LOS ANGELES — Kevin Brown brushed off all the texts he received from friends over the first few days, because he has seen it all before. The Oasis reunion rumors have cropped up in the British press just about every year since the Mancunian rockers played their final show 15 years ago.
When the Sunday Times reported over the weekend that Oasis, one of Britain’s biggest bands, was planning a reunion tour in 2025, Brown ignored it. The Orioles’ lead play-by-play announcer for Mid-Atlantic Sports Network knew better.
“I did not for one second think it was going to happen,” Brown said. “For 15 years, I have not believed this band was going to get back together. I may have been the only one of my friends. Everybody else assumed they’re going to do for the money. But I said, ‘No, you don’t know this band the way I know them. There is too much acrimony.’”
This time would be no different, Brown scoffed.
“Every, like, eight months, some new rumor would come up, some British tabloid would swear Oasis is reforming,” Brown said. “Liam [Gallagher] would fan the flames by being the ultimate Twitter troll. And I never believed it. I did not believe any of it.”
Then Brown, the mega-Oasis fan, saw the official social media accounts for lead singer Liam Gallagher, guitarist/singer/primary songwriter Noel Gallagher and the band post a date, signaling an impending announcement. And on Tuesday, Brown’s world was turned upside down — Oasis will play 14 dates in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland in July and August 2025.
This wasn’t “Definitely Maybe” happening. This was actually happening.
“I have to see them,” Brown said in the visitor’s dugout at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday. “I have to go. I have to go to one of these shows. This is the band I want to see more than anybody else. It’s been 16 years since I’ve seen them, and I never thought I’d have this opportunity. So, somehow, some way, I will find a way.”
Those shows will be in the middle of baseball season, of course, and Brown is rather busy during the summer. He’s heard from a friend who claims to “know people” that there will be U.S. shows as well, but the chance to see Oasis on the British Isles would be the thing of dreams for a fan who discovered the band’s multiplatinum 1995 album “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” as a high schooler in the early 2000s.
He can thank Joey Cardella, his neighbor, for the obsession with Oasis. Cardella had many CDs, and when Brown got an iPod, he loaded it up with a sampling from Cardella’s house. Brown remembers the feeling when his first Oasis album began. By “Wonderwall,” he was in love.
“One day, I threw it on and it just — it hit like almost nothing else hit,” Brown said. “And like a lot of people, it was ‘Wonderwall’ right from the start. And then I got another album of theirs, and I think the next one was probably ‘Definitely Maybe.’ And I sometimes find it hard to talk about music critically. I think it’s easier to talk about TV and films critically. It’s easier to talk about sports critically. It’s hard to talk about music because it is so subjective, but they just bring me more joy than any other band. I just get a pure dopamine hit and adrenaline rush from their songs like nobody else.”
It’s not just the classics. “Wonderwall” may have been Brown’s point of entry, but his knowledge of the world of Oasis extends through all seven studio albums, myriad B-side tracks and ample live recordings.
“Once you get past the big two albums, then you discover there are all these incredible B-side songs that weren’t even on albums,” Brown said. “But it’s not an overwhelming volume of music to get into. So once I was in, I pretty quickly was into all of it and had every album and had every B-side and live versions of stuff.”
The author of this article offered his own favorite Oasis song: “Bonehead’s Bank Holiday,” a more obscure track from the “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” era. (As a hipster, I gravitate toward the lesser-known gems.) Brown agreed there’s a charm to “Bonehead’s Bank Holiday,” because it “sounds like a song recorded after they were at the pub, just messing around, which is like the ethos of Oasis.”
Brown chose “Slide Away” as the best Oasis song in his view, but when asked for a deep-cut pick, he went really deep with “(As Long As They’ve Got) Cigarettes In Hell,” a B-side from “Standing On The Shoulder of Giants.”
“It’s this incredibly sweet, tender, noble ballad,” Brown said. “Great sing-along, chorus, and that’s a song I didn’t even know for a few years because it wasn’t on ‘The Masterplan,’” a compilation album of B-sides.
Of course, it’s a Noel Gallagher track. When Brown introduced his wife to the band, nearly every song was Noel-written. He is quick to answer that Noel is his preferred brother in the complicated duo of infighting geniuses.
“Noel is the poet of the band,” Brown said. “Liam is obviously the swagger. But maybe there’s something to being a ‘creative,’ as silly as that sounds, I just love his craftsmanship. I love his songwriting. I love his melodies.”
He’s an underrated guitarist, Brown said, and Noel’s cheeky lyrics toast his sense of humor. As such, since Brown saw Oasis play in 2008 at Madison Square Garden, he has seen Noel Gallagher play solo four times compared to one Liam Gallagher show.
“He is the wordsmith,” Brown said. “He’s one of the greatest songwriters of his generation.”
Brown recently signed a contract extension to remain in the booth with MASN, but he joked that maybe he needs to go back to tweak the language to make sure he can see Oasis in concert. “Hey, one extra perk, if I may, guys,” Brown laughed. “I didn’t think this was gonna happen.”
But it has happened. Oasis is getting back together. Not maybe. Definitely.
