Bono said that Noel Gallagher was “shocked” by the Oasis sound during the Tour tests. He said it in an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, where he spoke of the band's return and the effect he had on the indie scene.
“I love them,” he said. “What has always struck me is that they made the dusty indie of the time blow. No installation, only attitude. And that sound: no glamor, but the desire to get out from where you are ».
According to Bono, Noel would have written to him during the rehearsals to tell him that the group is playing incredibly well. «It was almost shocked. I think we expect a great summer ». Bono said that “obviously” will see them live, in what will be the first reunion on stage after sixteen years. And he remembered how both he and his brother Liam left their mark in the nineties.
“I remember what they did. Those enormous guitars, inspired by Neil Young, those generous sounds – in the United Kingdom were almost out of law. But they said: “No, I do what I want”, “he explained. “They had something rhythmic and beautiful … and Manchester was very influenced by the dance, so they were more Groovy than anyone else, rough than anyone else.”
During the interview, Bono also told of when he and The Edge met Liam and Noel, at the time of the first Album Defintely Maybe, in 1994, receiving a rather detached welcome in Noel's apartment. He also added that, if in the nineties the message of the band “perhaps did not go all the way to America”, the coming dates could be the right opportunity to show all the potential. “It will be like their first real successful tour in the United States,” he said. “People don't know how good they are.”
Further on, Bono also spoke of his long friendship with Noel, telling that in 2023 the frontman of the High Flying Birds went to see his show Stories of Surrenderand in the end he told him that he had “completely lost his head”. The two had already shared the stage in 1997, when the Oasis opened for U2 in San Francisco, and again in 2017, when Noel had returned as a soloist.
At the time, he said: “I had a lot of fun. That experience confirmed to me that the Irish are the best people to get out with, and perhaps the worst to drink with. ” In 2023, talking again about the relationship with Bono, he added: “I love him madly, even if you take a lot of criticism.”
The Oasis tour will start from Cardiff in early July. At the opening there will be Richard Ashcroft and the cast. According to increasingly insistent rumors, with Liam and Noel there will be Gem Archer and Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs on guitars, Joe Waronker on drums (one of the “new faces” anticipated by Liam) and Andy Bell on the bottom, recently seen in the studio for the tests. The opening, as already confirmed, will be entrusted to Richard Ashcroft.
