Oasis Reunion and Getting on One's Nerves

Pain can come in many forms beyond just the physical. And the root cause of some physical pain can also be emotional. I know many Oasis fans have been in pain ever since that fateful backstage row in Paris in 2009 when Noel Gallagher finally had enough of being in the same band with his younger brother Liam and called it quits right then and there. If anyone got on someone’s nerves it was Liam for Noel. His younger brother knew (and knows) how to push his buttons like no one else.? And we all know we can only take people who get on our nerves to a certain point. Imagine having to work with them, especially in a creative endeavor, and throw sibling rivalry into the mix and you have a very combustible concoction.

Warren Buffett has said that the only difference between rich siblings and poor siblings is that the rich ones can afford to sue each other. The Gallaghers never ended up suing each other formally but they sure have verbally and emotionally over the years.?

And with all of that being said, in the back of many people’s minds, including mine, we just knew someday the brothers would negotiate a cold peace to facilitate a reunion. First, and foremost, the money they could earn would be astronomical. As much as people say money is not the most important factor, it often is, and it can help people suck it up to work with those people who get on their nerves if they’re reliant upon them to make that money. The rewards can be rationalized to justify the annoyance.

Noel got divorced in the past year and it’s estimated it cost him 20 million pounds. I’m sure that stung and he would love to earn that back and then some.

According to the Daily Mail article,

The feuding siblings have buried the hatchet after reportedly being promised a ￡50 million payday to reform for a global tour with gigs at Wembley Stadium and the prospect of a Glastonbury headline slot.?

Liam has always wanted to reunite and having been divorced a couple of times and not having the songwriting credits that Noel has had with Oasis, he is not nearly as well off. So for Liam, the money was a huge factor. While both are talented solo artists and have now proven they can write, create, and perform compelling solo material, especially Noel with his High Flying Birds, neither of them individually could come anywhere close to generating the income they would via Oasis. Ironically, it may be Noel’s divorce that paved the way for the reunion beyond the money as Liam and Noel’s ex Sarah disliked each other and that impacted the brothers’ relationship quite negatively. With Sarah now out of the picture the rumor is they are now on much better terms.

Another factor that makes them more compelling together versus individually is the constant tension and underlying real possibility that something could blow between the two that hasn’t existed in their solo careers. Their dynamic and fans’ accident waiting to happen curiosity makes them working together that much more compelling than alone and adds to the huge demand to see them live.?

The only dates they have announced so far are 17 shows in the U.K. starting on July 4th, 2025 in Cardiff. The initial announcement was 14 but due to huge demand three more were added. The first two shows in Cardiff also happen to overlap with Wimbledon so that could be a music and tennis lover’s nirvana to attend both. It is something I am definitely keeping in mind.

I started this blog post by mentioning pain and its various forms. People process pain in very individual ways. For me, and I know I’m not alone, if I can take constructive action that can show me that it is having an impact on lessening my pain or I have something to look forward to then I have found that I can manage through my pain with a positive mindset and hopeful outlook. For fans of Oasis, the hope resided in having faith that somehow, someway Liam and Noel would come to their senses and defer to the greater good and reunite. The world needs what they have to offer and millions are willing to pay top dollar for the experience of playing their music together one more time. Add to the mix a tremendous number of younger people, and older ones as well, who have become fans since their breakup via streaming platforms and would love to see them perform live, and you have a much bigger market for their music over the past 15 years than when they were together.?

Throwing Oasis into the mix in the context of pain is really just one big diversionary tactic to not jump right in and discuss my recovery from spine surgery that I had on August 23rd. I didn’t want this blog post written on garycarmell.com to be immediately obvious that it was about Gary Carmell and his complaints. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, how am I doing you ask? I’m so glad you were wondering.

The surgeon expected the procedure to take 90 to 120 minutes and it ended up lasting 150 minutes. He said the bone spur impinging on my nerve was big and I definitely needed to have surgery. I feel good knowing that the lack of success of every other non-surgical approach I had taken wasn’t me being impatient or lacking discipline. It was a losing battle and the more time that went by the more convinced I became of this.?

In my pre-surgical meeting the doctor told me to not do much beyond walking for at least the first four weeks. It’s important to apply the right mental models to situations or you may end up with faulty assumptions. I think this was the case with me as I was thinking back on my heart surgery and how challenging a recovery that was and I was still back on the tennis court in 33 days. In this case I figured how difficult can this be assuming the surgery was a success and my pain was greatly diminished??

The doctor warned me that overtaxing my body early can create inflammation as well as trigger the more intense activation of muscles and nerves that may have been more dormant prior to my surgery due to my pain compensation. I honestly thought that given I was going into the procedure in good shape and quite active that he was speaking more about others versus me. As an aside, every caregiver who came in prior to the surgery noticed that my heart rate was 42 and each one asked me if that was normal. I said it’s usually 48 or so because I play a lot of tennis. They wanted to make sure this was normal for me to avoid any complications. Even after learning that it was, they still tried to rile me up to get my heart rate up. Perhaps had I heard the news of the Oasis reunion prior to going into surgery then that may have done the trick.

Back to my doctor’s advice. I guess I should have put more stock in the doctor’s experience with the 500+ people he has done this type of procedure on and their recovery challenges and timelines versus my one non-applicable experience. I was really pleased right after the surgery to feel very little pain in my hip/glute area that was the source of such consternation for me over the years. I would also periodically feel some pain in the nerve going through my right calf and occasional mild numbness in my right foot but nothing like the pain in the hip area. These were only minor irritants, however. They never got on my nerves like my hip/glute pain.

And since the pain was originating in the spine and moving down I assumed that if the spinal issue was addressed then presumably I should not have much to worry about related to the calf and foot.

Well to quote John Lennon,

“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”?

I was surprised to learn that the most pronounced side effect of the surgery has been foot numbness that travels up to my calf. The most persistent and pronounced numbness is around the toes but it definitely travels up when I have moved it too little or too much.

I was also probably too cocky early on when I found that I could walk without much leg fatigue or pain for 15 minutes or so. This was a false sense of security as I have not been able to keep this up and 10 minutes is probably more par for the course at this point. And while the hip pain is a lot less, it is not painless and I’m starting to feel some twinges during my walks. Every step breeds more humility, knowledge, and the need to be patient. It also triggers a great deal of curiosity as well.

Another surprising repercussion is some lower neck/shoulder pain that has arisen and was never present prior to the surgery. I’m not really worried about this and I think it’s probably related to me perhaps having a different gait when I walk and how I hold my head up. I am now coming to understand what the doctor was trying to caution me about after the surgery.

When doing surgery involving nerves there is so much disruption going on in a part of the body that connects to other parts of the body that really what I’m coming to believe is that such a procedure puts the whole body in play for disruption.

Returning to Oasis in the form of an analogy, it’s like the surgery has triggered a terrible row between Noel and Liam and the ramifications won’t always be pretty and will also be painful at times. On the other hand, the foundation is strong and the potential to produce greatness again is there if they could just heal and work together again in very productive, effective, and mature ways.`This is how I feel about my body in the wake of surgery.?

I am now coming to realize that the doctor was warning me that a lot was going to be triggered from the surgery that will cause pain and other side effects. These are common, to be expected, and time should be my friend. At the same time others have told me that numbness may take up to a year to improve and that it may never fully dissipate. If the tradeoff is far less pain in exchange for some numbness I would make that trade all day long. And unlike Noel and Liam hopefully much of the healing can take place over six weeks versus 15 years. But like Noel and Liam, they have found a suitable tradeoff for dealing with each other getting on their nerves and that is money, whereas mine is some numbness for far less pain. And of course playing stadiums, feeling that incredible energy, doing what so few have done or will be able to do, and feeling so alive while doing so is beyond description for the Gallagher brothers. And throw in the money, each being in their 50s and have not performed together for over 15 years, and you now may have a concoction that has transformed from one that is highly unstable to one that is incredibly powerful and life-affirming, not just for them, but for millions of others as well.