Not coincidentally, Oasis have announced they are reuniting for a series of UK and Ireland shows in the same week that their debut album was reissued. ‘Definitely Maybe’ is 30 years old and has returned to number 1 in the UK. With the announcement, the regular album moved up to number 5 and has now climbed all the way to the top. It has sold 52,000 copies this week, totalling 2.7 million units in the UK alone. Of these, historically 1.6 million have been on CD, 267,000 on cassette and 182,000 on vinyl. It has spent 340 weeks in the top 75, which is almost 7 years.
Oasis also appear at number 3 in the British charts with the compilation ‘Time Flies: 1994-2009’ and at number 4 with their 1995 classic ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory’, also one of the best-selling albums in UK history, selling over 5 million copies, we insist, only within the islands.
The B-sides from ‘The Masterplan’ climb to #41 in the UK, and Oasis’ third album, ‘Be Here Now’, appears at #42. There is no trace of their subsequent four studio albums.
As for singles, ‘Live Forever’ rises to number 8, ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ to number 9 and ‘Wonderwall’ to number 11. Also ‘Champagne Supernova’, ‘Supersonic’ and ‘She’s Electric’ – which was not a single – have enough points to have appeared on the charts, but the OCC only allows 3 singles per artist in the top 100.
On Tuesday we will find out the impact of Oasis’ return on the American and Spanish charts. For the moment, ‘Definitely Maybe’ has risen to number 3 in Ireland and number 10 in Australia. In some countries, the ‘Time Flies’ compilation is having a better reception due to its good streaming acceptance. Oasis have gone from being outside the lists of most listened to artists to occupying number 19 on the daily Spotify chart and number 155 on the monthly chart.
