Paul Weller has said that while the landmark Oasis reunion tour will be “remembered forever” by fans, he won’t be in attendance at any gigs.
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Liam and Noel Gallagher kicked off their long-awaited ‘Live ‘25’ tour dates with two nights at Principality Stadium in Cardiff last month, and then headed over to their hometown of Manchester for five shows at Heaton Park before playing five of their seven scheduled stops at London’s Wembley Stadium.
During a recent interview with BBC Radio 2’s Jo Whiley, Weller was asked about their massive comeback trek, and while praising the Britpop giants, admitted he hadn’t been to any of the shows.
“I’m not a big fan of big gigs,” he explained. “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.”
The former Jam frontman added that unless you were in the front row, you’d inevitably end up watching the show through a screen. “It kind of spoils a bit for me,” he said, “because I want to see whoever is playing or singing, and I want to be able to see them.”
Wiley then asked whether he wanted to go along to cheer on close friend Noel, but he was confident he wouldn’t need any support other than the crowd.
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“You know how it’s going to go for him,” Weller said. “It’s going to be mad. 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.”
Weller has previously spoken out about his admiration for Gallagher. In a section dedicated to Noel with an NME feature for The High Flying Birds from 2011, Weller hailed the former Oasis guitarist’s ability to “write an anthem”– especially after going solo.
The two have performed together previously, and earlier this year watched the Sex Pistols return to the 100 Club together.
Weller’s comments about his dislike of large stadium gigs comes after safety concerns about Oasis’ shows have made headlines recently after the tragic death of 45-year-old fan Lee Claydon at their Wembley show last Saturday (August 2).
A fundraiser campaign launched by the family – which is still active – has currently raised over £19,000 of it’s £20,000 target.
Oasis said in a statement on Sunday: “We are shocked and saddened to hear of the tragic death of a fan at the show. Oasis would like to extend our sincere condolences to the family and friends of the person involved.”
Meanwhile, it later emerged that a fan had missed the entire show in Manchester he had a ticket for after he was knocked unconscious by a security worker that was trying to keep out gate crashing fans.
After wrapping up in London last weekend, Oasis will make stops in Edinburgh and Dublin, as well as North America, South America, Australia, South Korea and Japan. They will then head back to the UK for two final Wembley shows in September, and negotiations are underway to bring the tour to Italy.
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