'Like Christmas Day' for Northern Ireland tribute band as Oasis reform for tour

Today was like "Christmas Day" for a Northern Irish Oasis tribute act.

News that Liam and Noel Gallagher have set any differences aside and are uniting for a series of concerts next summer, two of which are in Dublin, has sent a wave of excitement across the country.

Tens of thousands of fans will be vying for tickets for Croke Park on August 16th and 17th when they go on sale on Saturday at 8am.

Roll With It is a trubute act formed in 2013.

Three out of five members came together to meet UTV in one members' house in Lisburn after a busy day of handling media enquiries, taking booking calls and generally celebrating the second coming of their heroes.

David Newport says he is "the guy that nobody ever sees at gigs... hiding behind the drum kit".

"We had all done our original band stuff in our twenties and had all retired and got married and had kids and got real jobs," the drummer joked, while explaining how they came to meet.

"But then one day our singer Mark's friends had told him, 'oh my God, you sound like Liam Gallagher!'

"So he decided to plonk an advert up on an old kind of music website. We all happened to see it and kind of went, 'yeah, I fancy a bit of that.'

"That's the kind of music that we liked from back in the day.

Thomas Byrne plays Noel in the band.

"It's been 15 years now since the Oasis broke up and we've really seen a huge demand and love for Oasis out there, and I think the really interesting thing has been that it hasn't just been people who would have been there during the 1990s," he said.

"A whole new generation, people coming through who wouldn't have seen Oasis before, we've given them that experience."

Nick McCay is Bonehead, the rhythm guitarist.

"We're generally booked up ten or twelve months in advance," he said.

"If the next year is anything like today, we're going to have to hire someone because it's going to be difficult trying to balance it all, you know," he said.

"Already today, we've got seven inquiries today for gigs!"

Today has also brought back special memories for former Limelight general manager and booker, David Neely.

He booked the band for the Belfast nightclub in 1994.

"They were only a young band from Manchester with three songs, and we booked them probably six weeks before the gig," he said.

"And just from the minute we booked them to when they played it, just everything just went into overdrive, Britpop scene just exploded and they were the guys that bust open the doors."

He recalled how BBC Radio One called at 6.30pm on the night of the gig to break the news that their debut album had shot to number one in the charts, meaning the night was one to go down in history.

Oasis first played in Ireland in the Tivoli Theatre in Dublin in September 1994, and brought their What’s The Story Morning Glory tour to The Point in 1996.

The story continues at GAA HQ next summer.

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