The past three days have been a pretty insane time for Oasis fans. On Saturday evening, Liam Gallagher wrapped up his Definitely Maybe 30th anniversary tour with a triumphant set at the Reading Festival in England where he played the album straight through. Not long after he walked offstage, the official Oasis Instagram account came alive with news that a big announcement was coming on August 27, and the UK press reported that Oasis were reforming. There hadn’t even been a tiny hint that a reunion was in the works prior to this.
The news became official Tuesday morning at 3:00 am est. The tour kicks off July 4 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, England. The initial dates conclude August 17 at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland, but the press release bills this as a “world tour,” and the world is much larger than just England and Ireland. Dates in America are a near certainty, and it’s very easy to imagine them taking place at football stadiums.
Things were very different back in 1994 when Oasis first came to America. Their first show on this side of the Atlantic took place at the 500-seat Wetlands in New York City on July 21, 1994, a month prior to the release of their debut LP Definitely Maybe. They returned two months later for a proper tour, and cameras were rolling September 19 when they played one of the most infamous gigs in their career at the Whiskey in Los Angeles, which is available to watch in full.
At this point, the group had been touring without break for well over a year. In that month alone they’d been all across Japan and mainland Europe. To keep up with the relentless pace, they turned to hard drugs. “Someone had discovered the joys of crystal meth, which is effectively like ninja speed,” Noel Gallagher says in the 2016 documentary Supersonic. “It’s not even fun. It’s a fucking horrible drug.” For once, Liam Gallagher fully agrees with his brother. “I don’t know who fuckin’ got it, but it was there,” he says in the movie. “And we all thought it was coke. We were doing big fuckin’ lines of it.”
By the time they took the stage at the Whiskey, the group had been up for days and were gacked out of their minds on crystal meth. Unsurprisingly, the show was a disaster from the start, especially since a roadie accidentally placed the wrong setlist in front of Noel. “They were all playing different songs at the same time,” said guitar tech Jason Rhodes. “I was like, ‘Wow, what is going on here?’”
They attempted to open with “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star,” but it was such a train wreck they had to stop the show and try it a second time. Tensions grew throughout the night until Liam threw a tambourine at Noel in frustration. “I could see Liam going down to one of the amps throughout the gig,” said guitarist Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs, “and he was just snorting lines of crystal meth onstage.”
It was their biggest U.S. show up until that point, and they totally blew it. Noel was so mortified by the experience that he pulled the plug on their next nine shows. It gave them time to finally get some sleep, lay off the meth, and regroup. The tour resumed October 14 at the Uptown Bar in Minneapolis. They managed to get through that one without any instrument-throwing or onstage drug use.
The popularity of Oasis exploded back in Europe around this time, but they never gave up on America. They returned to the States frequently to play clubs and small theaters when they were able to fill arenas and even stadiums in England. The hard work paid off when (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? became a huge hit in America in 1995. (The Stone Roses and Blur, meanwhile, didn’t work America as hard and, while still acclaimed, never enjoyed a fraction of Oasis’s popularity here as a result.)
The next chapter of Oasis has yet to be written. Let’s all hope the band doesn’t implode before they play their first show. But no matter what happens, nothing could be as disastrous as that 1994 show at the Whiskey. Crystal meth is a horrible drug, kids. Don’t get near it. It’ll mess you up.
From Rolling Stone US
