Whenever people ask me what moment in time – in all of history – I’d go back to if I could, I always say one thing.
Oasis. Knebworth, August 1996. The era of acid house and Brit pop royalty. Of cigarettes and alcohol.
After over 4% of the population tried to get tickets, a massive audience descended on Knebworth Park from half a world away (don’t groan, there’s worse to come) for two days of stone-cold swagger from the best rock band of all time.
Oasis had enough fans apply to sell out another 18 days, and the gigs even had their own radio station. It’s no wonder that one band member admitted they should have split up and left on a high after those record-breaking gigs.
It didn’t – it couldn’t – get any better than that.
I was only three at the time, but I can’t look at videos from Knebworth without feeling a pang of jealousy and regret. I’d give anything, absolutely anything, to have been there – and so when the reunion shows were announced this morning, I was overcome with excitement to see them.
Yet, some middle-aged blokes with nothing better to do than get Paul Weller haircuts and gatekeep music think I’m not deserving of being an Oasis fan because I’m a young woman.
Apparently, I’m behind them in the queue for tickets.
That, to be a ‘real fan’, I had to have been there. That I had to have lived through the ‘90s – not born in it – to be ‘allowed’ to even think about getting tickets for the band’s reunion.
It’s lad culture at its worst, just in middle-aged form with sideburns and a Fred Perry polo – and it’s absolutely moronic. Pathetic, even.
Thanks to my dad, I’ve been an Oasis fan my whole life.
Heathen Chemistry is my favourite album, and Oasis B-sides would be my Mastermind specialist subject.
Sunday Morning Call is the most underrated song of all time, and Talk Tonight should be studied across the globe as an example of music vulnerability at its finest.
I’ve seen Liam and Noel Gallagher separately countless times – and cried every single time.
Watching Liam swagger onstage in his iconic parka to The Stone Roses’ I Am the Resurrection in my hometown, Newcastle – with my dad right beside me – is one of the highlights of my life.
Fellow fans can disagree on my favourite song, or album, or even which of my Dad’s hand me down Oasis t-shirts has the best design.
But what I won’t do, is be told I’m somehow less of a fan because of my age or sex.
Oasis and Taylor Swift are my top two favourite artists – they interchange depending on my mood. I’m a raver, but cry in the bath to country music, or bop along in the bubbles to Bob Marley.
I’m free to be whatever I choose, and I’ll sing the blues if I want.
There is no ‘right’ way to be a fan if music makes you feel, well, just about anything – whether you’ve been a fan for days or decades. If you like a handful of songs, or the entire back catalogue.
Whether you’re a man or woman, 50 or 15.
But while Oasis have announced their reunion, after a decade and a half of ‘will-they-won’t-they’ aggro, some people are testing that theory – and my patience.
‘Imagine waiting 15 years for Oasis to reform only to lose out on tickets to Chloe, 21 from Stockport who just wants to hear Wonderwall live,’ a bloke (of course) called Billy said on X.
Another called Neil added: ‘Oasis reunion tickets priority: If you liked them from the start. If you’ve seen them over 10 times. If you still adored them from 1998 to 2017 when it was uncool and unfashionable to like them… Step aside newbies.’
Honestly, get a grip. If you have to, simply Acquiesce. (Warned you).
I’m sick of tragic older blokes trying to gate-keep music, and belittling younger fans in the process – especially female ones, seemingly because they assume the ‘90s was a better time for men. A ‘proper’ time for men.
One music journalist even said that demand for Oasis tickets will ‘absolutely dwarf’ that of Taylor Swift.
Seriously, who cares? Since when was a female pop artist part of the conversation to start with, anyway? Why do they need to be pitted against each other?
For me, so much of the reaction is just an excuse for sexism in music to live forever, quite frankly.
Yes, Oasis – and Brit pop in general – has attracted more than its fair share of parka-wearing w**kers who don’t grow up.
But they are in the minority, and they aren’t more of a fan than me, or anyone else.
There’s no leaderboard of hierarchy when it comes to music – whether you’ve been to Oasis gigs ‘back in the day’ or you stumbled across after the news broke yesterday, it doesn’t matter.
No one has the right to belittle or bemoan ‘Chloe, 21, from Stockport’ – even if she gets tickets over Gaz, 57 (ish) from Huddersfield who’s liked them since before she was born.
So to older Oasis fans, I have one message: take that look from off your face and let the kids listen to Wonderwall.
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