July 20, 2025
- Hello
- Acquiesce
- Morning Glory
- Some Might Say
- Bring it on Down
- Cigarettes and Alcohol
- Fade Away
- Supersonic
- Roll With It
- Talk Tonight
- Half the World Away
- Little by Little
- D’You Know What I Mean
- Stand By Me
- Cast No Shadow
- Slide Away
- Whatever
- Live Forever
- Rock ‘n’ Roll Star
Encore
- The Masterplan
- Don’t Look Back in Anger
- Wonderwall
- Champagne Supernova
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