The China Mail - 'Finally': Oasis fans, young and old, gear up for reunion

For older fans who attended gigs during the height of the Britpop band's fame in the 1990s, the tour is a chance to relive memories of the good old days.

And for younger audiences, it is a moment they never imagined experiencing live after hearing stories of one of the music world's most acrimonious break-ups.

Matt, 25, a software engineer from Leeds in northern England, grew up listening to his dad rave about Liam and Noel Gallagher's legendary gigs.

But the prospect of seeing them live was always a "distant fantasy" -- until now.

Matt snagged tickets to the band's long-awaited return to their hometown Manchester on July 11.

"Not only will they obviously be gassed to be back in Manchester, but the fans and the locals are going to be gassed to have them back," Matt, who did not want to share his full name, told AFP.

Lauren DeBruin, 23, from Hemel Hempstead, northwest of London, said she loved Britpop "because that's the music my mum listened to when she was a teenager".

"I've got a lot of fond memories of that sort of music, especially Oasis," said the actor, who missed out on tickets in the craze that followed the Gallagher brothers announcing a reunion after a 15-year hiatus.

- 'Celebrity crush' -

Oasis -- whose hits include "Don't Look Back In Anger" and "Champagne Supernova" -- kick off the worldwide tour in the Welsh capital on Friday.

It is one of 17 sold out UK shows followed by performances in the US, Japan, Australia and Argentina.

Sales platform Ticketmaster sold more than 900,000 tickets for the gigs, with outrage over sudden price hikes, known as "dynamic" pricing, due to overwhelming demand.

"I'd already seen the best bit, so it's kind of a bonus," said Sam Inglis, a 47-year-old sub-editor from Norwich, eastern England, who watched Oasis live four times before they split up in 2009.

"I think there's going to be a lot of middle-aged men like myself regressing," said Inglis, who is attending concerts in Manchester and Los Angeles.

"It might take some of the younger fans... by surprise. Because things did used to get quite rowdy," he recalled.

In the band's heyday, the Gallagher brothers' irreverent style and hedonism became synonymous with British "lad" culture embraced by young men and football fans.

But three decades later, some of its most ardent supporters now are young women on TikTok and X sharing video edits and posts of the brothers.

Online, the fans are "mostly young girls", said 16-year-old Liz Marina Numbela Nascimento from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

"I don't know why the girls love it so much... I think it's that classic thing of having a celebrity crush," she added.

- 'Old 'n' young' -

For younger fans like Nascimento, who will see the band in Sao Paulo in November with other fans she met on X, the reunion "means that music is coming back".

"We finally get to experience what we've been hearing about for the past decade," gushed the superfan.

For many, the band's enduring appeal comes from its catchy, upbeat tunes, nostalgia for its optimistic cultural moment, and Oasis's origin story as a working-class, homegrown success.

"There's been a bit of a dearth of anything similar for quite a long time," said Inglis.

In 2020, one of the band's most iconic tracks "Wonderwall" became the first song from the 90s to reach one billion streams on Spotify.

Younger fans have also been able to discover their music by attending separate gigs by Liam and Noel.

Matt -- who has seen both brothers perform individually -- said "they're missing the other half".

"It feels like you're watching 50 percent of Oasis."

The band's cross-generational popularity has also led to a rift between some fans.

"Imagine waiting 15 years for Oasis to re-form only to lose out on tickets to Chloe, 21, from Stockport who just wants to hear Wonderwall live," X user Billy Corcoran posted last August.

In an X post this June, Liam Gallagher said the tour was "for everyone old 'n' young".

Inglis shares that sentiment and called the clash between older and younger fans "ridiculous".

But there will be at least one point of contention between the generations, he conceded, vowing not to bring out his phone to film any of the concert.

"Absolutely not. There'll be none of that for me."

A.Kwok--ThChM