It’s hard to put into words just how intensely popular Oasis was in the U.K. in the ’90s, but possibly the best way to understand it is by examining their legendary two-day appearance at Knebworth on Aug. 10 and 11, 1996.
By that point, Oasis had two massively successful albums under their belt: 1994’s Definitely Maybe and 1995’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? Both were No. 1 hits in the U.K. that came with multiple hit singles — “Wonderwall,” “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” etc. There was no denying that in Oasis, Britain had born one of the most famous bands since the Beatles.
“Is it fair to say Oasis are bigger than Jesus Christ?” Noel Gallagher was asked in September of 1996, a clear reference to John Lennon’s infamous comments 30 years prior in 1966. “It is fair to say that Oasis are taller than Jesus Christ,” came Noel’s reply.
A ‘Massive Empty Field’
Noel himself had seen where his band would be playing beforehand.
“They took me to the site, and it just looked like this massive empty field that we could never possibly fill,” he recalled to Rock Cellar in 2021. “I told them we’d agree to do two nights. After all the ticket requests came in, they came back and said we could have done eight.”
When Oasis arrived to play those two shows at the 1996 Knebworth Festival, about 25 miles north of London, droves of fans also arrived. Tickets sold out within minutes, with an estimated 2.5 million people having applied for them. Each of the concerts brought in 125,000 people, drawing a quarter million in total. At that time, it marked the biggest outdoor concert U.K. history for a singular act, a record Oasis held until 2003, when Robbie Williams of Take That drew approximately 375,000 at the same location.
Watch Oasis Perform ‘Acquiesce’ at Knebworth on Aug. 10, 1996
“I can’t put it into words,” Noel said to BBC Radio 1 the day after the first show. “I can only understate it really, ‘cos you can’t see the back of the gig ‘cos it’s dark and it’s f***ing two miles away from where you’re playing. I’ve been doing interviews all day trying to put it into words and I’d rather not f***ing try to tell you the truth. Absolutely mind-blowing. Now I know what the word big means. We thought we were big when we played Earls Court, then Maine Road. But after last night…There’s big, then there’s bigger than big, and then there’s f***ing like last night…Now that is big.”
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It was all the more impressive considering Oasis hadn’t even been around that long.
“We went from playing little clubs to selling out two days at Knebworth in just two years,” guitarist Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs said to Rock Cellar. “It wasn’t just hype. It was as though we could do no wrong.”
The Downsides to Knebworth
But as with many such huge events, not everything is smooth sailing. Noel, for his part, was not interested in repeating it anytime soon — the brilliant moment had happened, it was great, and now it was time to move on. “Knebworth was top, but I wouldn’t do it again,” he said a year later in August of 1997. “There’s too much flying about in f***ing helicopters with those gigs. I don’t like flying: it’s f***ing petrifying.”
In that same interview, Liam Gallagher noted that for however incredible the experience was, the aftermath was handled poorly.
“After Knebworth we should’ve gone on holiday for a couple of months,” he explained. “Chilled right out. It was a big high and all that tackle. Then a week later we were on a plane to f***ing America, playing in front of 10,000 people. Which is not good for your ego.”
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And that was the thing about Oasis: they were always infinitely more popular in their native U.K. than in the U.S., where they never could seem to break through to audiences. (To date, they’ve never had a No. 1 hit album or single in America.)
The New York Times summed it up this way: “What Oasis has done in Britain, unifying an entire country under the banner of a single pop act, a band could no longer achieve in a country like the U.S. In Britain the band reigns unchallenged as the most popular act since the Beatles, there is an Oasis CD in roughly one of every three homes there. Last month, the band drew 250,000 people to Knebworth for the biggest outdoor concerts in the country’s history. The group’s battling brothers, Liam and Noel Gallagher, appear as regularly as royalty on tabloid covers.”
Watch Oasis Perform ‘Champagne Supernova’ at Knebworth in 1996
In 2021, a live album and documentary film was released, made with footage and audio from Oasis’ Knebworth shows.
“Oasis had this ‘lad’s band’ label but it was very equal in terms of boys and girls,” the film’s director, Jake Scott, said to Hot Press in 2021. “I’ve looked at the footage intimately and what comes across is the crowd’s genuine love of the band, love of the music and love of the lyrics – they know every f***ing word. I really wanted to make the film a story about the fans and their relationship with the band and vice versa and how that symbiosis occurred over two days.”
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Looking back (not in anger), Noel was amazed that an event of Knebworth’s scale went off with relatively little drama.
“You know that 250,000 people came to that weekend and there was one arrest?” he said to Radio X in 2019. “In this day and age there would be extreme violence and extreme selfie taking, and extreme streaming. … So they are a good memory of a different time.”
Liam, funnily enough, has admitted he doesn’t have a strong memory of the concerts, only that it was an incredibly positive experience for the band and fans alike.
“Knebworth for me was the Woodstock of the Nineties,” he said in 2021. “It was all about the music and the people. I can’t remember much about it, but I’ll never forget it. It was biblical.”
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Gallery Credit: Allison Rapp
