Despite huge speculation, indie rockers Blossoms have not received that highly anticipated call from Noel or Liam Gallagher to open for Oasis – but there’s still hope.
Frontman Tom Odgen is so confident the band will be joining their fellow Mancunians on the Oasis Live 25′ tour next year that he didn’t even attempt the infamous ticket queue.
‘I didn’t have to join the madness the other week,’ he coolly tells ahead of Blossoms’ own tour and the release of new album, Gary.
The Your Girlfriend singers are close to the Gallagher brothers and previously supported Noel’s High Flying Birds during a one-off Royal Albert Hall show in London.
When the reunion tour was announced, Blossoms instantly became favourites to open for their UK gigs, especially in Manchester.
‘I’m crossing my fingers for a phone call,’ Tom laughed, agreeing that after all the speculation the band ‘obviously’ needed to go.
He grinned and added: ‘I don’t know but if it comes to – if we don’t support – then I’m sure I’ll be able to sort something … I can find someone who I can get a ticket off.’
Blossoms – consisting of Tom, Charlie Salt, Joe Donovan, Josh Dewhurst, and Myles Kellock – are indie icons in their own right, having stormed onto the scene in the late 2010s.
Their hit song Charlemagne became an instant classic in 2015, followed by popular tracks There’s A Reason Why and Honey Sweet.
Two years after their number one album Ribbon Around The Bomb, they are back with record Gary – which is named after an 8ft fibreglass gorilla statue that was stolen from Lanarkshire Garden Centre last year.
A slightly ‘ludicrous’ topic for a song let alone as the choice for an album title, songwriter Tom admitted but insisted it just felt right for the group.
‘Our sense of humour has always been very important to us,’ he added, reminiscing about their second album during which Blossoms faked a break-up for a short film.
On Gary, he added: ‘I saw it as a bit of a challenge and a bit of a laugh but then the song turned out to be quite good. If the song was rubbish, it would have never got this far.’
Despite huge hits and over a decade in the industry, Tom doesn’t ‘expect’ their music to land in the charts and shared: ‘Bands have been struggling in the singles chart since I started Blossoms.
‘If you look at the, if you want to call it the ‘heyday of guitar music’, and you’ve got the Oasis stuff in the 90s where there were a lot of bands doing really well, and then you had another resurgence with the Arctic Monkeys and the Kooks and Kasabian in the early to mid-00s.
‘Then since that, I feel like it’s just not been the mainstream for whatever reason. When we came along, we felt like – not outsiders that’s the wrong word – But there wasn’t an abundance of guitar bands breaking through.’
It’s been over a decade since a rock song reached number one on the UK singles chart, although indie bands do tend to fare better in the album chart.
Blossoms themselves have never had a number-one song but have landed three chart-topping albums, including their debut record.
Chart success isn’t everything though as the band have a nearly sold-out UK tour and lead single Gary from the newly released album is almost at 2 million streams.
‘There’s clearly a demand for guitar music,’ Tom said. ‘I never actually thought about the impact of Oasis returning on guitar bands but I mean, what was it like 6 million people trying to get tickets?
‘I know Oasis is a special band and they’ve connected on such a huge level, we’re a drop in the ocean compared to them. But if they can have a positive influence on people hearing about Blossoms, then that would be amazing.’
He had been ‘buzzing’ when the Gallaghers revealed they would be heading on tour for the first time in 15 years.
As the dust settled, Blossoms suddenly became the frontrunner to open for the group which Tom added would be a ‘dream come true’.
‘I’d be lying if I didn’t say that,’ the Perfect Me singer continued. ‘It’s kind of the reason I started a band and the reason I started writing music, they were the first band I fell in love with and became obsessed with.
In a ‘full circle’ moment, Tom recalls seeing Oasis at Heaton Park in 2009 with bandmate Joe when the pair were just 16 years old.
‘If you’d have told me when I was 16 that these conversations would be being talked about, I would never have believed you. It’s wild.’