Sometimes bands get to a stage in their career where they completely lose the plot when it comes to putting together a setlist. It usually happens three or four albums in, when there’s more material to choose from, someone wants to get some new songs in and common sense goes on sabbatical. The time when Muse started playing Knights Of Cydonia in the middle of their set a decade ago is a prime example. Complete lunacy. Knights Of Cydonia is a song so monstrously huge it needs to be at the beginning or the end. Putting it in the middle was like having a roast dinner for brekkie on a Monday morning, you felt like you needed to go back to bed after.
Bar a tour in 2005 where they inexplicably began their gigs with the plodding Don’t Believe The Truth cut Turn Up The Sun, Oasis could always be relied upon when it came to getting a setlist right, even if there was a time when they were playing the diabolical She’s Electric. They came to their senses and it didn’t get a look in after 2002. Even when everything was going to pot and Noel and Liam were trying to kill each other backstage, their setlist held its nerve. Classics at the start, classics at the end, and a few classics in the middle casting a big enough shadow over the not-so classics.
They can’t afford to start getting it wrong now. Rehearsals will begin for their monumental reunion shows over the next few weeks and the setlist they eventually land on needs to be perfect. Luckily, I consider myself something of a setlist consultant so I’ve put one together they are welcome to borrow. Oasis were never a Springsteen, Foo Fighters-y, ‘let’s play 600 songs tonight’-type band, most of their big outdoor shows being around the 20-song mark. Using that as the benchmark, here’s the setlist that will help make sure Oasis Live ’25 matches up to the fevered expectation.
Walk-on track: Fuckin’ In The Bushes
As much as arriving to the adoring masses to the psychedelic swirls of The Swamp Song, as they did during their mid-90s peak, would be a nice nostalgic salute, it’s got to be the searing instrumental opener from Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants that soundtracks their arrival onstage. The sheer swagger of this blasting out the speakers will send crowds into an absolute frenzy.
1. Rock’n’Roll Star
They have to start with this. They will start with this. The searing opener from their era-defining debut sets out everything that made Oasis so exciting in the first place, huge riff, indelible vocal, big singalong from the off and a rhythm section that sounds like it’s falling down a flight of stairs. Ooh I’m getting shivers thinking about it.
2. Acquiesce
And then, straight into this timeless 1995 B-side. It’s both scandalous that this wasn’t a single and a sign of how many great tunes Noel Gallagher was coming up with at the time. A massive anthem with Liam singing the verse and Noel doing the chorus, this brotherly duet will hammer home the fact their feud is well and truly over and Oasis are back in business.
3. Supersonic
Three songs in, as the pounding beat to their debut single Supersonic begins, is about the time the punchdrunk crowd realise just how many classic songs are going to be played tonight. A lot. Oasis have started with the musical equivalent of the big bang. What a walloping 1, 2, 3.
4. Morning Glory
And they’re not done yet, ramping things up even further with the title track from their all-conquering second record. Some people in the crowd are now starting to panic there will be no duds in the setlist and they won't be able to go to the bar.
5. Lyla
But now comes a little respite from the up’n’at’em rockers with the stomping lead single from Don’t Believe The Truth. By the time it reaches its second chorus, loads of people in the crowd are realising that they’d forgotten how much they love it.
6. Stand By Me
But they didn’t reminding of their love for this Be Here Now standout, a 1997 single that went to Number 2 in the charts. The first big ballad of the evening, it's a nice little drop in tempo that still offers up a great big holler-along.
7. Cigarettes & Alcohol
But straight back into rock'n'roll exhilaration. As the snarling blues riff to this begins, some poor lad will be standing at a urinal and have to hurry to get finished and race back to his mates. He needn’t worry, there’s loads more life-affirming highlights to come. Ah man, he’s got wee all down his leg in the panic.
8. Some Might Say
Oasis’s first chart-topper fell off their setlist surprisingly early – they stopped playing it after 2002. But it’s just turned 30 and actually sounds better now than it did back then. What once felt a bit of a chugging rocker now has a dynamic blast to it. This song always reminds me of smoking grass, cos that's exactly what me and my friend Tom did when we got home after buying the single. Except it wasn't the weed kind, it was actual grass from my mum's garden. it was disgusting.
9. Go Let It Out
Let’s presume the gig is mainly going to be Definitely Maybe and …Morning Glory material. But not all. With its hypnotic, psych-rock groove and melodic power, this should be in there from the post-90s material and the halfway point is probably a good spot for it.
10. Songbird
As should this lovely little ditty written by Liam, giving the amps a chance to cool down for a moment and allowing everyone to emotionally gather their thoughts for a few minutes.
11. The Masterplan
After which, perhaps it’s time for the first Noel-sung track of the night. It could be Little By Little here, but personally I think that song is a bit shit and The Masterplan is excellent so I’m going for this sumptuous Wonderwall B-side instead.
12. Columbia
Whoa, only eight songs left. I’m actually getting a bit stressed now about what's going to be left out and I am alleviating my anxiety with this barbed-wire belter from Definitely Maybe. It’s gotta be in there somewhere and this spot feels just about right. For anyone who's starting to flag a bit - it's been a long day - this is just the electric shock required.
13. Slide Away
And now we start to sidle towards the climactic last phase. What better way to launch into it than this poignant, widescreen all-timer from Definitely Maybe.
14. Stop Crying Your Heart Out
Imagine the scene: thousands and thousands of people with their arms aloft, emotionally belting out every word, hugging their mates, daughters helping their dad find the torch button on his phone so he can wave it in the air. Beautiful.
15. Wonderwall
This is it, the beginning of the end of the greatest show of the year, possibly the decade, possibly your life, the sort of show that makes you write over the top WhatsApps very similar to this sentence. It's all very emotional and not even the fella in the row in front of you who starts talking very loudly about the Mike Flowers Pops version can ruin it.
16. Live Forever
Ah man, now they’re just raining down emotional blows on us, one after the other. It’s the yearning euphoria of Live Forever that brings the main set to a close, with an encore to follow.
17. Half The World Away
The first song of the encore has to be a bit of a gear-change, something a bit surprising and more mellow than what you played before you departed the stage. It’s an actual rule about encores, that I just made up. This is the perfect example, Noel delivering this lovely, slightly melancholy ballad as an acoustic solo.
18. Don't Look Back In Anger
And then into this mammoth singalong, everyone in the crowd who knows someone called Sally frantically trying to get them on FaceTime.
19. Champagne Supernova
Liam’s back onstage now and ready to guide us to the finishing line. First with the sweeping last song from …Morning Glory, The Stone Roses guitarist John Squire joining the band onstage to add his trademark solo flourishes.
20. I Am The Walrus
And then Oasis bring a triumphant evening to a close with their snarling take on The Beatles’ classic. Does it feel weird, ending on a cover when so many brilliant Oasis songs – Roll With It, Cast No Shadow, Shakermaker, D’You Know What I Mean, Whatever, The Hindu Times, Shock Of The Lightning, Talk Tonight, etc, etc – haven’t made the cut? No, because all the best Oasis gigs ended with I Am The Walrus. The show is over. Thank you, and good night.
