By Kitty Chrisp
Oasis are kicking off their much-anticipated reunion tour on July 4 in Cardiff 鈥 but how will phones impact the band? (Picture: Marco Prosch/Getty Images)
When Liam and Noel Gallagher last played together as Oasis in 2009, we were still in our BlackBerry phone era. The iPhone 3G was only just coming around. No one used phones as cameras, let alone videocameras.
Fast forward 16 years, and Oasis鈥 huge reunion tour 鈥 kicking off on July 4 in Cardiff 鈥 will be a sea of screens where greasy, bashing heads used to be.
Research from UK electronics website Compare and Recycle estimates 17.3million minutes of Oasis鈥 33-gig tour will be recorded on phones. That鈥檚 the equivalent to 33 years of non-stop Oasis recordings.
What happened to living in the moment?
But while we鈥檝e come to expect this behaviour from concert-goers 鈥 leading to artists like Sabrina Carpenter considering phone bans 鈥 Noel and Liam haven鈥檛 performed together under this heavily scrutinised environment yet, which could raise on-stage (and off-stage) tensions.
Indeed, just because there鈥檚 a reunion, it doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean Noel and Liam are skipping into the sunset together: there are reports of a 鈥榤ilitary-style operation鈥 to give the brothers distance from each other while on tour, with reported separate green rooms and after parties.
The microscope is well and truly on Noel and Liam Gallagher: not just for their music, but for their famously fraught relationship too (Picture: Simon Emmett/Fear PR/PA Wire)
In 2009 Oasis weren鈥檛 impacted by the prospect of on stage moments going viral, but today they are (Picture: Peter Bischoff/Getty Images)
This is worrying enough for those with tickets for September 鈥 which feels a shakily long way away 鈥 without the brothers disliking this phone-obsessed trend, which could bubble on-stage frustrations further.
鈥楾his day and age is f***ed now. Camera phones. People go to concerts and film. They鈥檙e not in the moment,鈥 Liam once said.
鈥榃hereas you know when you get out the old guard who sit there and say, 鈥淚t isn鈥檛 as good as it was in my day.鈥 We鈥檝e got the f***ing right to say that. It will never be the same. Rock and roll. Forget Oasis. Forget whether you like the music or not. Going to a concert will never be the same as what it was back then in the 90s,鈥 he said.
Liam continued: 鈥榊ou look at Knebworth, no one鈥檚 got a f***ing phone. Everyone鈥檚 just buzzing. Now, whether it鈥檚 a small gig or a big gig, they鈥檙e all like that on their f***ing phones. I鈥檓 dead proud we got in there before it ended.鈥
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In 2020 former band photographer Kevin Cummins told The Quietus of Noel鈥檚 similar concerns, expressed to him 鈥榯he other day鈥 while the pair attended a football match together.
鈥楴oel was saying, 鈥淲ell, [Oasis] wouldn鈥檛 be the same, because there would be 200,000 people watching it through their phones.鈥
鈥楬e said, 鈥淲e were the last band really where you could go to a gig and nobody was taking pictures, and that鈥檚 what made it exciting.鈥濃
In short: if the only thing that could reconcile these feuding brothers is the promise of the magic of Oasis at Knebworth, they may be disappointed. So much has changed in gig environments that the magic may be harder to conjure in 2025.
If the brothers aren鈥檛 feeling it on stage 鈥 possibly the only time they will come together for hours at a time, if reports of the 鈥榤ilitary-style operation鈥 are true 鈥 and if tensions behind the scenes are sizzling, who鈥檚 to say they won鈥檛 just throw in the towel?
Phones rather than greasy head-banging has become the norm at concerts in 2025 (Picture: Kristy Sparow/Getty Images)
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Plus, the Gallagher brothers have nothing if not egos 鈥 and a long history of trying to dent each other鈥檚 through public barbs.
In a 2020 interview with NME Liam said of his brother and bandmate: 鈥楾he geezer鈥檚 ego鈥檚 out of control.鈥
And, well, you just have to look at Liam walk and speak to see this.
The best way to bruise an ego is public humiliation, which in the age of phones and concerts will be rewatched and relived forever. So if Noel or Liam decide to take a swipe at one another on stage, the impact will be amplified publicly, and in turn personally too.
Just look at Roger Daltrey鈥檚 tantrum at The Who鈥檚 recent Royal Albert Hall gig, when he blamed drummer Zak Starkey for not being able to hear over the music. Zak 鈥 son of Ringo Starr 鈥 was unceremoniously sacked after 30 years with the band, re-hired, seemingly sacked again and now honestly, we鈥檙e not sure what鈥檚 happening 鈥 and neither is Zak.
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It seems unlikely Daltrey鈥檚 reaction to looking a bit silly on stage would have been quite so extreme if the moment wasn鈥檛 online forever. Rather than simply brushing the mistake off as they perhaps would have done 20 years ago, fingers were pointed.
With Oasis in particular, the Gallagher brothers鈥 feud is as famous as Wonderwall, so their relationship will be scrutinised to smithereens as soon as they step out for the first time together tomorrow.
What will follow is body language experts finding signs the brothers are still harbouring resentment, and even unintentional jibes that would usually go unnoticed will be dissected like a frog in a science class.
Unless the brothers go on a digital detox 鈥 which we cannot see happening for social media obsessed Liam 鈥 they will see all this play out online throughout their tour for months on end.
Everyone hold tight, because we鈥檙e in for a wild ride. Let鈥檚 just hope Noel and Liam will Roll With It like champs, even if videos from gigs will Live Forever.
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