‘It’s good to be back!’ Long-awaited Oasis reunion tour begins

Liam Gallagher, left, and Noel Gallagher from the band Oasis as they perform during their reunion concert Friday in Cardiff, Wales. Scott A Garfitt — Invision/AP

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By Jill Lawless

The Associated Press

CARDIFF, Wales — Oasis finally took to the stage in Wales on Friday for the start of a highly anticipated reunion tour.

In front of an ecstatic capacity crowd, the band chose to resume live performances after 16 years with the apt “Hello” and its refrain of “it’s good to be back.”

After a montage of headlines about the feuding brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher was capped with the words “the guns have fallen silent,” Oasis appeared on stage to a deafening roar.

The brothers largely kept their distance onstage. Noel hammered away at his guitar while a parka-clad Liam snarled into the microphone.

After the opening salvo, they followed up with a string of fan favourites including “Acquiesce” and “What’s the Story, Morning Glory.”

“Turn around,” a tambourine-clutching Liam exhorted the crowd before launching into “Cigarettes and Alcohol.”

“Put your arms over each other like you love each other,” he said.

Earlier in the day, tens of thousands of Oasis fans thronged the streets of Cardiff before the Britpop-era rockers were kicking off a hotly, and somewhat anxiously, anticipated reunion tour.

The return of the band behind “Wonderwall,” “Supersonic” and “Champagne Supernova” was a major moment for fans.

One fan banner summed it up: “The great wait is over.”

Will it be a storming success? Definitely maybe.

Predictions are tricky when it comes to the Gallaghers, the sparring siblings who give Oasis its charisma, and its volatile chemistry.

“That’s one of the attractions about Oasis — they bring this element of risk,” author and music journalist John Aizlewood said. He said that the “alternative aura that they have cultivated with the age-old pop story of fractious brothers” is part of the band’s appeal.

Unless the brothers’ combustible relationship derails proceedings, two nights at Cardiff’s 70,000-capacity Principality Stadium on Friday and today raise the curtain on a 19-date Live ‘25 tour in the U.K. and Ireland. Then come stops in North America, South America, Asia and Australia, ending in Sao Paulo on Nov. 23.