August 10th 1996 – Knebworth Park, Hertfordshire
Having seen Oasis at Stoke Trentham Gardens, 3rd October 1995, things moved really fast for them. If anything, the last tour venues were too small and perhaps the record label under estimated how quickly the band would grow, so we suddenly jump from Oasis in a small venues to Knebworth Park. 125,000 people on each of two days. we had tickets for the first gig on the Saturday and a second gig on the Sunday was announced when it was clear demand was going to outstrip available tickets.
At £22.50 plus booking it was the steepest ticket price we had ever purchased (although the NEC were pushing very close to this, so it still represented good value!)!
It was a mixed line up, but 5 bands made the ticket price bearable. “The Bootleg Beatles”, “The Chemical Brothers”, “Ocean Colour Scene”, “Manic Street Preachers”, “The Prodigy”
I’m not going to write anything on the first two as I’m not really a Beatles fan (although I accept that without there existence, music couldn’t have moved on to a better place 🙂 so The Bootleg Beatles were never going to float my boat. I don’t what it is with The Chemical Brothers, I just don’t get them…..it’s electronic music, which should appeal to me, but it just generally washes past me (apart from “Star Guitar” which is a superb tune). I believe I sat with a bag on my head asking them to shut up!!
It was a really windy day with a few rain showers and I was not at all impressed with Knebworth as a venue. Sure, this was a historic biggest ever gig, but it was on a hill with not a great view, I remember any video screens to see what was going on or they were very low…and the sound quality was terrible, blowing around on the wind. Knebworth was very open to the elements and it didn’t work very well. More love hate for me with big outside gigs!
Ocean Colour Scene
At last, a band I would enjoy, even if “The Day We Caught The Train” did sound like a Beatles song 😉
“The Riverboat Song” was their best one for me and would be the theme for TFI Friday for many years (superb music and chat show hosted by Chris Evans way back when).
Set List
- The Circle
- The Day We Caught the Train
- One for the Road
- Song of a Baker (Small Faces cover)
- The Riverboat Song
- 40 Past Midnight
- You’ve Got It Bad
- Get Away
Manic Street Preachers
I’d first seen the Manics support Bon Jovi in 1993. In 1995, The Manic’s, Richey Edwards went missing and subsequently was presumed dead (this has never been confirmed and I for one, hope he just disappeared to live a quiet life somewhere away from the limelight).
The story of Richey is very sad and intriguing. I remember the Steve Lamacq interview in NME where Richie cut “4 Real” into his arm…..which was terrifying at the time.
I recommend watching this documentary for detail…not for the faint hearted, Richie was a tormented soul.x (Warning around 23:30 there a graphic portrayals of the 4 Real incident of self harming his arm)
1996 saw the release of a new album and tour “Everything Must Go” and the Manics added in this gig to the schedule.
Another band I’d admired for a long time but hadn’t got to see them, so was really excited about this band…especially as I hadn’t been overly excited with the early line up. The weather had got a bit overcast and although the Manics were not renowned as being light hearted, this would be fun.
Straight into the new song “Everything Must go” and the crowd already knew it and joined in. It was a great start and a great reception from the crowd. They would play 5 songs off the new album, all excellent and my favourite “Motorcycle Emptiness”.
With Richie missing, the band was James Den Bradfield (Lead Vocal and Guitar), Nicky Wire (Bass and Vocals) and Sean Moore (Drums). I liked the passion and emotion, but also the compassion to leave a mike stand free on stage representing Richie’s spot and importance to the band.
Excellent show and I definitely want to see these guys again.
Set List
- Everything Must Go
- From Despair to Where
- Australia
- Enola/Alone
- La tristesse durera (Scream to a Sigh)
- Kevin Carter
- Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head (Burt Bacharach cover)
- Motorcycle Emptiness
- No Surface All Feeling
- You Love Us
- A Design for Life
The Prodigy
In much the same way I didn’t get The Chemical Brothers, I didn’t get the Prodigy either, but I will never rule out any type of music
Liam Howlett, Maxim, Keith Flint made up the band with Liam and Mixim the main musicians on keyboards and sampling. Keith Flint added extra vocals in an angry and added a manic edge to the band. He would be dancing on stage, stage diving into the crowd and pulling faces with his slightly angst looking clown make-up.
A great set and great performance from the band, just not for me.
Set List
- Smack My Bitch Up
- Voodoo People
- Breathe
- Poison
- Funky Shit
- Weather Experience
- Their Law
- Mindfields
- It’s My Own Secret Technique
- Firestarter
- Play Video
- Rock ‘N’ Roll
- No Good (Start the Dance)
- Gabba
Oasis
The main event. Oasis were huge, the egos were huge, the crowd was huge.
It was a superb concert, singing all the hits and a couple of new ones “My Big Mouth” and “It’s Gettin’ Better (Man!!)”, John Squire from the Stone Roses joined on stage for the encore song of “Champagne Supernova”
We were about half way back for Oasis which was as good as the sound got and had a bit of a stage view, but not much as the crowd was mad! As a gig, it was good to be there to witness it, as a musical event, I wasn’t so enamoured by it. So glad I’d seen them on the last tour.
What I did get out of this experience was a full introduction to the Manic Street Preachers live. This live recording of Saturday’s at Knebworth gives an idea of the gig.
Set List
- Intro – The Swamp Song
- Columbia
- Acquiesce
- Supersonic
- Hello
- Some Might Say
- Roll With It
- Slide Away
- Morning Glory
- Round Are Way (Ending with Up In The Sky)
- Cigarettes & Alcohol
- Whatever (Ending with All The Young Dudes)
- Cast No Shadow
- Wonderwall
- The Masterplan
- Don’t Look Back in Anger
- My Big Mouth
- It’s Gettin’ Better (Man!!)
- Live Forever
- Encore: Champagne Supernova (with John Squire), I Am the Walrus (The Beatles cover)
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