BACK in 1996 I saw Oasis at Maine Road, former home of their beloved Manchester City. Rather predictably, the Gallagher brothers had a row on stage and Liam walked off in a strop. He did, as we knew he would, eventually return to the mic, with his defiant Manc swagger. It was all panto.

When the brothers finally went their separate ways in 2009, with Noel quitting the band after a backstage brawl, it was textbook rock ‘n’ roll feuding. But not quite the end of the panto. Just as Liam always returned to the stage amidst those fraternal hissy fits, an Oasis reunion was always going to happen.

“The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over,” came this week’s rather pompous announcement confirming that Liam and Noel Gallagher are getting back together for a 2025 tour, marking the 30th anniversary of their chart-topping debut album Definitely Maybe.

Have the brothers finally mellowed in middle age? Is the tour a last hurrah of belting out hits like Cigarettes & Alcohol and Rock ‘N’ Roll Star before they get too old? Or perhaps the prospect of raking in an estimated £400 million is enough to put their differences aside.

The reunion has of course thrilled the band’s legion of fans, many of them now mid-lifers, excited to re-live their heady Britpop youth. Nostalgia plays a huge role in pop culture and we punters lap it up. And for the acts it’s not just about the pay cheque - it’s about rocking out again while they still can.

Led Zeppelin, Genesis and Fleetwood Mac are among the super-groups that have reunited on stage. Even Abba succumbed, albeit as holograms. It was 10 years ago today that I went to Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn residency - her first live shows in 35 years - which was a highlight of my life. It was a beautiful, moving, joyous event that took me back to playing her records in my bedroom as a kid.

We all love a nostalgia gig - from 80s throwback tours to 50s rock ‘n’ roll weekends. For my generation Liam and Noel, with their cocksure attitude, provided the soundtrack to the hedonistic Nineties, when we were young and daft, before we got proper jobs and mortgages.

But not all those scrambling for Oasis tickets when they go on sale on Saturday will be ageing lads and ladettes re-living Cool Britannia. With 21.6 million monthly streams on Spotify, Oasis have a huge Gen Z fanbase. Ahead of the reunion announcement, with a teaser posted on social media, the music platform said Oasis streams rose by more than 160per cent globally from the previous week, and have continued to increase.

When I saw Noel Gallagher and his High Flying Birds at Halifax’s Piece Hall a few weeks ago there was a significant portion of teens and twenty-somethings in the crowd. “Judging by all the bucket hats, I see we’ve got some Oasis fans in,” said Noel to the throng. Some of them chanted “Liam” for the hell of it. “Just remember who wrote the **!#%*”* songs,” came the response.

Could it be that Gen Z are yearning to see a proper live rock ‘n’ roll band because there aren’t many of them around these days? As Liam himself said in a recent interview, the music industry is full of “me me me solo stars”. The charts are filled with songs by solo acts ‘featuring’ other solo acts - tedious collaborations contrived by music industry puppet-masters. Where are all the bands that form at school and practice in their mates’ garages? There were loads of them in the Britpop decade, and the decades before that.

The Nineties was the last great decade of the rock band. Was the Liam and Noel feuding all a bit ‘panto’ back in the day? Definitely Maybe. But they had a raw, two fingers attitude that is lacking in today’s acts, who are safe and bland in comparison.

It was exciting, that rock ‘n’ roll swagger of two working-class brothers from Burnage, and it made us feel like we could Live Forever.