LONDON, Oct. 23 -- Liam Gallagher may have just let slip, in a throwaway reply on X, that a new Oasis album is in the works.

It all began last Tuesday, when X user K Is Seeing Oasis declared that Oasis have seven great albums whose songs will live forever.

Gallagher replied with a number of his own: "8 including the new 1 I mean happy birthday".

He did not elaborate, leaving fans to puzzle over whether it was a slip, a joke or a very well-timed greeting.

The Manchester band, fronted by brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, ruled 1990s Britpop, split in 2009 and reunited last year for a stadium comeback tour.

A new record has not always sounded likely, as Gallagher said not so long ago that the pressure to match the band's 1990s catalogue...