Just over 30 years ago Oasis were signed by Alan McGee for his independent label, Creation, after blagging their way onto a gig at the renowned Glasgow venue, King Tut's, on St Vincent Street. Success was not long in coming their way.
The band released their debut album, the electrifying Definitely Maybe, in August 1994. It went straight to number one in the UK and would eventually sell in excess of eight million copies worldwide.
The follow-up, What's The Story (Morning Glory)?, was released in October 1995, sold a record-breaking 347,000 copies in its first week alone, and became the fifth biggest-selling album of all time in Britain.
Huge concerts at Maine Road and Knebworth in 1996 cemented their reputation as a thrilling rock'n' roll band and one of the biggest groups in the world.
The real King of rock'n'roll: Dave McGeachan
Among the early gigs Oasis played in Glasgow were the Tramway (supporting the Boo Radleys in April 1994), the Cathouse (June 1994), and Barrowland (December 1994). That same year they played La Belle Angele, in Edinburgh.
They also played a Sony Music seminar at Gleneagles Hotel that February. It's said that the band's version of the Beatles song, I Am the Walrus, was recorded at a soundcheck at the hotel. "I'm going to get in trouble for saying this, but the crowd noise was taken from a Faces bootleg album", Noel Gallagher said in 1998.
On the everythingflowsglasgow blogpost, music fan Murray Easton shares some interesting memories of that 1994 Tramway show. "I bought an Oasis poster and t-shirt after the gig", he writes.
"I followed them intensely for the next few years. That night at the Tramway led to some incredible nights out and lifelong friendships. I think the bands that you fall in love with in your teens are the bands that last with you through your life, for Oasis to come along when I was 18 was just perfect".
Early shows in Scotland, particularly in Glasgow, held a particular resonance for Liam Gallagher. "I always have a good time up there, " he told The Herald in 2009. "One of the best gigs of our whole thing was Irvine beach under the big top. The Barrowland was good but it's a bitch of a gig. I was physically sick after that".
Here we look back at a few of the many Oasis gigs in Scotland over the years.
Balloch, August 1996
One of the biggest outdoor events in Scotland during the Nineties. Few who were there will forget it.
Oasis at Loch Lomond, 25 years on
As co-promoter Donald Macleod recalled on the 25th anniversary: "Described at the time as the most significant shows to have ever taken place in Scotland, that claim today still arguably holds up.
Donald MacLeod: Oasis at Loch Lomond: 25 years on
"These two unforgettable gigs will always Live Forever in the minds of the frantic 90,000+ fans lucky enough to get a ticket, the thousands who didn’t but who managed to sneak in by any means possible, including doggy paddling across the loch, the hundreds of crew and staff involved and the then-traumatised council officials, park administrators, police commanders, emergency services, security guards and, of course, the 6000 shocked residents of Balloch who must have thought the end of the world was nigh, when massed hordes of “mad for it" wonderwall’ing Oasis fans rolled into their sleepy wee town"
SECC, Glasgow, December 1997
Oasis's third studio album, Be Here Now, was released at midnight on August 21, 1997, selling no fewer than 400,000 copies on the first day in the UK. It topped the UK album charts for four weeks and was No. 1 in fifteen countries.
The band played the SECC for two nights that December but the first one was curtailed after an hour after rhythm guitarist Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs was struck by a bottle thrown from the crowd.
Oasis storm off in Glasgow after bottle thrown
The Glasgow Herald reported: "Mayhem broke out last night after the bad boys of British rock, Oasis, stormed off the stage in Glasgow, provoking anger and ugly scenes among fans who had queued for hours to get tickets.
"Fans invaded the stage, bins were thrown in the foyer and windows were broken. Eleven people were arrested at the concert in Glasgow's Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre.
"The band had just finished playing one of their biggest hits, Wonderwall, when the bottle was thrown. Arthurs put his instrument down and rushed over to lead singer, Liam Gallagher, who announced: ''A bottle has been thrown. We're not standing for it. Good night.''
Oasis setlist, SECC, December 8, 1997
The end of the gig can be heard on audio footage on YouTube.
Herald reviewer John Williamson said: ''It was always going to be a boisterous concert but once the announcement was made that the band had gone, a ridiculous kind of anger erupted among some of the fans. I saw gangs of youths vandalising hoardings, windows were broken, and dustbins in the Glasgow SECC foyer were lifted and thrown across it along with glass bottles.''
Oasis were supported by Travis, who retain vivid memories of that time. At a concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall in 2018, Travis's singer Fran Healy said the band's song, Luv, once made Liam Gallagher cry.
According to a report in the NME, Healy said: “We supported Oasis on the ‘Be Here Now’ Tour in 1997, and it was like supporting The Rolling Stones they were so big back then.
“I was walking backstage and Liam Gallagher was sat there in his round shades and he goes, ‘You come here’. So I went over and he goes, ‘Play me a song’.”
“I was really nervous and I just picked up my guitar and started playing this next song. I couldn’t even look at him I was so nervous. When I finished playing the song I looked up and there were tears streaming down his face.”
In February 2000, it was reported that Noel Gallagher returned to King Tut's and watched three local bands play. He bought drinks for members of the audience. Quoted in The Scotsman, Geoff Ellis of DF Concerts, said: "The staff tips that night were the highest they've ever been because he didn't wait for his change".
Murrayfield, July 2000
Offstage, Oasis did not have their problems to seek by this time, with - and not for the first or last time - relationships being strained between the feuding Gallagher brothers.
Music: Oasis; Happy Mondays, Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh
Nevertheless, the band's popularity was such that demand for tickets easily outstripped that for previous gigs at Murrayfield by such big-name acts as David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, U2, The Eagles, REM and Celine Dion.
A spokesman for Regular Music, the event promoters, said: ''I think that people thought Oasis had had it because they've been quiet for a while, but for many people there's a sense of anticipation now that they're coming back to a big stadium to play.''
Barrowland, October 2001
The band's two memorable gigs at the Barrowland were part of their Ten Years of Noise and Confusion tour.
Gareth Fraser, of the Music Scramble website, recalls in Nuala Naughton's book, Barrowland: A Glasgow Experience: "They were selling out stadia but wanted to play venues that meant a lot to them. And the Barras was one of them.
"...Liam came on stage with a mug of tea. And just goes, 'Cuppa tea?' Totally sober ... The second night was broadcast as 'pay per view' on Sky".
From the Glasgow Herald review: "It was the final date of their triumphant anniversary tour but for rock giants Oasis, last night's Glasgow gig may have been their last in the city where they were discovered.
Definitely, maybe Oasis's final encore in Glasgow
"With persistent rumours of their impending break-up, a packed Barrowland was only too willing to welcome the Gallagher brothers back 'home'.
Braehead, November 2002
The band had earlier that year released their fifth studio album, Heathen Chemistry. If their CD sales had faded from their stunning peak, the band was still a formidable proposition on stage, as the Braehead gigs demonstrated.
Noel Gallagher reflected before the new tour: "We did seem destined to split a couple of years ago, because everything that could go wrong did. But we survived and came through and this album has shown that the band still has a lot to offer.
"We've proved a lot of people wrong down the years and it's good to be out there doing so again. Most importantly, I'm just enjoying myself again, which hasn't always been the case.
!We're not selling tens of millions of albums, but we're still selling millions of them, which will do for me".
Hampden, June 2005
A triumphant, energising gig, even if it did last just 90 minutes. Liam's swagger was in full flight.
From a review by David Pollock in the Independent: "For all their maturation into a more thoughtful (although still occasionally lyrically cack-handed) bunch, it's that Liam factor that remains the bridging point between past and future. In his detached gaze, his sartorial style (tonight, a pinstripe blazer and matching fedora) and his irreverent humour, he remains one of rock's greatest stars.
"Whether sneering the choruses of 'Rock and Roll Star' or The Who's 'My Generation', or revisiting his finest vocal moment on 'Champagne Supernova', he's the reason Oasis still give at least the impression of being vital, and his swagger is all the special effect they need".
SECC, December 2005
Six months after the Hampden gig, Oasis were back in Glasgow, this time at the SECC. It was another triumph.
As the Independent reviewer wrote: "Even less partial observers would assess the last 12 months of Oasis's career and deduce that 2005 was the year they got their groove back, snatching victory from the jaws of a career seemingly growing ever more stagnant ... As even the most fevered, vocal and easily-pleased fan may admit to themselves, the fire was going out. And now, by ceasing vainly to fan it and instead accepting their new, less vital place in the world - like other credible survivors such as U2 or New Order - they've managed to keep it crackling along".
SECC, November 2008
Oasis's final shows in the city where they were discovered by Alan McGee.
Critic Dave Kerr writes in The Skinny: "Rock ‘n’ Roll Star and I Am The Walrus still bookend an Oasis set as they did when Alan McGee first clocked their swagger in 1993 and - sure as monobrows - Liam still sneers at the microphone, pulling his mouth away before he’s finished a vowel, both nonchalant and engaging all at once.
"Musically, Oasis prove that they’re still masters of pastiche; now owing as much to the bluesy timbre of The Doors (the Noel-fronted Waiting For The Rapture is uncannily similar to Waiting For the Sun’s Five to One) as they do the latter-day psychedelics of The Beatles.
"But tonight – regardless of this one-trick syndrome that dogs them so many years into their career – their bombastic pub rock stirs a respectable, unfathomable die-hard tribalism that few bands will ever sustain".
Murrayfield, June 2009
REVIEW: Oasis at Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh
In the year that Oasis split, this sold-out Murrayfield was their final show in Scotland.
Murrayfield residents look back in anger over concert
Support acts, Kasabian and The Enemy, both delivered high-energy sets, but as the Sunday Mai reported, there was no upstaging Oasis.
"Any suggestions of Oasis being past their sell-by date were swept away by this triumphant sold-out show. It's been 15 years since the heyday of Britpop, but Oasis remain the country's premiere live act.
"This may not have been a truly landmark gig like Knebworth or Loch Lomond.
School closed early to protect pupils from horde of Oasis fans
"But it was still a celebratory night that showed Oasis are still a mighty musical force, which Kasabian and The Enemy have yet some way to go to match".
* https://oasisinet.com/
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