Oasis dedicate song to Ozzy Osbourne as they begin series of gigs in London

By Aine Fox, PA

Oasis dedicated one of their hits to the late rocker Ozzy Osbourne as they made a triumphant return to London for a series of gigs as part of their world tour.

Liam Gallagher told tens of thousands of fans of his pride as the band graced the stage at Wembley Stadium for the first time in more than a decade.

Just three songs into their much-anticipated appearance, he declared the crowd was “f****** beautiful”, having bowed to the sea of raised arms before him.

Liam and brother Noel played with their band for the first of seven nights at the stadium on Friday – with five shows over the next week and two more scheduled in September.

It was the first time they had appeared together onstage at the London venue since July 12 2009, when they performed during their Dig Out Your Soul tour.

Towards the end of the gig, they paid tribute to Osbourne.

Lead singer Liam said: “I wanna dedicate this one to Ozzy Osbourne, rock ‘n’ roll star.”

The Black Sabbath star’s death at the age of 76 was announced earlier this week.

Oasis superfans in bucket hats and branded T-shirts had packed the Tube en route to the gig from earlier in the day, with international accents denoting the band’s worldwide popularity.

As with previous gigs Liam and Noel walked onstage hand in hand, opened with Hello and proceeded to belt out many of their classics including Some Might Say and Morning Glory.

The packed-out stadium was in full voice throughout and at one point Liam threw a tambourine into the jubilant crowd, while later positioning one on top of his head.

Despite pledging to concentrate on his vocals rather than talking – telling those gathered “every time I open my mouth at these gigs I seem to get myself into a lot of trouble so I’m just going to do the singing” – Liam later engaged in some light football banter.

The well-known Manchester City fan appeared to poke fun at Arsenal fans in the crowd, joking about their position in the Premier league.

Phone camera torches lit up the stadium as darkness fell and crowd-pleasers Wonderwall, Don’t Look Back In Anger and Champagne Supernova closed the gig.

At various points Noel thanked the crowd, with Liam telling them they had been “amazing”, ahead of fireworks erupting into the London sky.

Friday’s show – the eighth of the tour – followed a five-night run of homecoming gigs in Manchester’s Heaton Park and the two opening shows in Cardiff earlier this month.

Following the first part of their Wembley stint, the band will head up north to Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium followed by Dublin’s Croke Park.

The group will head to Japan, South Korea, South America, Australia and North America later in the year.

Oasis announced their reunion tour in August of last year – 16 years after their dramatic split in 2009 which saw Noel quit following a backstage brawl at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris.

While fans were excited at the Britpop band’s reunion, many were left outraged after some standard tickets in the UK and Ireland jumped from £148 to £355.

The controversy prompted the Government and the UK’s competition watchdog to pledge to look at the use of dynamic pricing.