Tom Dunne: Is Gallagher Brothers v Pop Sisters the new version of Oasis v Blur?
Billie Eilish and Lana Del Rey are among the female pop stars challenging Oasis on the touring circuit this summer.
According to our sources we are living through the Pop Girl Summer of 2025. Charli XCX, Olivia Rodrigo, Lana Del Rey, Billie Eilish et al., are coming for your children, and by extension your wallet.
They are pretty, but the outlay won’t be. Even a Euro lottery win won’t cover this.
We parents are not the only victims. Pity Oasis. “Britpop dinosaurs up against a new generation of female stars” scream the headlines.
Noel and Liam’s comeback hasn’t even made it onstage yet and it is passé. In the Bucket Hat v Gold Shorts war there is only ever one winner.
And I’ll tells ya: watching one daughter (18) exit the house dressed as Charli XCX is one thing, but to see a second daughter (16) do the same is something that will haunt me to my dying day.
A day when my CD falls from my hand and I gasp “their world now.” We should have seen it coming.
We should have realised that Oasis were playing the long game.
Waiting to reunite only when their fans' kids had grown, mortgages had been paid off, and disposable income had peaked to send in the Dynamic Pricing Dragon to kill everyone.
This should have been the Bucket Hat Summer of Love and Renewed Vows. The summer when men in fishtail Parkas showed Taylor Swift their moves.
When they “took back control” of the vintage T-shirt market. When the rivers of warm beer flowed freely again. When men whispered, “CDs: still good ya know.”
But not now. Now we must just rue that it is not just in the worlds of fashion, dance, TikTok, looks, merchandising, Zeitgeist alignment, and craic where the Boys have been outmanoeuvred. Subject matter has moved on too.
Telling someone to “Roll with it” or offering to be their Wonderwall just doesn’t cut it anymore. “Sympathy is a knife when you’re a girl like me,” is the new norm.
But the worst part of it, the part that is hardest to take is that they do all that, lean into serious topics, write about serious things AND simultaneously blow your socks off, and make you, yes, wave your hands in the air like you just don’t care. The referee should stop this.
Our pop Princess summer is as follows:
In the rear view mirror now following her gig at Malahide, but will be with us again via our TV screens as part of the BBC Glastonbury coverage with Olivia Rodrigo. Their presence on the bill will annoy some who think Glastonbury is a “local blokey festival for local blokey people.”
Marlay Park, a mere seven days after Charli at Malahide. She follows in a long line of stars - Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Ryan Gosling - who are alumni of Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club. Who knows, this time it might end well.
Aviva, June 30. At 39 approaching more the status of a Queen than a Princess but described in the New York Times as “perhaps the greatest American song writer of the 2010s.’ I wouldn’t disagree for a second and predict her new “country” album will leave Cowboy Carter in its wake.
3Arena on July 26 and 27 (via Camila Cabello on July 9). I paid scant attention to her set when I was at Glastonbury in 2022. My head was too full of Paul McCartney. More fool me.
I am now of the opinion that she is a singer like none other. She does things with notes, cadence, feelings and subtle shadings that most of us never knew existed. I am in awe. She is still only 23 and has already sung one of the best Bond songs ever.
It’s a pity we didn’t get to see Chappell Roan and Beyoncé as well. The Irish Sea proved too much for them this time. Still if we save our money, or know someone who just won €250 million, maybe next year.
I interviewed Noel once at a festival. A female guitarist was about. “Chicks with guitars,” asked Noel, “what’s that about?” Well we know now Noel, don’t we?
