So here we are then. Sixteen years since they dramatically split up, nine months from the announcement of their reunion and the subsequent ticket buying fiasco, later this week Oasis return to the stage to try to recapture the magic that saw them stride to the top of the charts and blow up into the biggest band in the country barely a blink of the eye after the release of their debut single. Whilst for many of the hundreds of thousands of fans fortunate to get through the Ticketmaster purchasing nightmare this will be their first opportunity to see the Gallaghers together, for many of us it will be a chance to once more embrace a band that forged a generation and bring back those long lost days of carefree youth.
Needless to say, no self respecting music blog would pass up this opportunity to try and draw in new readers by writing a longer than normal article looking back at the band’s glory days whilst simultaneously looking forward to the reunion. I wasn’t just lucky to see Oasis at their peak, but their Loch Lomond show was also my first ever concert, a start to my live music journey which feels even more surreal now looking back and possibly gave unfair expectations as to what to expect from future gigs. Whilst the gigantic Knebworth shows the following weekend may be the concerts the band will forever be intrinsically linked with, Loch Lomond will always be the more romantic and intimate of the summer 1996 headline shows. Heck, there’s a reason why Robbie Williams knew it was futile to attempt to recreate and upstage what Oasis achieved in Scotland!
Obviously the world and gig going experience has changed hugely over the past decades. Whilst nowadays it’s not unusual for massive shows and tours to be announced and sold out over a year in advance, it’s strange to remember that the official announcement of the Loch Lomond and Knebworth shows (courtesy of Chris Evans’ Breakfast show) came less than three months before the shows were to take place. In the days before the internet took over ticket buying panic had another form – sitting with the family phone, incessantly pressing redial with a parent’s credit card in hand desperately hoping that this time you’d get through, with each return of an engaged dial tone causing the creeping fear that you’d never get through to grow slightly. Whether the claim that 5% of the UK population tried to get tickets is true or just hype is lost to history, somehow sheer persistence paid off and I was one of the successful forty thousand fans off to the Saturday show at Loch Lomond.
They don’t make concert tickets that look like this any more. In fact they don’t make concert tickets at all pretty much.
That just left three months to get organised… school exams, Euro 96, the promise of a new beginning with New Labour, all the dreams and dramas of being a fifteen year old… but there was a sole cultural landmark that it seemed the entire country was focussed on. Then the day finally arrived. After an early rise and a three hour journey through the scenic highlands me and my group of friends arrived in Balloch, a small town whose population was temporarily boosted by a factor of ten as for a solitary weekend it became the focus of the British popular culture. Avoiding the pleas of the desperate fans offering up to ten times the face value of our tickets we joined the extensive queues, where the unique sport of queue-ball (unique in that nobody knew what the rules were, how points were awarded but lots of laughing and jeering ensured) kept us all entertained in the earl afternoon sun.
Then the gates opened and we poured in, revealing the bonny, bonny banks of Loch Lomond in all their glory, along with for one weekend only the most enormous stage I’d seen up to that point in my life, draped in Oasis‘s swirling logo. It’s both sad and slightly surprising that such a beautiful location has barely been used for live music since with it being seventeen years since the short lived Live at Loch Lomond festival had its final run of shows. Whilst I made it back there to see REM there in 2005, it still feels like a hugely underused location when so many outdoor locations are popping up trying to give unique concert experiences.
Whist Oasis were the obvious draw, a whole afternoon of warm up acts helped to expand the day to be more than a concert but a celebration of the era – all for the low price of £22.50 (adjusted by inflation to a mere £46 in 2025 money). Whilst Heavy Stereo and Dreadzone were largely forgettable – I suspect few would have believed that the former’s frontman Gem Archer would be a member of Oasis just four years later, the remaining three support acts built up the atmosphere perfectly. Cast ran through the hits from debut album All Change (as I suspect they will in their position of Oasis support in 2025), the Manic Street Preachers showcased why they were about to take a giant leap towards being industry colossuses (even if they did, perhaps wisely, decide to drop all remnants from The Holy Bible from their set) whilst Black Grape coerced the audience into a single flowing and bouncing entity with a pull that I’ve rarely seen since.
All I want do is live by a Loch: There really aren’t many live music venues at such picturesque venues. I’m down there… somewhere!
Then finally the moment everyone had been waiting for; Liam emerged onto the stage looking impeccable in his black duffle coat, followed by the classic band line up, each member punting over sized footballs into the crowd before erupting into Columbia. The build up of drums and guitars before the vocals came in serving as the perfect start as the audience swarmed from side to side, each note from Guigsy’s bass physically felt by the crowd. There’s been plenty of debate about what song Oasis should start their reunion shows with, Rock n Roll Star and Hello seemingly being the most supported options, but for me Columbia ticks all the boxes for a perfect set opener, the opening lyrics of “There we were, now here we are, all this confusion, nothing’s the same to me” perfectly encapsulating the current state of the world.
From there it was a breath taking run through the heavier side of the band’s catalogue; Acquiesce, Hello, Supersonic, Some Might Say, Roll With It… the crowd moving together seemingly as one despite having being on their feet already for huge chunks of the day. Looking back it’s amazing that barely two years after the release of their debut single the band had enough material to perform a two hour set with no filler, but that was the beauty of early Oasis that they rarely released anything that wasn’t draped in genius; surely no artist in history has matched the number of undeniable classics they produced over the span of their first two albums.
Finally some relief for aching legs came with Slide Away, the first of the big power ballads of the evening hitting like a runaway freight train, complete with the infamous “What for?” at the climax of the song’s mesmeric build. The reprise didn’t last long though before yet more exuberant guitar led rock through Morning Glory, Round Are Way and Cigarettes & Alcohol. It’s amazing to think how raucous the first half of the set was, even with the likes of Rock n Roll Star, Bring it on Down and Headshrinker not making the cut, but Oasis forged their reputation on the back of rock anthems rather than the ballads that became more predominant as their career progressed.
With the audience gasping to keep up a well earned break was given as the four acoustic guitar lead numbers for the evening were reeled off together. Whilst the shift may have been jarring, the quality of Whatever, Cast No Shadow, Wonderwall and then The Masterplan shone through and with the natural light fading rapidly the crowd united to holler back every word, those with strength still in their legs hoisting friends up onto their shoulders to revel in the moment. The emotional punches weren’t complete yet, with Noel leading a feedback drenched version of Don’t Look Back in Anger, a significantly more enjoyable and passionate version of the song than the timid by comparison piano driven renditions that Oasis performed later in their careers.
Then it was another special treat, two brand new songs given their live debuts, although in those days long before setlist.fm the fact that they hadn’t been performed before was slightly lost on the crowd (and yes, getting the first ever performances of them is in retrospect another reason why Loch Lomond outshone Knebworth). My Big Mouth had long been mentioned in interviews as the likely lead single for album number three and Liam’s snarling delivery on top of the repeated five power chord riff suggested that Noel had been digging into his Sex Pistols records, with It’s Getting Better Man strengthening the suggestion that they were moving towards heavier, rock ground. Clearly there’d be no need for nine minute ballads with multiple key changes on the next release…
Live Forever was the natural choice to close the main set, Noel’s most iconic guitar solo played out under the rapidly darkening skies – quite why it was reworked when performed by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds last summer is anyone’s guess. Champagne Supernova and I am the Walrus then closing off the encore before the band departed with the end of show firework display presumably seen from miles away such was the no expenses barred approach. Then one final challenge of the evening, re-finding friends lost a long time ago in the throng as the crowd dispersed, favourite songs from the evening still reverberating from from all corners of the park as the day finally came to an end.
Pretty sure my copy of the official concert poster is somewhere in my garage. Whilst the posters cost four pounds originally, e-bay listings for them are currently at above two hundred pounds
It goes without saying that as I left I’d known that I’d witnessed something special, but without the context to place it I didn’t realise quite how unique and irreproducible the day had been. Thirty years later I’ve not been able to match the combination of a headliner so on top of their game, a venue so perfectly idyllic and a support cast of such high calibre. At the time Oasis seemed untouchable, Noel had the midas touch and it didn’t seem he could write an average let alone bad song if he tried, yet a year later the Be Here Now backlash was about to begin and whilst Oasis remained the biggest band in the country their swagger of invincibility was severely dented.
Strangely for such an iconic and well attended concert as far as I can tell no bootleg recording of the Saturday has ever emerged and the only footage on Youtube from the show is half of Some Might Say shot professionally (please, if anybody does have anything leave me a comment below), a situation I’m not expecting to be repeated in 2025. In fact the biggest challenge is avoiding knowing too much before going in, will it be possible to make it till the fifth show without being exposed to any setlist spoilers?
Which leaves one final question… what will the reunion bring? Can it possibly live up to the hype (and ticket prices)? Will Oasis storm back, wiser and better than ever and make me feel like a fifteen year capable of taking on the world and claiming it as my own. My gut tells me that they wouldn’t consider reforming unless they genuinely believe they can improve their legacy and that there is still unfinished business they still feel needs seeing to; from how thrilling Liam’s solo Definitely Maybe 30 tour was last year (reviewed here) it’s clear his voice still remains strong and the songs timeless. Recent weeks have shown how Pulp have managed their return and somehow grown in popularity since their nineties heyday, hopefully the Oasis camp have taken note.
As a final footnote, to prepare for this blog I did a search for what was on the internet on that fabulous day and stumbled across this article about how the first ever three hundred and sixty degree panoramic photograph of a crowd at a concert was taken that day. You can imagine my delight when I noticed what I’m ninety percent sure is me and my former full head of hair in the bottom right hand corner of the segment below. And that’s the power of music – that twenty nine years on the concert is still capable of bringing new joy into my life and giving me an excuse to reconnect with the friends I spent the day with. Somethings are just meant to Live Forever.
Oasis performed:
Columbia
Acquiesce
Supersonic
Hello
Some Might Say
Roll With It
Slide Away
Morning Glory
Round Are Way
Cigarettes & Alcohol
Whatever
Cast No Shadow
Wonderwall
The Masterplan
Don’t Look Back in Anger
My Big Mouth
It’s Gettin’ Better (Man!!)
Live Forever
***
Champagne Supernova
I Am the Walrus
Alex Reviews Gigs 
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