A pivotal date in the band’s history is their first live performance under the name Oasis at music club The Boardwalk in Manchester.
Image: Oasis members in 1996. Pic: Stefan Rousseau/PA
At this point, the band was a four-piece made up of Liam Gallagher, Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs, Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan and Tony McCarroll.
It wouldn’t be until 1992 when Noel Gallagher joined the line-up, according to The Oasis Timeline Project.
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11 April 1994
After signing to independent record label, Creation Records, Oasis release their first single Supersonic from the forthcoming album Definitely Maybe.
Image: The Definitely Maybe album cover. Pic: CBW/Alamy
In the build-up to the album release, the group started living up to the rocker stereotype, making headlines when they missed their first international gig in Amsterdam because they got deported back to the UK after getting caught up in a drunken brawl on the outbound ferry.
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Oasis’s debut studio album Definitely Maybe is released. It became the fastest-selling debut album in UK chart history at the time and features hits including Rock ‘n’ Roll Star, Cigarettes & Alcohol and Live Forever.
A week into recording their second studio album – (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? – the Gallagher brothers get into an altercation at a pub in Monmouth, leading to Noel famously hitting Liam with a cricket bat.
24 January 1995
Oasis win awards for best new band, NME album of the year and best single for Live Forever at the NME Brat Awards in London. The ceremony would mark one of the first head-to-head battles between Oasis and Blur.
Image: Blur picking up a Brit Award in 1995. Pic: Fiona Hanson/PA
The rivalry between the two bands would go on to dominate subsequent award ceremonies and the UK charts, including the 1996 Brit Awards, when the Gallagher brothers performed a taunting version of Blur’s Parklife after beating the band to win British group of the year.
2 October 1995
(What’s The Story) Morning Glory? is released, propelling the band to worldwide fame and selling over 12 million copies worldwide. The album has since become the fifth-biggest-selling album of all time in Britain.
It contained some of Oasis’s biggest hits including Wonderwall, Don’t Look Back In Anger and Champagne Supernova.
Image: Liam Gallagher of Oasis in concert on stage at Knebworth House in 1996. Pic: Stefan Rousseau/PA
The band released a further five studio albums, four of which went to number one in the charts, while 1998’s The Masterplan peaked at number two.
10 August 1996
The band plays the first of two sell-out nights atKnebworth Park in Hertfordshire. The concerts attract 125,000 people each night and include support acts like The Bootleg Beatles, The Charlatans, Manic Street Preachers and The Prodigy.
Image: Liam and Noel at the Oasis Knebworth gigs. Pic: Times Newspapers/Shutterstock
Image: Noel Gallagher (second left) with fans at the world premiere of Oasis Knebworth 1996. Pic: PA
The gigs would be the focus of a documentary film, Oasis Knebworth 1996, released in November 2021.
9 August 1999
Original member and guitarist Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs announces that he is leaving the band to “concentrate on other things”.
A few weeks later, original guitarist Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan also announces he is leaving, in more dramatic fashion compared to his bandmate – by famously sending a fax.
Image: (L-R) Liam and Noel at a press conference after Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan quit the band. Pic: PA
28 August 2009
Noel quits Oasis after an argument backstage with brother Liam who began swinging around a guitar before playing the Rock en Seine festival in Paris.
A week before, the band played what would become their last performance together at V Festival in Stafford.
In interviews, Noel revealed that he made the decision to leave the band when sitting in the back of a car outside the music festival in France.
Image: Noel with his band Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds at Twickenham Stadium in 2017. Pic: Reuters
Speaking on Sky Arts programme Noel Gallagher: Out Of The Now, the guitarist said: “And the driver pulled off and that was it. I didn’t feel a sense of relief because I knew there was a shitstorm coming. And there was going to be a lot of nonsense talked about it.”
He also admitted he feels their break-up helped cement their legacy as one of the greatest British bands of all time.
Since their split, Liam has enjoyed success as a solo artist and Noel formed his own band, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, which has experienced commercial success, with their first three albums all reaching number one in the charts and the most recent record, 2023’s Council Skies, peaking at number two.
Image: Liam performing his Definitely Maybe 30th anniversary show at the O2 Arena in London. Pic: Dan Reid/Shutterstock
But the feuding brothers have often taken digs at each other in the media or at shows.
At the NME Awards in 2018, Liam said that his brother was the villain of the year, claiming “he’s the biggest liar and biggest faker in the business”, while Noel said three years earlier that he would “never forgive” his brother for walking out on the band during a series of live shows before they broke up.
27 August 2024
Rumours began to swirl last week after Noel paid Liam a string of compliments in an interview with music journalist John Robb at Manchester’s Sifters Records in honour of their debut album’s 30th anniversary.
As part of the celebrations for Definitely Maybe, Liam has been touring the UK this summer playing the record in full, even dedicating Half The World Away to his brother, saying he is “still playing hard to get”.
The pair also teased an announcement on social media in the days leading up to 27 August.
Image: Oasis reunite to perform live shows in 2025. Pic: oasisinet.com
The brothers will play 12 dates in the UK and two dates in Ireland in July and August – including four shows each at London’s Wembley Stadium and Manchester’s Heaton Park.
In a statement, they said: “The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised.”
Despite speculation that they will be on the bill at Glastonbury 2025, the band will not be performing at the festival, according to PA news agency.
Despite The Who’s Quadrophenia being set over 60 years ago, Pete Townshend’s themes of identity, mental health, and modern masculinity are just as relevant today.
The album is having a renaissance as Pete Townshend’s Quadrophenia A Mod ballet is being brought to life via dance at Sadler’s Wells East, and Sky News has an exclusive first look.
As Townshend puts it, the album he wrote is “perfect” for the stage.
Image: Pete Townshend
“My wife Rachel did the orchestration for me, and as soon as I heard it I said to her it would make a fabulous ballet and we never really let that go,” he tells Sky News.
“Heavy percussion, concussive sequences. They’re explosive moments. They’re also romantic movement moments.”
If you identify with the demographics of Millennial, Gen Y or Gen Z, you might not be familiar with The Who and Mod culture.
But in post-war Britain the Mods were a cultural phenomenon characterised by fashion, music, and of course, scooters. The young rebels were seen as a counter-culture to the establishment and The Who, with Roger Daltry’s lead vocals and Pete Townshend’s writing, were the soundtrack.
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Quadrophenia the album is widely regarded as an essay on the British adolescent experience at the time, focusing on the life of fictional protagonist Jimmy – a young Mod struggling with his sanity, self-doubt, and alienation.
Townshend sets the rock opera in 1965 but thinks its themes of identity, mental health, and modern masculinity are just as relevant today.
He says: “The phobias and the restrictions and the unwritten laws about how young men should behave. The ground that they broke, that we broke because I was a part of it.
“Men were letting go of [the] wartime-related, uniform-related stance that if I wear this kind of outfit it makes me look like a man.”
Image: Paris Fitzpatrick and Pete Townshend. Pic: Johan Persson
This struggle of modern masculinity and identity appears to be echoing today as manosphere influencers like Andrew Tate, incel culture, and Netflix’s Adolescence make headlines.
For dancer Paris Fitzpatrick, who takes on the lead role of Jimmy, the story resonates.
Image: Paris Fitzpatrick, who takes on the lead role of Jimmy in the ballet
“I think there’s a connection massively and I think there may even be a little more revival in some way,” he tells Sky News.
“I love that myself. I love non-conforming to gender norms and typical masculinity; I think it’s great to challenge things.”
Despite the album being written before he was born, the dancer says he was familiar with the genre already.
“I actually did an art GCSE project about Mods and rockers and Quadrophenia,” he says.
“I think we’ll be able to bring it to new audiences and hopefully, maybe people will be inspired to to learn more about their music and the whole cultural movement of the early 60s.”
In 1979, the album was adapted into a film directed by Franc Roddam starring Ray Winstone and Sting but Townshend admits because the film missed key points he is “not a big fan”.
“What it turned out to be in the movie was a story about culture, about social scenario and less about really the specifics of mental illness and how that affects young people,” he adds, also complimenting Roddam’s writing for the film.
Perhaps a testament to Pete Townshend’s creativity, Quadrophenia started as an album, was successfully adapted to film and now it will hit the stage as a contemporary ballet.
It appears that over six decades later Mod culture is still cool and their issues still relatable.
Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet will tour to Plymouth Theatre Royal from 28 May to 1 June 2025, Edinburgh Festival Theatre from 10 to 14 June 2025 and the Mayflower, Southampton from 18 to 21 June 2025 before having its official opening at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London on 24 June running to 13 July 2025 and then visiting The Lowry, Salford from 15 to 19 July 2025.
Russell Brand has been charged with rape and two counts of sexual assault between 1999 and 2005.
The Metropolitan Police say the 50-year-old comedian, actor and author has also been charged with one count of oral rape and one count of indecent assault.
The charges relate to four women.
He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday 2 May.
Police have said Brand is accused of raping a woman in the Bournemouth area in 1999 and indecently assaulting a woman in the Westminster area of London in 2001.
He is also accused of orally raping and sexually assaulting a woman in Westminster in 2004.
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1:59
Ashna Hurynag discusses Russell Brand’s charges
The fourth charge alleges that a woman was sexually assaulted in Westminster between 2004 and 2005.
Police began investigating Brand, from Oxfordshire, in September 2023 after receiving a number of allegations.
The comedian has denied the accusations and said he has “never engaged in non-consensual activity”.
He added in a video on X: “Of course, I am now going to have the opportunity to defend these charges in court, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.”
Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy, who is leading the investigation, said: “The women who have made reports continue to receive support from specially trained officers.
“The Met’s investigation remains open and detectives ask anyone who has been affected by this case, or anyone who has any information, to come forward and speak with police.”
Tom Cruise has paid tribute to Val Kilmer, wishing his Top Gun co-star “well on the next journey”.
Cruise, speaking at the CinemaCon film event in Las Vegas on Thursday, asked for a moment’s silence to reflect on the “wonderful” times shared with the star, whom he called a “dear friend”.
Kilmer, who died of pneumonia on Tuesday aged 65, rocketed to fame starring alongside Cruise in the 1986 blockbuster Top Gun, playing Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky, a rival fighter pilot to Cruise’s character Maverick.
Image: Tom Cruise said ‘I wish you well on the next journey’. Pic: AP
Image: Val Kilmer in 2017. Pic: AP
His last part was a cameo role in the 2022 blockbuster sequel Top Gun: Maverick.
Cruise, on stage at Caesars Palace on Thursday, said: “I’d like to honour a dear friend of mine, Val Kilmer. I can’t tell you how much I admire his work, how grateful and honoured I was when he joined Top Gun and came back later for Top Gun: Maverick.
“I think it would be really nice if we could have a moment together because he loved movies and he gave a lot to all of us. Just kind of think about all the wonderful times that we had with him.
“I wish you well on the next journey.”
The moment of silence followed a string of tributes from Hollywood figures including Cher, Francis Ford Coppola, Antonio Banderas and Michelle Monaghan.
Kilmer’s daughter Mercedes told the New York Times on Wednesday that the actor had died from pneumonia.
Image: Tom Cruise at Caesars Palace on Thursday. Pic: AP
Diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, Kilmer discussed his illness and recovery in his 2020 memoir Your Huckleberry and Amazon Prime documentary Val.
He underwent radiation and chemotherapy treatments for the disease and also had a tracheostomy which damaged his vocal cords and permanently gave him a raspy speaking voice.
Kilmer played Batman in the 1995 film Batman Forever and received critical acclaim for his portrayal of rock singer Jim Morrison in the 1991 movie The Doors.
He also starred in True Romance and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, as well as playing criminal Chris Shiherlis in Michael Mann’s 1995 movie Heat and Doc Holliday in the 1993 film Tombstone.
In 1988 he married British actress Joanne Whalley, whom he met while working on fantasy adventure Willow.
The couple had two children before divorcing in 1996.