“There won’t be a tour.”
With that short, succinct sentence, Noel Gallagher has once again dashed Oasis fans' hopes of the perma-feuding Mancunian Britpop band reforming in the foreseeable future.
Gallagher was speaking in an interview conducted for Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, in which he confirmed that an expanded 30th anniversary edition of Oasis' 1994 debut album Definitely Maybe will emerge next year.
Preceded by three singles, Supersonic, Shakermaker and Live Forever, the latter the Manchester band's first UK Top 10 hit, Definitely Maybe was originally released by Creation Records on August 29, 1994, and debuted at the top of the UK's best-selling album chart on September 4. It was, at the time, the fastest-selling debut album in British history, and went on to sell north of 8.5 million copies worldwide.
A deluxe 20th anniversary edition of the the album was released on 19 May 19, 2014, featuring the remastered original album packaged with two additional discs of songs. As sheer luck would have it, just in time for the 30th anniversary plans, a host of early Oasis recordings, long feared lost, have been uncovered in the Sony vaults.
“We thought they were lost, but they were mislabelled,” Noel Gallagher now explains. “They are wonderful versions of those songs, some acoustic versions.”
Tracks expected to be included on the forthcoming re-release will include "wonderful" versions of singles Live Forever and Supersonic, plus fan favourite Slide Away.
All of which is excellent news for Oasis fans. Albeit marginally less exciting than the prospect of seeing warring brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher playing the songs on-stage together again.
“We won’t come back to play them together” says N. Gallagher firmly.
Last month, Liam Gallagher responded to a March 18 tweet from a fan called Lorenzo asking 'Liam is there a small percentage that Oasis get back together?' with the reply 'It's happening'.
"He should get his people to call my people, they know who they are, they know where we are..." his brother said in response. "Stop talking on the fucking internet and let's see what you've got to say."
