Latest news with #BandReunion
CNN
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CNN
Noel Gallagher says brother Liam is ‘smashing it'
Noel Gallagher has dished out rare praise for his brother Liam, saying he is 'smashing it' on Oasis' reunion tour. The siblings have had a famously acrimonious relationship since their band dramatically split in 2009. But now, in an interview with UK radio station TalkSport on Tuesday, the Oasis songwriter and lead guitarist expressed his admiration for his younger brother. 'Liam's smashing it,' Gallagher said of his brother's performances as lead singer during the reunion tour so far. 'I'm proud of him.' The brothers have publicly traded barbs in the 16 years since Oasis' breakup, with their spat regularly making headlines around the world. In an interview with The Guardian in 2019, Noel accused his brother of making 'unsophisticated music' and said 'I can't stand his voice.' Those comments came two years after Liam said of him in the same newspaper: 'When I think about it, being in a band with him bores the death out of me.' So it was big news when the band announced last year that they were getting back together. They kicked off a 19-date tour of the UK and Ireland in Cardiff, Wales on July 4. They are due to play their first North American date in Toronto on Sunday, before heading to other cities in North and South America, Asia and Australia, with a finale in São Paulo on November 23. The Gallagher brothers were pictured hand in hand at the end of their opening night in the Welsh capital last month. Just how emotional was that moment?, the TalkSport interviewer asked Gallagher. 'We're not those kind of guys really,' said the singer-songwriter, who set up his own band, 'High Flying Birds,' following Oasis' split. Nevertheless, he went on to tell the hosts that he was pleased to be back on stage with his original band, which started in Manchester in 1991. They went on to become one of the biggest groups of the 1990s, hitting the number one spot in the UK with eight of their albums. 'It's great just to be back with Bonehead and Liam and you know, just be doing it again. I guess when it's all said and done we'll sit and reflect on it but it's great being back in the band with Liam — I forgot how funny he was,' he said. And that was not the only compliment he paid his little brother. 'I've been fronting a band for 16 years, I know how difficult that is,' he said. 'I couldn't do the stadium thing like he does it. It's not in my nature but I've got to say, man, I look around and I think good for you, mate. He's been amazing.'
CNN
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CNN
Noel Gallagher says brother Liam is ‘smashing it'
Noel Gallagher has dished out rare praise for his brother Liam, saying he is 'smashing it' on Oasis' reunion tour. The siblings have had a famously acrimonious relationship since their band dramatically split in 2009. But now, in an interview with UK radio station TalkSport on Tuesday, the Oasis songwriter and lead guitarist expressed his admiration for his younger brother. 'Liam's smashing it,' Gallagher said of his brother's performances as lead singer during the reunion tour so far. 'I'm proud of him.' The brothers have publicly traded barbs in the 16 years since Oasis' breakup, with their spat regularly making headlines around the world. In an interview with The Guardian in 2019, Noel accused his brother of making 'unsophisticated music' and said 'I can't stand his voice.' Those comments came two years after Liam said of him in the same newspaper: 'When I think about it, being in a band with him bores the death out of me.' So it was big news when the band announced last year that they were getting back together. They kicked off a 19-date tour of the UK and Ireland in Cardiff, Wales on July 4. They are due to play their first North American date in Toronto on Sunday, before heading to other cities in North and South America, Asia and Australia, with a finale in São Paulo on November 23. The Gallagher brothers were pictured hand in hand at the end of their opening night in the Welsh capital last month. Just how emotional was that moment?, the TalkSport interviewer asked Gallagher. 'We're not those kind of guys really,' said the singer-songwriter, who set up his own band, 'High Flying Birds,' following Oasis' split. Nevertheless, he went on to tell the hosts that he was pleased to be back on stage with his original band, which started in Manchester in 1991. They went on to become one of the biggest groups of the 1990s, hitting the number one spot in the UK with eight of their albums. 'It's great just to be back with Bonehead and Liam and you know, just be doing it again. I guess when it's all said and done we'll sit and reflect on it but it's great being back in the band with Liam — I forgot how funny he was,' he said. And that was not the only compliment he paid his little brother. 'I've been fronting a band for 16 years, I know how difficult that is,' he said. 'I couldn't do the stadium thing like he does it. It's not in my nature but I've got to say, man, I look around and I think good for you, mate. He's been amazing.'
The Guardian
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Noel Gallagher opens up about his brother Liam on Oasis reunion tour: ‘He's been amazing'
Noel Gallagher has opened up about his feelings towards his long-estranged brother Liam during Oasis' sold-out global reunion tour for the first time, saying: 'He's been amazing … it's great being back in the band with Liam.' Oasis announced they would be reuniting in August 2024, 15 years after their split in 2009 when Noel quit the band after a backstage brawl at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris, saying he 'simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer'. The brothers continued to trade barbs for years and rejected any suggestion they would bury the hatchet, making their reunion a pleasant surprise for their fans. At their first show in Cardiff, the crowd responded with whistles and applause when the brothers briefly embraced at the end of the gig. Speaking to TalkSport's Andy Goldstein and Darren Bent on Tuesday, Noel Gallagher said he had been 'completely blown away' by the tour so far. 'Liam's smashing it. I'm proud of him,' he said. 'I couldn't do the stadium thing like he does it, it's not in my nature. But I've got to say, I kind of look and I think, 'Good for you mate.' He's been amazing. 'It's great just to be back with Bonehead [Paul Arthurs] and Liam and just be doing it again,' he continued. 'I guess when it's all said and done we will sit and reflect on it, but it's great being back in the band with Liam, I forgot how funny he was.' Noel said he was taken aback by the fan response at their first show in Cardiff in July. 'I can't speak for anyone else, but for me personally, I grossly underestimated what I was getting into. It was kind of after about five minutes, I was like, all right, can I just go back to the dressing room and start this again?' he said. 'I've done stadiums before and all that, but I don't mind telling you, my legs had turned to jelly after about halfway through the second song. It's been an amazing thing. Really is an amazing thing. It's difficult to put into words, actually. 'Every night is the crowd's first night, you know what I mean? So every night's got that kind of same energy to it, but it's been truly amazing. I'm not usually short for words, but I can't really articulate it.' Oasis has already played 17 dates across the UK and Ireland, and are continuing their away around the world with performances to come in the US, Canada, Australia, Japan and South America. The Oasis Live '25 tour is due to end in November in Brazil.
Yahoo
10-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
My Chemical Romance at MetLife Stadium: An unforgettable, bloody 'Black Parade' spectacle
As fans piled into MetLife Stadium Saturday night, they were each handed a paper sign. On one side was printed 'yea,' on the other, 'nay.' They would have a decision to make. More on that in a moment. Beneath the 'yea' and 'nay' were letters of another language, something resembling Russian Cyrillic, called Keposhka. Never heard of it? That's because it's made up — a full dialect created solely for the purpose of My Chemical Romance's world-building new tour, reimagining their 2006 hit album 'The Black Parade.' This 'Long Live the Black Parade' revamp is the band's second go-round since reforming in 2019, after a six-year hiatus. They played an eruptive reunion show at Newark's Prudential Center in 2022, re-establishing themselves as the Garden State's most significant rock outfit of the 21st Century (it's not close). For their largest homecoming concert to date, the glam-punks from Belleville and Kearny conjured the fictional country of Draag, a Soviet-inspired dictatorship complete with elaborate militant costuming, faux mid-century propaganda videos and a 'dictator' (actor), who sat unmoving in a throne on the stadium floor as the entire concert was ostensibly performed for his approval. The production was a highly stylized, hyper-violent and absurdist display — surely one of the most meticulously designed stadium-rock bonanzas MetLife has ever seen — where frontman Gerard Way played the role of a deranged rebel (I think), who seemed to support his proud nation of Draag, but was also performing in opposition of his iron-fisted regime? He also spent multiple interludes sloppily eating a bowl of spaghetti. Your guess is as good as mine. Just before their beloved anthem 'Welcome to the Black Parade,' a sweat-soaked Way stood at a podium in his military costume — resembling the iconography of the first 'Black Parade' tour run in '07 — and declared 'let's kill some people!' So began the tour's nightly 'election' where four people (perhaps some unlucky fans) were led onto a spotlit B-stage, with bags over their heads and prop rifles aimed at them. It was then that the sold-out crowd was asked to raise their 'yea' or 'nay' signs, deciding whether the rifles should fire. Like ancient Greeks in the coliseum, the mass of 60,000 fans held 'yea' and so the guns fired and the bodies fell. An immersive goth-rock theater experience fitting the band's penchant for spectacle? Yes. A troubling glimpse into the brutalism of public executions and group bloodlust? Also yes; the tour should be studied by sociologists. The first 80 minutes went on like this as the band — Way, guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero and bassist Mikey Way (Gerard's brother), plus touring drummer Jerrod Alexander, keyboardist Jamie Muhoberac and violinist Kayleigh Goldsworthy — hurtled through 'The Black Parade' with pomp and ceremony appropriate for their hellish rock opera. The crowd, a black mass of obsidian eyeliner, finger nails and military jackets to match, roared for the album's best-known tunes 'Teenagers' and 'Famous Last Words,' the latter igniting the front, sides and rear of the stage in as many pyrotechnic flames as I've ever seen for a single song (and I've covered KISS and Rammstein). This portion of the set ended with a representative from Draag (another actor), who had been pestering Way with written messages all night — another running on-stage bit — re-emerging, this time in a powder-white clown costume, and stabbing Way in the heart with a knife, bursting a blood packet as Way fell to the ground, crimson also pouring from his mouth. The clown man then opened his own costume to reveal a bomb strapped to his chest, which exploded with deafening bangs in the stadium (also, uh, troubling in 2025). After a 10-minute cello solo/intermission, the band hopped onto the executioners' B-stage for another hour of tunes from their remaining three albums, which included cement-splitting sing-alongs to 'I'm Not Okay (I Promise),' 'Helena' and, in true Jersey form, Bon Jovi's 'Livin' on a Prayer.' Here, Way, 48, dropped his petulant act, appearing sincerely moved by the show's immensity — this night was the summer tour's first football stadium — and gawking as a full moon rose over MetLife, angling for a peek at the show. 'Is that real?' Way asked, noting how in Los Angeles, where he lives, 'the moon doesn't look like that there.' Yes, Way has been gone a long time. But on that small auxiliary stage, as the band ripped recklessly through some of their oldest, most caustic tracks like 'Skylines and Turnstiles' and 'Our Lady of Sorrows,' they didn't seem so far removed from their days of playing local clubs: The Loop Lounge in Passaic, Bloomfield Ave. Cafe in Montclair, Krome in South Amboy and Birch Hill in Old Bridge. When 'The Black Parade' was first released in '06, they debuted the album at release show in the Vintage Vinyl record store parking lot in Woodbridge. They stayed behind until 2 a.m. to help clean up. Earlier in the show, the band was joined on stage by Belleville Mayor Michael Melham, who presented the My Chemical Romance with a key to the city, a historic moment for their little Essex County hometown. READ MORE: See My Chemical Romance's hilarious response to being awarded key to their N.J. hometown 'Even in our storied history in Belleville — Revolutionary War soldiers, Purple Heart recipients, a Supreme Court justice, various professional athletes — never once have we handed out a key to the city, and that changes right now," Melham said. The band knelt, as though to be knighted, and then handed Melham a prop bundle of wheat and large fish in exchange for the honor, per Draag tradition; shades of 'Borat.' For My Chem diehards, this two-hour, 20 minute onslaught was well beyond wildest expectations — and leagues past what other modern rock bands would bother to consider (cough, Linkin Park, cough). 'Long Live the Black Parade' builds upon a well-known project and pulled fans deeper down the twisting, creative rabbit hole, to a place worthy of Keposhka translations, conspiracy theories and Reddit threads — reinstating some of the joy of being a fan, being fully enveloped by the music you love. If you can handle the bullets and blood, it's a singular, must-see show celebrating source material that perhaps deserves even greater exploration. Your move, Broadway. My Chemical Romance's setlist Aug. 9, 2025 — MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J. "The End." "Dead!" "This Is How I Disappear" "The Sharpest Lives" "Welcome to the Black Parade' "I Don't Love You' (with extended intro) "House of Wolves" "Cancer" "Mama' (with a guest opera singer; with 'Dagger' outro) "Sleep' (with 'The Big Sky' intro) "Teenagers" "Disenchanted' (with 'The Button Pressed' intro) "Famous Last Words" "The End." B STAGE "From A to B' (Clarice Jensen song) (performed by Clarice Jensen) "Skylines and Turnstiles" (Tour debut) "Our Lady of Sorrows" "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" "The Ghost of You" "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)" "It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a F---ng Deathwish" "Boy Division" "Vampires Will Never Hurt You" "Helena" 'Livin' on a Prayer' (Bon Jovi cover) Bobby Olivier may be reached atbolivier@ Follow him on Twitter@BobbyOlivierandFacebook.
