From Knebworth & Maine Road to bust ups & that meeting with Tony Blair – the top 10 Oasis moments that will Live Forever
MILLIONS of Oasis fans are preparing to spend today trying to snap up tickets online for the band’s much-anticipated reunion tour next summer.
With three more dates added yesterday, The Sun continues its series by the journalist who chronicled the band’s rise as this paper’s Showbiz Editor in the 1990s.
Here, Dominic Mohan looks back at his top ten Oasis memories and the unforgettable moments he witnessed during the Britpop years – including some of Liam and Noel Gallagher’s most memorable live shows.
1. Knebworth, 1996
THE reunion shows will certainly be special but they surely cannot match the two epic, balmy, mythical evenings in a field in Herts, with crowds of 250,000 each time.
As a twentysomething journalist on the UK’s best-selling paper, it was a privilege to be the chronicler of these times.
Me and the missus were with a big group of friends and I’d managed to snaffle two VIP passes which gave access to the free bar.
There were 7,000 on the guest list over that weekend and label boss Alan McGee reckons the bar tab cost Creation Records £250,000-plus.
With some sneaky sticker swapping, I was able to get 22 people into the area. Sorry, Alan!
We saw a stellar line-up of support from The Chemical Brothers, Ocean Colour Scene, Manic Street Preachers and The Prodigy.
Those alone would have been a bargain for the £22.50 ticket price.
But the Oasis set was momentous.
Liam snarled pitch-perfectly through all the classics and a monumental Champagne Supernova, when the brothers were joined by their guitar hero John Squire of The Stone Roses.
“This is history – right here, right now,” Noel proclaimed.
He was not wrong.
2. Maine Road, 1996
A PILGRIMAGE to the pre-Etihad home of the brothers’ heroes Manchester City, just a Stone Roses’ throw from where they grew up in a Burnage council house which is still home to their mother Peggy.
Stepping off the train at Piccadilly, there was something in the air – and I’m not only talking about the overwhelming whiff of jazz cigarettes.
Mancunian cries of “Get yer Oasis T-shirts”, “Madferit bucket hats for £3” and “Anyone want tickets?” greeted us – the city completely engulfed in the excitement of these two mega-gigs.
Liam simian-strolled on to the stage and screamed: “Manchester, Maine Road, Madferit” and they were off.
The brothers duetted on opener Acquiesce with its chorus of “Because we need each other. We believe in one another.” Epic.
The gig was one giant mosh pit gasping at a storming and boisterous, swaggering return to home, with the brothers visibly basking in the adulation and Noel spanking his Union Jack guitar.
The goosebump moment was when Liam turned his back to the crowd during Live Forever and Noel’s fabled guitar solo pierced the stadium as giant monochrome images of Bob Marley, Sid Vicious, Elvis and John Lennon flashed up on the screen.
It’s been indelibly stamped on my brain ever since.
3. Reunion, 2024
OK, I know this didn’t happen when I was a Sun showbiz reporter in the Nineties but it is clearly one of the biggest Oasis stories I have ever written about.
Some might say I wasn’t really ever certain it would happen.
However, after witnessing Liam’s Definitely Maybe 30 tour this summer, I realised he was throwing down the gauntlet to his older brother.
If there was any year for the reunion to happen, it had to be 2025 – the 30th anniversary of their 22 million-seller (What’s The Story?) Morning Glory, a very special record which makes you punch the air with unadulterated joy.
We have read much cynical sniping from miserable types looking ahead in anger – but there is a palpable excitement evident for the majority.
And don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.
I know this from the many messages I’ve received from friends, old colleagues and fans, reminiscing about a time when the world was a happier and more simple place.
It will dominate the summer of 2025 like a domestic World Cup or Olympics with thousands flying in from around the world to witness a little bit of history, helping to stimulate our economy and reigniting the Cool Britannia flame.
4. Forum Kentish Town Aug 1994 (and Earls Court Nov 1995)
I WAS fortunate to witness one of the band’s most incendiary early London shows at the 2,000-capacity Forum Kentish Town.
Supported ably by Cast, they blew away a lairy and pumped-up crowd with this provocative and surly performance.
I still think Columbia from Definitely Maybe is their best set opener as it grabs you by the throat and pummels you with its deafening wall of sound.
I hope they open with it next year.
The classic line-up of the brothers, Liam – then just 21 – with Bonehead on guitar, Guigsy on bass and drummer Tony McCarroll, assaulted us with ear-crippling renditions of Fade Away, Digsy’s Dinner, Shakermaker, Live Forever, Bring It On Down, Up In The Sky, Slide Away, Cigarettes & Alcohol, Supersonic and I Am The Walrus – a setlist more established acts would kill for.
Just over a year later, they would sell out two nights at the cavernous, 20,000-capacity Earls Court which was, equally memorable, supported by The Bootleg Beatles who joined them on stage in shiny Sgt. Pepper uniforms for a storming and surreal encore of I Am The Walrus.
5. Liam quits the Oasis tour 1996
THE year 1996 belonged to Oasis – but alongside the many triumphs there were severe doubts on a number of occasions that the band would last 12 more months.
There were stories about them almost every day.
It was even front page news when the brothers both had their hair cut short.
When Liam walked out of the band’s US tour, claiming he had to find somewhere to live with partner Patsy Kensit, it sparked the memorable Sun front page What’s The Story? Liam Quits The Tour-y.
But the late Mark Lanegan, frontman of the Screaming Trees, who were supporting Oasis in the US, reckoned Liam went home to avoid a pre-arranged fight with him after the pair clashed.
Mark said: “He had quit and bailed before I could have a go at him.”
Liam resumed the tour but then it was Noel’s turn to quit, resulting in the Blowasis front page that September.
We truly feared it was over for good but the brothers patched it up again until the Paris implosion in 2009 when they went out with a whimper rather than a Gallagher-esque bang.
6. The Brit Awards, 1996
IN the hallowed halls of Earls Court, where they had slain only months before, Oasis achieved their moment of recognition from the music industry.
Word had got to me that the band would be pre-loading the champagne at London’s Landmark Hotel before heading to the venue.
I raced down there and we shared a glass of fizz before I asked the brothers if we could take a photograph.
We ushered them all out into a corridor next to the loo and captured a very rare snap of Liam and Noel entwined with Patsy Kensit and Meg Mathews.
I’m not sure any other such photograph of the iconic quartet has ever been seen publicly.
PM-in-waiting Tony Blair presented David Bowie with his outstanding contribution gong and, as Noel collected one of the group’s three awards, he praised the leader of the Opposition and said that “he was giving a little hope to young people in this country.”
Oh, and Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker was arrested for wiggling his bum at Michael Jackson, too. What a night.
7. Cool Britannia and Noel meets Tony Blair at No10, 1997
I KNOW Noel still regrets accepting the invitation to meet PM Tony Blair at Downing Street, but this was one of the defining moments of Cool Britannia and encapsulated the collision of UK music, politics, popular culture, fashion and business.
He was accompanied by wife Meg and Creation boss Alan McGee, who rubbed shoulders with the likes of Lenny Henry, Simon Mayo, Anita Roddick and Baldrick off Blackadder to congratulate the new Prime Minister on his storming poll victory.
Noel spoke about his experience of election night: “I said, ‘Oh, it was brilliant, man.
“We stayed up till seven o’clock in the morning to watch you arrive at Labour headquarters.
“How did you stay up all night?” Gallagher later recalled Blair saying.
“Then he leant over and said, ‘Probably not by the same means as you did.’ And at that point I knew he was a geezer.”
The pictures of their meeting went global and boosted Blair’s image more so than Noel’s, who later felt he had been cynically used by Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell.
8. Liam quits MTV Unplugged Royal Festival Hall, 1996
THE prestigious Unplugged formula for MTV was a rite of passage reserved for the world’s biggest artists, the greatest performances being from Neil Young, The Cure and Nirvana.
Oasis were booked to be filmed on London’s South Bank in front of 2,700 fans just 12 days after their Knebworth triumph.
But as the band ambled on stage, someone was missing.
“Liam ain’t gonna be with us tonight ’cause he’s got a sore throat,” Noel told the crowd as he picked up his acoustic and sat down on a stool. “So you’re stuck with the ugly four.”
But it was a classic stripped-down performance which suited Noel’s vocal style.
That’s how he wrote all those classics, after all.
His voice enhanced by strings and horns, Noel nailed it with a poignant and intimate performance.
The drama was then enhanced by a drunk, champagne-swigging Liam, who heckled from a box.
As The New York Times put it: “The entire Shakespearean rivalry of the Gallaghers, condensed into a single performance.”
9. The Sun gatecrashing the Be Here Now covershoot, 1997
THIS audacious piece of journalism ended up in the High Court.
We’d got word that the cover shoot for the eagerly awaited release of Oasis’ third album Be Here Now was to take place at Stocks House, a huge Georgian mansion in Aldbury, Herts, directed by Brian Cannon from creative team Microdot and photographed by Michael Spencer-Jones, who had both worked on the previous two albums.
A snapper was despatched and furtively captured a pretty similar image to the one that would eventually grace the sleeve of a record that shifted more than half a million copies in the first week.
It depicts the band mooching around a pool in a garden.
In the water is a partially submerged Rolls Royce, in tribute to The Who’s Keith Moon, who reportedly did the same with his own Roller.
There’s a moped, a gramophone, a globe and other curious objects, including a calendar displaying the album’s release date.
Cannon estimates that the cover was probably the most expensive record sleeve ever created and said: “It came to about £75,000.
“Can you imagine that?
“People don’t even spend that on recording these days.”
Creation Records took us to court for breach of copyright – but lost.
10. U2 and Oasis in Oakland Coliseum California, 1997
BE Here Now was the most anticipated record for decades following the success of its blockbuster predecessors – but it wasn’t out until August 21, 1997.
The album was Creation Records’ out-of-control crown jewels and the record label was guarding it even more heavily than the royal treasures.
So when it was announced that the band would be supporting U2 on their Pop Mart tour in the US in June, tickets were duly booked.
It was a more relaxed Oasis, basking in their support slot in front of curious Americans in California.
One idiot asked me: “Which ones are the brothers?”
But we got a chance to hear the album’s title track for the first time, which sounded like a classic, and a menacing live debut of D’You Know What I Mean?
Photographer Dave Hogan captured some of my favourite images of Liam that day.