Archive July 5, 2025

It was hailed as the greatest rock’n’roll reunion of the decade. But as the Gallaghers might say, it was much bigger than that.

Cardiff town centre was ground to standstill aside from packed bars hours before the show, and thousands came without tickets, such is the power and love for the band.

Before they had spoken or played a note, Liam and Noel linked hands and held them aloft to show their war was over and Oasis really were back.

Then they let their music do the talking initially with Hello and then Acquiesce, which saw the brothers sharing vocal duties.

The lyrics couldn’t be more timely for the comeback: “Because we need each other, we believe in one another”

That was a close as we would get to a real embrace They found their stride with Morning Glory and Some Might Say.

And Liam even found time to ask the crowd to do a Man City Poznan mosh celebration up and down to Cigarettes and Alcohol.

He later joked about the cost of the tickets and thanks fans for sticking with them too.

Noel got plenty of time to shine too, with his own mini gig in the middle slowing things down a little with singalongs to Talk Tonight and Half The World Away which seem to even make Noel teary.

The rest of the band also sounded solid with the month long stint of rehearsals paying off. Bonehead got his own shoutout which he deserves for being the glue between the Gallaghers on and off stage at times.

The back catalogue of huge hits keep coming, and keep taking different members of the audience down memory lane. Nights out with friends, birthdays and wedding receptions.

They chose songs from early in their era and the audience mainly in their forties and fifties were transported back to the Nineties.

Liam had promised beforehand to blow the roof off the venue and judging from the reaction of thousands of fans jumping around and shouting every song back at him unison, he wasn’t far wrong.

Of course there is no new music here and the set list mainly consisted of songs from two albums that were released in 1994 and 1995.

So there is a heavy dose of nostalgia and many people in the crowd are not just loving the Gallagher and the music, but the place it takes them too.

For many, the nights out filled with Cigarettes and Alcohol are in short supply these days, now they are married with children.

When the reunion was announced, amongst the short statement and a black and white photo the Gallaghers had said: “The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. “

In Cardiff the wait was finally over, and it has taken 16 years, but this is a reunion gig that will live forever in the memories of the fans who were here.

To quote Liam, it was biblical.

Full set list from the opening show in Cardiff on Friday night was:

Hello

Acquiesce

Morning Glory

Some Might Say

Bring It on Down

Cigarettes & Alcohol

Fade Away

Supersonic

Roll With It

Talk Tonight (sung by Noel)

Half the World Away (sung by Noel)

Little By Little (sung by Noel)

D’You Know What I Mean?

Stand By Me

Cast No Shadow

Slide Away

Whatever

Live Forever

Rock ’n’ Roll Star

Encore

The Masterplan (sung by Noel)

Don’t Look Back in Anger (sung by Noel)

Wonderwall

Champagne Supernova

Black Sabbath are a legendary band that helped define the genre of heavy metal, but in a career that has spanned more than 50 years they have had their fare share of scandal.

Black Sabbath is one of the biggest bands in heavy metal history. Front manned by the iconic but temperamental Ozzy Osbourne it’s fair to see the band is no stranger to scandals. The band lived and breathed the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle often taking it to the extreme.

But after more than 50 years playing for fans, the Birmingham-born band will be hanging up their guitars for good with one last farewell performance at a jam-packed Villa Park Stadium on Saturday (July 5).

But with more than five decades touring the world, the band’s history is full of controversy, rolling the clock back, here are some of the biggest scandals to hit Black Sabbath.

Rockstars or Satanists?

First forming in 1968 in an era of flower power, Black Sabbath stood from something all around very different. They didn’t pretend to be of the Woodstock era and instead embraced the grungy darkness.

However, different things often scare people, and Black Sabbath soon fell into that category. The band’s dark imagery played a part and their self-titled song also featured some lyrics that perhaps didn’t help their cause.

“Big black shape with eyes of fire. Tellin’ people their desire. Satan’s sittin’ there, he’s smilin’. ‘Watches those flames get higher and higher. Oh, no, no, please, God, help me,” the band sing.

For many this just proved they dabbled in the satanic, but the song’s lyrics, written by Geezer Butler were misunderstood. They came from a night when he was lying in bed with upside-down crosses hanging on the wall when he claimed to have seen a ghost. “It frightened the p**sing life out of me,” he said.

So he wrote the song about the dangers of messing with the paranormal. Meanwhile, Ozzy was an atheist and instead just enjoyed the dark. Talking about the controversy, drummer Bill Ward is paraphrased as boiling it down to being just a bunch of blokes from Birmingham.

Drugs battles

It’s no secret that Black Sabbath and particularly frontman Ozzy Osbourne indulged in the white stuff in their heyday. Cocaine in particular became an almost constant companion on the road. In an interview on The Madhouse Chronicles Podcast, Osbourne talked about his history with addiction.

He said: “In Sabbath, when we discovered cocaine, it was like the meaning of life… We had a dealer on the road with us.

“We had this guy, he was a bit strange, And he’d have these f*****g bags with these big f*****g chunks of coke. Big bags of coke. ”

There are even reports that during the recording of their album Vol. 4, many sessions had to be cut short because of drug use. This continued to escalate tensions throughout the 70’s which in 1979 eventually led to Ozzy’s firing from the band for his erratic behaviour.

Bill Ward’s battle

While Ozzy opted for cocaine, Bill Ward, Black Sabbath’s drummer, has spoken out about his struggles with alcohol particularly during their heyday. His drinking began to spiral to the point where he was heavily drinking during gigs. By the late 70’s the lifestyle caught up with Bill, whose mental health took a hit which led to his departure in 1980 after their album Heaven and Hill.

The drummer left very abruptly, shocking the band at the time. He famously told new singer Ronnie James Dio: “I’m off then, Ron,” before disappearing with the band not seeing him for months.

Managerial Mayhem

Beyond their internal struggles, the band found themselves embroiled in complicated legal battles with their management throughout the 1970s. The issues began with the first main manager Patrick Meehan who the band claims ripped them off as they were “clueless about finances” according to Butler.

They eventually switched to infamous and brash music manager Don Arden, the father of Sharon Osbourne, and although he secured a better deal for the band, the relationship was often tested. When Sharon took over the solo management of Ozzy it even led to some family friction with her becoming estranged from her dad for 20 years after the split.

Ozzy’s bat biting antics

During performances in the 80s Ozzy began a strange ritual where he would pummel the crowd of his shoes with raw meat and they in turn would throw back whatever strange objects they managed to sneak in. But in 1982 during a show in Des Moines, one fan threw a live bat onto the stage – creating the now infamous moment.

Speaking to Rolling Stone Ozzy said: “I thought it was a rubber bat, I picked it up, put it in my mouth, crunched down, bit into it, being the clown that I am. ”

“Bats are the biggest carriers of rabies in the world, and I had to go to the hospital afterwards and they started giving me rabies shots. I had one one each rear and I had to have that every night. ”

He caught the attention of animal rights activists yet again in lockdown where he revealed he would pass the time by shooting birds and cats with an air rifle after setting up a makeshift firing range outside his Los Angeles home.

A sitcom star who rose to fame over a decade ago made a surprise appearance at Wimbledon this weekend – but will fans of the series be able to recognise the comedic actor?

A sitcom star has been seen looking completely different as he made a Wimbledon appearance this week. The Office US star Rainn Wilson blended into the tennis fans as he enjoyed the annual sporting event.

The actor wore a khaki-coloured bucket hat and navy blue jacket as well as a bushy beard and moustache which isn’t the look fans will remember from The Office US.

The US actor is best known for his iconic role of Dwight Schrute where he appeared on NBC for nine seasons. Other famous faces such as Steve Carell and John Krasinski also appeared on the series.

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Rainn’s character was a paper salesman and regional manager who is known for his comical habits. Rainn has a clean shaven look for his role but it looks like he’s now gone for a different style.

He starred in the sitcom from 2005 to 2013. Despite the show finishing more than ten years ago, The Office became the most watched show on Netflix during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

Rainn is best known for his comedy role but has also opened up in the past about his difficult childhood. He appeared on Steven Bartlett’s The Diary of A CEO podcast and talked about the abuse and trauma he faced as a child.

“I experienced a lot of pain in my life and a lot of suffering with anxiety and depression and addiction,” he explained. “As I dove into recovery and the therapeutic process, I can pin that squarely on a lot of gross imbalances and trauma that I suffered as a child. “

The star also revealed he was in therapy for more than 22 years to learn to undo the trauma that has haunted him for so long. “It’s important to excavate and honour the pain we went through, the lies that we were told, the gaslighting that we might have undergone, religious trauma as well, all kinds of different traumas that we suffer,” he added.

Rainn told the podcast host that his mother “took off” before he was two years old and left him with his father and eventually his stepmother as well. The actor said his father made a move and took him to “the jungles of Nicaragua when I was three years old,” as he said. Rainn eventually settled in Washington just as he started kindergarten.

When his father remarried, Rainn said he was raised in a “loveless shell of a house” and encountered “lots of different kinds of abuse” full of rage and “gaslighting. ” The actor said his home life pushed him into acting and comedy.

“There’s a reason why so many comedians come from painful backgrounds because comedy is what you plug in to shift your perspective away from pain and trauma just like gratitude takes you away from depression,” he explained.