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Oasis in 1996: a timeline of the biggest year of their career

1996. What a fucking year. A year that Oasis clearly became the biggest band in Britain. It was the biggest year of their lives, it was also possibly the most fractious. Britpop's last hurrah before its descent and rot into Cool Britannia, the nationalism, and the last gasp of the old guard: the last time independent music and media in music would be able to reach so many people. (Why? The last era before mp3s, many say, but that's a discussion about Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants and a chat for another time). Before their contemporaries faded away, before the Oasis bad-boy charm and hypnotic spell faded, as the facade began to crack and the Gallaghers invincibility was about to be shattered. The last time everything Noel Gallagher touched turned to gold. (You know why I'm convinced? “Drugs like a cup of tea” scandal was literally in January 1997. Perhaps the first time Noel's rock n’ roll fables had consequences for him in ways that none of the out-of-pocket things he’d said so far had ever had. Blur released ‘Beetlebum’ the same month, Damon’s confessional about how the drugs weren’t working anymore. Which incidentally, is what Richard Ashcroft would say too in his hit single that September). The beginning of the end.

The Spice Girls would release their first single ‘Wannabe’ and album in 1996. “Just when boys with guitars threaten to rule pop life [...]an all-girl, in-yer-face pop group have arrived with enough sass to burst that rockist bubble,” wrote the editor of Music Week. He was right. By their 1997 second album Spice World, Spice Girls absolutely dominated popular music, and not just in Britain.

You think Blur and Oasis were battling it out to break into the American market? Spice Girls’ debut album Spice was the highest-selling album in the US in 1997. Back home in the UK, all the sheen of Britpop and the pride in having built scene with a local identity was quickly wearing off, being co-opted by overly nationalistic gestures and losing all credibility. Not even a full year on from Maine Road, where Noel Gallagher played his Union Jack guitar, at the 1997 BRIT Awards, Geri Halliwell would wear the now-famous Gucci Union Jack minidress. At the last minute, she also added a peace symbol onto the back of her dress to avoid association with the British National Front, the extremist far-right nationalist party. Which tells you as much about where the notion of Cool Britannia was at. The next month was Vanity Fair's equally eye-catching cover story: London Swings Again! accompanied by a full-size Union Jack bedspread covering Liam and Patsy. If oversaturation doesn't kill meaning, I don't know what does.

By the time New Labour had ridden on the back of Cool Britannia hype all the way into 10 Downing Street, most of Britpop turned down new Prime Minister Tony Blair's invites to the Downing Street reception party. Liam declined the invite. Damon Albarn reacted sharply against it: “I’m sorry, I won’t be attending, as I am now a Communist. Enjoy the schmooze, comrade!” Jarvis Cocker wrote ‘Cocaine Socialism’. Suede distanced themselves—harshly. On the 1996 Sex Pistols reunion tour as a support slot, Skunk Anansie—led by Skin, a Black, gay British woman—were being yelled at by neo-nazi ‘fans’ of the Pistols to no intervention from the band, and they sure as hell had no good words to say about Britpop and the revival of the worst of the 70s. Let it all burn, they all said. Only Noel attended. The last hurrah.

Those were the last few years before the music press began to die (Melody Maker went out of print in 2000. I come with valid arguments to hand). The final years before the music business’ battle with piracy (A&M Records—with a vested interest from other major record labels—sued Napster in 1999). It was the final decade of music television, before MTV and the like began cutting back programming and focusing on reality TV. The death of the radio. The last decade before streaming emerged (Spotify for example, was launched in 2008). The last time the music industry had money at the mid-level, and the last party before the industry collapsed.

There may have been signs in 1996. But it was certainly Oasis’ last hurrah.

For Oasis, 1996 was a year of personal highlights and crushing (b)lows. Lows. Fights. Cocaine arrests.

1995 had been a wild ascent for Oasis. Thanks to accusations of hooliganism, bold and brash declarations of being the best band in the world and fights breaking out, more often within the band and amongst its two most recognisable figureheads, the Gallagher brothers, the press was paying more attention to a band of newcomers—rock musicians, about 20 years after rock had last been a relevant force in pop culture—than they ever had before.

Oasis were an independent band. Signed to Creation Records, an indie whose previous biggest successes were cult following indie and shoegaze bands like Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine. You have to understand: these bands were music industry famous. These bands would make the front cover of the NME. They were music newsworthy. But for whatever reason, the idea of these rough, unapologetic northern lads—in particular, the unrestrained tongues of the Gallaghers, who spoke their mind, weren't afraid to slag off fellow bands and gave some great, if outrageous quotes, captured the hearts of the nation beyond the columns of independent print magazines, and the actual news press and worse, tabloids realised something crucial: Gallagher news sells.

From here on, the tabloids and news were a permanent thorn in the side of Oasis, and I cannot stress how highly unusual that is, and always has been for musicians in the UK*. [Side note on mainstream British tabloid press culture and how Oasis were its first musical victims has become its own separate article-length post. Read here.]

1995 was a year of highs and lows for Oasis. They played two sold out nights at Earl's Court in 1995 (at the time a 20,000 capacity exhibition centre, now 3000), their biggest shows ever. They had a ton of cancelled shows throughout that year because of various reasons: illnesses, throat infections, injuries, Noel or Liam walking off stage (particularly in America), Guigsy having a nervous breakdown, Guigs' replacement quitting the band, and partly a support slot they pulled out of to record Morning Glory.

In the aftermath of the Battle of Britpop (Aug 1995), the press went crazy. Oasis and Blur were suddenly on primetime news television, and the result for both bands (as they have later admitted) was immense success and record sales. When (What's The Story) Morning Glory? came out that October, it sold nearly 350,000 copies in the first week alone in the UK. It is to date the 5th highest-selling British album of all time. Oasis were the band of the moment. The Gallaghers are the gold dust: people are so eager to have a piece of Oasis, the bootleg interview single Wibbling Rivalry reaches #52 in the UK singles chart on 25 November 1995. Morning Glory will go on to stay in the (top 100 albums) charts for the next 143 weeks, and was in the UK top 40 albums chart until March 1997. There isn't a bigger band in the country.

Here’s a timeline of 1996, as relevant to Oasis:

8 January 1996 - Noel begins the year by quipping that his aim for the year is to get a stalker. By 1997, he could happily report that he had not one, but three.

20 January 1996 - Though 1995 may have ended with Alan McGee gifting Noel a Rolls Royce at the Creation Christmas party, girlfriend Meg Matthews reveals in an interview after the band's show in Newcastle that she and Noel still live quite modestly - in a 2 bedroom basement flat in Camden. Interviewer also mentions that Noel's acoustic set contains a few songs “from the third album” (these possibly include ‘Half The World Away’, which was being played around the time).

21/22 January 1996 - At 2 AM, a thoroughly drunk Liam reveals to the same interviewer that he threatened to quit the band because Noel wouldn't go to the pub with him earlier in the day. “I've been up for leaving for the last couple of months. I reckon that it's coming to the end, right, for me.” This seems like a routine and empty threat. He also claims, “I reckon I can write better music, a lot better, about 100 times better, than what our kid can. But having said that, I can't do it now because I ain't got no time. I'm too busy getting off my head and being the Oasis singer. I'm not saying I'm not happy. I'm totally happy. But there is life after Oasis for me.”

23 January 1996 - Oasis “disappoint” at the NME BRAT Awards: “our kid, we only won 4, they ripped us off!” (Oasis sweep the NME Awards. Awards were often done by reader vote. NME said they should've renamed it the ‘Oasis Awards’ that year.)

7 February 1996 - The notoriety and fame have been growing, and ambitiously, Oasis announced their dream show: Maine Road, their beloved Manchester City FC's stadium, a homecoming show for Oasis, 39,000 tickets.

An announcement is first made on BBC Radio 1's Breakfast Show on 7 February, on 8 Feb the Oasis website announces the date of Sunday, 28 April. Tickets go on sale on Friday, 9 February. Thousands queue up outside the City stadium for tickets. It sells out in hours. The following week, a second night is announced for Saturday, 27 April. It also sells out.

19 February 1996 - The 1996 BRIT Awards are an eventful spectacle. Oasis refuse to perform at the BRIT Awards ceremony, instead wanting to perform “outside, for the people in the street”. Noel Gallagher says the band were apparently told this might threaten their career. Well.

Pulp perform ‘Sorted For E's and Wizz’, Jarvis Cocker waggles his bum at Michael Jackson and gets detained until the morning hours, when comedian Bob Mortimer, formerly a solicitor, is able to secure Jarvis' release. The next morning, Jarvis gets a taste of what being in the mainstream press is like. The organisers condemn Jarvis' actions. Noel later calls Jarvis a star and said he should be awarded an MBE for it.

Despite the biggest headlines being on Pulp and Oasis not performing, they still manage to steal the spotlight. The battle of Britpop plays out once again at the BRITs: both Blur and Oasis have been nominated against each other in several categories. Oasis sweep up the awards, winning British Album of the Year, Video of the Year (‘Wonderwall’) and British Group of the Year. Liam incidentally, also waggles his bum loads. The infamous Shitelife singalong takes place when Oasis clinch Best British Group. Oh, and Noel slags off record industry execs, Annie Lennox and also manages to take a swipe at Michael Hutchince of INXS as he presents them with the Best British Video award, saying, “has-beens shouldn't give awards to gonna-bes.” On INXS's last album Elegantly Wasted that comes out the following year, the title track is rumoured to contain the lyric, “I am better than Oasis”. At the same award, Liam has a spat with Hutchence, as Patsy had been in the press with him before, and also has a go at Michael's current girlfriend, presenter Paula Yates. He threatens to punch Michael, who kisses him instead. Full page feature in the next week's music papers (and tabloids).

Noel does, however, find a moment to thank leader of New Labour Tony Blair in his speech. “There are seven people in this room tonight who are giving a little bit of hope to young people in this country. That is me, our kid, Bonehead, Guigsy, Alan White, Alan McGee and Tony Blair, and if you don't got anything about you, you get up there and you take Tony Blair's hand, man, he's the man. Power to the people!”

In the February 1996 edition of Q Magazine, Noel expresses remorse and apologises for his 1995 AIDS comment aimed at Damon and Alex from Blur. “I said what I said, and as soon as I said it, I was (head in hands). I apologised in the next breath to the interviewer.

Weeks later when I saw it I put the paper down and I said to Meg, ‘I think I've blown it’. She read it and went, ‘You idiot!’ The first person on the phone was me mam saying, ‘I didn't raise you to say things like that!’

My whole world came crashing in on me then. If it wasn't for our kid, I don't know what I'd have done (mimes arm round shoulder, quiet word) . ‘It's all right, you just said something daft.’ This is my little brother, who I look after, putting his arm round me, saying, ‘It'll be all right, man.’ But I don't think people will ever forgive me for it.”

In the same interview, Noel also reveals that the band are thick friends: “If the shit hits the fan and all this stops tomorrow, I'm Bonehead's daughter's godfather, right, and I'm Liam Gallagher's brother, and I'm Paul McGuigan's best friend, and I'm Alan White's best friend. We are a family. Whatever I've got, they can have.”

Despite Oasis' clear victory at the BRITs that week, Blur and Oasis weren't at each other's throats. Top Of The Pops' Roc Blaxill revealed what the atmosphere was like when both bands had gone on the show together that month, for a programme that went to air on 22 February:

“One of the finest recent performances on the show was Blur’s ‘Stereotypes’, just before Oasis went onstage for their two numbers. For the whole song Liam was dancing along in the crowd, he was really enjoying himself. Afterwards in the bar, he and Damon were chatting away merrily, they certainly weren’t going at each others’ throats. Both bands seemed to get on very well.”

As revealed to Martin Roach for the book Damon Albarn: Blur, Gorillaz & Other Fables, from this post: https://www.tumblr.com/cosmic-ridge/779862437233115136/

Oasis performed their cover of ‘Cum On Feel The Noize’ and ‘Don't Look Back In Anger’. Blur performed ‘Stereotypes’.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KHm4_8-WR30

22 February 1996 - Noel fills in for Gary Crowley on Greater London Radio (now BBC Radio London) for 2 hours, Gallagher Radio London is born. He interviews 3 guests on the show: Digsy from Liverpool indie band Smaller, the guy that inspired the song title ‘Digsy's Dinner’, his idol Paul Weller and Robbie Williams. Digsy, Paul and Noel each separately perform acoustically live on air. Noel interviews Robbie about recently leaving Take That and going solo, and about allegedly sneaking around toilets with Liam Gallagher.

On a side note, when popular boyband Take That announce their split earlier that month, fans across the nation were so distraught that eventually, a phone helpline had to be set up for them. [https://www.bbc.com/videos/c722qz14p65o]

Feb-April 1996 - Band play gigs in North America and the UK, that mostly go without a hitch. Some dates in America cancelled because Noel is ill. (dates linked at end of this page)

7 March 1996 - Oasis confirm rumours in Scotland during an AOL webchat they’ll be playing at Loch Lomond, but dates aren’t finalised.

Question: The papers here in Scotland say you're maybe going to play at Loch Lomond. Any truth in this? OasisCS: yes, don't know when... [https://oasisinterviews.blogspot.com/1996/03/noel-liam-gallagher-bonehead-aol.html]

22 March 1996 - Oasis play a first night at Point Depot in Dublin. After the show, Noel Gallagher goes straight to RTÉ to make an appearance on the Late Late Show with Gay Byrne for an interview. He also performs an acoustic version of Wonderwall and Live Forever. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R94Dp-RZR4]

23 March 1996 - Oasis play a second night at Point Depot. They are staying at the Weston Hotel, where News Of The World is paying for their estranged father to spend the night, hoping for a reconciliation news story. When Noel spots his dad in the hotel lobby, he quietly asks security and tour manager Maggie to remove him from the hotel. Noel returns to his room. Their dad Tommy writes a letter explaining why he was there, which gets handed to a furious Liam, who immediately storms in asking them to leave.

Later that night at 2 AM, commotion breaks out, the band confronting Tommy. Tommy insulting Liam and Liam in turn threatening to break both his legs and the journalist's who brought him there. Noel looks on.

Tommy is removed from the hotel, journalist in tears and News Of The World and the tabloids got a different news story to the one they came for: 6 months later, their mother would publicly reveal that she left their father as he was physically abusive to her, Noel and their older brother Paul. Noel and Liam have spoken in anger about how that night brought back unpleasant memories from their past. The journalist apologised in 2025.

In happier news, here is Noel photographed with his mam and aunties backstage at The Point after the gig.

Photographer Jill Furmanovsky elaborated in her book Was There Then, “All the band members are very fond of their families. This picture of Noel with his mother Peg and his aunties was taken backstage at The Point and you can tell how delighted he is.”

5 April 1996 - Noel is a guest on Chris Evans' TFI Friday. It is in this interview that he reflects on the BRITs, praises Jarvis Cocker and reveals he has already written ‘My Big Mouth’ and ‘I Hope I Think I Know’, a few others were in the process of being written.

10 April 1996 - Oasis walk offstage and cut a gig short in Vancouver after 6 songs because the crowd were throwing coins at them. The rowdy behaviour was following Oasis abroad.

It is sometime around this period (20-something April) that Noel meets Burt Bacharach for the first time at a hotel bar in Santa Monica. The same night, Bacharach asks Noel to come and sing with him in London later that summer.

27, 28 April 1996 - Oasis play two sold out nights at Maine Road, to nearly 80,000 people. It is their biggest show to date, double the size of Earl's Court the previous year, and it is their homecoming show, not just to Manchester, but also the fact that it is their team City's home ground, making it even more special to them. When the band return to Manchester, Liam stays the night in his childhood bedroom in his mam's house, eschewing a hotel (and then some). Children's entertainer Norman Tissel performs for the band backstage (not a joke!)

The demand for last-minute tickets is so high, it turns to threats of ransom, which Liam addresses on stage with his usual bravado, dedicating Supersonic to “them so-called kidnappers, who want to take me away in a van for about three weeks and hold me ransom... you're taking your time, brothers.” Even still, Noel and Liam's girlfriends are given extra security.

After Maine Road, the band didn't want to just play conventional stadiums. They wanted to play unusual venues to keep things interesting for themselves, wanted to bring the Oasis music to other parts of the country. Noel later reveals that 1996 being a fallow year for Glastonbury was a factor in booking Knebworth, and that the band went to the Knebworth site closer the time of the show, looked around and laughed in disbelief that they were able to sell out the vast countryside.

2 May 1996 - Oasis on the cover of Rolling Stone USA, and the article is not flattering. Part of the feature was recorded during the tour a few months ago. Noel and Liam are pictured on the front cover, they turned up for the photoshoot giving the magazine an hour to do pictures. Half an hour in, the photographer and interviewer tell them these photoshoots usually take 8 hours (Select mag interview, 11 Aug 96). Oasis are not pleased and absolutely aren’t staying 8 hours. Their reluctance to play the game continues to baffle America.

7 May 1996 - The UK fortunately, is far more enthusiastic. A Knebworth date is announced and tickets go on sale. Such a large show being announced less than 3 months before the actual gigs is insanely short-notice (even though gigs in the 90s were typically announced with a few months to go, there was nothing of the size of Knebworth before). The panic to get tickets amongst fans is hysterical. Over 2 million people sign up to access tickets, over 4% of the country's population at the time. A second date is then added. That too sells out fast. Knebworth had last hosted rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Queen in the 1970s. Never before had they sold these many tickets though. And none of them had ever done two nights back to back. With this in mind, Oasis' two nights at Knebworth, thoroughly sold out, were (are) quite possibly the largest British shows in history. That's when they know this was going to be big.

11 May 1996 - Remembering their last outdoor Scottish shows were at Irvine Beach, Oasis decide to go back to Scotland before Knebworth. Loch Lomond gigs go on sale. These shows are meant to be ‘warm ups’ for Knebworth, but are themselves 80,000 tickets over 2 nights - a total of 340,000 tickets sold amongst the 4 shows. The pressure is on.

12 May 1996 - Liam Gallagher and Damon Albarn are amongst other musicians like Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, Robbie Williams and Tricky from Massive Attack taking part in a game of charity football match Soccer Six. Fans and press alike are watching for the rivalry between Liam and Damon to spill out onto the pitch in a repeat of last year's infamous Battle of Britpop. Liam's side lose 2-0.

13 May 1996 - Band attend the Cannes premiere of Trainspotting, which Noel foolishly turned down the chance to score because he thought it was a film about watching trains. He has good words for it. Him and girlfriend Meg phone into Chris Evans' BBC Big Breakfast show hungover to talk about it the next morning.

It is also in mid-May 1996 that Noel takes a month-long holiday in the lavish, exclusive Caribbean island of Mustique with his girlfriend Meg Matthews and her friends before the tour kicks off. Here he writes, records and arranges many of the demos that will become Be Here Now with producer Owen Morris. This is the first time since the pre-Definitely Maybe days that Noel has tracked demos, where he demoed a handful of songs like ‘Live Forever’, he says.

23 June 1996 - A reunited Sex Pistols play Finsbury Park as part of their Filthy Lucre Reunion tour. Longtime fan Liam, who styled his vocal snarl, his glare and early stance on John Lydon, is in attendance with girlfriend Patsy Kensit.

28 June 1996 - Noel performs ‘This Guy's In Love With You’ with a musical hero of his, Burt Bacharach at the Royal Festival Hall. A Burt Bacharach poster features on the cover of Definitely Maybe. Noel admits later that he pinched the chords to ‘Half The World Away’ from that song. Oasis (or at least Liam and Guigs) and Patsy Kensit are in the audience: “Liam and Patsy thought it was astounding. They were up on their feet at the end, cheering. Liam was really proud. It seriously was stunning. Noel's voice was truly amazing. He was chuffed, completely.”

4 July 1996 - Noel and Meg attend the premiere of Mission: Impossible, received by fans screaming as loudly for Noel as they did for actors like George Clooney. Noel is asked about his thoughts on the film while mic testing before an interview with MTV at Loch Lomond the next month. Noel says he didn't really get the film.

Early July 1996 - Liam proposes to girlfriend Patsy Kensit in secret. Patsy Kensit's autobiography suggests the date may be around the week of 6 July.

18 July 1996 - rehearsals for Knebworth begin at the Birmingham NEC. Whole band is present. Noel and Liam rehearse together with their hero John Squire of Stone Roses. [Liam makes no mention of his engagement. When Noel is asked about Liam and Patsy later, he replies cluelessly, “I think they’re a boy and a girl.”]

22 July 1996 - The Charlatans keyboardist Rob Collins is killled in a car crash just down the road from where the band are recording Tellin' Stories at Rockfield Studios. The Charlatans, fellow Mancunian(ish; Tim's from Cheshire) Madchester band and good friends of Oasis, are supposed to be one of the bands supporting Oasis that summer. The Charlatans pull out of Loch Lomond, consider pulling out of Knebworth, possibly even splitting up, but their music friends are very supportive. Martin Duffy, keyboardist in Primal Scream steps in as a temporary replacement. Oasis are very supportive of the Charlatans playing the Knebworth shows. They dedicate ‘Cast No Shadow’ to Rob at Loch Lomond. At the next NME BRAT Awards in January 1997, Noel dedicates one of Oasis' wins to Rob Collins and criticises the editor of the NME for not commemorating his death.

1 August 1996 - Liam and Patsy's engagement news is made public via the press. Noel hadn't known until then. Noel is furious that he had to find out through the press, through the media spectacle surrounding it, which as we've established, puts a harsh and often unwanted spotlight on the band. It's not a case of ‘all publicity is good publicity’ here, because Oasis have just sold out Knebworth! What do they need the extra press circus for? At this point, it would just detract from their actual musical achievements, and this tabloid news threatened to overshadow the most important summer of their careers. (“Yeah, Patsy and Liam got engaged... I was like, ‘What for?’” Liam then suggests Noel get engaged too for a laugh, which Noel later does... vindictively planning his wedding to be the same week as Liam's in 1997. Liam has a meltdown when he learns about it—through the press—and trashes the studio they were recording in.)

Noel is not a fan of letting anything get in the way of the music - he's been mad about the press attention on hooliganism hijacking talk about their music in the past (‘Wibbling Rivalry’ - “playing music is rock n roll, not being a football hooligan”). I also got the feeling as time went on that Liam and Patsy's posing together/PDA for fashion magazines got on Noel's nerves in the same way that Wembley 2000 (Liam's incessant rants about his divorce) drove Noel up the wall, and Liam promoting Pretty Green clothing at 2009 Oasis shows also got Noel's thorough disapproval.

Anyway. Noel also feels betrayed that 1. Liam got engaged 2. Liam got engaged in secret and didn't tell him, his brother 3. All the rest of Liam's family knew. His mam and other brother knew. The rest of the band knew. 3. He went to their sworn enemy the TABLOIDS and told THEM and not Noel. Also, Noel had some sort of Beatleseque fear running through his mind: would Patsy be the proverbial Yoko that splits Oasis up? (No.) Would Liam quit the band to spend time with Patsy? (No.) Would Liam go solo? Is this the end of Oasis? (In some ways, it was the first crack, the beginning of an end that somehow lasted way longer than anyone would've expected; most people thought they'd wind down by 2000 or latest 2002, but somehow they hung on. Debate for another time. Reflecting in 2002, Liam said his marriage to Patsy ‘destroyed’ his relationship with Noel.)

[https://www.tumblr.com/thisishistoreh/808457037213319168/marriage-to-patsy-and-her-parasite-pals-destroyed]

So they fought. They traded blows in private, and they were still fuming at each other during soundcheck before the first Loch Lomond show.

3 August 1996 - Night 1 at Loch Lomond. During soundcheck, there is an accident involving one of the band's road crew and a forklift that results in the roadie's death. Noel has just watched a man working for him die in an accident, and he was the only one that saw it because he was early for soundcheck. He has only weeks before had the sad news of Rob Collins' death. Noel gets questioned by the police and is clearly shaken up and a bit traumatised having to relive it. It also puts Noel's life into a bit of perspective, on how short life is and how we only get one chance at life – a motto Noel has been heard repeating many years later. (“The gig wasn't that important after that”)

After their fights, Noel and Liam have not been speaking. Liam has been hanging out sidestage with Patsy and they've been super loved up and making out in a corner (with Liam “waggling his engagement ring about”, says Select Mag).

In the afternoon, the band does interviews pre-show for MTV. Liam, Bonehead and Guigs interview together, Noel goes separately.

Noel brings up Liam's engagement within 1 second of the interview beginning. (uncut clip of Noel's interview) Interviewer Toby Amies then asks Noel about the engagement. Noel is clearly upset at having to learn about it from the tabloids, it is a tense interview. Later, Liam is asked about his new engagement ring. He immediately gets up and walks out; interview's over. The only thing he does say about it as he's walking off: “It's big, and it's mine.”

3 August 1996, night - the first Loch Lomond show at Balloch Park. The band come onstage to their usual instrumental ‘Swamp Song’. Liam comes on stage and they play the first proper song, ‘Columbia’. Vibes are good allround. It appears Noel might be willing to forgive Liam for everything that's happened that week. Liam goes up and sits on a PA and just takes in the crowd. Shortly after, Noel walks up behind him and does one of his little victory poses, arms outstretched. Crowd goes wild for it.

NME: “Then Noel strides on. He stretches his arms wide, drinks in the acclaim, then walks over to his brother who’s crouched on the lip of the stage. Noel leans over, kisses him and the band kick into “Acquiesce”. It’s quite conceivably the best beginning to a gig in the history of pop.”

The infamous Loch Lomond kiss. Afterwards, both brothers choose that picture as one of their 10 favourite photos for the NME to illustrate their 10-year career in 2002. From amongst "thousands" of parkas, Liam will later wear the same black Gucci duffel coat from night 1 for the first time in years at the premiere of the Supersonic documentary in 2016.

On 10 and 11 August, Oasis cement their place in British, rock, music, cultural and pop culture history by playing two glorious nights at Knebworth. Noel sums it up perfectly when he says onstage right as the band walk on on night 2: “This is history. This is history! Right here, right now. This is history!” And Liam, lightening the moment as ever, quips, “I thought this was Knebworth!” Light and shade, Liam and Noel. Same as it ever was. This is Oasis. But Noel is absolutely right.

Support acts include artists like The Charlatans, bouncing back from the loss of Rob Collins, with Martin Duffy on keys, Black Grape, Shaun Ryder's new band, and Chemical Brothers. At some point around Knebworth, they ask Noel to work together on a track, after hearing Noel wanted them to produce something with him.

11 August 1996 - In a phone-in interview on Jo Whiley's Radio 1 show on the day of the second night at Knebworth, Noel reveals that Liam played the first night of Knebworth sober (which doesn't speak to the drugs however) and then got plastered and stayed out until 9 AM the next morning. Apparently, Liam had forgotten the was a second show at all. It turns out he hasn't packed enough clothes and doesn't have stage clothes for night 2. He borrows fiancée Patsy's cable-knit jumper, and the Liam Gallagher Knebworth night 2 look becomes one of the most iconic images in rock music.

250,000 people over two nights. Everything goes perfectly. Their hero, John Squire from the Stone Roses joins them on guitar for ‘Champagne Supernova’. Oasis have truly conquered the heights of rock music legend.

The 2016 documentary Supersonic stops at Knebworth. It is a hagiography— meant to show only the best bits. And that's because that's it for the best times.

In the Jo Whiley interview, Noel also reveals that Liam had asked him to be the best man at his wedding. Liam would go on to have his wedding the next year in secret - no Noel.

Noel would reflect on Knebworth in 1997 and say it was the last time the band felt exciting for him. With Knebworth, he's achieved everything he wanted to achieve. Where do you go from Knebworth?

Where indeed. It all went south from there. Oasis were supposed to record an acoustic set for MTV Unplugged only 10 days after Knebworth. Liam went on a bender and showed up to the first rehearsal for Unplugged with a rough throat. He stopped midway through and said he couldn't carry on for his throat's sake, and then walked out. The second day, he sang only three songs. Noel sang the rest. Slowly as the days progressed, Liam turned up less and less, sometimes even wearing the previous day's shirt meaning he hadn't been to bed the previous night.

23 August 1996 - On the infamous night of the MTV Unplugged performance at Royal Festival Hall, Liam turned up late, looking like shit, and minutes before they were meant to go on stage, just went, “I'm not doing it.” Noel was furious. He stepped in to sing lead vocals for the first time for a full set (previously it was only ‘Don't Look Back In Anger’). Liam sat on the balcony with Patsy, watching the show and even heckling at one point. He felt some regret later and went to ask Noel if he could sing some songs during the encore. Noel told him to fuck off. In 2022, Liam says he regrets it every single day, saying he was sick in the head for doing that.

25 August 1996 - The Gallaghers’ dad Tommy goes to prison for a month for breaking a drink driving ban. In the midst of press around it, he gives an interview saying questionable, creepy shit about Liam that doesn’t warrant dignifying with a reprint. When asked, eldest brother Paul said, “I don't know what he's done and frankly I don't care. None of us will be going to see him. It's about time he got caught – it might do him good.”

Tommy Gallagher surmises the lyric ‘Where were you while we were getting high’ might be about him and says he’s writing a book. [https://www.thefreelibrary.com/MY+OASIS+BOYS+SAID+THEY%27D+BREAK+MY+LEGS.-a061164623]

Following the summer UK shows was the North American tour: an unmitigated disaster. First Liam didn't turn up with the band for the first shows in Chicago (27 Aug), walking out at the last minute claiming he didn't have anywhere to live and had to stay back to go house hunting with Patsy. Reportedly, this was after him and Noel had been having a row. Liam rejoins the band on 30 August in the US.

On 4 September 1996, Oasis performed at the MTV VMAs. Liam spilling a beer, spitting onstage and slagging off the American record industry horrified the American press. Another disaster. Another squandered chance. Now, I personally don't think this was Liam's fault, and he has defended himself later saying he had something stuck in his throat, as the singer, what option did he have but to spit? Anyway.

Oasis are on a disastrous tour of North America with Manic Street Preachers and the American band Screaming Trees. Oasis and Manics still have a healthy love for each other, and years later in 2014, Noel and Nicky Wire did an XFM talk together where Nicky revealed they thought Oasis were very rock n roll. Noel admired Manics' fierce politics. It was also true however, that Noel was in the midst of some of the worst weeks of his life with Oasis at the time.

Screaming Trees were a whole separate kind of fury. Mark Lanegan was a scary guy at the best of times. He could outdrink anyone. He was also dealing with a drinking problem. And Liam got on his nerves.

Mark remembered meeting Liam in his memoirs in 2020, and he described him as a ‘bothersome mosquito’. He had threatened to fight Liam. Liam had disappeared and scampered away.

Once, Mark, enraged, told Noel, I'm gonna kill your brother. Could well be a serious threat with the state Lanegan was in. Noel responded, ‘Let me inform me mam real quick— he's by the catering, btw.’

Liam responded to Mark's memoir quote on twitter in 2020 saying Mark was an uptight junkie, and Lanegan renewed his offer to fight Liam.

What was Mark so angry about? Liam had called them the ‘Howling Branches’ in his tweet.

[https://www.tumblr.com/thisishistoreh/809093063135952896/]

12 September 1996 - Noel and Liam have “a particularly nasty fight”, and Noel quits the tour with 5 US dates to go and comes back home to London, leaving the rest of the band to finish the tour without him. The band cancels “all concerts for the forseeable future” and return home, though they say they are not splitting up. The US tour is over, and future dates in Europe, Australia and New Zealand are also cancelled.

13 September 1996 - When the rest of the band return to the UK, at Heathrow airport, Liam is escorted by bodyguards into a car, isn't told where he's going and is driven to a secluded countryhouse (‘he lives in a house, very big hou—’ this is not the time!!!). His car even stops by a cemetery. Liam is sure he is going to be killed then. In fact, it turns out Noel has simply ordered him kidnapped and shipped off to this countryhouse in full secrecy, where Noel is. Noel and Liam spend a holiday together and make up, all while rumours that the band may split are going crazy at the airport. Oasis finally put out a press statement saying that the band are not splitting up, and Noel and Liam are getting on well.

Looking back on this period a year later in the September 1997 edition of Q Magazine, Noel stated the reason for the split was him being a “moody cunt” and apologised for standing up all the American kids that were waiting eagerly to see Oasis on this tour.

“"I did [stand them up], but I did it for... no... I was just about to say, ‘I was doing it for the sake of the band’. I wasn't at all, I was doing it to be a fuckin' moody cunt and I apologise for that.”

[https://web.archive.org/web/20010616073406fw_/http://www.oa515.com/feature016b.htm from https://www.tumblr.com/ostensiblynone/796128566768189440]

20 September 1996 - Writer Emma Forest details Liam’s loneliness in the lead up to the American tour The Independent - the ‘spacey, dreamy’ boy is cheating on his new fiancée, Patsy. And listening to Abbey Road a lot.

[https://www.tumblr.com/thisishistoreh/811490240398245888 aka the ‘Liam is growing wings’ article’]

21 September 1996 - Liam's 24th birthday.

30 September 1996 - ‘Setting Sun’, Noel's collaborative track produced by Chemical Brothers is released. It goes straight to #1 on the UK singles chart on the strength of the Oasis cowrite, but daytime radio finds it hard to play. Chris Evans had hyped up the single leading up to its release, but was so alarmed on hearing it the first time he played it (on air) that he pulled it off air and wondered if he'd made a mistake and apologised to their listeners. Noel was very proud of that fact.

‘Setting Sun’ was one of the songs to emerge from the original ‘Lock All The Doors’, demoed years ago in 1992, another being ‘My Sister Lover’, a song Noel demoed at Mustique that summer and that ended up as a B-side on Be Here Now.

‘Setting Sun’ was recorded very quickly. Ed Simons says, “he phoned us up and said, ‘Oh, I'll come down now and do it.’ We said, ‘Hold on a bit,’ and sent him a tape of this track, ‘Mark One’, which we thought might appeal because it had that Beatle-y feel to it. It took us quite some time to do ‘Mark One’, but ‘Setting Sun’ itself was a day in the studio with him, then us mixing for a while, and it was in the can.”

The song would go on to be included on the Dig Your Own Hole album. The following year, Simon Le Bon called it one of the best songs he'd heard in the 90s.

After this, Oasis decide to cut their losses on touring and get started on recording their third album. In hindsight, many will hotly debate whether the band would've benefited from taking a short break instead, and the band were asked about it in interviews. Liam was vehemently against taking a break. Noel might just have benefited from it. But I also have the feeling that if Oasis had taken a break, we probably wouldn't have had another album from them until the 2000s. I think it's even possible that Oasis would've gone on indefinite hiatus. Noel was saying in interviews the next year that the band had stopped being fun for him after Knebworth.

3 October 1996 - Paul Gallagher publishes his book about the brothers' childhood, Brothers: From Childhood to Oasis: The Real Story. Noel was not happy with Paul revealing details of his abuse at the hands of his father to the public. He reflected in Uncut magazine in March 2000:

“I didn't read [Brothers: From Childhood to Oasis], to be honest with you. I had it out with [my brother Paul] before he was putting the book out; I said, ‘For the life of me I can't understand why you're doing this, because that's private family business.’

I mean, the other two [Liam and Paul] never really got beat up off me dad at all; it was mainly me, because I was a bit of a lippy twat. So I said, ‘If you're doing it for the money, hang on, I'll give you the money not to do it.’ And then I thought, 'What the fuck am I doing that for? If he wants to do it, let him fucking do it.’

I don't really think our private lives should be put on the bookshelves in Waterstones. You get a lot of people coming up to you and sort of patronising you about it – you know, ‘Oh, it must have been terrible.’

And it's like, yes, it was, but it was no more terrible than any other person's upbringing.”

Paul Gallagher later revealed that he was not invited to/skipped Knebworth by choice to focus on finishing his book and so had not seen his brothers' greatest moment live.

7 October 1996 - recording sessions for Be Here Now begin. The first sessions are recorded at Abbey Road Studios, a special place for Noel and Liam given its significance to the Beatles. Unfortunately, this means little when you're shitfaced.

8 November 1996 - Oasis show up at the 1996 Q Awards and win Best Act In The World Today. The brothers are getting on: “[B]oth brothers - despite spurious tabloid speculation about demanding “separate tables” - happily circulated among the 350-plus invited guests, posing for snaps, giving autographs and supping complimentary beer.”

9 November 1996 - Liam Gallagher arrested and cautioned for cocaine possession at the Q Awards the morning after. A visibly shaken Liam returns to recordings with the band, band photographer Jill Furmanovsky says in her book Was There Then that Noel had softened a bit towards Liam during this time – and Noel went to Liam's house the following day (10 Nov) to meet and comfort him.

The tabloid gaze on Oasis around this time becomes insane, especially as the band are in the centre of London and very accessible (this example is actually from the day before the US tour was to start in Chicago, but fuck Jeremy Vine...). Liam is in the papers near daily, his mood is terrible, fights with Noel are routine enough to become unnotable - the next year, Noel would blame the intense press focus on Liam on Patsy: Liam “shouldn't have married a star”. Tabloids raid Jill Furmanovsky's flat, thinking the band were hiding in there.

The band and Creation start to get paranoid around this time about details of the album or music leaking. Remember, reporters would literally stand outside the windows of the studio with microphones. They did this during the June 2025 rehearsals in Cardiff.

Oasis begin to freeze out their inner circle to cut out any moles, shrinking it down until according to Creation's Johnny Hopkins, the people who had been there from the start were cut out and they were mostly surrounded by industry folks. Paranoia begins setting in. It's not a fun time for the band.

Oasis get kicked out of Abbey Road studios for being rowdy (listening to Beatles albums so loud that they damaged the speakers— no wonder both Noel and Liam have tinnitus) and “partying too much”. Mary McCartney notes in a later interview that it is really hard to get kicked out of Abbey Road. They are seasoned professionals, they've dealt with worse. Oasis were banned until 2007, when they returned to record Dig Out Your Soul. They were asked to pay cash upfront for the 2008 recording sessions.

11 November 1996 - Oasis decide to move down to Ridge Farm Studios in rural Surrey instead, away from the city and the cameras. Owen Morris calls the Abbey Road sessions ‘fucking awful’. He thinks the Mustique demos were near-perfect and that the band should've got Liam and Bonehead to overdub the demos, or at least use those recordings as a mixing reference (would I be true to this blog if I didn't talk about The Oasis Mixing Problem?) Noel overrides Owen's suggestion. Him and Noel eventually fall out, and Owen does not return for Oasis' next album in 2000. Both come to regret the mixing (and other creative decisions regarding this album) in hindsight, but do not work again except on remastering the first 3 albums some 20 years later.

Noel takes a second holiday to Mustique at an unspecified time later in the recording for Be Here Now (potentially in early 1997 even), during which time Liam records vocals without Noel. Noel is not present for any of Liam's vocal recordings. Liam feels guilty about recording when Noel isn't there even though getting ahead on recording is his literal job, and is sure Noel will be angry that Liam recorded without him, so he tries to soften his stance by calling him at 4 in the morning and telling him that he's been shot. Noel says in a later interview that he doesn't like it when Liam records when he's not there.

12 November 1996 - Liam and Patsy pose for Vanity Fair's Cool Britannia cover story, titled London Swings! Again! at Glasshouse Studios in Shoreditch, London. The story spans the broader cultural rennaissance in London, joining the dots between its musicians, artists (Damien Hirst), fashion designers (Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen) actors and even politicians. The first sign that this movement built on a sense of belonging to a community was morphing into something bigger, and something it didn't set out to be, but whose making was inevitable.

The cover stars Liam and Patsy sprawled on a giant Union Jack bedspread and would feature in the March 1997 edition of the magazine (linked above). The Spice Girls get a full page too. Just as the high of Britpop begins to wear through, the rot of oversaturation and Cool Britannia is beginning to set in. A change in guard is on the horizon once again.

20 November 1996 - Liam and Patsy attend Vanity Fair's River Café party, where Liam is pictured partying with Mick Jagger.

On 14 December 1996, in a new interview with conservative paper the Spectator, the Spice Girls declare that “Margaret Thatcher was the first Spice Girl”. Britpop is well and truly dead. Long live Britpop.

22 November - 27 December: MTV Europe presents a 6-part documentary series called Oasis: Mad For It! Episode 4 includes first footage of early Oasis Boardwalk rehearsals and from the King Wah Wah Tut's gig in Glasgow that got the band signed.

In the meanwhile, recording somehow goes on until Christmas break/the end of 1996. Noel's one last public appearance of the year is him hosting an hour on BBC Radio 1 with Goldie on 30 December, and that was 1996. What a fucking year.

#sorry.. sorry... worst timeline... bad end

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