The recent announcement of Oasis reforming for a world tour has got many old and new fans of the Manchester band very excited. News in August of the Gallagher brothers reforming the band for a UK tour was followed by further dates in Ireland, Canada, the USA, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Australia, South Korea and Japan albeit not in that order.

By pure chance, the announcement of the two Japan concerts at Tokyo Dome on the weekend of October 25-26th next year, as well as the ticket lottery application commencing (22nd November), was the same day that a friend and I went to see the Oasis Live Forever exhibition on the penultumate day of its existence in Tokyo.

Aptly dressed in my Liam Gallagher-style green parka!

For some reason, news of this exhibition at Roppongi Museum (November 1st-23rd) had completely bypassed my attention until Mostyn mentioned the day before we went that he had been given some free tickets for it from work. Luckily, our schedules allowed us to go the following afternoon and with the Oasis hype about to take Japanese fans by storm it was perfect timing. With zero knowledge of the exhibition contents beforehand, I had no idea what to expect after entering.

To be honest it was a slightly disappointing start with just some lyrics and logos on the wall and I was feeling quite thankful that I hadn’t paid any money for it. Thankfully, it did get much better.

British-style streets were used as the background for taking the museum’s many visitors on a route through the band’s album history with the likes of lyrics (including original handwritten ones), photos, music video screenshots and so on included.

The era-defining Knebworth concerts from August 1996 were included too with some exhibits inclucing the same Oasis t-shirt I still have.

A certain kind of Oasis “fan” may well have even left at that point as there are some people who have little interest in the band beyond the first two albums!

The final two of Oasis’ seven studio albums were actually released whilst I was in Japan,  and indeed I even saw them play live twice in 2005 including the Summer Sonic Festival displayed below.

What followed all of that was far more interesting for me, and Noel Gallagher’s Eriphone ’62 Sheraton Union Jack guitar from the Manchester live shows in 1996 (as well as other dates) is definitely one of the band’s most iconic momentos from a time when all things British were very much in fashion.

Magazine and newspaper covers and articles about the band/the Gallaghers were very much a very regular occurrence during their active years, and it was good to be reminded of that with a display of various publications (Q magazine, NME and Melody Maker – I still actually have a fair few in my own personal collection!) from that era.

Oasis were really at the top of their game in the mid-90s and they often took home some awards so it was cool to be reminded of their many successes at from various award ceremonies such as the Brit Awards as well as the Q and NME ones too.

How could I turn down the opportunity to pose as Liam singing live on stage complete  with microphone and tambourine!

All the sleeve art was displayed from an era before digital music when physical forms were the way of life, and Oasis always released CD singles which were backed with 2-3 other top tunes. Indeed, some of their finest tunes were tucked away on b-sides. I actually bought every possible Oasis release on CD whether it be album or single as well as a few bootleg discs too which were a thing back then.

Various artwork, concert lanyards, wristbands, tickets and promotional flyers were towards the end of the route followed by the museum visitors. There was also a TV room with seats for people to watch five different songs live in concert from Knebworth ’96 and their 2009 Fuji Rock Festival headline appearance.

The impact of ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger‘ in the wake of the Manchester bombings in 2017 gets a bit of wall space giving details about how it became a symbol of the city’s spirit.

Needless to say the souvenir shop was doing a roaring trade as is often the case at these things, and Japanese people really do lap this kind of thing up.

There were a couple more things though such as one of the latest Manchester City shirts (as well as a signed home Champions League one) which was co-designed by Noel himself as tribute to the cover art of their debut album from 30 years ago.

One of the highlights of the exhibition though was the ‘Definitely Maybe‘ (1994) album cover recreation photo opportunity.

Staff members were thankfully on hand to help take shots of fans trying to recreate the iconic album sleeve. Ideally, there would have been five of us to make it a bit more realistic but it was still great fun immitating the poses of the Gallagher brothers.

There was also a photo opportunity to sit on the chair on the walll from the ‘Live Forever‘ (1994) music video. Sunglasses were provided too!

We both left the exhibition feeling very satisfied with what we’d experienced. Of course it helped that it was free on this occasion but had we paid the actual 2700 yen ($18) entrance fee I would still have felt the same.

Once back home I was finally able to access the website to apply for tickets in the lottery. Sadly I wasn’t lucky enough to get the tickets I wanted though so as it stands (there is a still a little hope via other means but I am far from confident) I probably won’t be seeing Oasis for the seventh time or not!

Click here to read ‘My First Time To See Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds Live In Concert’

Click here to read ‘TF Flashback: Watching Oasis At Summer Sonic ’05 (2005)‘

Click here to read ‘Oasis Masterplan25 Exhibition In London’

Click here to read ‘TF Flashback – Coachella Festival In The USA (2002)’