The chart showdown between the warring bands – when Blur released ‘Country House’ on the same day as Oasis’s ‘Roll With It’ – will be played out on the stage in a piece called The Battle due to open in Birmingham next February
Blur’s infamous Britpop face-off with rivals Oasis is coming to the stage. The fierce musical clash of summer 1995 is a “new comedy based (mostly) on real events”.
Blur released their single ‘Country House’ on the same day as Oasis’s ‘Roll With It’, sparking an electric televised chart showdown. The “punchy and hilarious” play will document how fans battled it out to pick allegiances to each band, some even coming to blows.
Producer Simon Friend said: “Throughout my sister’s teenage years, she had an enormous poster of Damon Albarn on her wall, and I remember her falling out with friends over which band they loved more. Ever since, this story has been in the back of my mind.
“We have a fearless team recreating the sweaty mid-90s carnage of the battle of Britpop”.
The play, called The Battle, opens at Birmingham Rep in February next year, just a few months after Oasis’s big reunion tour ends.
It will then go on a West End tour, promising to take audiences on a nostalgic trip back to one of the most exciting times in indie.
Its director, Matthew Dunster, said: “Music mattered. I remember being in my 20s in 1995. What a wild time. Full of energy, naughtiness and hilarity.”
The show’s writer John Niven added: “Music was so central to the culture that two pop groups could dominate the entire summer, the evening news and the front page of every newspaper in the country.
“We’re going to take you back there.”
In addition to their Britpop rivalries, the Gallagher brothers feuded with each other for years but Oasis fans were stunned when the duo announced they were reuniting for a much-anticipated tour in 2025.
The Oasis 25 international tour starts is scheduled to start on 4 July at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff and ending on 23 November at the Estadio do Morumbi in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
While this seems to signal a truce between the brothers, it seems the Blur vs Oasis battle has also simmered down with Blur’s Alex James declaring, ‘I like them’ about the Gallagher’s in 2024.
He said: “He’s an incredible singer, Liam, and he can’t help being a rock star.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
