Robbie Williams on touring at the same time as Oasis: “It’s not a competition, even though it bloody is”
Robbie Williams has spoken out on touring at the same time as the Oasis comeback tour.
The former Take That star announced a giant string of dates for his 2025 UK, Ireland and European tour just days ago (November 11). It will see Williams commence in Edinburgh on May 31 – and run all the way until September.
It follows the news of Oasis’ own reunion tour, after they announced their comeback last August following weeks of reports that the Britpop giants would be returning and Liam teasing the reunion at his Reading Festival headline slot. It will mark their first shows since the band split in 2009.
Now, Robbie Williams has responded to the suggestion he planned his tour to compete with Oasis. In an interview clip posted on Instagram, Williams answered: “No, I didn’t.
“When Oasis get back together, there is no competing, really,” he continued. “Unless I’d taken a 20-year break, then it would be a fair fight. Oasis coming back together, I don’t think anyone could compete with that – including Taylor Swift, who’s the biggest artist on this planet. So no, it’s not a competition, even though it bloody is.”
Williams has previously commented on the Oasis reunion, saying: “The soap opera alone will either be exciting and or ghoulish to watch. As for the shows? They’re gonna be incredible, off-the-scale special,” before going as far as calling it a “healing moment for our country.”
He continued, “Liam Gallagher reading his phone on the toilet would be more charismatic and intriguing than 99.9% of the world’s population at their most enigmatic. All he has to do is stand there and sing for the audience to be guaranteed their money’s worth,” before a slight jibe at his brother: “Noel will be there too.”
The trio have had a somewhat complicated relationship over the years. They were all formerly on good terms, with Robbie previously speaking about how partying with the band at Glastonbury 1995 was “the start of his new life”.
However, a feud between Williams and Noel ignited when Noel referred to him as “the fat dancer from Take That”. Williams later went on to challenge Liam to a £100,000 fight at the 2000 Brit Awards.
Williams also branded the brothers as “bullies” in a 2022 interview with Zane Lowe: “Ultimately, I’m a huge fan of Oasis and [always] was. I was there and I was part of it, and it was fucking unbelievable: incredible hedonism, reckless abandon and rock’n’roll, and ‘let’s turn it to 11, 12 and let’s see where this goes’. It’s part of that competitive nature of me, too.”
He continued: “Also they were gigantic bullies too, to the whole industry, everybody in it – and I didn’t like that. A lot of that still remains inside me. They’re probably different people now but there’s a lot of me that’s like, ‘They’re fucking bullies, them. I don’t like bullies’.”
Liam later took to X/Twitter to respond to the allegations, writing: “I agree with him on the vital ting not on the bully thing. I’ve never bullied anyone in my life I’m a massive piss taker for sure and probably gone a little too far sometimes, but if I’ve ever hurt anyone’s feelings I apologise.”
Williams also took a dig at Liam upon the news of his return to Knebworth Park in 2022, which staged some of Oasis and Williams’ biggest shows to date.
Oasis famously played the iconic venue in 1996, performing to 250,000 people across two nights. Robbie, meanwhile, played to 375,000 fans across three nights in 2003. Given Noel’s previous insult targeting Williams as the “fat dancer”, Williams sent the guitarist a pair of tap dancing shoes with a note that read: “Dear Mr. N Gallagher. You said [onstage] that two nights at Knebworth is history. Well, I guess three is just greedy. Yours, Rob.”
When asked whether he would revisit his Knebworth stint, Williams told NME, “To go and do three again? I dunno.
“I don’t know if you revisit [Knebworth], though,” he continued. “Do you revisit it? I’m sure we’d do OK if we sold tickets as cheaply [as Liam].” Tickets for Liam Gallagher’s Knebworth shows were priced at £65.
The singer then clarified: “Can I just apologise for saying the “cheaply” thing – if you write that, can you say I apologise; I was being bitchy,” before adding: “[Knebworth] is not something that’s on my radar. Glastonbury, on the other hand – I’d like to do that.”
In other news, Robbie Williams will headline Newcastle’s inaugural Come Together Festival 2025 with Kaiser Chiefs, Perrie and more.
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Alex Rigotti
NME
