By Damon Wilkinson
It was supposed to be a triumphant homecoming. And as the euphoric chords of Rock ‘N’ Roll Star rang out across Heaton Park everything seemed to be going to plan. But then the whole thing spluttered to a halt. Suddenly the sound cut out and as Oasis wandered offstage the 70,000 strong crowd that just moments earlier had been bellowing every word back at them started to boo. The band briefly returned, but were once again forced to cut it short as smoke bellowed from a generator. A tense half hour followed while the problems were fixed. Rumours swirled around that the gig was going to be abandoned as Noel and Liam had already left. But, of course, they returned. “Really sorry about that,” Liam told the crowd. “This is a free gig now. Everyone will get a refund.” “The curfew’s 11, but we’ll play ’til they kick us off,” says Noel. “Keep your ticket and you’ll get your money back.” That’s what happened the last time Oasis played Heaton Park in the infamous ‘Bank of Burnage’ gigs in June 2009. And in hindsight it was perhaps a sign that the always combustible relationship between Noel and Liam was on the verge of imploding for good. Join our Oasis WhatsApp group HERE Sixteen years ago Oasis might not have been the force they once were. But the band were still a fearsome live act and a massive draw. More than 200,000 tickets – at £32.50 a pop, around £50 at today’s prices – were snapped up for the three Heaton Parks shows, the band’s first in the city since playing at the Etihad four years earlier and the first UK dates of their biggest global tour to that point. Unlike today, at the time the park was rarely used for concerts. In fact the last crowd of that size was for Pope John Paul II in 1982, an occasion referenced by Liam on the opening night. “Last time I was here I came to see the Pope,” he told the crowd. “He was all right but he didn’t have many tunes.” In an interview with the M.E.N. the week before, a characteristically bullish Liam claimed the homecoming concerts had ‘the potential to be even better than Knebworth’. “I’m totally buzzin’,” he said. “It’s been a top year for the band, and we’re approaching these gigs at the top of our game. “My mind is totally on it. With those Knebworth gigs, we were off our heads and we totally sped into it. With these Heaton Park gigs, we’re more… we’re more breezing into these gigs. “It’s not so chaotic. We’re a miles better band than we were at Knebworth and Maine Road, and we’ll show it. People will have their heads blown off.” But in truth Liam’s trademark bluster masked some deep-seated problems. Unlike the internet-breaking stampede of last year’s comeback, there were signs interest in the biggest rock ‘n’ roll band of the 90s was beginning to wane. Despite largely positive reviews their last album, Dig Out Your Soul , had sold the fewest of their career. Outside the gates of Heaton Park there were reports of touts selling spare tickets for the Thursday gig for a tenner each. And Noel and Liam’s relationship was also on a knife-edge. In an interview in April that year, Noel kicked things off with his now infamous comment about his younger brother. “He’s the angriest man you’ll ever meet,” he told Q Magazine. “He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.” And just a few weeks before the Heaton Park gigs the guitarist, has he had done on numerous previous occasions, had threatened to call it quits. In a blog post, Noel described Oasis as a ‘rudderless ship’ and said the band needed to ‘take a very long break, possibly for five years’ after the tour wraps up. “It won’t be a five year break if I’ve got anything to do with it,” Liam snapped back on Twitter. “They were coming off the back of an 18 month world tour,” music journalist John Robb, said. “That’s going to stretch relationships in any band. “But at the time the band was still doing very well across the world. They’d just done huge shows in Argentina and South America and the album had gone top five in America. “But then the PA goes. Was that a sign from the Gods that maybe it was time to pack it in? In the long and fractious history of Noel and Liam’s spats, the bickering could be dismissed as business as usual. And for the fans at Heaton Park, it seemed like it was. M.E.N. reporter Chris Slater, a then music-mad 21-year-old, was in the crowd for the second show on Saturday. “I’d seen them at Sheffield Arena the previous autumn which was absolutely brilliant,” he said. “But when they announced these summer homecoming shows, I just had to be there. “There was a big group of us that went on the Saturday night. We were a bit nervous when we heard about all the sound problems at the previous gig, but they seemed confident they had got it sorted. “I remember being impressed by Twisted Wheel, the then up-and-coming Oldham band who had been massively hyped. Then there was The Enemy and Kasabian who were the perfect support act. There was carnage during some of their big hits. “But that was nothing compared to how it went off when Oasis came on. I remember it started to pour down with rain a few minutes beforehand – biblical as Liam might say – and ponchos were being passed around. “We had managed to get really far forward. So much so that a poncho someone threw landed on the stage right at Liam’s feet as he walked on. He just picked it up and lobbed it back into the crowd in true Liam style. “They kicked in Rock ‘N’ Roll Star and it was madness. It was so packed down the front that rather than jumping and up and down, the crowd was kind of swaying like they used to do on football terraces in the 70s, and you just had to go with it. ” Cigarettes and Alcohol also got an early airing. The setlist was just banger after banger. “I heard some people afterwards saying they were left a bit underwhelmed. But for someone who was just a bit too young to catch them in their 90s pomp, this was a god send, our Maine Road, and I loved every minute of it.” So, as the fans streamed out of Heaton Park, and the tour moved onto to huge shows in Sunderland, Cardiff and Edinburgh, the rows and power cuts appeared to be just another drama in the long-running Oasis saga. But, behind the scenes the cracks were starting to show. On August 23, Oasis were due to play the Chelmsford leg of the V Festival, but cancelled at the last minute as Liam reportedly had laryngitis. Noel claimed his brother was ‘hungover’, which led Liam to threaten legal action, which was eventually forgotten after Noel apologised. Then, five days later, suddenly the biggest band of a generation were no more. As they prepared to go onstage the Rock En Seine festival in Paris, an argument broke out between the brothers, during which Liam was said to have wielded Noel’s guitar ‘like an axe’. It was the final straw. The gig and the rest of the tour was cancelled as Noel walked out. “It’s with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight,” he later posted on Oasisinet.com. “People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.” And, for almost 15 years, that was that. The estranged brothers both forged successful solo careers, while they continued to trade insults and regularly fielded questions about reuniting. Then, one day shy of the 15th anniversary of their split, the Gallaghers sensationally announced they were reuniting for a massive world tour. It seems absence, and a few hundred million quid, makes the heart grow fonder. More than 30 years after the release of Definitely Maybe , Oasis have a new generation of fans and are arguably as big as ever. “Live-wise Oasis are probably more popular than they have ever been,” said Robb, whose new book Live Forever charts the ‘rise, fall and resurrection’ of the band. “The generation that grew up with Oasis, they were the soundtrack to their youth, whether they liked them or not. “Then you’ve got the younger generation of fans who are still buying their records and listening to their music. “And it’s still very rare to get a band of this size coming back – The Beatles never did it. Whatever happens it’s going to be an event.”