Bucket hats are making a comeback... Oasis has announced a reunion tour... Blur released a live album... The 90s are back, and hitting the West End next year.
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Haven’t managed to secure a ticket for the Oasis reunion tour? You’re not alone... But for those of you craving a 90s music nostalgia hit, there’s good news.
A new play, chronicling the intense and bitter rivalry between Britpop bands Blur and Oasis, is coming to London next year, with novelist and former British record industry A&R man John Niven writing the appropriately titled “The Battle”.
According to an interview given to Deadline by the show's producer Simon Friend ("The Life of Pi", "Ghost Stories"), “The Battle” will be “a comedy with teeth”, focusing on the summer of 1995 when the two warring bands battled for the number one spot on the UK single's chart.
For those of you who need a refresher, Blur frontman Damon Albarn famously persuaded the band’s record label to change the release date of their 'Country House' single so that it would go head-to-head with Oasis' 'Roll With It'. Both singles were released on 14 August 1995, with the so-called 'Battle of Britpop' hitting headlines.
Spoilers: Blur emerged victorious. The band’s bassist Alex James later told the Guardian that "Blur won the battle, Oasis won the war, then Blur went on to win the whole campaign."
“Crazy stuff happened,” Friend told Deadline. “You had couples breaking up over it, there was a lot of family strife and other crazy stuff. It was quite extraordinary just how deep into the zeitgeist it managed to reach that you had to be one or the other, you couldn’t be both, which to me, it feels like the subject of brilliant drama.”
Negotiations are reportedly underway with a “notable director”, and no casting has been announced. Neither Blur nor Oasis will be working with Niven and Friend on the production.
“It can’t be in conjunction with them,” Friend shared, “because we want to tell an honest story, we don’t want to sanitize it.”
The announcement of the theatre production comes on the heels of Oasis’ Liam and Noel Gallagher burying the hatchet after 15 years and announcing their long-awaited reunion tour – which has been plagued by ticketing issues - and Blur sharing the documentary To The End as well as a live album documenting their shows at London’s Wembley Stadium last summer.
Considering 2025 also marks the 30th anniversary of both Blur’s album 'The Great Escape' and Oasis’ '(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?', get ready to dust off your bucket hat and embrace 90s nostalgia harder than ever.
“The Battle” premieres next year. Information surrounding the venue and dates have yet to be announced.