Oasis reunites (sort of) as Foo Fighters fight Trump

The big news this week is the return of one of the UK's most successful bands, while Donald Trump lets his entitlement show by stealing music. IA's music maestro, David Kowalski, spills the latest.

Oasis reunion... with a twist

The unthinkable has happened. Manchester Britpop legends Oasis are reforming for 14 dates in the UK in 2025.

The two principal partners in the band, siblings Liam and Noel Gallagher, have officially agreed to put aside their long running, deeply-held animosity and have agreed to get the band back together.

Everybody thought it would never happen. The Gallagher brothers themselves, usually in the strongest and most colourful of language, said it wouldn’t. The fans always hoped it would.

And now it has. The reaction of UK radio and social media pundits has been nothing short of elated.

So why reform now? Why not ten years ago? The Irish Mirror has reported that the warring brothers were encouraged to bury the hatchet by their dear old mum.

Oh, and the money. I’m more than certain that was a deciding factor in it. There is so much money at stake here. Figures are being thrown around like £400 million (AU$774 million) to be generated from these handful of shows, with Liam and Noel reportedly taking home around £50 million (AU$97 million) each.

All is not what it seems, though. There are already stories floating around that no original members of the band will be present on stage at the shows. Is it still a bonafide Oasis reunion in that case? Will the fans care? I highly doubt it.

The news has made a lot of people across the globe happy. Who am I to rain on their parade? The only question that remains is whether the brothers can cool their tempers long enough to see the event to fruition.

Bluesfest lineup

In my last column, I reported that Bluesfest in Byron Bay will finish up in 2025. Since publishing that missive lamenting the end of the festival, the organisers have dropped the first look at the lineup for the event. For their last hurrah, they have come out swinging.

Headlining the event will be Australia’s own Crowded House, supported by American bluesman Gary Clark Jr, Australian pop star Vance Joy, internationally renowned Byron Bay local Tones and I, country artist Brad Cox and NSW Central Coast teenage guitar prodigy Taj Farrant. There will be more artists to be added but it looks set to go off with a bang.

Trump vs Foo Fighters

The long-running battle between art and politics has once again heated up this week with two famous musical artists either threatening, or actually going through with, legal proceedings against Donald Trump for using music at his rallies without permission of the artist to do so.

The estate of soul legend Isaac Hayes is suing Trump for unpaid royalties for playing the Hayes-penned song ‘Hold On I’m Coming’ more than 100 times at Trump rallies. Now Foo Fighters are threatening to sue for Trump’s unlawful use of their 1997 song ‘My Hero’ at a recent rally to herald Robert Kennedy Jr to the stage.

Dave Grohl and the band have said they view neither Trump nor Kennedy Jr as any kind of hero and would not have allowed the song to be used at the event had they have been asked.

However, the plot thickens when it comes to Dave Grohl’s beloved song. The Trump campaign has made a statement to the effect that it has purchased a public performance licence from Broadcast Music International (BMI) and therefore they are legally covered for usage of the song in a public forum. The artist has the right to deny use for political purposes however and this fact seems to have escaped the Trump campaign, which has run afoul of many artists with poorly-thought out music choices at his events.

This isn’t really news — it has been happening for years. Even famously when Ronald Reagan used Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born In The USA’ at a rally and he seemingly had no idea what the song was about. The issue is less about the song in question, but rather the optics of an artist being seen to be aligned with one side or the other of the political divide.

In these cases above, the artists had no say in the decision initially and have had to go into damage control mode afterwards to distance themselves from a politician whom they are ideologically opposed to.

In a nice twist to the saga, when (and if) the Trump campaign pays the requisite royalties to the Foo Fighters for the use of their song, the band will be donating the proceeds to Democrat candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign.

Gut Health

Indie pop band Gut Health has been toiling away in the underground music scene since first forming in a sharehouse on Hope St in Naarm/Melbourne’s inner north in 2022. In the short time they have been together, they have earned their way towards being one of Australia’s most compelling new acts.

It is hard to pin down a style, sound or influence to the band, as they combine the sound of new wave, punk, funk and dance music all into a unique sound. They possess a spirit and feeling that initially reminded me of UK indie upstarts of the mid-2000s, Bloc Party.

The band's single ‘Separate States’ is a party in a tiny package that is worthy of adding to the summer roadtrip mixtape. The chorus hook eats its way into your brain via your eardrums and refuses to let go. Looking forward to the new album entitled Stiletto being released on 11 October 2024.

Until next week...

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David Kowalski is a writer, musician, educator, sound engineer and podcaster. His podcasts 'The Sound and the Fury Podcast' and 'Audio Cumulus' can be heard exclusively here. You can follow David on Twitter @sound_fury_pod.