I was probably more excited about seeing Oasis at Loch Lomond than I have ever been, before or since, for any other pop concert. I dragged myself out of bed at 8.50am on a Saturday morning so I could call the Exclusive-Oasis-‘Gig-Of-The-Summer’-Ticket-Hotline when phones opened (well I stayed in bed thanks to the miracle of portable telephones but I was AWAKE Goddamnit!). I punched the number in and waited for an answer. And waited. And waited. And waited. Each time I called I got an engaged tone. Eventually I got through, only to be told that all tickets had been sold. Fantastic. Luckily my mate Jamie’s girlfriend’s Dad was ON THE FREAKIN BALL, and scored us all tickets. Boom! Ok, so it was Loch Lomond rather than Knebworth, but it would still be ace, AND I hadn’t had to talk to a stranger on the phone and pretend to be cool, despite using my Dad’s credit card and having the sort of wobbly goon voice that most people grow out of when they cultivate their first pube.
On the day of the gig, I got up at some LUDICROUS hour and stumbled downstairs. My parents were heavy smokers and I can still remember how the horrible stale tobacco smell wrestled my throat to the ground as I opened the living room door. Cough.
I met up with my friends at Morley Town Hall and got a bus into town before spending the next seven hundred hours travelling to Northern Britain in a coach. ‘Definitely Maybe’, ‘Morning Glory’, and the b-sides from the singles off ‘Definitely Maybe’ and ‘Morning Glory’, were played over the coach’s stereo. For a bit of variety, non-album track “Whatever” made an occasional appearance. This seemed to make the bus driver determined to get us where we were going as quickly as possible.
As we drove through the elegant Victorian terraces of Glasgae I remember thinking how little the city lived up to its reputation as some sort of Fights, Beer and Battered Mars Bar INFERNO. The people of Scotland did their level best to ramp up the stereotypes when we actually got to Loch Lomond though… My friends (weedy boys), friend’s girlfriend (bookish girl) and I (weedy bookish boy), stood in the queue amongst a group of bare chested warriors. Today their enemy was neat vodka and Buckfast and they seemed keen to end the battle early by drinking as quickly as possible. They looked younger than us, but seemed to be made of a strange mix of pink blubber, rage and tree bark. The were neither weedy nor bookish. They were not boys either; they were ‘LADZ’. I looked at my watch, I looked at my wrist, I tried to avoid getting punched in the face with a fist.
Having survived that ordeal we entered the site to see another set of bare chested man-trolls in kilts, humorously pushing over a row of Portaloos with people inside them. I vowed not use the toilet for the rest of the day.
I think Heavy Stereo might have been on when we got there. Whoever it was obviously didn’t make much of an impression. We were just glad to be alive at this point. Thankfully Cast came on and made the day worthwhile. Not a sentence you’ll hear a lot I grant you, but I still reckon a handful of tracks from ‘All Change’ are up there with any songs from the mid-nineties. Ok, so the album tracks sounded dull even then, but when that amazing guitar noise kicked off “History” I really began to enjoy the day. You probs had to be there.
We grabbed a burger and found a spot a bit further back to watch the Manics. Being young know-nowts, we were only really familiar with “Design For Life”, but I remember being quite impressed with some of the earlier, heavy stuff. "Kevin Carter" and "Australia" were wack though. Obvs.
We laid on the grass afterwards and waited for Black Grape to take to the stage. In front of us an emaciated young gentleman took a spoon, Zippo, and some tin foil out of his pocket. I had no idea what he was doing so imagine my surprise when he jacked a syringe into his arm. Lovely stuff. We made our excuses and relocated to the bottom of a big tree a bit nearer the stage. Where I was asked for “some eckers”. If I’d have had any drugs, I would surely have necked the bleeders several hours earlier to take my mind off being surrounded by hoards of lagered up Oasis fans.
I was quite chuffed to be seeing Black Grape having just got into the Happy Mondays, Stone Roses et al., by following the family tree back from Oasis. My memory tells me that Shaun Ryder spent much of the set hitting a drum pad with a single black drumstick while trying not to fall over. I’m not sure if this is quite what happened but let’s say it did anyway yeah? Yeah. They defs played “Reverend Black Grape” and “In The Name Of The Father” though and, even then, I recognised that they were awesome pop songs.
They atmosphere of mINOR mENACE continued as we waited for Oasis. The whole crowd took to throwing bottles at each other. For the sake of The Poetry, let us say that:
The sun seethed,
behind volleys of vessels,
As two great armies met.
Agincourt replayed, amongst the heather,
[Insert stunning rhyming couplet]
Eventually “Swamp Song” rang out and our wait was OVER. Liam entered the stage in a black parka, like a pissed yeti. Looking at photos now, it’s amazing how much the band looked like the punters and vice versa. Things would soon change, but I really did get the sense that Oasis were ‘my band’ and that this show would be a defining moment in my life. Liam’s voice sounded bollocks and the sound was kind of shit, but it was still amazicles. “Columbia” began the set and we all knew every word to every song that followed. The scary smackheads seemed less scary, and the prospect of another day-long coach journey melted away. From 2012, Loch Lomond looks a bit silly, a bit ‘laddy’, but it really was amazing. Oasis were (just) the right side of being a bloated U2 stadium corpse, the songs were ALL classics and being ‘mad fer it’ seemed the only decent thing to do. Still one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to. When people scoff about Oasis, it’s easy to forget just how immense they were capable of being. Drawing a line between the feedback strewn opening riff to “Acquiesce” at Loch Lomond and Noel Gallagher’s middle aged bore-fest debut solo album from 2011 is a painful experience.
We made our way to the coach while “I Am The Walrus” still shook in our ears. I remember being absolutely parched, but baulked at paying £1 for a bottle of water (it was 1996 and I only had pocket money to spend). We arrived into Leeds around 8am the next morning. It was the first time I had stayed up for 24hrs and I felt bullish as I walked through the door of my parents’ house. “Doesn’t bother me, I feel fine” I said. I asked Mum to make me a Findus French Bread Pizza (tm) and thought about watching a bit of tele. This lasted 30 seconds before a mountain of tiredness kicked me in the knackers and I had to retire to bed. Reader; I slept all day.
Set list (Oasis)
- Columbia
- Acquiesce
- Supersonic
- Hello
- Some Might Say
- Roll With It
- Slide Away
- Morning Glory
- Round Are Way
- Cigarettes & Alcohol
- Whatever (Acoustic)
- Cast No Shadow (Acoustic)
- Wonderwall (Acoustic)
- The Masterplan (Acoustic)
- Don't Look Back In Anger
- My Big Mouth
- It's Gettin' Better (Man!!)
- Live Forever
- Champagne Supernova
- I Am The Walrus
Acoustic set
Encore
Set list (Cast)
[not sure if this is totally correct]
- Promised Land
- Sandstorm
- Back Of My Mind
- Walkaway
- Reflections
- Flying
- Mirror Me
- Finetime
- Alright
- History
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