Tiny Glimmers #8 - Some might say, we will find a brighter day

What the Oasis reunion taught me about feeling nostalgic for the future.

Hello, lovely Glimmerers!

Today I’m trying out a different format; not a letter from the future, but more of a love letter for the future. 💌

And a love letter for my favourite band ever: Oasis.

Let’s Roll With It, shall we?

(I apologise in advance for all the not-so-subtle Oasis references I’ll be making today, I couldn’t stop myself!)

This is not a drill

In case ya missed it: on Friday, July 4th, Oasis finally reunited! I don’t even know how to put into words how excited and (slightly) obsessed I’ve been for the last weeks months.

Let’s just say I have been driving my poor boyfriend Simon slightly insane by playing their albums non-stop, sharing random facts with him and quoting Liam Gallagher in a terrible attempt at a Manchester accent.

But let's rewind to the end of August 2024, because that's when it all started…

Almost exactly 15 years after they split up in 2009, Oasis announced that they'll be reuniting and going on tour.

This simple post sold out 42 dates in a few hours.

Here in the UK, all hell broke loose.

Mad fer it

Bucket hats were dusted off, parkas were donned, and their 30-year-old debut album Definitely Maybe shot to number 1 in the charts.

Amidst all the terrible news in the world, it felt like a beacon of joy and nostalgia for a somewhat simpler time, the good old 90s.

When MTV still ruled, smartphones didn’t exist, and Cool Britannia rather than Brexit dominated the headlines 🇬🇧. (and yeah, I know the 90s weren’t perfect, but sometimes it’s nice to reminisce and pretend)

I was so excited, I could barely sleep, terrified we wouldn’t get tickets.

Through some kind of miracle (and nerves of steel), Simon managed to get us tickets for the 1st night of the tour in Cardiff (and without having to bankrupt ourselves)! 🥳

And so started almost 10 months of unbridled joy and excitement.

“I’m feeling Supersonic”

I listened to the albums nonstop.

I made friendship bracelets. (yes, you can like Taylor AND Oasis; see my Spotify Wrapped for proof):

I hung out in the r/Oasis Subreddit, rejoicing and speculating with fans from around the world.

And I decided to make my own custom merch! (it’s more fun and more sustainable!) (and why is all the official merch so boooring?!).

I sewed us matching bucket hats: as luck would have it, my local sewing shop just happened to sell the perfect Oasis print fabric (thanks, KoolKaktus and Millie Moon).

Vinted was scoured for matching second-hand Adidas Gazelles (mine are platforms).

Cardiff, 9:30 am. Not our can.

And I sewed my own patchwork Oasis dress and embroidered my favourite lyrics onto a pink “She’s Electric” Parka. As you do.

Showing off my outfit. “Thanks, I made it myself!”

Let’s just say, I had a lot of fun.

[You can see more outfit details here if you like.]

“Today is gonna be the day...”

The day of the concert itself was pure magic. We took a long weekend and drove into Cardiff bright and early. The whole town was abuzz with excitement, and there was so much joy in the air.

I’ve never seen so many bucket hats in my life.

Local businesses were jumping on the Oasis wagon.

A local artist even created an Oasis mural out of 3000 bucket hats, of course, we had to visit it.

For lunch, we went to Pho and ate Morning Glory (“Mad Pho It”, get it, get it??!).

We had a Wonderwall pint in a local pub, and I even got to gift a bracelet to a lady from Oklahoma who spotted me wearing mine.

“Hello! It’s good to be back!”

Then it was time for the gig. 🎸

I thought I'd be crying through the whole concert, but surprisingly, I didn't cry at all. There was no space for tears; I was so happy I couldn't stop grinning and singing along. And I haven't jumped up and down that much in years.

I’ll never forget the moment they stepped on stage together for the first time in 16 years (I saw them last in 2009, just before they split). It almost felt like the whole crowd was holding their breath and collectively exhaled (and then exploded) as they started playing a very fitting Hello (“it’s good to be back, it’s good to be back!”)

Collective effervescence is a term I learned a few years ago, and it explains the pure joy of singing along to your favourite songs with 70k+ other fans.

Collective effervescence refers to the intense feeling of excitement, energy, and unity that individuals experience when participating in collective rituals or gatherings.

It was magical. ✨

Very sweaty, blurry and HAPPY in our nosebleed seats and bucket hats.

“Because we need each other”

But the moment that stuck with me most was the brief but momentous hug between Liam and Noel at the end of the gig, as they played the last notes of Champagne Supernova.

It felt like this was what we’d all been waiting for, that moment of brotherly love, to see them make up and be friends again.

The crowd went wild.

I’m not crying, you’re crying. 😭

“Stop crying your heart out”

I thought I'd be super sad after the concert, but I've been on a high from it for the past 2 weeks. I still listen to the music every day (with headphones now, poor Simon), wear my bracelets, and my bucket hat.

Every day, I watch clips from the other gigs, enjoying more hugs and brotherly reconciliation. 🫂

I never thought this reunion tour would bring me not only joy but hope.

Hundreds of thousands of fans have now been to the reunion gigs in Cardiff and Manchester, and the message I see most is how happy people are that the brothers made up. And that old and young generations of fans are enjoying these songs together.

Even the grumpiest Gen X fans just want everyone to get along, to make up, to sing together and have a good time.

“Is it my imagination or have I finally found something worth living for?”

I realised that the whole 10 months of looking forward to the concert made the event even more special.

It wasn't just about the gig itself; it was about reconnecting with the music of my teenage years and sharing this with other fans from around the world.

It reminded me of how wonderful it is to have something to look forward to.

And it made me wonder what it would be like, if that's how people felt about the future in general. If we had this huge sense of looking forward to a brighter, kinder, greener, fairer future.

A sort of nostalgia for the future.

I want to feel as excited about the future (even more) as I have been feeling about this concert. Instead of feeling only doom and gloom with every news story about how everything’s gonna be even more awful than it is now.

That’s not motivating, it’s debilitating.

So, what would it require then, for us to start looking forward to the future, instead of dreading it?

The key is imagination.

Imagination is revolutionary.

“Gonna start a revolution from my bed”

Nothing threatens the status quo as much as imagination, especially collective imagination.

That’s why the billionaires and 0.01%ers want us as distracted as possible, so we don’t get any new ideas in our heads.

Thankfully, there are lots of cool people working very hard to help us imagine a future worth rooting for.

Like Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition Movement, Future Activist and author of From What Is to What If and host of the What If to What’s Next podcast.

“Some might say, we will find a brighter day”

I’ve been listening to his latest book How To Fall In Love With The Future, where he invites readers to travel to a future where “we won” and shares incredible stories of people who have brought parts of that future into existence today.

Rob Hopkins in his time traveller outfit.

Here are a few things I’ve learned, so far:

• We need something specific to look forward to.

• It needs to be shared with others.

• We need to be able to immerse ourselves fully, through sound, taste, smell, and touch.

• And we need to be able to make a start right now, take steps to get us closer to the future we’re nostalgic for.

A lot of the examples he shares in his book are about nature, gardening, food, and I totally see why.

When I started practising Imagination, one of the first things I did was grow some radishes (you can read about why here, if you’re interested).

This post is getting a little long, so I’ll share more about the book and what I’m learning from it soon.

✨ “Little by Little, I gave you everything you ever dreamed of”

In the meantime, here’s a little optional homework if you’d like to practice your imagination too:

• Grab your journal and write an entry 10 years into the future, a “future where we won”.

• Start your journal entry with “Today…” and imagine what it’s like to wake up in that future.

• You can focus on just one issue you care about (it could be walkable cities, healthy food, a universal basic income, communal living… or any other topic you like) and write about what it’s like in that future.

• Keep it simple, it can be just a few sentences or paragraphs, but try to make it as vivid as possible (what do you see, smell, hear, feel as you wake up in this future?)

And if you like, come back here and share your journal entry or any takeaways you got from it in the comments!

See you next time!

Glimmery greetings,

Jenny

✨