FEATURE: Be Here Now: Oasis Touring in 2027 and a Significant Album Anniversary

FEATURE:

 

 

Be Here Now

 

Oasis Touring in 2027 and a Significant Album Anniversary

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I recently…

saw the Oasis documentary/film, Don’t Look Back in Anger. It is about the band reuniting and performing a run of days last year. We see the rehearsal build-up and follow them across arenas around the world. How Noel and Liam Gallagher, who had a huge bust-up in 2009 and didn’t speak for fifteen years, at ease and tight with one another. They tell how they sort of forgave each other silently. No drama. Fears that the brothers would fight during the reunion and let fans down. Unexpectedly, they were completely drama-free. They had those years when they were fighting and drinking. Now, they wanted to focus on the music and giving the fans what they want. Rather than it being all about them, a lot of the focus was put on fans. How a new generation, who might not have experienced Oasis thirty years ago, were struck hard. Their parents grew up listening to Oasis and passed their music down. Noel and Liam blown away by how special that is. It is a sweary film, and Liam Gallagher especially is in top form as he unleashes expletives and is just being himself! I was never a massive fan of Oasis, thought I grew up at the time they were huge. How important they were and how they transformed and reignited British music in the 1990s. Even if their regency was brief – maybe 1994 to 1997, before there was a decline -, the fact that they performed together was an impossibility as recent as a couple of years back. Nobody thought it would happen. The new film charts that preparation and ramp-up. To the incredible and sold-out gigs, they also reflect on how meaningful it was. Perhaps the most together they have been as a band. Given the popularity of those gigs, it was likely that they would want to extend things. Do some more gigs. I can’t say that they will release new music – and, let’s be honest, can it ever live up to expectations?! -, but the idea of them touring for a few more years is not absurd.

In fact, they have announced dates for next year. I am writing this on 24th September. Tomorrow, tickets go on sale for their Knebworth gigs. This is the site Oasis played in 1996. Record-breaking gigs there. If anything, the attendance for their shows next year will be even bigger. The last tour earned the band millions. That is fair enough. The demand was there, so it is only right they get paid for it. However, the ticket prices were steep. The band knew that hundreds of thousands of people would snap them up, so there could have been so leeway in terms of the pricing. The only criticism is that the prices once more are really high. A log of major artists charge this type of price (or higher), but it does seem that Oasis could have helped bring the prices down, as they will not be accessible to a lot of their core. Working-class or struggling people who cannot afford the prices charged. Or they will spend that money and cut back elsewhere. At a time when money is not an issue and it is all about the music and bringing people together, why still expect fans to pay out a lot of money when they do not need to?! I don’t buy it is the promoters and venues that are strong-arming Oasis. The band can have a say about the prices. Time Out shared details of the dates confirmed. Those Knebworth slots that will be sold out within minutes. It will make the band even richer, though if people want to pay to see such an important gig, where is the harm?! I just hope, if they perform again in 2028, that there is a bit of a price reduction:

“Oasis have confirmed details of another reunion tour. While there are no shows at Wembley this time around (in summer 2025 the Gallaghers played seven shows in northwest London), Londoners won’t have to trek all the way up to Glasgow or Manchester to see the band next summer. The ‘Wonderwall’ legends are making a grand return to Knebworth, which is a very short distance from London – and, after the initial announcement, they’ve added more dates.

Knebworth has a special place in Oasis lore. In August 1996 the band headlined two days of music in the grounds of the Hertfordshire country estate. A whopping 125,000 people attended each night, with support from Charlatans, the Prodigy, Manic Street Preachers, the Chemical Brothers, Ocean Colour Scene and more.

In other words, while London isn’t getting Oasis tour dates next summer, Knebworth is a more than valid alternative. The band are in Hertfordshire for six dates, triple the number of their iconic 1996 run. Richard Ashcroft has been confirmed on support.

Oasis’ 2027 Knebworth gigs won’t just be special because of the location. The gigs will also mark the first time that Knebworth has had a ‘camping village’, while Great British Railways will provide late-night trains to London King’s Cross until 1.30am each night. Another first will see the introduction of grandstand hospitality seating and the venue’s biggest accessible viewing platform ever.

Keen to get tickets to see Oasis at Knebworth in September 2027? Here’s everything you need to know, from when tickets go on sale to transport arrangements.

Oasis Knebworth 2027 tour dates

The ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ icons are in Hertfordshire on the following dates:

  • September 11 2027

  • September 12 2027

  • September 18 2027

  • September 19 2027

  • September 25 2027 (new date)

  • September 26 2027 (new date)

It’s worth noting that there is no new registration process for the new dates. You’ll still need to have registered before the deadline last Thursday September 17.

When do Oasis Knebworth tickets go on sale?

Tickets for Oasis’ grand return to Knebworth go on sale at staggered times on the following dates:

  • Friday September 25

  • Saturday September 26

  • Sunday September 27

Here are the time slots for buying tickets

  • Friday September 25 – 9am to 12pm, 1pm-3pm, 5pm-8pm

  • Saturday September 26 – 9am to 12pm, 1pm-3pm, 5pm-8pm

  • Sunday September 27 – 9am to 12pm, 1pm-3pm, 5pm-8pm

Oasis Knebworth 2027 ticket prices

Here’s the pricing breakdown for the Knebworth dates:

  • General admission – £170.50

  • Front standing – £203.50

  • Coach packages – £239.50, £249.50, £259.50, £272.50, £282.50 and £292.50

  • VIP packages – £317.50, £508.50 and £513.50

All prices include booking fees”.

Next year is also a big one because there is a big album anniversary. Be Here Now, the band’s third studio album, was released on 21st August, 1997. This was the album that followed 1995’s What’s the Story (Morning Glory)? Reviews in 1997 were largely positive. People queuing down the street to buy the album. Often seen as their ‘cocaine album’, Noel Gallagher’s songwriting becoming bigger and more anthemic. In the sense that most tracks indulged a bit in solos and histrionics. It was a band at their most confident. Stand By Me, one of the singles from Be Here Now, is a genuine classic. However, so many of the songs could lose a couple of minutes and be better. A 21016 reissue got mixed reviews. People seeing Be Here Now more honestly and away from the popularity around 1997. I do think that Be Here Now sounds more important and better now than a decades back. I do hope that some of its songs are played on tour next year. Whilst not as memorable and consistent as their first two albums, Be Here Now was a moment in time when Oasis were arguable at their peak of their powers. Britpop pretty much has died or was almost gone. The press still putting them against Blur. Whilst Blur’s 1997 eponymous album was more inspired by U.S. bands like Pavement and it is one of their most acclaimed works, Be Here Now fell short of expectations. Though I feel, after watching the Don’t Look Back in Anger film, it seems more relevant and powerful. The huge and epic proportions of the album matching the tone of the film. I suspect there will be another reissue or an expanded edition. Thirty years of Be Here Now is a major thing. It makes me wonder if Oasis will include any songs from that album in their set next year. It would be amazing to hear songs like Stand By Me and D'You Know What I Mean? blared to excited crowds in stadiums. It makes me curious about setlists too. Oasis probably not going to reprise the setlists from their tour last year. You would imagine the Knebworth gigs will have the classics in there. But I feel Be Here Now is an album that is loved by so many fans. They would love to see songs from it played live. It was awesome watching Don’t Look Back in Anger. The abiding message from it was that the tour was not about Oasis. It was the music. The relevance and power those songs have to people. So many young listeners moved to tears. Those who were not even alive in the 1990s. The Gallaghers said how there is this escape. How fans could forget everything in the world and be united in stadiums belting out these songs. No doubt a big reason why Oasis are doing more live dates. In spite of some slightly steep tickets, the main thing is that a band people thought would never be reconciled seem to be in a position where they  will tour for a long time to come. I am not excited by any thought of new music but, if they are inspired and strike gold, the results are well worth checking out. A band whose reserve was bone dry, this reinvigorated and energised legendary group are…

BACK in full bloom.