In Manchester, the northwest English hometown of legendary rockers Oasis, fans on Tuesday were gushing about the seemingly impossible — the band was getting back together for a worldwide tour next year.
“It’s about time,” said Ralph Clare, sat in his wheelchair in front of a giant mural of Liam and Noel Gallagher, whose 15-year feud had left many fans wondering if they would ever play together again.
“I got a bit fed up with all the arguments… It’s fantastic news — the best news ever,” the 82-year-old said.
“Their music, because it’s local, it means more. Just the sound of them… gets your feet going!”
The retiree lives in the south of the city, near where the long-squabbling Oasis siblings grew up in Burnage.
It is peppered with band history, old and new, including the recently painted mural outside Sifters Records where the brothers used buy records as teenagers.
They namecheck the store in hit song “Shakermaker”, with the lyrics “Mister Sifter sold me songs / When I was just 16.”
Inside, still selling records after the band behind the song broke up and then got back together, Pete Howard — or Mr Sifter, as he is known — says the announcement came “out of the blue”.
“People have been always asking me, will they be getting back together again? And I’ve always said, well, somewhere down the line, long after my time”, says Howard, 76.
Local teaching assistants Mark and Michelle Locke were posing for selfies in front of the mural, which went up this summer to mark the imminent 30-year anniversary of Oasis’s breakthrough debut album “Definitely Maybe”.
“No one ever thought” that the brothers would reconcile after more than a decade trading barbs at each other on social media, said Michelle, 45.
“(People) always said ‘oh, they’re never going to get back together, they hate each other’.”
“Never thought this day was going to come,” said 26-year-old fan Gary Edwards. “But listening to all their music and stuff, you can feel related to it, especially coming from up north.”
Among the 14 gig dates announced for the UK and Ireland next July and August are four shows at Heaton Park in Manchester.
Ryan Quinn, 24, said he would pay “several hundred pounds” for tickets. He was nine years old when the band broke up. “It’s special getting this chance the second time round to potentially go and see them, if I can get a ticket.”
“I wasn’t around for most of the time that they were actually popular the first time around. But for me… it’s still crazy how big they are, 30 years on.”
“I see the way it made people feel in the 90s, it makes me feel a similar way to that,” Quinn added. “Everyone’s dead looking forward to it.”
After so long feuding in the public eye — taking swipes at each other online and in interviews — some were sceptical about how long the siblings’ new truce would last.
“The brothers are going to have their ups and downs, but I hope (they) don’t just do the first concert and then fall out again and then I don’t get to see them,” said Michelle. “That would be a nightmare.”
“Do I think they’ll keep calm? No,” said Quinn. “That’s part of the appeal though, isn’t it? I don’t know if they’ll keep the calm, but as long as the music’s playing and they’re all on stage then I’m happy.”
For Howard, the pair’s age might help peace prevail. “Maybe with them being older, they’ll discuss things instead of punching each other. So, you know, that’d be nice,” he said.
Clare predicted the reunion was also a big deal for their mother, Peggy Gallagher.
“I think she is over the moon… she wanted this a long time ago,” he said. “To see the two offsprings get together again, it must be fantastic.”
Clare said he thought the pair had simply realised it was time to share again their talents.
“They’re just lovable rogues, and the music’s fantastic,” he said. “It should have been years ago, but they weren’t ready. But now I think they’re ready for it.”
For Quinn, the pair’s influence on Manchester is still as big as it was when they released the first two hit albums three decades ago and before they broke up in 2009.
“They never died. They’ve just not been performing for 15 years,” he said.
