www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1122888says something like this (with google's help because it's quite long):
Oasis: are they or do they pretend?
After ten years of close relationship with their local fans, the Gallaghers are after the major prize: to fill the River stadium.
Are Oasis really a popular passion in Argentina or just one more band in the marketing gear of global entertainment industry? Next Sunday, the Gallagher brothers will go for their biggest bragging act in this land: in their fourth visit to Buenos Aires in ten years, they will try to fill the River Plate stadium and thus crowned themselves with the title of "distinguished guests" as other long running artists did, including The Rolling Stones, Madonna, U2, The Police and The Ramones.
Did UK's largest british rock group of the last fifteen years, finally managed to penetrate their songs on a massive scale in the Argentines as they did in the First World, where they sold over 50 million copies of their albums? The posters around Buenos Aires announcing their concert at River appear to respond with a resounding yes to the question. Much more if one takes into account the special relationship that brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher have built with the country for a decade, an ant's work (and strategic marketing) which took them visit after visit to horizons beyond their own call: two Luna Park shows for a total of 10,000 people in 1998, a show at the Campo Argentino de Polo in 2001 to 20,000 young people, as part of a festival with international artists, and at the same place, but with Oasis as the sole protagonist of the day, before 40,000 fans in 2006.
By then, the popularity of the band in Argentina drew attention to the specialized magazine Q, one of the most important of the British scene, and together they traveled with a reporter and a photographer to cover "the Oasis phenomenon" with a pin photo shoot in the neighborhood of La Boca included. "It is hard to explain the Oasis phenomenon unless you see it by yourself. I can't speak for the Q journalist who traveled with us to Buenos Aires, but I think he was pleasantly surprised by what they lived in those days," Noel told
La Nacion in October 2006. "Argentina is a special place for us and there are few cities in the world which are similar to Buenos Aires, maybe some Italian, not much more: the public is totally crazy and loves football as much as we do," he concluded.
Alarm or promotion?
When one month ago the band announced on their MySpace that they would perform in the country, this time, in their words, "the iconic and largest football stadium in Argentina, where the 1978 World Cup took place", not few thought the stakes could be greater than the chips that Gallagher had in their hands.
To make matters worse, last week sounded the general alarm: "Tickets for the concert are not being sold yet as we expected," was rumored in the corridors of the local producers. A day later, Mario Pergolini echoed information of dubious provenance in his radio program
Cual Es? and fired with sensationalism: "The show in Buenos Aires will be Oasis' last."
The news wires followed with the brother's usual phrases: that they no longer speak; Liam never knew Noel's 19 months old son; the band will take a break; and more and more and more.
Up until yesterday, about 40,000 tickets for the show on Sunday were sold and no one predicts anything like a failure.
Promotional strategy involving rock band split ups is nothing new and has been around since the Rolling Stones, but the Gallaghers took it a step further, with visceral fights which sometimes ended up in cuffs, while still being marketing movement: "When the record company released the greatest hits album in 2006, the Sony people thought it might be a good idea to announce that we were splitting, but I swear we didn't have anything to do," said Noel a couple of years ago.
By mere brutal honesty or precisely calculated plan, the fact is that Oasis did a good job in the south of America during the last decade. They first came to the country in 1998, one of the highest points of their career (just published their third album, Be Here Now, the successor of super successful Definitely Maybe and (What's The Story) Morning Glory?) They repeated experience three years later, when they shared the bill with their idolized Neil Young to present their album "Don't Believe The Truth"
(sic); in their last visit not only they did a show for 40,000 fans, but they also devoted an entire day to sign autographs in Musimundo (something unthinkable for a couple of grumpy folks like the Gallaghers), and in these ten years, with professional respect granted dozens of interviews for Argentine media every time they released a new album or they announced a return visit (this time Noel promised to speak with
La Nacion face to face hours before the show on Sunday).
So, are the Gallaghers popular or do they pretend to be in Argentina? Most likely on Sunday there will be a new name to sign on the exclusive list of artists who filled the Nuñez's stadium's capacity and Oasis will have won over one more country in that game they vowed to win when they first stepped on a stage: to conquer the world.