16 years since the infamous bust up, Oasis reunite for a world tour of epic proportions. The stakes have never been higher. Audio Media International was there for the first gig. 

Arriving in Cardiff on Friday 4th July, there’s a feeling of celebration, pride and fun in the air. Notably, there’s a good chunk of fans not old enough to have seen Oasis in the 90’s. Even Pitchfork admit to not being there first time around. 

Instead of the football style crowds that marked the inconsistent 00’s Oasis gigs, this is a different gathering. Perhaps this is to be expected as UK charity Music Venue Trust recently reported that most of the British independent venues Oasis played in 1994 no longer exist and, such is the hype around this reunion, the venues that mark the Oasis Live ‘25 tour have more in common with a Taylor Swift trip around the world.

The first action the giant U2-style stadium screens see are extended Oasis themed videos for Range Rover and Adidas.  It matters little to the die-hard fans. Sure, amongst the crowd 90s bucket hats and tattoos of the Gallaghers’ faces mix with a handful of nationalist torsos wearing flags, but these are outnumbered by fans who are here for the music and the songs rather than a nostalgia trip or a nationalist agenda. The Temu tees display classic song titles, classic lyrics and live photos. This is all about the live experience. 

And live Oasis is what has made the band, more so than any distant contemporaries of the Britpop era. Whether it’s the electrifying, punk blitz of classics like Rock ‘N’ Roll Star or the confessional Talk Tonight, no other band has ever managed to create a live experience quite like it. The love songs and the raw rock, the orchestral anthems and the soul searching ballads. All are present tonight.   

Cast open up and then a punchy Richard Ashcroft acts as hype man for the main event – to better effect. 

Tonight in Cardiff, every song is largely a greatest hits run for Oasis fans. It’s chosen by the band rather than Spotify data or Tiktok metrics perhaps. Bring it On Down and D’ You Know What I Mean certainly aren’t on the most requested list by the fans but here, they make sense in a set list that is well paced and relentless. No deep cuts, no new songs, no reimagining of a classic with a special guest. This is stadium rock rewritten to fit the wishes of the band and convention be dammed. 

The opening warning is the brief playback of Fuckin’ in The Bushes, a 2000 era cut offering a mix of Hendrix loops and archive quotes from the Isle of Wight Festival. The 70s Isle of Wight documentary snippets perhaps have new relevance tonight – “We put this festival on, you bastards, with a lot of love. We worked for one year for you pigs. And you wanna break our walls down?”

From the start, between song chat is kept to a minimum. Liam snarls and swaggers, having perfected this in large venues as a solo artist since 2017.  Noel stares at his new guitar in silence with a hint of nerves but soon finds his place on the big screen. He closes his eyes, looks up and smiles to himself at points, perhaps remembering the feel of a stadium rather than the smaller venues he’s decided to play solo (with Crazy Horse style companions High Flying Birds) since 2010.  

“We’re hard work. I get it” says Liam,  offering apologies for decades of botched gigs. Things get so professional that Noel introduces the band, including “our 14th drummer, Joey Waronker”. 

The Cardiff stadium sound set-up sounds even bigger than the stadium Oasis of old and the songs have been pulled apart and polished to sound their very best. Noel is arguably a better guitar player in 2025 than in 1994 and Liam’s voice is still a snarling force, pushed to the limits tonight. Paul Arthurs, Gem Archer and Andy Bell make up a band that, alongside new drummer Joey Waronker, create an impressive line-up which offers an epic sound, no errors and songs so rehearsed, you wonder how many weeks they’ve spent in rehearsals. It’s worth noting that the development of live sound technology has changed massively since 2009 too, helping any re-formed rock band and the set-up at Cardiff is a testament to that. That’s despite the human element of the sound system blighting support act Cast for the first couple of songs. 

The rapid run through of the hits leave no room for a lull. Even a brief Noel acoustic interlude (Talk Tonight, Half The World Away) doesn’t stop the momentum. There’s no extended guitar solos or distorted, swaggering intros of old but this is a band that wants to put these songs back on the world stage and celebrate them. The covers of past Oasis sets (Beatles, Neil Young, The Jam) are absent and while critics would argue that set opener Hello and a propulsive Cigarettes & Alcohol are part covers themselves (Gary Glitter, T Rex) these anthems take on a new life tonight.

It feels like the first six songs ( Hello, Acquiesce, Morning Glory, Some Might Say, Bring It on Down, Cigarettes & Alcohol) have never been played so precisely, at such volume and with such intent. Bring It On Down precedes Cigarettes and Alcohol and the double K.O creates the most frantic reaction from the floor. Shoes are lost in the surge, crowd surfing starts, beer becomes airborne and some startled fans retreat to less turbulent patches of the crowd. 

The crowd reaction isn’t unlike this correspondent’s first Oasis gig in the 90s so perhaps it’s no surprise. All of the set list songs (bar 2022’s Little by Little) were released between 1994 and 1997. While those songs are older than some of the audience, they have aged well and naturally grown in status during Oasis’ fallow years as music streaming took off just as Oasis imploded.  

Cardiff is a success but the biggest achievement of the band tonight is satisfying fans old and new, a balancing act that will be fascinating to watch as Oasis begin to circle the world once again…

SET LIST

Hello
Acquiesce
Morning Glory
Some Might Say
Bring It on Down
Cigarettes & 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

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The Masterplan
Don’t Look Back in Anger
Wonderwall
Champagne Supernova