A new play is set to head to London’s West End, documenting the bitter rivalry between Blur and Oasis.
Reportedly titled The Battle, the upcoming play is currently in development, and set to be headed to London stages by 2025.
The plot will chart out the tense rivalry between the two Britpop icons, which ran throughout the ‘90s as each one rose to prominence and took over the UK music scene. It’ll also centre on the summer of 1995 – when fans went head to head, debating whether Blur would top the charts with ‘Country House’ or whether Oasis would seal the victory with ‘Roll With It’.
Blur went on to win that battle, but the band’s Alex James later said that Oasis won the war.
It has been written by humorist and writer John Niven – an A&R executive and former indie rocker – and it is being produced by Simon Friend, who has also worked on productions like Ghost Stories, The Girl On The Train, Life Of Pi and more.
The latter spoke to Deadline recently, announcing the news of the upcoming Oasis/Blur production. In the interview, he described the show as “a comedy with teeth”, and revealed that negotiations are currently underway with a “notable director”.
It has also been reported that the search for the cast has commenced, with the team looking to cast the right actors to play Oasis brothers, Liam and Noel Gallagher, and Blur members Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree, as they were in 1995.
Information surrounding the venue, dates and tickets have all yet to be announced, and Friend has confirmed that no band members from either band will be involved in the production.
The announcement of the theatre production comes on the heels of both bands gaining momentum this year. Oasis, for instance, have taken over the music world recently by announcing their long-awaited reconciliation and sharing 2025 reunion tour dates.
These are all set to take place next year, and after fans experienced difficulties trying to get their hands on tickets, two extra London shows have been shared for next September.
As for Blur, the members recently shared To The End – a documentary directed by Transgressive Records founder Toby L which followed their reunion and 2023 comeback album ‘The Ballad Of Darren’. It also documented their huge shows at London’s Wembley Stadium last summer.
A concert film around those two dates, titled Blur: Live At Wembley Stadium, also arrived recently, and guitarist Graham Coxon told NME about what fans can expect from the band in the future.
“We can’t leave it too long [to release more] because we’re knocking on! Creatively, we’ll always be able to do something, but it’s important that we live life for a bit and hopefully not go through something so traumatic before getting back together again,” he said.
“Damon’s always said too that we need to live life so we have something we can bring together if we’re ever going to do anything again. If that all happens, then there shouldn’t be any reason why not. All year I was saying, ‘Roll on Christmas!’ When I made it to Christmas all in one piece, I was really grateful.”
While the two were involved in a famous feud throughout the ‘90s, recent years have seen the members of Blur and Oasis overcome their differences and become friends.
Noel Gallagher and Blur’s Damon Albarn previously struck up an unlikely friendship, and even worked together on Gorillaz’s 2017 track ‘We Got The Power’.
Joking about the collaboration for the ‘Humanz’ album in an interview last year, Noel Gallagher also joked that his younger self wouldn’t have been happy to hear that he would be later working with the Blur frontman.
“What would my younger self think of me working with Damon Albarn,” he pondered. “It would depend entirely on what side of the bed I got out of on that day,” he added. “If you caught me on a good day I’d be like, yeah, I could see that happening… On a bad day, I’d fucking knife myself in the bollocks.”
