How Oasis entered pantheon of rock gods with Knebworth gigs 30 years ago & why the memories will Live Forever

THE 1990s was the wildest decade Britain had witnessed since the hazy Sixties – with 1996 undeniably its ­glorious apex. The pinnacle of that fabled year occurred in a field just outside Stevenage, Herts, as 250,000 of us made a sacred pilgrimage to witness two mythical tribal gatherings exactly 30 years ago. The 1996 Oasis gig at Knebworth was the absolute peak of the wild 1990s music scene Credit: Alamy 250,000 fans attended the open-air concert at Knebworth, just outside Stevenage Credit: Alamy Two Mancunian brothers in their 20s, and their gang of childhood pals, had been playing to venues with capacities of 120 or so just two years earlier. But on Saturday, August 10, and Sunday, August 11, 1996, Oasis entered the pantheon of rock and roll titans with a celebratory brace of epic concerts in the grounds of Knebworth House — among the largest live shows ever held on the soil of our beloved Blighty. Sign up for the Showbiz newsletter Thank you! Not just anyone plays in the grounds of Baron Cobbold’s country pile, which has hosted rock gods Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen and The Rolling Stones since 1974. But the band had cleaned up at the Brit Awards six months previously after the success of one of the most sublime records of all time, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?. Don’t Look Back In Anger topped the singles charts soon after and, in April 1996, two homecoming shows at Manchester’s Maine Road proved Oasis were a peerless and unstoppable force. Surely it couldn’t get any bigger? Britain was punching above its weight across popular culture. The Spice Girls were at No1 for most of that summer with Wannabe; England came close at Euro ’96; Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin were tearing up the art world; Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen did the same in fashion; and chefs Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White were big in the kitchen. This newspaper, which I had just joined as a young showbiz reporter, was capturing this new Britain’s zeitgeist, shifting almost five million print copies some days. Most read in Showbiz Tickets for the gig cost only £22.50, a bargain for a band celebrating six Brit Award wins Credit: Alamy Oasis were riding a wave after the success of timeless album (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? Credit: Gill Allen – The Times Tony Blair was beginning to crush the Tories and a sense of political change was palpable. A smattering of England’s summer footballing heroes, Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker, model Kate Moss, Chris Evans (although he remembers nothing of it), actresses Patsy Kensit and Anna Friel, Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall, and John Squire of the Gallaghers’ beloved Stone Roses, who joined them for an arm hair-raising Champagne Supernova, were on the Knebworth guest list. Legend has it there were 7,000 names on that rock and roll call, who consumed £250,000 of free booze courtesy of Creation Record’s Alan McGee, the oddball Scot who discovered Oasis in 1993. So I thought I’d speak to the man who compiled that infamous list three decades ago. Johnny Hopkins was head of press at the band’s label, Creation, and their publicist — probably one of the most stressful and hectic jobs in the global music industry back then. I would speak to him multiple times most days about some shenanigans, run-in or scrape, which seemed to be a daily occurrence. “The truth was wilder sometimes,” he concedes as he tells me: “Seven thousand on the guest list is accurate. And that wasn’t the only guest list. That was the Creation guest list. “That didn’t even include the band’s guest list, Sony’s guest list, and all the support bands’ guests, all the promoters’ guests. It was insane. Up to 7,000 famous names were on a rock and roll guest list for the iconic concerts Credit: The legendary gigs took place in the grounds of Knebworth House Credit: Getty – Contributor “It was a vast, tent. All kinds of debauchery went on there. “One day it will come out, I guess. It was quite wild.” We paid £22.50 per ticket after the missus got lucky on the Oasis freephone line in those pre-internet days. “It seemed expensive at the time, but the line-up included The Prodigy, who had two No1s in ’96, The Chemical Brothers, who had one with Noel Gallagher, Manic Street Preachers, Ocean Colour Scene and The Bootleg Beatles. You can’t get a round of drinks in for that price at a gig in 2026. The set was a blistering showcase of the band’s two seminal albums, Definitely Maybe and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, the entranced crowd reciting every word of these urban hymns. Noel chirped, “This is history”, and it really felt like that was what we were witnessing. There was a magic in the air that weekend. Those who were there will know exactly what I’m talking about. On the Saturday, Johnny managed to locate two precious, stick-on VIP passes for me, which allowed entry to the carnival-like promised land that was the guest area. With a little surreptitious sticker swapping, we sneaked 22 friends into the lavish hospitality paradise emblazoned with a huge banner that read “Creation Records. World Class”. This was the largest of the largesse, a hallmark of the Nineties, when record companies were wheel-barrowing in cash, newspaper budgets were eye-squinting and there was excess all areas. The band even set up their own music station called Radio Supernova, which broadcast on 106.6FM across Hertfordshire. There were all-day barbecues, caricaturists sketching punters and magicians doing magic things. Oasis even set up their own music station called Radio Supernova, which broadcast on 106.6FM across Hertfordshire Credit: Rex There were no camera phones in the mid-90s and the crowd was a sea of unadulterated joy Credit: Rex Many guests peaked early and passed out on the parched grass after one too many gratis Hooches, but there were only ten arrests and the sun shone. The assembled Oasis tribe was young, an equal male-female split. We met builders, supermarket workers, roofers, gardeners and students, many readers of this newspaper clad in England tops, Clarks Wallabees, cargo pants, chequered shirts and the famous three stripes of Adidas. Johnny outlined the speed of the band’s meteoric success: “In April 1994, Oasis were doing their first headline tour around the UK. “Tiny little places like the Adelphi in Hull. Selling out the Adelphi but, like, 120 people and doing similar venues like The Wherehouse in Derby. “I think they did the 100 Club in London on that tour, which again is a small venue. “Fast forward a year, April 1995. They are doing Sheffield Arena — 12,000 people. That’s nuts. April 1996, they do Maine Road in Manchester. About 90,000 across two days. That’s pretty mad in two years. Oasis were supported by legendary band The Prodigy, with Keith Flint pictured crowd surfing Credit: Getty Oasis are believed to be planning a return to the hallowed ground next summer Credit: Alamy Find another band that’s had that kind of trajectory in that period, any time since or before. “I think we must have discussed Knebworth before Maine Road. “I didn’t think it was too bold, actually. It sounded ridiculous, but the momentum was such that they were gonna do it. “Alan McGee believed in it. I believed in it. People making the decisions were into it. We were well up for it. Living it large. I think it went spectacularly right.” The band’s favoured photographer, who captured historic images of the Knebworth shows and their rehearsals at Birmingham NEC, is Jill Furmanovsky, who has snapped Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and The Clash. She was brought in because the label felt the band members behaved more respectfully around women, the brothers having been brought up by their God-fearing Catholic mother Peggy. Jill told me: “There was a frenzy for tickets for Maine Road and a frenzy for tickets for Knebworth. “There was no question that they were going to be able to sell that out. On the Friday, there was a soundcheck and it was a grey day. “There’s some great shots of them staring out on this vast, green field that went on for ever. They were smoking cigarettes rather nervously. “I think, at that moment, when they saw the scale of it, they were nervous. It was certainly one of the most beautiful sites I’ve ever seen, especially from the position of where the orchestra were situated. “I’ve seen lots of great big venues and shows, but that was particularly beautiful. The set, the lighting and the crowd — without any camera phones, of course — were so much a part of this. Dominic Mohan was among the 250,000 lucky enough to experience Oasis’ famous concert Credit: Supplied Oasis’ reunion in 2025 has given the band a new lease of life after the brothers put differences aside Credit: Getty “And that hasn’t changed at all, actually. That kind of relationship between the band and the crowd and the fact they were all singing.” After the first night, legend has it Liam went on such a bender he forgot they were playing a Sunday show and was forced to borrow then-partner Patsy Kensit’s white knitted sweater to wear on stage. Jill said: “It looked good on him, though, didn’t it? “Well, it could only look good on him. On anybody else, it would have looked like some sort of fisherman from the Hebrides. Patsy and Liam wanted me to take their engagement photos there. “My theory is that Liam learnt to pout from her, because before that he didn’t do any pouting. “It was genuinely romantic because, when the fireworks went off on the first or second night, there are some pictures of Patsy and Liam cuddling and the fireworks were all going up in the distance. “It looks like you couldn’t invent it. One of the enchanting and touching things about Liam is that he isn’t vain, and didn’t particularly want to look at pictures. “Maybe that has changed now, but at that time he certainly was quite happy to be photographed. “But he wasn’t one who had to go over the contact sheets. All the trust was there. “Noel did all the looking at pictures. He used to say, ‘As long as I look alright’, but, of course, Liam always did look alright.” The band are believed to be planning a return to the hallowed ground next summer, with licences already granted to their promoters following the success of the brothers’ 2025 reunion. If you didn’t manage to make the trip 30 years ago, it might perhaps be worth considering listing one of those kidneys on eBay pronto. For Knebworth ’27 will be a moment for Brits to come together once again, link arms and chant Noel’s council estate paeans, savouring that sense of community and recalling a time when the world felt safer and happier. An epoch when we weren’t chained to smartphones and computers, when music and people were better. In 2015, Noel admitted that he could not actually recall walking out on to the stage at Knebworth in 1996. For those of us who were there, the memories will live forever. Comment now