18 years ago today was a very special night for me. It would be the first, last and only time that I saw the mighty Oasis play live. Aged 16 at the time, and recovering from my first ever hangover, I witnessed the band headlining the Leeds Festival on 28 August 2000. It was without a doubt the rowdiest audience I have ever been part of, more like a football crowd in fact. At times I could barely hear the songs because of the overwhelmingly loud singing coming from all around. So it's rather awesome that I now have a full length audio recording of the show to listen to. You can hear the whole thing below.The gig was famous for being prematurely reported as the last ever Oasis show, after reports of disharmony within the band (like that was anything new). Noel teases everyone halfway through by announcing that after the show, the group are going to "split... the money and get wasted". Some didn't hear the second half of the joke, and went home not knowing if they'd just witnessed the last Oasis show or not. Luckily, it wasn't, and the Manchester legends would go on for nine more years. Liam's voice is relatively on form here compared to much of the shows the band would play during the 2000's, and 'Cigarettes And Alcohol' sounds especially fantastic.
Sadly no video footage of the show exists, but below are a selection of bad quality photos from the night, during a time before everyone had a camera phone. The difference in quality between these and the photos I have managed in recent years is quite astounding, but I've featured them here for effect, quite literally a realistic snapshot of the time, bad quality photography and all.
Hey, great to hear your memories of that magical gig. I was there too! I was 18 and it was also my first, last and only time seeing Oasis live! It was fantastic. I was next to a bug guy who at one point picked me up, put me on his shoulders and we sang along together. You are right, the atmosphere was amazing and everybody seemed to know all the words to the songs. I was a huge oasis fan at the time. I’m so glad I managed to see them. Wish they would reform. Cheers!
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