‘One Love Manchester’: Will Oasis Reunite at Benefit Concert?

Liam Gallagher. (Getty)

Liam Gallagher made a surprise appearance at the One Love Manchester benefit concert today, and that sparked questions about a possible Oasis reunion. Gallagher and his older brother Noel Gallagher have been in a long-running feud and the group hasn’t released an album since 2008. Many hoped that the tragedy in their hometown of Manchester would bring the group together again, but it didn’t happen.

Although Gallagher was not part of the official lineup, Dan Wootton of the U.K. Sun tweeted that Gallagher planned a “surprise appearance.” “Won’t be a dry eye if he performs Don’t Look Back in Anger,” Wootton added. That’s in reference to the Oasis song “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” which appeared on (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? and is one of the group’s signature songs. Coldplay covered the song.

However, Gallagher previously told BBC Radio 1 that he’ll be in Germany during the show. “I’m up for it but I think we are playing in Germany so we are already booked but I would’ve loved to have done it,” Gallagher said on May 31. Noel Gallagher doesn’t have any dates scheduled at the moment.

On May 25, three days after the bombing that killed 22 people, Manchester residents gathered in St. Ann’s Square for a moment of silence. They then broke out in song, singing “Don’t Look Back in Anger.”

Another reporter tweeted that a full reunion is off the table.

Rumors of an Oasis reunion took a wild turn when Black Eyed Peas member Taboo Nawasha added the band in a May 31 tweet about the One Love show. Although it was deleted and later replaced with a tweet without @oasis, The Manchester Evening News got a screenshot of it.

There was also a setlist circulating on Twitter that lists “Don’t Look Back in Anger (Oasis),” but that could just mean that the other performers will sing the song (which is what happened). It’s squeezed in between Take That’s three songs and three songs by Usher.

Gallagher himself recently made some confusing statements in an interview with The Observer. On one hand, he said he “missed” working with Noel, being in a band and the group’s fanbase, but then he said working with his brother “bores the hell out of me.” Gallagher stated that an Oasis reunion is just not in the cards, even if he’d “like it to happen.”

“I can’t see it happening,” Gallagher told the Observer. “Never say never, I guess, but at the moment, if I get up and running on this solo thing, it certainly won’t happen for a bit. Because there have been plenty of times that it could have happened and it should have happened and it didn’t. I’d like it to happen, because I miss him and I miss the band and I miss the fans and I miss singing them songs. But it’s in the lap of the gods, not Noel Gallagher, as much as he’d like to think he’s a bit of a god, but he ain’t… Cos I’ve seen him coming for years.”

Gallagher added that his brother is a “changed” person who is not someone he wants to be in a band with. “He’s part of the establishment,” Gallagher said of Noel.

Gallagher has slowly begun a solo career, releasing his single “Wall of Glass” in May. After Oasis stopped recording, he formed the group Beady Eye with former Oasis members Chris Sharrock, Andy Bell and Gem Archer.

After the attack, Gallagher tweeted:

One Love Manchester begins at 2 p.m. ET in the U.S. and will be shown on ABC’s Freeform cable channel.

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