From theaters like the Apollo and the Town and
Country Club, we did one arena in Sheffield, and then we went straight to stadiums... football
stadiums. I remember our promoters coming to me, saying, "We're thinking of putting you lot on at
Maine Road." I asked, "Whereabouts?" They said, "Well, on the pitch." I was like,
"Why?" They said, "It holds 60,000; you'll sell it out. You'll do two nights."
It's a good job I've got a lot of trust in these people and still do—like my
management and my promoter. So I'm like, "Look, if you think we can do it, do
it." You know, we'd only signed off about a year before we were walking out into
the football stadium that I'd grown up in. I mean, they were really,
really, really great gigs. The Knebworth one was because it was the biggest,
but those Maine Road shows, that's it—that's what Oasis was at that time. That's where I'd seen Pink
Floyd in '88, and I'd seen Guns N' Roses and The Rolling Stones, and then I was playing there.
We were playing there. Do you know what I mean? Final preparations are being made for
the arrival of a quarter of a million rock fans at Knebworth in Hertfordshire for
one of the biggest ever open-air concerts in Britain. Two million people tried to get
tickets, many to see the band of the moment, Oasis. Of course, the one thing that
no amount of hype can guarantee is the weather. If it rains this weekend like it
did today, Hertfordshire could be treated to the sight of a quarter of a million Oasis fans
completely drenched to their rock and roll bones. Meeting Oasis is a little like going to see the
Queen these days, except for all the swearing. Of course, you don't get to stand anywhere near the
great star, let alone interview them. Instead, the media just stand back and listen to their
words of wisdom. Today's photo call was to publicize the two Oasis concerts this weekend at
Knebworth Park—the biggest music event in Britain this decade. The figures speak for themselves: £5
million worth of tickets sold, 50 miles of cables laid, and enough logistical problems to keep
everybody busy. We've got to get 125,000 people into this greenfield site off the edge of the
A1 motorway, get them out again Saturday night, back in again Sunday morning, and out again Sunday
night. And that is, um, a considerable difficulty. It's been spoken about, like, after this
gig, what are we going to do next? You can't do anything but do the biggest gigs. So
we can't play anywhere bigger than this. I mean, the only other thing would be to come back
and do a residency, playing every night of the week from 8 to 11 or something like that.
But we're not going to do that. Fucking hell. They're quite an adjustment
to make because, like I say, we went from theaters where we were all playing
close together, and then we walked out at Maine Road. Bonehead would be in a different postcode;
Liam was over there somewhere. We were like, "Why are we so far apart?" And that's the
adjustment you've got to make. Where you were playing on a tiny small stage and your sound
is filling the room, you know, shaking the floor, and then you're on a massive stage which in
itself is the size of a football pitch. You’ve got monitors, and it's all posh, and you can hear
yourself for the first time, and you're like, "Oh, fucking hell, how about that?" But we
powered through and did the best we could.