Why are Oasis getting back together now?

Almost 15 years to the day since Oasis broke up, Noel and Liam Gallagher are getting the band back together. 

So what was it that finally persuaded the "marding" brothers to squash their quarrels? Was it Matty Healey berating them on Q with Tom Power? Is it because Taylor Swift currently holds the record for most sold-out shows by a solo artist at Wembley? Or, is it all a decades-long PR stunt, intended to keep the "Brit-pop" duo relevant far past their expiration date?

Today on Commotion, culture critics Rich Pelley, Maura Johnston and Oasis cover band member Alex Spears join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to unpack everything we know so far about the reunion that most fans believed could never happen.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: I can't believe that it's actually happening. Rich, this announcement has been teased for a few days now. Today you get this joint statement from the brothers. In truly Gallagher brother fashion, it is incredibly dramatic: "The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised." That's the statement that they released. Rich, what's happening there?

Rich: So that's their words — not your words. I know how excited you are. Yes we have heard today, in the UK and around the world, that Oasis are reforming. And we know they're doing 14 dates next July and August. So they're going to do dates in Wales, Scotland, Manchester, London and Dublin. And that's all we know. We don't know who's in the band. That's the big question. And we don't know anything else apart from the dates that have been announced.

Elamin: Yet somehow, that seems to be more than enough information for everybody to just get into a tizzy. I think, like, reasonably so, this is an announcement that's a long time in the making. Alex, we should say you are in an Oasis cover band, Parklife. My friend Lauren went to see your gig last week, and she had a great time. You are deeply in the Oasis fan universe. How badly did fans want Liam and Noel to get back together?

Alex: So I think there's a combination of two things. First, there was a segment of the fan base that was just resigned to it never happening. I would count myself among those. People have been messaging me today saying,"You said it was never going to happen," and I'm kind of having to eat my hat a little bit. But yeah, the way people have been looking at it, at least in a significant chunk of the fan base, is that they're almost like hypochondriacs. So I'm a hypochondriac with my health care. I have a little, you know, pain in my knee and I think I'm dying. Noel says something slightly not totally cool about Liam in an interview and, you know, people go off. It's nuts.

And, there's this one Facebook group in particular called The Parka Monkeys, where it does feel like every couple of weeks there's some new craze where people are fully convinced it's going to happen, and just feeding into the echo chamber. But yeah, it's surreal. It truly is surreal because it's legit this time.

Elamin: Look, Alex, people think Swifties are crazy. I'm like, no, I think the people who are talking about an Oasis reunion for years are way crazier, personally.

Alex: To that point, if I may, the original speculation was 10 shows at Wembley. And while they've only announced a smaller number than that, I think that that remains to be seen. If it sells out they could do ten. And my take, honestly, is that Taylor Swift holding the record for sold-out shows at Wembley is exactly what motivated Noel Gallagher to get off the couch and do this, because he couldn't stand the fact that someone other than his band was holding that record, when it would be just the easiest thing in the world for him to do it.

Elamin: What's amazing about this is, for people who don't have a relationship with Oasis or with the Gallagher brothers, you'd go, "No artist could possibly be that petty." But hearing that about Liam Gallagher — yeah, absolutely, I could 100 per cent believe that he would be that petty sort of figure.

Rich, this is a band that belongs to people in a way very few bands belong to people.... You get the sense that the audience is just there, ready to do anything for them. How massive were Oasis at their peak, would you say?

Rich: They were massive. They appealed to everybody. That's the whole thing. The big stats is when they played Knebworth in 1996, which is a big open, outdoor venue that they historically used for gigs. Five per cent of the population applied for tickets. I think it was 125,000 people a day. So, a quarter of a million over two days, but five per cent, which is 10 times more than tickets that were sold. If we go back to what Alex said about Wembley and, if you look at the schedule, they're doing two a week at the moment, and then having a week off and doing two more in Wembley. They're going to open up those dates. They're going to beat Taylor Swift. They can beat their own record.

But they were huge, and I think one of the reasons they reformed is that Noel Gallagher has always said he didn't want to tarnish the relationship people had to Oasis — so for people who knew them the first time, why go and see a couple of middle-aged men do not quite as good job as before? But Oasis have transcended the generations. Generation Z are now massively into Oasis, as much as Generation X were when they came out. Noel said how surprised he is at how many kids are singing Oasis songs back to him when he plays solo gigs. So giving the kids the chance to see them is brilliant for them, but it's going to make it more difficult for us trying to get tickets because otherwise the whole world wants to see them.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview produced by Jess Low.