Oasis v Blur rivalry being revived in new play as cast take sides

The much-hyped 1995 Britpop battle between Oasis and Blur has been recreated for a new play in which the cast take sides.

At 21, George Usher has spent most of his life unwittingly researching his first professional acting role - as Liam Gallagher.

"My dad was always massively into Oasis, so I grew up listening to it, and I was always such a big fan of him and how funny he is," he says. "So to get to play him is just a dream."

Asked to choose between the two Britpop bands, Usher sides with Oasis, of course. Alongside him, Paddy Stafford, who's portraying Liam's big brother Noel, slips into character as he adds: "Greatest band in the world, do you know what I mean?"

That view's not shared by the actors who are playing Oasis's rivals in the Britpop wars.

Oscar Lloyd insists Blur are best. "Team colours, man, we've got to represent," the 27-year-old says, his floppy hair and fresh face making him the image of frontman Damon Albarn.

"It's the way they've reinvented themselves so many times. He just is clearly a musical genius."

The actors are starring together in The Battle, which has just opened at the Birmingham Rep theatre. It tells the story of the chart race that was the climax of an at-times acrimonious beef between Britpop's biggest beasts, which split fans and captivated the media.

Unlike the real battle of the bands, the rivalry between the two sets of actors is entirely good-natured.

He may be playing Liam, but Usher admits to having a soft spot for Blur, too.

"I probably shouldn't be saying this. It feels a bit wrong," he says. "But yeah, I do like them.

"They're not as good as Oasis - but you know, they've got some tunes."

Three decades after they became Britain's biggest bands, interest in both is still huge - among their original fans and a new generation who were weaned on their songs.

The bands started 1995 on friendly terms, but as their stratospheric success grew, so did the comparisons and competition.

"By the time you get to July and August, they're literally wishing death on each other and the knives are out," writer John Niven says. "So as a dramatist, you think, well, how did we get to that in five months?"

Niven's well-placed to tell that story. He was working for a record label in 1995 and is best-known for his 2008 novel Kill Your Friends, a wild tale of sex, drugs and violence in the 90s music industry.

Blur and Oasis started rubbing each other up the wrong way when Liam made comments about Damon's girlfriend, Elastica singer Justine Frischmann, and when Blur turned up at an Oasis party.

Noel caused controversy by saying he hoped Albarn and Blur bassist Alex James would "catch Aids and die". (He later apologised.)

When Oasis scheduled their single Roll With It for release a week before Blur's Country House that August, Blur were worried about the possible ignominy of being kept off the number one spot. So they ended up moving Country House to the same date, setting up a head-to-head contest.

The chart battle was also billed as a class war. The press depicted it as loud-mouthed working-class northerners versus art-school middle-class southerners.

The NME's front page headline called it the "British heavyweight championship", and the wider media were also mad for it. A BBC TV News report about the chart battle is remembered as the moment when alternative music culture truly broke through to the mainstream.

Niven has been teaching the young cast members about the history. "It's hard to explain to them how something like this could dominate the entire culture - that it would be on every music paper, every broadsheet, every tabloid, the 10 O'Clock News at night," the writer says.

"Now, of course, everything's so fragmented. Somebody can have 30 million TikTok followers and play Wembley Arena, and I would never have heard of them.

"Whereas back then, the only way you got success was via the press or the TV or radio. So people from six to 60 would be across the Blur/Oasis thing."

Gavin and Stacey star Matthew Horne, who plays Blur's record label boss Andy Ross, remembers those days fondly.

"Starting this job was quite overwhelming for me," he says. "I didn't realise how nostalgic it would be.

"I was 16 or 17, and being part of that movement, plus all the other bands, really gave me a sense of belonging as a teenager and solidified my passion for music, which I have now."

The Britpop era was "a seminal movement", he reflects. "And it's a movement in British music, certainly, that won't ever be replicated, just because of the nature of the landscape of the music industry. Hopefully that's what this play brings out."

The Battle is directed by Olivier and Tony Award-nominated Matthew Dunster, and also stars Bridgerton's Harriet Cains as Justine and EastEnders' Louisa Lytton as Noel's then-girlfriend Meg Mathews.

"We're seeing people turning up to the theatre in Blur or Oasis T-shirts," says Lytton. "It takes people back to, hopefully, a really great time in their lives. You can see it on their faces.

"And we're really pleased it's bringing in a whole new audience, because that's what theatre needs."

The actors playing the Gallagher brothers were among the million or so fans who saw Oasis on their hugely successful reunion tour last year. It was the next best thing to experiencing their 90s heyday first-hand, Usher says.

"It was a time when the style was unbelievable, which is shown in this play, but just living such a free life without everything being on the phone.

"That was what was amazing going to see Oasis - it's like being transported back to that time, and I think that's what this show maybe does for people as well."

The differences between the two eras have also struck Lloyd while he's been playing Damon.

"It's nuts because it's 30 years ago, but [this play] kind of feels like a period piece," he says. "To us, it does feel so different.

"We're doing a lot of party scenes and it's very easy for us to forget that there'd be a big difference in going to a party when no-one's got a phone and everyone's locked into this shared atmosphere.

"Maybe the hedonism of the time is a little bit different, where I feel like we're all quite censored a bit more nowadays in what we say and what we do."

Brandon Bendell, who's playing Alex from Blur, agrees that must be felt by modern music stars, too.

"Yeah, [they're] more followed, monitored. I think pop stars, rock stars, they had a bit more freedom back in the day to act however they wanted without repercussions."

As for how the story ends - although it's based on real events, lots of people seeing the show don't know who won the chart battle.

Niven recently appeared on a podcast whose host asked her listeners if they knew the outcome. "So few of them knew who'd won, especially the younger generation," he says.

"I think they just know that it's a bit like the Bloods and the Crips in LA - there's this historic gangland beef between the two sides, but nobody really knows how it got started or who won it."

The show is, in fact, billed as being only "mostly" based on real events, and the writer and cast allude to a "twist".

Spoiler: In reality, Blur beat Oasis to number one that week in 1995.

But Oasis went on to dominate the charts and airwaves later that year with (What's The Story) Morning Glory?, and that album has been back in the top 40 for more than a year since reunion fever took hold.

They may have lost the battle, but Oasis arguably won the war.

But then again... Blur were and still are brilliant. Just in a different way from their Britpop counterparts.

"I always loved both groups," Niven says when asked which side he was on.

"I didn't see why anybody felt compelled to pick a team. But a lot of people did, thankfully for the play."

The Battle is at Birmingham Rep until 7 March and at Manchester Opera House from 17-21 March.

Additional interviews by Colin Paterson.