Last August, brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher ended one of the longest feuds in music history when they announced they’d reunited their band Oasis. Their first tour in 16 years, heading to Soldier Field Thursday, sold out immediately. So far, the event has been hailed by Pitchfork as “the biggest reunion in our lifetime” while The Guardian has called it “a triumph” and “the most anticipated tour of the century,” reintroducing one of the great Britpop bands of all time. Nathaniel Murphy, for one, says believe the hype. The Elmhurst resident and long-time Oasis fan just returned from Ireland where he saw the band’s Live ’25 gig at Croke Park on Aug. 17, calling the show “out of this world [and] phenomenal … with hit after hit after hit,” adding, “It’s great to hear all those classic songs in a stadium with deafening volume.” Murphy has a rather unique perspective on the matter. It’s a bit too simple to call him just a fan; he’s a rock star in his own right. The 38-year-old’s love of Oasis, sparked during his childhood living in Manchester and attending the same school as the Gallaghers, transformed into his own quest to become a professional guitarist. And it ultimately landed him in Chicago where he’s gone from busking on Michigan Avenue, to kicking off a growing social media following on YouTube, to working as a full-time video specialist at Lakeview instrument mecca Chicago Music Exchange. “You look at [Noel and Liam] and are like hang on, [they went] to the same schools, they weren’t from an affluent background, I certainly wasn’t,” Murphy said. “Look at what they have become. Why can’t I try and aspire to be something like that? It inspired me to pick up the guitar and see what could happen.” In turn, Murphy has used his own influence to inspire the tens of thousands of viewers who watch him on YouTube noodle away at complex arrangements on acoustics, electrics and double necks with incredible dexterity. Sitting in the Chicago Music Exchange “Vault Room,” where his shorn hair, slung guitar and Adidas kicks drove home the comparisons, Murphy said his interest in Oasis began to take shape the first time he heard “Roll With It” off the album “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory” at the age of 8 on a CD player in his Manchester bedroom. That bedroom sat just a stone’s throw away from where the Gallaghers themselves grew up. As a child, Murphy attended the same schools Noel and Liam once did: St. Bernard’s in Burnage and Barlow Roman Catholic High School in Didsbury. “Noel went to the same dentist,” he joked. All of it seeped in through osmosis and had a seismic effect on the budding talent. “Growing up in the ‘90s in Manchester, they were everywhere. They’re on the radio. All your mates listen to them,” Murphy recalled. At 13, using 50 pounds from his grandmother, he picked up a “cheap classical” guitar from UK catalog store Argos and started teaching himself that nimble playing technique. After a lot of practice (“I can still remember being in literal tears because I couldn’t change from one chord to another,” he said), the guitarist began teaching music and working shifts in music shops in Manchester. Seeking more music opportunities in America, Murphy moved to Chicago in 2012 working as a youth soccer coach, and in his spare time, busking on Michigan Avenue where the attention started to grow. “It leaned into me getting an Instagram because I was getting emails from people saying, ‘I love your videos of you busking.’ I wasn’t even on there yet … but when I checked, sure enough there were videos of me, so I started posting too,” Murphy explained. While he never intended to be any kind of influencer, today his Instagram page @ZeppelinBarnatra (he loves that Brit rock band too) has amassed almost half-a-million followers and draws coverage in instrument mags such as “The Fret Board,” which called him a “superhuman guitarist.” In February, one of his compositions ended up in a Jeep Super Bowl commercial starring Harrison Ford. “A lot of what he does is bring the best out of an instrument,” says Chicago Music Exchange CEO Andrew Yonke. “He probably doesn’t even realize how many recordings or future recordings he’s had an influence on, after people heard [him play] and then took it and expanded upon it.” The Chicago Music Exchange has been known to draw in the music elite with its museum-like collection of rare and vintage guitars, from Gary Rossington’s 1961 Gibson Les Paul SG that he used to play “Free Bird” to a 1965 Gibson Dove Acoustic with a B-Bender built by Gene Parsons. Judas Priest, Carlos Santana, Adele, and yes, even Noel Gallagher have all paid visits. In 2021, Murphy’s worlds collided when he was gifted a very rare Gibson Custom Shop Noel Gallagher J-150 (only 200 were ever made) by Yonke; two years later, Gallagher stopped by the shop and signed the instrument. “He’s just the nicest guy you can meet, a very down-to-earth guy,” Murphy recalled of the meeting. “The first thing he did was he came up to me and said, ‘Oh you’re from Manchester, you’re one of us. It was interesting how he knew that.” As to Oasis finally reuniting, Murphy says he’s always had an inkling it would happen. “I personally thought it was always a matter of time. How long could you really not get back together with the legacy that they have?” he pondered. “There’s certainly the element of nostalgia for a lot of people, but also just how good the music actually is … [and] it’s great to just have some straight up rock n roll back, you know?” Murphy believes seeing them in action again will also help inspire more kids to pick up the guitar again, just like it did for him nearly 30 years ago. “It’s been an incredible journey,” he said. “Picking up the guitar is the best thing I ever did.”