Five things we learned from Oasis ahead of their second night in Dublin

It's (bucket) hats off to Peggy Gallagher for pressing her sons Noel and Liam to reunite the band

Half a world away: Noel Gallagher and Liam Gallagher together but apart on stage at Croke Park during the first of their Oasis Live ’25 concerts in Dublin on Saturday. Picture: Chani Anderson

Never say 'never again' to your mammy 

Sometimes people can surprise you. Well, from the minute that Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness became Northern Ireland's most unlikely comedy double act, dubbed ‘The Chuckle Brothers’ by the world’s media, we should have known the Gallaghers wouldn’t let humanity down. 

Noel Gallagher playing 'Hello', the opening song of their set, on guitar as Liam Gallagher strides behind him at Croke Park, Dublin, during the Oasis Live ’25 concert. Picture: Chani Anderson

Mind you, for 16 years, it never looked like the ice wall between the Gallagher brothers would ever melt. 

To be fair, Noel and Liam mostly tried to deflect when asked the big starting ‘Oasis reunion’ question in every media interview they conducted post the split. 

How did they finally get back together? What was their motivation? Many presume it was the speculated minimum £50m (€60m) payday the 2025 tour was worth to each brother. 

However, they’re not short of a few bob. 

The band’s fans in Ireland and Italy, along with other Oasis fans living in matriarchal societies around the world, believe that their mother, Peggy Gallagher from Mayo, eventually wore the boys down. 

In the few media interviews she has given, Peggy said she told them “enough is enough”. She clearly kept on their case until they finally folded. In his Meaning of Life interview with Gay Byrne some years back, Noel admitted that Peggy was pushing her boys to heal the rift. Hats off to Peggy.

Siblings will be siblings

The split between Noel and Liam had plenty of precedence. The themes vary as to why, but drink, drugs, and rivalries feature prominently. So too do big cranky heads and glib or hurtful remarks, often closely followed by a punch in the gob; it’s like an Eastenders Christmas special, but with millions of bank notes at stake and with an onlooking audience of band members, managers and road crew probably the only ones who know the real stories. 

What’s the Story Morning Glory belting out in Croke Park during Oasis Live ’25. Picture: Chani Anderson

Noel and Liam allegedly fought backstage at a show in Paris in August 2009. Somebody said something. Somebody most likely then punched somebody else in the gob. The gig was cancelled. Unlike Phil and Grant Mitchell, the Oasis lads still both have their own wives and families intact, and they both have full heads of hair and healthy bank balances. 

Siblings are not the only musicians to fall out spectacularly, but the blood ties do give these spats added spice.

In 1973, with a woozy Don Everly struggling to perform at a show in California, Phil Everly smashed his own guitar onstage, walked off and didn’t step back onstage with his brother Don until 1983 to massive global relief and big tours that brought much joy to their accountants. Don finished that 1973 show on his own. While drink and amphetamines were reportedly in the mix, it is generally believed that Don did know that he had the stage to himself. 

Other musical siblings with interesting fallout stories, all worthy a hour of research if you’re so inclined, include: Tom and John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ray and Dave Davies of The Kinks, Eric and Gwen Stefani of No Doubt, the two splits of the three Jonas Brothers (the tall teen idol one and the other two; also both tall teen idols, but apparently marginally less so than the main one, whatever his name is/was; eh, each to their own, do your own research if you care to), Rich and Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes, and Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart.

We now know what ‘dynamic pricing’ is 

Bizarrely, nobody wept for the world’s hard-working ticket touts when it emerged that Ticketmaster and the Oasis management were playing the touts at their own game. We looked on with a puzzled expression as the event organisers’ original starting price of a ticket could now change depending on how high the fans would drive the market. 

Fans in Croke Park just before Oasis took to the stage. Picture: Chani Anderson

The initial standard tickets were around £148 in the UK and €86.50 in Ireland. In the week before the Dublin shows, people were paying €500+ on “ethical” and “fair” resale platforms. 

In the good old days, many fans of the GAA will have on a whim journeyed to Croker without a ticket on All-Ireland Final Day, paying over the odds to some scalper in a soft hat standing brazenly outside any Dublin city centre hotel that serves great stout. 

It was one of those many great and slightly louche Irish traditions, like spitting on your hands to seal the deal when buying a donkey. 

Nudge, nudge, no VAT between spitting friends. We’ve all done it. 

Competing for tickets for a highly anticipated music tour is, however, not a sport in any sense. The pitch is entirely lopsided. And the unlikely reunion of the warring Gallaghers has proven to be in a different league altogether. If the reports are true, some people paid €1,500 to €3,000 for some of these cherished tickets. Was it worth it? Yes, of course, worth every euro. 

Those of us who were there will be squeezing it into conversations from now until we’re carried off to our makers. Beauty is in the ear of the beholder; it certainly is a really really great show. 

Meanwhile, dynamic pricing is when the price remains flexible and changes to reflect market conditions. It is also known as real-time pricing. The price constantly fluctuates. So do we now know what ‘dynamic pricing’ means? Kind of. 

We know how to use it in a sentence to at least seem knowledgeable. If the other person nods knowingly, they’re also clueless and wary of being found out.

Noel Gallagher scored a point in Croke Park

He was a keen member of his local GAA team, Oisín’s, who were Lancashire GAA champions each of his year’s on the team from Under-12s through to Under-18s. 

Noel and Liam’s parents are both Irish and the family’s summer holidays were regularly spent among family in Ireland. In a 2015 interview for the Irish Examiner, Noel told me that he gave up playing Gaelic football when he discovered marijuana. That horticultural discovery led him to pick up a guitar, and the rest is history. Note to our legal advisors: Noel is a bit of a joker, mind you, but there is at least empirical evidence to prove that he learned to play the guitar at around that time.

Bonehead is not the real name of Oasis founding member Paul Arthurs 

His real middle name is, in fact, Benjamin. Not a lot of people know that. Well, other than those people who have access to internet search engines. 

Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs on the big screen during Oasis Live ’25 on the first of two nights at Croke Park in Dublin. Picture: Chani Anderson

Meanwhile, Michael Caine wasn’t the first person to say "Not a lot of people know that".  

Peter Sellers used the phrase while doing an impression of Caine during his 1972 appearance on Michael Parkinson’s chat show. However, a lot of people do know that. 

The (tenuous) link? Noel’s masterful appearance on the beloved Parky show in 2006 was one of his many frank, revealing and hugely entertaining interviews that have ensured his name is now mentioned alongside Billy Connolly, Muhammad Ali, and Robin Williams as being a natural when it came to sitting on a couch and talking.