Why did Oasis take a hiatus? Details explored as band kicks-off reunion Cardiff concert

On 4 July 2025, Oasis returned to the stage at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, performing together for the first time in nearly 16 years. The much-anticipated Oasis Live ’25 Tour kicked off with over 60,000 fans in attendance, their voices echoing classics like “Hello,” “Wonderwall,” and “Live Forever”.

But this monumental reunion begs the question: Why did Oasis originally take such a long hiatus?

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The Famous Brotherhood Fallout (2009)

Oasis officially disbanded in August 2009, and the final straw was a highly-publicized backstage fight during the Rock en Seine festival setup in Paris. In his resignation statement, Noel Gallagher lamented that he simply “could not go on working with Liam a day longer”, citing “verbal and violent intimidation towards me, my family, friends and comrades.

Public records reveal a history of sibling feuds, including incidents like Noel accusing Liam of cancelling a show due to hangovers, and then Liam suing Noel in response, before ultimately dropping the case. Rumors even circulated that Noel felt his life was threatened when Liam allegedly swung a guitar “like an axe".

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Exhaustion and Personal Strain

The tensions didn’t emerge overnight. During the 2008–09 touring cycle, another stress point was Noel being physically assaulted onstage early in the tour, leaving him injured and stuck in pain while continuing to perform worldwide.

Factors like intense touring, long separations from families, and Liam’s volatile temperament reached a boiling point. According to insiders, Noel saw the band as having “run its course” by 2009.

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Separate Paths and Solo Careers

The brothers went their separate ways after the break but made unique identities in music. Noel founded Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, and Liam first went on to form Beady Eye, and then a solo career. During this departure, media-based jokes were still abound. However, both brothers still reprised Oasis songs in their respective performances.

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What Sparked the Reunion?

The agreement to revert was in August 2024 when they had the 30th anniversary of their debut album, Definitely, Maybe. Fans were delighted, and insiders pointed to pragmatic reasons as well. Oasis has entered into a huge Live Nation deal of approximately $170-million and sponsorships (such as Adidas), merchandising deals, as well as estimated tour income of over $200 million.

Nevertheless, profit, however, was not the only motivation. On the outside, the brothers put an emphasis on mending broken family relationships: Liam claimed that being brothers was the most important thing, but he added that Noel had doubts about whether he was doing this only due to financial reasons.

It should be noted that on his 2024 tour, Liam even reserved a front-row seat for Noel, which was an indication that their relationship had thawed.

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Oasis' Live at Cardiff Kickoff Marks a New Beginning

The Cardiff concert was a spectacle of reconciliation, one symbolic hug, separate travel arrangements, and a shared setlist bridging generations. The tour poster reads,

“The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over,”

This statement highlighted both relief and closure.

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Oasis’s 16-year hiatus stemmed from a volatile blend of personal and professional stress: sibling rivalry, a physically and emotionally taxing touring life, and incidents that left relationships deeply fractured. Their 2009 breakup wasn’t a sudden one but the result of years of increasing tension.

What’s changed? Time, maturity, significant anniversaries, and a lucrative tour package appear to have aligned both hearts and interests, setting the stage for this heartfelt, historic return.