Early on in my career I always had aspirations to become a music photographer. With a passion for both music and photography it made sense to try and combine both to earn a living. In the late 80’s I spent many weekends travelling up to London with my friends to go and see the latest Indie bands playing in the capital, especially at the Town and Country Club in Kentish Town. Seeing bands such as The Wedding Present, Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, The La’s, all being some of my favourite bands during this period.
In the 1990’s and becoming an OASIS fan myself during their early days.I was now living in London and working as a freelance photographer, still hanging out at as many gigs as possible in my spare time. Then in August 1996 I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to photograph the band at the iconic Knebworth gigs – both nights. It was a massive period during the bands escalation to success. All the newspapers and magazines were mad for pictures from these concerts. It was also still a time when photographs had a value, and as a freelance photographer you could earn quite a substantial amount from a live event as big as this, even when there were probably 20 other photographers in the pit.
Supersonic
From recollection we were allowed to photograph the first three songs. The atmosphere was electric. The noise from the crowd behind us deafening. OASIS came on the first night kicking giant inflatable footballs onto the stage then into the crowd! Not such an easy entrance to capture with the light descending and FUJI 400 loaded into my camera…
The first three songs are a distant memory, apart from my several sheets of negatives put away in my attic. Opening with Columbia, Acquiesce, Supersonic. It’s great to see my images reappear time to time in worldwide magazines, especially now at the moment with the announcement the brothers will reunite as OASIS.
Thanks Liam and Noel for the two crazy nights in 1996 and the great memories!
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