Oasis @ Murrayfield, Edinburgh, 8 Aug

What can you say about Oasis? We know it all, don’t we? We know the lineup and the setlist; we know the history and the headlines; we know the aggro and the anthems. We know they’re just reforming for the money, right? We know they’re just a derivative, throwaway lad’s band, obsessed with The Beatles but without the musical talent.

And yet none of this rings true as Oasis take to the stage in Edinburgh, arms aloft, the Gallagher brothers reunited after a long 16 years. The sneering, snobbish voices of the broadsheets fade away as Liam snarls through Bring It on Down. As you look around the stadium, tens of thousands of people all bouncing as one to Supersonic and Cigarettes & Alcohol, all ages, all nationalities, you have to ask yourself if the band are really the has-beens that some quarters would like them to be. Support acts Cast and Richard Ashcroft might have felt like safe choices, but they play their part, in particular a spine-tingling run through The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony.

Image: Oasis @ Murrayfield, Edinburgh, 8 Aug by Big Brother Recordings

This tour could have been a disaster. It could have felt hollow and half-hearted. And the reason it isn’t any of those things, is that it gives us one of the greatest songwriters of the past 50 years, playing alongside one of the greatest frontmen of the past 50 years. Everything else is just noise. And what a noise Edinburgh can make, particularly when Liam focuses his attention on the ill-advised comments of some local councillors concerned about the “wrong type of fan.”

There are tears, there are hugs, there are camera lights in the air. As Champagne Supernova echoes into the Edinburgh night, and fireworks roar overhead, there’s a sense that something important has shifted back into place. And of course, nostalgia can be one hell of a drug. So, the question is: where were you while we were getting high?