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It Was Twenty Six Years Ago Today...


I finally got to watch Oasis for the first time at the Tivoli in Buckley, North Wales on August 31st 1994.

My Mum being the absolute legend she was offered to drive me and my friend up from South Wales and straight back home again after the concert. I still remember the excitement and anticipation of waking up on the morning of the gig knowing I was finally going to see one of the best and most talked about British bands in years.

I remember getting to the venue and hearing accents from all over the UK as we waited in the queue, there was a television reporter from Granada interviewing fans about the band. We eventually got in and the staff of the venue were taking tickets from people as they were entering the venue (we will get into that later on in the post).

The place was absolutely packed you couldn't move, we decided between us to get as close as we possibly could to the stage. We hadn't payed £6 plus booking fees to just stand around at the back. I grabbed her hand and we made our way slowly through the crowd until we found a good vantage point not far from the front.

The band eventually came on and the place erupted, out walked Liam, Noel. Bonehead, Guigsy and Tony. We were in front of Liam and Bonehead in what can only be described as a mosh pit we bounced around singing and dancing and having the time of our lives for around a hour.

From what I remember from the setlist the band played Supersonic, Shakermaker, Cigarettes & Alcohol, Live Forever, Slide Away, Columbia, Digsy's Dinner and I Am The Walrus

The songs are not in order and a few are missing it was 25 years ago.

I'm pretty sure they also played Fade Away, during Supersonic someone threw something at Liam and he offered to fight whoever threw it (I believe it was a pint), Evan Dando was on the stage at one point with a woman dancing. It was an absolutely brilliant concert, it lived up to all my expectations and more.

When we were leaving the venue my friend noticed a box with ticket stubs in them and we grabbed a handful of them as a memento. Last year I posted about the gig on Twitter and a follower of the site told me that he was the original owner of the ticket stub that I posted.

I offered it back to him as I have a few from the gig and he told me to keep it, it's been in a frame hanging in my house for years.

We left the venue and headed back to my Mum who had been waiting not far away in her car, my hair was a mess, my voice had gone I was sweating and aching all over.

All of the hype, stories and madness that followed the band around in the early days is rightfully now part of the Oasis folklore. The one thing that often gets overlooked from those early days is how tight the original line-up of that band was, it really was something magical to witness and to be a part of.

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