Liam Gallagher tribute kept Oasis reunion secret for nearly a year and talks about rush for tickets

  • ITV Channel's Pip Murrison looks at how news of the reunion has been received in the Channel Islands

The Liam Gallagher impersonator for a leading Oasis tribute act says he had to keep the real band's reunion tour secret after being told about it last September.

Iggy Higginson is one half of 'Oasish', a full-time group that makes TV appearances and performs gigs across the UK.

Iggy says: "I've got a very good friend, Clint Boon from Inspiral Carpets, who lives in Manchester and is very, very good friends with Noel Gallagher. Noel used to be Clint's roadie before he joined Oasis.

"We're doing a new Oasis show that I wanted Clint to be a part of and I said, 'we're going to give everybody the one thing that they're never going to get, the Oasis reunion'. Clint stopped me and said, 'I've got it on good authority that we are' so I've been sitting on this since last September."

Iggy says he was still nervous ahead of the official announcement, adding: "It felt like Christmas Eve, then Christmas Day, your birthday, your wedding day and the day your first child was born all rolled into one.

"They're brilliant, behind the Beatles they're probably the biggest band this country's ever had. Their music's stood the test of time, the announcement has sent the nation and the Internet into meltdown, these guys haven't done a gig for 15 years."

Oasish have performed across the UK, including at Wembley Stadium for the FA Cup Final. Credit: Oasish

The news has also led to a flurry of new bookings for tribute bands like Oasish.

Iggy explains: "We're full-time so we do a lot of shows with 50 or 60 already booked in for next year. Since this news broke, I've turned down seven or eight gigs already. It's gunna be massive and every other Oasis tribute band is going to be doing a lot more gigs over the next year or so."

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to apply for tickets to watch the real Oasis when they go on general sale on Saturday morning (31 August).

Iggy adds: "Ironically, most of the gigs they've announced are weekends when we tend to work but I'll do my best, I'm going to have to see if I can pull a few favours in.

"It's really good because we get kids coming to our shows with Mum and Dad and they know every single word to these songs. Before last September, I can remember thinking that these kids will never get the chance to go and see Oasis and now they can so that's just amazing, there's no amount of money you can put on that really.

"People have been asking if I can get them tickets as if I've got this God-given right just because I'm in an Oasis tribute band, I can't."

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