«The biggest tour in the world in 2025 has just ended and in my own small way I was part of it». Thus begins the story of the Oasis reunion signed by Christian Madden, keyboardist added to the live band. «Clearly my words will be lost in a sea of hyperbole. If you want to get an idea of what the tour was, go to YouTube or Instagram. Maybe even on TikTok (although I've never been there and deep down I'm convinced that it was designed by the Chinese Communist Party to accelerate the stupidity of us Westerners). There you will find endless reels and videos of enthusiastic people, fireworks painting the sky above packed stadiums in bright colours, Liam hugging Noel, Liam balancing tambourines on his head, people doing Poznań. It feels special. It really was.”
Madden, born in 1976, is one of the founders of the Earlies, as well as a much sought-after session man who has played with Liam Gallagher since his solo debut As You Were. In his writing, which he published on Substack under the title “To Be Included,” he offers «the humble perspective of the least famous person in the most famous band on tour this year, a nobody at the center of a media storm. I walked unmolested among the people in Heaton Park and joined the masses of people marching along Wembley Way, in uniform. It reminded me of when I was dressed from head to toe in garnet and blue (the colors of Burnley, ed) with a flag in his hand, heading to the 1988 Sherpa Van Trophy final. I met lots of people in the area friends & family. They asked me if I liked the concert and if I had seen them before or if it was my first time. Sometimes I played along, sometimes I said, “I'm in the fucking band!” At that point they asked me for a selfie which I imagine they will look at in a few years and ask themselves: who was that guy?
What was it like being part of the biggest concert event of 2025? On the one hand Madden says it was like any other tour, the routine before the concert and then on stage where «if someone makes a mistake, you look at them to see if they're ok, if they've recovered. Maybe smile at him to let him know that it's not important. Sometimes you make a mistake and look around to see if anyone has noticed. You are one with the band, a self-sustaining universe where nothing else matters or seems real. But it's real and this is the part that made it different from other tours. You looked up and saw an endless expanse of people. Sometimes they moved like in the football curves of the 80s, before everything went wrong. Sometimes you looked up and saw a sea of phone lights swaying in the darkness, a sight of haunting beauty. Sometimes I would take off my in-ears and listen to the beautiful cacophony of 80,000 people singing in unison. The public made everything different.”
In addition to saying that for someone like him «fresh from a tour spent sleeping on a bus and eating sandwiches» being with Oasis was a decidedly different and unforgettable experience, Madden already sees himself as Jude Law's character in I Heart Huckabees – The strange accidents of life who can't stop talking about Shania Twain. «I'll end up hating the sound of my voice repeating the same anecdotes over and over again. Maybe I'll start embellishing the stories, like everyone does at some point. They will also ask me questions and I will answer some of them. Did they really get along? Yes, they got along. Nothing sensational, just genuinely affectionate people who, after forgiving themselves, began to look forward, with caution. What you saw was real. What was the best concert, where was the best audience? Everyone was amazing, everyone was incredible, et cetera. All the shows in South America were crazy, but I would say Buenos Aires, the second show. People had to go through hour-long security checks and when the time came… they exploded.”
The question everyone is asking: «Will there be other concerts in 2026 or beyond? They will ask me this often. Do you really think I know? After all, I'm just a worker ant.”
Madden can't believe how positive the press reaction was after the first concert in Cardiff in July. «From that moment on no one dared to rock the boat. First, though, they were sharpening their knives. Today I scrolled through the old articles of Guardian on dynamic pricing, Ticketmaster's problems, fans being fleeced on resale sites, etc. I scrolled until I got to the piece in which Simon Price defines Oasis as “the most damaging pop-cultural force in recent British history” and compares them with other groups who in some way represented the working class such as Pulp and Manic Street Preachers. «But it is precisely by comparing Oasis with their peers that one understands their charm», explains Madden. «Pulp were clearly cultured, witty, cool. Jarvis' lyrics were often autobiographical and theirs was a decidedly refined version of outsider music. The Manic Street Preachers seemed like sociology students who wanted the world to know what they had learned about the world's injustices. Damon Albarn and Blur wanted to show you even more clearly how intelligent they were, how many books they had read, how vast their knowledge was, how interdisciplinary they were. And it's all true: Albarn is intelligent and I admire him very much. I even envy him a little.”
Photo: Big Brother Recordings
“If Simon Price is frantically unfollowing anyone who posted joyful scenes from Live '25 and is scratching his head wondering how on earth this gang of 'mall freaks' have taken over the world with their 'heavy, no-funk, no-sex appeal' vibe, I'll be happy to enlighten him. It's an inclusive experience. That's right, Madden just said that Oasis is inclusive. They happily borrow from the most obvious sources, the ones everyone knows and loves. They use chord progressions that children learn when they begin to learn the guitar. Thirty-five years ago they learned to play House of the Rising Sun or Bad, Bad Leroy BrownToday Wonderwall or Live Forever. The texts he dismisses as “flat banalities” are sufficiently vague and open to interpretation to allow people on every continent to invest them with personal meaning. The melodies are in a register that anyone, man or woman, young or old, can sing. They're simple and memorable, and they stick with you even if you don't buy records. The music is inclusive and then there's the band. Those who want to criticize her will note that there are only white men on stage and it is a legitimate objection. But what I've always found fascinating is that they were a group of ordinary-looking men, dressed like people going out on the weekend, with average, non-virtuosic musical skills, playing songs. Nothing seemed inscrutable or unattainable.”
«People looked at Oasis and thought: “They're no better than me, I could do it too”. A lot of people joined bands after seeing them back then. To be honest, many shouldn't have done it, but that's exactly what makes them inclusive and welcoming: they make everything seem easier and more attainable than it is in reality, they don't flaunt anything, the skill is there but it's hidden. You look at Oasis and think: “They're like me, I could be in that band”. And for six months this year, I was there.”
