Don’t Look Back in Anger: The Chronicles of the Wildest Week of My Life
By Robb Laffoon
Life is funny. Not so much in a “jaja” way, but in a “sometimes all you can do is laugh at everything around you”. I need a little time to wake up, but in the meantime I’m going to walk you through the insane highs and rock bottom lows that were this last week.
On Wednesday, I lost my best friend of 16 years, my sweet Josie Carolina. This dog was my world. I fetched her from the pound when she was only 7 months old. Physically I was 19, but mentally we were about the same age. Josie was by my side through my entire adult life. For the first decade of her life, everything revolved around her. Every happy song I wrote, every photo I took, everything was about Josie. Last Sunday I noticed she hadn’t gotten up all day and tried to pick her up and realized her legs had given out. Josie had given me all she had and her time on this earthly plane was coming to an end. On Wednesday, she finally got to go to sleep and to put it bluntly I was gutted. The sunshine of my life was gone and all that was left was grey.
Then, as if some supernatural force decided to give me a break, everything went my way.
On Friday night, the Chargers beat the Chiefs to open the season. The Chiefs have been our daddy for years and seeing my boys pull out the decisive W in a week 1 prime-time matchup left me feeling euphoric. The Chargers are one of the few constants I’ve had in my life longer than Josie and for the most part, they bring me a lot of misery. But on Friday night? They brought me the joy I needed more than anything.
But what if I told you the weekend got even better?
Let me preface this next part by saying I’m not a religious man. Don’t get me wrong—I got nothing against it. I’m jealous of those who can do the mental gymnastics to believe something so bollocks, but I’m no easy mark. That being said, I do have a higher power, and my higher power is rock and roll. And on Sunday night, I prayed at the pew of the denomination’s greatest pastor: Liam motherfucking Gallagher.
Let’s take it back a step though. On Sunday around 5 p.m. I get a text from Tyler, one of my best friends and fellow believer in the healing power of rock and roll. The text simply read, “are we doing it Robbie?” Immediately I knew what he was talking about. Oasis, a band we both worship, was at the Rose Bowl for their last North American show of the tour. Tickets had dropped to a reasonable price. We had a chance to see the last great rock and roll band.
I get that there’s a lot of people who think they don’t like Oasis. They’re wrong. I dunno if it’s contrarianism, or a matter of not being ready to accept their greatness, but there’s a reason Wonderwall has 2.5 billion streams on Spotify.
It’s a perfect song—you’ve just heard it too much. But make no mistake, this is the greatest rock and roll band on the planet. More than that though, the Gallaghers are ROCK STARS.
Motherfucking ROCK STARS.
Tyler scoops the tickets and hops in his car in San Diego to come pick me up in Woodland Hills before we head to Pasadena to see the show. With nothing but a sack of Bud Heavies and a thirst for loud guitars, we arrived at our place of worship ready to take in the almighty healing powers of rock and roll.
From the opening guitar strums in Hello, to the fireworks exploding as Champagne Supernova rang out, this was easily the greatest show I’ve seen in my life. There’s a reason Oasis is fucking Oasis. They know how good they are, and they’ve never been too shy to tell you that fact. Liam Gallagher, in my opinion, is the greatest rock star ever. He’s reckless, he’s brash, he’s pompous, and he’s cool. Effortlessly cool. He stands there with his hands behind his back not giving a single fuck, because he knows he’s the coolest cat in the building every night.
I hate when people do the fake humble thing. If you’re good at something you should own it. If you’re the best in the fucking world at something, own it. Liam and Noel have both owned that since well before they were ever the best in the world. If anything, the brothers willed their way to greatness through sheer determination and self-belief. I think the lack of this is what has led to rock music falling off so hard. In the brothers’ absence, rappers became the new rock stars.
There’s a reason the term “rock star” exists—these dudes used to be larger than life before multiple generations rejected that notion and decided it was better to play the “I’m just like you!” card. Well, why the fuck would I pay top dollar to see some guy just like me yammer on about rubbish on stage? I have a whole podcast I can do that on for free. “You’re the best crowd ever, we love you!”—bro this isn’t Applebee’s. Bands need to stop with the customer service, customer-is-always-right voice. We paid money to be in your presence.
Be a fucking GOD.
While they were performing the song Whatever, Tyler turned to me and said, “this song always reminds me of you, it sounds like your music, it’s a Robbie song.” I’m like, “brother, everything I’ve ever written is just me trying to be Oasis.” Towards the end of the song Liam slips in the chorus of Octopus’s Garden and I WEEPED.
I turned to T and told him, “this is the closest we’ll ever get to seeing the Beatles, this is our Beatles.” America may have broken free from British control 249 years ago, but on this night we were all English. Just a buncha mad lads and full kit wankers watching a pack of cheeky cunts melt our faces off.
Look, I love alternative music. Punk rock, pop punk, emo, all that stuff. But those are just the bastard children of their daddy, true rock and roll. And nobody does it better than Oasis. Big chords, bigger riffs, and even bigger sing-along choruses. The atmosphere was electric as the crowd full of eccentrics hung on to every word Liam and Noel spoke. In the immortal words of Jack Black in the cinema film School of Rock, “one great rock show can change the world”—and lemme tell ya, my world was changed on Sunday night.
But now let’s talk about the encore. Arguably the greatest murderer’s row of songs any band of the last 30+ years has. After coming back on stage sans Liam, who was probably in the back making tea, Noel introduced the band before playing The Masterplan. After this the band broke into Don’t Look Back in Anger, a song that some might say (me) is not only the best Oasis song but quite possibly the greatest song of all time. As the final notes rang out, Liam sauntered back on stage before casually telling the crowd the next song was Wonderwall.
Again, you might think you’re tired of Wonderwall. It might be overplayed. But seeing it with 70k other people will slap that thought right out of your head. There are so many things I’d like to say about this moment, but I truly do not know how. After this, they ended the show with Champagne Supernova. I was so excited to film this to show my daughter Nova. She loves this song, she has danced and sung along to it since before she will even be able to remember. For the third or fifth time of the night, I started tearing up as I was completely overwhelmed by the moment. Here I was with my closest friend, watching the greatest band on earth after the most tumultuous week of my life.
To wrap this rant up, I think half the appeal of most bands is what they stand for. The lore. The personalities. Life is wrestling, and being good in the ring or good on your guitar isn’t what makes people connect with you. The appeal of Oasis isn’t just the timeless hits, it’s the bond between two brothers with larger-than-life personalities.
Last August, Tyler had a bachelor party in Miami that I wasn’t able to make it to due to getting laid off a couple weeks before. I felt terrible, Tyler was upset, and we ended up not speaking for a few weeks. Our first and only fight. In the time we weren’t speaking, Oasis came back and all I could think was “man I wish I could talk to T right now, he’s the only person I know who understands what a big deal this is.” A few days after the Oasis announcement, I texted him and told him sorry. He apologized too. We weren’t even mad at each other, we just figured the other guy was mad and felt stupid. After like 3 or 4 texts it immediately turned to Oasis. We renamed our group chat “YRA reunion tour 2025” with a picture of the brothers as the group chat photo. To get to experience this with him nearly a year later to the day is something I’ll never forget.
Love your brother, even if he’s acting like a total fuckin’ wanker. Brothers can fight, they can hit each other over the head with tambourines, they can call each other potatoes in the press, but time heals all wounds and the people who love you will always come around at the end of the day. Looking back in anger will never do anyone any good.
Long live Oasis.
Long live Josie.
Go Chargers.
