Well, hello and welcome back to the Speak Life podcast. My name's Thomas Thurrogood, media producer at Speak Life, and today we have an episode about the return of Oasis. That's right, the Gallagher brothers are back doing some gigs. So Nate Morganlock from Speak Life made a video for the Reform Mythologist YouTube channel. You can find it on YouTube and talking about his thoughts on the return of Oasis. So I'm gonna play that now, and then I will chat to Nate about it. See you on the other side.
SPEAKER_02What you're saying is complete and what's the flasky big Hello Reform mythologist Nate Morganlock here to talk about the recent announcement that Oasis are booked to perform a number of gigs around the UK in the summer of 2025. Both Noel and Liam Gallagher posted the same message. The guns have fallen silent, the stars have aligned, the great wait is over. Come see, it will not be televised. Millions of people are expected to be in the queue when tickets go on sale on Saturday morning for gigs in Manchester, Cardiff, London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. So, how does a band who have not played together for 15 years conjure up such a frenzy that they've been all over the papers, TV and radio news and even trending on thatTwitter.com? Well, you'll be unsurprised to hear me say that it's because the story of the band taps into deep mythology. And more specifically, to use Liam's current favourite adjective, the story of the band of brothers locked in endless struggle is biblical. The 2016 documentary Supersonic is an excellent behind-the-scenes look at the band's first three years, telling the story of their forming as a band up until the Nebworth House gigs in August 1997. The documentary is also a good reminder that the conflict between Noel and Liam has always been the defining mark of Oasis. It was always about a sibling rivalry. And if you'd like to be a fly on the wall in a Gallagher Brothers argument, I recommend to you the 1994 audio recording Wibbling Rivalry, released as a single in 1995 and which reached number 52 in the UK singles chart. There was never any doubt that the Gallagher's were completely open and honest about who they were and their difficult relationship. The complete lack of pretense is remarkable. But this was a particular time, the 1990s, when we were reaching the end of history. The Madchester club scene prepared the way for the working class sons of Irish immigrants to break into the public imagination. It mattered that they were Mancunian. Their northern accents, combined with a surly and aggressive manner, made people stand up and take notice. It's difficult to think of a band who have been marked by such a force of personality. Liam was instantly recognizable for his swagger and bravado. They were easy to impersonate and a dream for the tabloid press. Oasis were a two finger salute to civil society, and there was no hint of artificiality. They also stood out for their sheer arrogance. They never doubted themselves for a moment, bold, brash, and utterly self assured. In those early years in which they produced their best music, Oasis were consumed by the here and now. There was no plan or strategy or political objective. They had nothing profound to say, but they said it in a way that others wanted to hear. They could be looked down upon for being foolish and mindless and short sighted, seemingly unaware that wisdom, philosophy, and a wider world even existed. But perhaps it's more accurate to say that they had heard rumours that bettering yourself was possible, but they simply weren't interested. People say it's just a waste of time, but tonight I want to be a rock and roll star. In the mid nineties they were not looking to be part of a discourse or cultural conversation. They were not trying to change anyone's minds, they had no desire to change their own. Personality wise they are stubborn, stiff necked, resistant to new ideas, practically incapable of being persuaded to any other point of view. This might all sound negative, but it's actually what made the band so exciting. In a culture of dizzying self-questioning and doubt, people who seem comfortable in their own skin are attractive. There was no pursuit of truth for Oasis. The lyrics to the songs often made no sense, and Noel couldn't match the poetic genius of other songwriters of even the same generation. But that wasn't the point. They weren't supposed to be sensible. They were meant to be visceral. The millennium was ahead and there was a great sense that the wells of meaning had dried up. All I need are cigarettes and alcohol. I'll live forever by being a rock and roll star. And later in 2005, Noel wrote on the importance of being idle. These men and their fans weren't meant to grow up or grow old. They just needed to be themselves. They can't be no one else. It didn't matter that there was better music or that there were better lyrics elsewhere. These two Gallagher brothers were doing whatever they wanted without restraint or apology. There wasn't even a sense of being edgy for the sake of being edgy. So the edgelord insults of later generations don't actually stick. It was unfiltered self-expression and it connected with millions. To many now they may seem embarrassing, but they simply didn't care. Arguably the most embarrassing thing that the Gallagher's ever did was that Noel was photographed drinking champagne at a party in number 10 Downing Street. But that was the band United. The reason they've achieved such a place in the Pantheon British popular music, aside from anthems like Don't Look Back in Anger, sung spontaneously at a vigil for victims of a terrorist attack in Manchester in 2017. The reason they have such a place in the Pantheon is because the band were not united. The brothers have refused to speak to each other for 15 years, since Noel quit after an argument on tour in 2009. This is testament to those early dynamics described in the supersonic documentary. This is what makes them mythical. Sibling rivalry. Fraternal volatility. The appeal of Oasis is mythical rather than logical, and it's arguably mythical even before it's musical. Now when I say mythical, I don't mean that it's fictional, but that it's about a deep story. A story which resonates with the human condition, the love-hate relationship we have with our siblings, particularly between brothers. The driving force behind the band is and always has been the apparent incompatibility of the central band members. How can you be a profoundly successful rock band with a family member? With a brother. Siblings enjoy winding each other up. They delight in provoking each other to get a reaction. This is what siblings do, especially brothers. Now of course other bands split up. People get into arguments, there are drunken fights, and band members don't talk to each other for years, but the fraternal volatility between these two, Noel, the cat who wants to be left alone, aloof and at ease, and Liam the excited puppy desperately craving attention, the fraternal volatility is what keeps them interesting. So Oasis have a deep mythic attraction which keeps people coming back for more. But how can we say that they are biblical? At one level they're not. But Liam wrote a poor but apposite song which appears on 2005's Don't Believe the Truth. It's called Guess God Thinks I'm Able. Who knows? Other than a massive payday, we don't yet know what gave rise to the laying down of the guns and the alignment of the stars. But for as long as we have known them, neither of the Gallagher brothers can lay claim to being Abel from the Genesis account. When we look at the actual biblical story in Genesis chapter four, Abel is completely innocent. Cain is the one with anger crouching at his door. Cain is the one who attacks. Abel is the shepherd whose blood testifies before the Lord. He doesn't point forward to Liam or Noel, he points forward to someone else. But Cain, that's the mark we bear. That's who Noel and Liam remind us of. But the Galagas also bring to mind brothers at the end of the book of Genesis two, Joseph and the eleven. A curious detail emerges after everyone thinks they've made up. Joseph has been discovered not only alive and well in Egypt, but second in command. The brothers are welcomed and Jacob their father is brought along. The family live for seventeen years in Egypt before Jacob dies. After the period of mourning is over, the brothers approach Joseph and plead with him not to punish them for their earlier violence and treachery towards him. The inference being that Joseph has been nursing his grudge against his brothers until Jacob dies and not wanting to cause him grief bides his time. A similar scenario takes place in The Godfather. Michael makes peace with Fredo, or does he? The recent announcement from Oasis makes us uncertain as to whether to believe it will really happen. It's still a risk. Can Noel and Liam get along together for a whole year before the stadium doors open. Is anyone holding a grudge? But there are other biblical brothers who might fit the bill too. James and John, the sons of Thunder. They come to Jesus and say, We want you to do for us whatever we ask. He says, What do you want me to do for you? They replied, Let one of us sit at your right hand and one at your left in your glory. You don't know what you're asking, said Jesus. The story of Oasis is the prodigal son, but they're both the younger brother. It's Cain and Abel, but they're both Cain. It's the sons of thunder while the glory is still up for grabs. But there is another truly redemptive brother story fulfilled in Jesus. The Abel story points forward to Jesus the murdered shepherd. The Joseph story points forward to Jesus the forgiving Lord, and the incarnate Christ himself told James and John his brother, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and that he would give his life as a ransom for many. It's exciting that Oasis will be singing their songs together again. I'll be aiming to be in the audience. For now, to quote Psalm 133, how pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity. The question is, what's the basis of that unity? And will it last? Please remember that media consumption is optional. You are under no obligation to listen to this music, watch these documentaries, or buy tickets for these gigs. I'm Reform Mythologist Nate Morgan Locke. I'm glad you are here.
SPEAKER_01Hello, Thomas.
SPEAKER_02Um before you ask me any questions about what I said, I've got some questions for you. Go on now. And the first one is when did you first become aware of Oasis? But firstly, have you ever heard of Oasis? And if you have, when do you think you first became aware of them?
SPEAKER_01Before making this video. Yeah, I think I was in secondary school. It's probably around year seven or eight. What's that? Age sort of 13, 14 for anyone not based in the UK. Um, but yeah, I remember I I lived opposite uh my best friend uh while we were in Cambridgeshire, Cambridgeshire. Shit of a Liam Gallagher version of that Cambridge. That's right. And he started learning guitar, and the first piece he learned was wonderful. It was wonderful. I knew I knew it.
SPEAKER_02See, straight in there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And so I I heard him play it on the street, those chords. He was playing in the street. Yeah, he just you know walked around just playing those chords again. Troubadour. That's it. Yeah, he even put a hat out and asked for some money. No, I'm joking, he didn't. Um but it almost became a bit of a cliche because I I then ended up in a pub in Scotland on a geology trip when I was at uni, and they had a Wonder Wool jar. And because they had a guitar in the pub that anyone could play, but if anyone played Wonderwool, they had to put money in the jar. Okay. Because it's clearly so overplayed, or or it's the first piece that everyone knows on guitar.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's not a complicated I don't play the guitar at all, but I'm told that it's quite a straightforward piece of music to learn.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Um, but maybe that's a sign of a a good song. Simple.
SPEAKER_02Keep it simple, stupid. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. But yeah, so so that those I was aware of Wonder Wall, I was aware of Don't Look Back in Anger. And to me they seemed like they were kind of quite almost quite sweet songs. Sort of chilled out.
SPEAKER_02Well, they're kind of acoustic songs, aren't they? Those ones.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I never saw them as a band that was a kind of you'd really kind of rock out to them, but clearly some of their other stuff is. But then it was when I encountered some videos of of the band members talking that I was like, oh okay, their language is quite fruity and they they're quite bold and brash and almost different. Yeah, almost surprising when you've just known some of their songs to encounter them, the interviews with them. It's like, wow, these guys have strong personalities.
SPEAKER_02And it it is interesting, I think the pot the songs that did best publicly, as in the wider public, probably are the slower acoustic type songs like Wonder Wall Um or Um Don't Love I can Anger and But for the kind of the fans of Oasis, the people who got really excited about them for the first album, definitely maybe that was much more about the attitude, the rock and roll star, this kind of loud wall of music that was kind of coming through. Um but then Noel is you know uh Shoni can do both. He can do those kind of heavier songs, but also more reflective, you know. Where did it all go wrong? Stand by me, little by little, you know.
SPEAKER_01That's Noel Gallagher.
SPEAKER_02Noel Gallagher, yeah. Yeah. Rather than Liam. Who did who later on did write some songs as well, but they they aren't they aren't considered as good as Knowles. Not that Knowles are considered like the best music in the world, but they were never as popular. The Liam the Liam songs.
SPEAKER_01And what do you think is it that makes Oasis work?
SPEAKER_02It's mythical, you know, of course, that's what I'm gonna say. But so the store the the fact that Liam and Noel don't get on, and they're this kind of pair of brothers who are constantly kind of arguing and haven't, as I say, haven't spoken to each other for apparently fifteen years um that is that's got a level of interest for people because it's a family feud and we're all sort of in families and so we all know what families can be like. And you know, even if you're not in a rock and roll band travelling around the world and playing in front of thousands and thousands of people, even just to to work alongside a sibling um I think people uh are aware of the challenges that that will present. Um and then we've got loads of other kind of examples of famous brothers who have fallen out. I mean, even you know William and Harry, the idea that your family dynamic kind of is what you're known for. Um and that people are really interested in that because they as I say are part of families, we've all got that experience of well, I suppose not everyone's got an experience of siblings. Obviously, some people are only only children, only childs. Some people are only childs. Anyway, my wife is an only child, that's easy to say. So she was really surprised when she first got to know me and my siblings, uh just how it was possible to love someone and be frustrated by them so much and just how that works out, and the way that siblings relate to each other. Um I think if you if you don't have siblings, then I think you'd like yeah, it's a big part of most people's lives, is their sibling relationship. You you've got a sibling, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Older brother, older brother.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, it's totally that and so you're Liam, you are Liam Gallagher, and your older brother is Noel. That's right, yeah. From what you've discovered about Oasis editing this video, what do you think that maps onto your family dynamic at all?
SPEAKER_01I think it does. I think the younger is often the more slightly rebellious because the older feels a sense of responsibility.
SPEAKER_02People first meet you, I think they do think, yeah, this guy's a rebel. He's a real this is Liam Gallagher.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, did I tell you I once uh dare my friend to go up to a a burger stall and order a crocodile burger and make it snappy and and he did it. He did it, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Wow, yeah, man. Wow. Did you get any comeback from that, or did he just go in?
SPEAKER_01No, the the lady just laughed at the counter. So it was sort of a disappointed laugh.
SPEAKER_02But you dared him, you were like egging him on the go on. It was my fault.
SPEAKER_01Wow, wow, stuff you get up to. I mean, I I'm very blessed to say that me and my brother, my brother and I uh get on very well now, and we we have quite similar interests, and we we spend quite a lot of time together. Certainly growing up, that yeah, there's that that real sense of one moment you're utterly winding each other up, and then the next you're like best friends. And that comes across in the documentary that you play clips of in your in your video. Was it supersonic?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so that documentary, interestingly, that came out in 2016.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And that's obviously during the time that Noel and Liamant speak to each other, but they're both listed as executive producers. So I'm kind of fascinated to know what's the behind the scenes of the behind the scenes documentary. How did they manage to get them to both kind of collaborate on that?
SPEAKER_01That's fascinating. So their music, you know, some very catchy songs, you know. I I definitely wouldn't be able to write a song anywhere near as good as what Oasis does, but arguably people have said they're not what they're doing. They're not radio head, right? They're not reinventing the wheel of of music.
SPEAKER_02Some people prefer blur, blur of better music. I mean, whatever.
SPEAKER_01But I as I say brother dynamic and their personalities is kind of a big part of why they've found the audience they have.
SPEAKER_02So I d it's not you know, there are some great songs and there are some songs which will outlast them by a very long way, but they they're not incredible musicians or anything like that. It's to it's to do with their attitude, which I talk a little bit about in the in the uh video, but that sibling rivalry, which is I think what makes them so interesting.
SPEAKER_01So what is the Oasis attitude if you were to boil it down?
SPEAKER_02They don't seem uh anxious, nervous, phased, they don't seem to worry about things, they're just very uh seemingly comfortable in their own skin. And I think that is quite an attractive thing, in a way. It's quite an interesting thing that someone can be so so confident.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's interesting. Because in a kind of age where It was probably different when they started, but now there's a real sense of people cultivating their image, curating their image. And there's probably a degree of that with Oasis, and they've thought about their brand, but you get a sense of what you see as what you get. Yeah. There's probably something we can learn from that.
SPEAKER_02Maybe not the arrogance aspect of it, but the sense of how can the church be more like Liam Gallagher? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But the sense of, yeah, you're not kind of uh unabashed.
SPEAKER_02So people sometimes talk about uh is it non-anxious presence. Right. So it's it's the kind of being around other people and being sort of rooted and stable and and secure that means that people then feel comfortable coming to speak to you because you know what you think or you've got a kind of a confidence in something. And given that we live in a world where everyone's kind of worried about things and anxious about things, and um, you know, you want to be right, and who knows what's right and wrong, and also when you meet people who are confident in something, then that might be a place that you would sort of turn to. And yeah, so I think there's a maybe has anyone ever made the connection between non-anxious presence and no Gallagher before? I don't know, but certainly that we uh so the Christian church ought to be just so at peace with who we are in Christ that that has a kind of an attractional um power for people around us. And and I think particularly with this whole kind of meaning crisis thing where people are wrestling with what's really true and what's worth living for and all that kind of stuff, that one of the reasons people are going to the church to look for answers is because the church is this that is this presence, it's been there for a long time, and it feels as though the fact that it's been there for a long time and worked might be a reason why um it's a safe place to go with your questions about purpose and meaning and value and direction. And that's so Chris as Christians we ought to be we ought to be confident in Christ, at peace in Christ, because largely that's a great kind of evangelistic tool, and it's the in Christ thing. It's not we're confident in our faith in Christ, we're not confident in our own personal you know, ability to answer every question, we're confident in Christ. Yeah, I think that's how you how we can be a non-anxious presence, obviously without being kind of arrogant, but we're comfortable in our own skin as Christians, I think that's the thing.
SPEAKER_01So that so we talked about the attitude of Oasis, we've talked about the sibling rivalry, yeah, and you you draw out lots of examples of that in the Bible and how that's a pretty timeless idea. Um but obviously now they've they've come back, they're gonna do these gigs. We don't know if the the peace between the Galicus will last. Um so yeah, do we have any hope in the face of ongoing feuds uh in the world? Feuds and peace. How can we find peace?
SPEAKER_02So the fact that conflict is what makes them interesting, yeah. Um as Christians, our confidence is in the fact that God has made peace, right? So God has made peace in Christ, and so that we uh we have a better brother story. We have a you know, the if Oasis is the is the brother mythology, is the kind of conflicting brother mythology, how is Christ the the kind of subversive fulfillment of this kind of sibling rivalry or this the family feud? I think that's where those examples of you know brothers in the scriptures. So we look at Cain and Abel and we look at the Joseph and his brothers, and those things are pointing us not towards just hey, isn't it hard to get along as siblings, but pointing us towards the fact that we have God the Son as the Son of Man who's become our brother. So we have a brother who who's made peace with us, and you know, that's that's the basis for our family, our church-family relationship. The great message of the Bible is that God sets the lonely in families. So the church then is a kind of new family for the Christian. Family life is hard, yeah. Like biological family life is hard. It's hard to get along with people that you live with, people you grow up with, you know, a lot of parenting is trying to settle disputes between your children. Um so that's hard, and church family is hard, sharing life and you know, being involved in each other's lives. Well, obviously, we're going to fall out with each other because that's what people do. Um, so we shouldn't be surprised when that happens. Our solution is to all of us to be looking towards our older brother, um, and to find that our unity is in him rather than in any other thing that we might try to build a community around.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and you get that in Galatians 3 28, don't you? There's neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus. And it's not a sense that all these very different people, we've all just, you know, decided to try and get along, kind of thing. It's like our unity comes from the fact that we're one in Christ. It's actually very difficult to sustain unity without that, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02And it's interesting that if you go to go back to the Oasis situation, so people saying, okay, so how have they managed to get back together and agree with each other? Yeah. And the obvious answer is there's a massive payday. Like they could it's possible that they will earn more money from the gigs that they've already signed up to do next year than they did in the 90s. And you're talking tens of millions of pounds. So it's possible they just okay, we'll just get on so that we can get loads of money again. Um and that kind of you know financial incentive to unity might work, like it might work for a bit, um, but it's not sustainable. And it's not it's clearly not what the church is called to do. The unity that we have in the gospel is is the only sustainable thing. So yes, OASIS formed in 1994 or whatever it was, uh, or nineteen maybe ninety-three, I think. Um and they collapsed well several times and then properly shut down in 2009. And then 2024, they get back together and they might be together again for a little bit. Um but the church of Christ has obviously got 2,000 years of of history to it, and then all the you know the people of Israel prior to that. So the unity of the church and the ability for the church to to stay together despite their differences, and despite what their differences, our differences, and despite our sins, is testament to the gospel of Jesus. Um, and so it would be possible to look at the church, go, oh, look how look how divided the church is, look how you know terrible the church is. It's like, well, it's actually compared to everything else, it's doing pretty well, to be honest. 2,000 years. Yeah, it's going quite well relative to all the other things that people try and build unity around and try to have as a kind of you know, a sibling relationship, you know, for people who are supposed to be treating each other as brothers and sisters, yeah. The church is pretty good.
SPEAKER_01So are you saying our unity is built not on rock music on the rock.
SPEAKER_02The rock. That's exactly what I'm saying. What are you now gonna do with this new knowledge? Would you consider yourself now an Oasis fan?
SPEAKER_01Well, I'd be intrigued to listen to some more of their stuff actually.
SPEAKER_02Uh but you're not gonna be on on the phone at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning to try and buy tickets. You don't probably not, but you might be. Well, it's it's possible. I've I've been on I'm in a few WhatsApp groups with people who are, you know, long-term friends and um and we're talking about the possibility. I don't know. I mean there's there's gonna be a lot of people trying to get those tickets. Yeah. It's biblical anyway.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and that is Liam's favourite adjective on Twitter, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02What I because I was thinking, what does he actually mean by biblical when he uses it? Because I don't really go into that in the video, but I think he means big. Epic. Like epic and good. So like positive things are so when people have said, Oh, I'm excited about going to this gig on Twitter, then he replies something like, Your attitude is biblical.
SPEAKER_01So who knows?
SPEAKER_02Who who knows how much of the Bible they've read, but maybe they've only referenced it a couple of times or any kind of religious things in their songs a couple of times. So there's a song called Some Might Say where they s there's a line, some might say they don't believe in heaven, go and tell it to the man who lives in hell. It's one interesting line, and then they have a song on uh Be Here Now, which is a terrible album by their own admission, um, but you know, had an impact, and there's a song there called Do you know what I mean? And there's a line when they say uh met my maker, made him cry on my shoulder. He asked me why his people won't walk through the storm. I said, Listen up, man, they don't even know you're born. Wow, so I think given a lot of Noel's other songwriting uh approaches, it's partly just because storm and born rhyme. So I don't think there's anything too deep, but it is an interesting one, isn't it? It is interesting. But let's finish with another another line from Oasis. Go on then. This is from Don't Look Back in Anger, so you will have heard this one. And that line is please don't put your life in the hands of a rock and roll band or throw it all away. Instead, put your life into the hands of Jesus. Is that in the song? That's not you added. I've added that bit. Sorry, I should have said in quote. Sure.
SPEAKER_01Oh well, thank you, Nate. It's been translated. I've learnt a lot about Oasis this week, and uh thanks for listening, everyone. We will be back soon with plenty more podcast content. Glenn's aware at the moment in Australia, but he will be back next week. So we'll probably be returning to the meaning crisis. And Nate, you're gonna be do you do you want to just quickly say you're you're gonna be doing some stuff on Reform Mythologist, yes.
SPEAKER_02So we're gonna try and do more regular output on that YouTube channel, Reform Mythologist, and um yeah, very exciting. We've got uh Eleanor uh who's gonna be doing lots of editing there. Yeah, um, so yeah, lots of exciting stuff coming out from the Speak Life channels.
SPEAKER_01Wonderful. Well, do subscribe to the Speak Life podcast if you haven't done so already, and you'll be the first to know whenever we bring out a new episode. But thanks for listening. Goodbye. Goodbye.