Most photographers dream of one defining image. A frame that stops people from scrolling, is screenshotted a million times before breakfast, and becomes a cultural abbreviation for an entire minute. Simon Emmett got that. And then he was given a bus pass, and told to go on.
The image of Liam and Noel Gallagher standing together for the first time in 16 years dropped on 27 August 2024, the same day Oasis announced their Live ’25 reunion tour. It went everywhere.
For Emmett, the photographer and beauty whose work is frequently featured Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and Esquireit would have been a picture that defined the work itself. But it turned out to be one page of something bigger.
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The results are now being compiled together Oasis Live ’25 OpusA photo report of the trip produced in collaboration with the team. And make no mistake: this is not a curated portfolio of the 50 best shots. The deluxe editions contain an incredible 1,000 unseen images.
This is ideal documentation: the kind of lasting, consistent visual record that requires a very different mindset than a single photographer.
What does access look like?
Emmett had what every musical artist wants but rarely gets: true behind-the-scenes access to an entire world tour. It’s not a photo booth with a three-song limit, or a well-organized back-of-the-moment moment; the whole thing. The wait, the nerves before the show, the post release, the staff, the fans, the places from Dublin to Seoul.
The photographs in this book fulfill that promise. There’s a recent shot of Noel and Liam, for example, that feels unguarded: the kind of shot that happens when someone forgets the camera is there. There is a long study of the drummer reduced to light trails and dark movements; the kind of technical work that only occurs when you feel secure enough in your access to tests, not just documentation.
There’s a big game coming out of Seoul, a team that’s lit up against a lot of phone-lit faces. And there is a crowd close to the shot of lovers in the middle of the song, mouths open, completely lost in it; captured in the crowd rather than from the safety of its surface.
There is a tendency that when looking at a work like this, it says that its value is entirely conditional. With this level of access, you would expect the photos to be good, right?
But access to the big picture is not the same thing. Consider this: tours have always had official photos; however many official tourist books are forgotten. I’ve been collecting them since 1984, so believe me, I know.
In my mind, what Emmet has done here that is different is to get out of the way of reality, rather than create one. That attitude – watching rather than direct, waiting rather than rushing – is more difficult than it sounds. Especially when you are standing in front of one of the most famous teams in the world.
However, this book stands as proof that Emmet pulled it off. In a way that every artist, Oasis fan or not, can learn from.
Oasis Live ’25 Opus available in four editions, including the Live Forever Edition (336pp hardback, from May 2026). The three collector’s editions (Wonderwall, Glory and Supernova) each contain 1,000 photos spread over 648 pages.
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