Thousands of special editions of the London Standard have been handed out to Oasis fans to mark the Britpop band’s long-awaited return to the capital.
Fans dressed head to toe in Oasis merchandise quickly snatched up editions of the paper as they were given out near Wembley Stadium, nearly 16 years to the day after the Gallagher brothers and their band last performed there.
To celebrate the Gallagher brothers’ reunion, the Standard has unveiled a special collector’s edition poster on its front page, teaming up with Burger King to deliver a unique wrap-around.
Over 160,000 editions of the paper were handed out across London as the paper was released on Thursday. On Friday, an extra 15,000 editions were handed out around Wembley as well as along the Jubilee line for Oasis fanatics to pick up on their way to the sell-out show.
Inside the paper, the Standard celebrates Oasis fever, looking at how the Gallagher brothers stormed the capital in the 1990s and the pair’s love-hate relationship with the city.
Paper vendors, with special Standard x Burger King branded bucket hats for the occasion, distributed the special edition to gig-goers as they headed towards the stadium.
Roughly 630,000 people will watch Oasis at seven gigs at Wembley across the summer.
Oasis, born in Burnage, could not be more Mancunian and brought their inherent northern swagger to a willing, adoptive city.
But it was London where they thrived, with Noel Gallagher’s famous home in Belsize Park renowned for its wild parties and the band ultimately choosing Soho’s Bewick Street as the scene for their acclaimed album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?
The Gallagher brothers went their separate ways following a backstage bust-up at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris 16 years ago.
At one stage, a reunion between the brothers seemed impossible and the pair continued to squabble on social media for years but last summer they announced “the guns have fallen silent,” sending fans into a frenzy.
Inside the Oasis wrap-around, Burger King playfully jokes about the Gallagher brothers’ fiery relationship, boasting that it has “more beef than those two”.
Dan Locke, chief commercial content officer at the Standard, said: “This campaign is proof that great creative, reactive thinking and print can collide to make real cultural noise.
“With a brand like Burger King, a moment like Oasis at Wembley, and the city’s streets as our stage, this is exactly the kind of agile partnership the Standard was made for.”
