The bizarre reason Paul Weller is refusing to watch Oasis’ reunion shows – despite being good friends with Noel Gallagher
Paul Weller has said that he won’t be watching Oasis’ reunion shows – not because he’s not a fan, but because he hates “big gigs”.
Much as the ongoing Oasis tour will go down in history as a “big cultural moment,” the ex-Jam frontman says that even his friendship with Noel Gallagher isn’t enough to get him through the gates of a massive arena.
READ MORE: Here’s how to build your own version of Noel Gallagher’s touring pedalboard – without rock star money
The Gallagher brothers launched their long-anticipated Live ‘25 tour with two shows at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium last month, before returning to their hometown of Manchester for five nights at Heaton Park, then playing five (of their seven) planned dates at London’s Wembley Stadium.
But despite being one of Noel’s closest mates, Weller is giving the whole thing a pass.
In an interview with Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 2, he explains, “I’ve not been to see them, no… I’m not a big fan of big gigs, I said to Noel, a few weeks or months ago: ‘Are you going to do any warm-ups?’ which he wasn’t, but, I’d go and see something like that in a smaller venue, but I just don’t like big gigs. It doesn’t matter who it was, really.”
For Weller, anything beyond the front row just isn’t worth it.
“Inevitably, it doesn’t matter too much where you’re sitting unless you’re right in the front row, you just end up watching the screens,” he says. “It kind of spoils a bit for me because I want to see whoever is playing or singing, and I want to be able to see them.”
That said, the musician insists he’s thrilled the band is back, and sees the reunion as more than just nostalgia.
“You know how it’s going to go for him, it’s going to be mad,” says Weller. “I said to him that it’s going to be a cultural moment because the amount of people I speak to just out on the street, not necessarily who you’d think would be an Oasis fan, but they are all going to it, and it’s a big cultural moment, I think that will be remembered forever.”
“There’s probably not too many bands like them [Oasis] at the moment, y’know, kind of guitar music,” he adds. “I can’t think of any, not from the UK anyway, maybe Fontaines DC is different and people like that. So, I think it’s definitely a younger audience who missed out on that ’90s thing.”
And while that younger crowd is getting a crash course in what made Oasis so iconic, gearheads are being treated to something special, too.
Gibson recently revealed the story behind Noel’s Oasis reunion Les Paul. Lee Bartram, Head of Commercial, Marketing & Cultural Influence at Gibson EMEA said that the guitar took “at least 18 months” to come together and that it wasn’t even designed specifically for the Live ‘25 tour at first.
“It really came from a conversation around creating a Les Paul that would accommodate P-90s (which Noel was playing a lot with NGHFB at the time, favouring Epiphone USA Casinos) at high volumes, without compromising on the sound and tone of the pickup,” Bartram said.
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