When it came down to it I worked really hard to get good A-Level results. Unfortunately, I only really considered that it had "come down to it" the month before my final exams. Because of this I got some pretty shocking estimated grades. To be fair I did get something like a 'D', a 'C' and a 'U' in my mock exams, so I can't really complain. Although I did at the time. Natch. During one of my mock exams my mate Whacks threw up on his paper and the rest of us had to carry on while his vomit slowly dripped from the desk to the floor. Which was nice. Anyways, I managed to secure conditional offers from two PRETTY PRESTIGIOUS SEATS OF LEARNING before I had my results: Lancaster to read History (I only applied there because my mates went to an open day and thought it was alright), and Trinity & All Saints College to read Communications Studies (only applied to fill up the last slot on my UCAS form). I had no intention of going to either. But it was ok because, when I got my decent results (an 'A' and two 'B's, fact fans), I spent the afternoon ringing up clearing and got a place on an awesome course. Not only was I about to study at a fantastic university, I'd also saved myself a fortune, as this was the last year for entrance before fees came in. Right? Er... What actually happened was that I went to a house party, got drunk, and 'decided' to take a year out. Thankfully it was a bloody good party, although I'm not sure it was worth the £4000 in fees I had to pay for not getting on a course (I could have got a place and deferred and I'd still have had the full three year's study for free) I have four real memories of the party: I drank cider (£1k), had an incoherent discussion about Bourbon biscuits with a girl called Sarah (£1k), my mate Danielle accidentally walked in on me while I was having a pee (£1k) and we all ended up in 'Planet Earth', a nightclub in Leeds famous for its revolving dancefloor and not much else, which is mercifully no longer with us (£1k). As you can probably tell, the fact I had to take out a student loan doesn't bother me at all nowadays. Not even when my lighter-than-it-should-be pay packet arrives at the end of each month. Not. Even. Then.
What's all this got to do with seeing Oasis in Birmingham? Well... My year out officially started in the same month as this gig and things had changed a fair bit since we saw the Gallaghers the previous year. I went with the same two mates, but Jamie was now at University and Dan had a full time job. Our friend Spenner also came, and this time there was no need to get a coach from Cavendish Travel because he HAD A CAR (OMG!). The long mornings sat eating bacon sandwiches in the sixth form common room seemed a world away, and the first traces of reality were starting to creep into our lives. This concert felt more like a fun thing to go to than a life-changing experience to talk about for months beforehand. Of course excitement levels would have been lower anyways given that Oasis were touring 'Be Here Now'. The album had come out in the week we got our exam results. We were hoping for another era-defining record that would soundtrack our move into adulthood. What we got was an over-long, coked-to-the-max, lyrically inept piece of crap. It didn't stop tickets selling out for the stadium tour that followed though. Once again I manned the phones, but this time I got through after an hour or so. The Sheffield shows had sold out, but I managed to bag us tickets to one of the Birmingham concerts.
We'd all gone into town to buy "D'yer Know What I Mean?" the day it came out, so we could Be There Then. By the time "Stand By Me" was released, the week before the gig, we were happy to just Be There... At Some Point, I Guess. But it was still nice to get some new music, and we listened to the single and its b-sides a fair bit as we drove to the Midlands. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for "(I Got) The Fever" dontcha know. You do now.
These were pre-sat nav days obvs, but we managed to get to the NEC without too many problems. We were quite early but it still seemed a little strange that the car park was empty and there was no-one about. After a quick word with a security guard we discovered that the NIA was actually in the city centre and was nothing to do with the NEC. Oh. After negotiating the one-way system in Birmingham we eventually arrived at the right venue and got a parking space on the top floor of the multi-storey car park next door. This would prove problematic later...
We took our seats just before Travis came on. As with Def Leppard the year before we had snide-ass seats, miles away from the stage. But at least we were there. Then. This was two years before 'The Man Who' found its way into every other household in the UK, so Travis were the small new band, there to show that Oasis were down with the kidz. And I quite liked Travis at the time - "U16 Girls" is a brilliant song (I always thought it was a shame they didn't do more tunes like it), and I loved "More Than Us", which was getting the odd Evening Session play ahead of its single release early the following year. I remember the band being really giddy, like they couldn't believe they were playing stadiums, and Andy Dunlop writhing horrible, but lovely, screeches out of his semi-acoustic guitar.
Oasis were full of bluster (and not a lot else) Things had changed dramatically since Loch Lomond. Out were the civvies, replaced by horrible designer shirts and jeans, and the simple black and white backdrop had been usurped by a tacky recreation of the cover of 'Be Here Now', replete with oversize tat such as a big clock that, iconoclastically, went bleedin' BACKWARDS at one point! The fabric of society was litch brought crashing down around us, as the prospect of time going the wrong way blew our tiny little mindz.
I remember Oasis themselves being ok, despite Liam's voice being even more shot than it had been in 1997. It was nice to hear "Stay Young" (God knows why this was kept off the album in favour of guff like "Magic Pie") and all the classics were there. They just sounded a bit more 'stadium rock', with added keyboards and stuff. The new songs were much better live, but were still overlong. By this point the edginess of early punky tracks like "Headshrinker" and "Bring It On Down" was quickly losing ground to a general bloated silliness.
"Don't put your life in the hands / of a rock and roll band / who'll throw it all away"
Oops.
We had plenty of time to discuss the merits of 'Be Here Now' as we waited in the multi-storey to get out. Plenty of time. We queued for well over an hour before we even moved.
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