Picture the scene, the time was 1996 and the world was changing for me. I was shedding the childhood years and making a new identity for myself. It wasn't just me changing, the whole world was going through an evolution and at the forefront of this was a new music wave called Britpop. Bands like Blur, Space, Suede, Pulp, The Manic Street Preachers, Ash and of course Oasis were at the forefront of this new culture. It might surprise people who know me, given the fact I was an ardent Oasis fan during the war between them and Blur but the first album of the era I purchased was The Great Escape by Blur but it the Gallagher brothers band that had the impact on me. They had the swagger, the attitude, the whole I don't give a f**k thing going on and I can't deny I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
There attitude overtook a lot of aspects of my friends and I lives, I think a particular highlight of mine was the look on our Design and Technology teacher Miss Straffords face when she realised that for one of our assignments virtually my entire friend group decided to make our own 'Wonderwalls' covered with references to Oasis. We were making etched photo frames using a CAD and it was supposed to be on something we had a strong attachment to. I can still picture mine perfectly. Shiny black perspex with the Oasis logo in the middle, a sink full of fishes in one corner, a bottle of champagne in another, the union jack guitar and the stand was a microphone....looking back I wonder what happened to it? Lost in the many moves I've done since those days in the mid 90's.
I had all the singles and live performance videos, listening and watching them non stop, I still do but I have diversified these days and do listen to other things but I do have a couple of playlists on spotify that are the more rockier ones and the more chilled out ones that get regular listening time. Just for the record most of my favourite songs are the B-sides but just for the record here's my top ten songs.
1) I hope, I think, I know
2) The Fame
3) Rocking Chair
4) Champagne Supernova
5) Step Out
6) The Hindu Times
7) DIgsys Dinner
8) Round our way
9) D'you wanna be a spaceman
10) Alive
It's a given that with the band having so much influence in my life that I associate certain songs with key moments. Slide Away reminds me of when I lost a lot school friends during my Sixth form days in a short space of time. I remember sitting in the old common room listening to that song on repeat, thinking about whether or not I wanted to stay in school or leave like the rest of them.
Cigarettes and Alcohol reminds me of a house party that Helen Purves held, it was a sort of mini festival theme with us camping out in her massive garden and this was being played as we had a fire going and I for some reason to this day still don't know why tried to eat my weight in cherry tomatoes.
I was listening to Standing on the shoulders of giants when I decided that I wanted to go to Luton for university, the album which hadn't been out that long was on a constant repeat on my portable CD player, and it was during a listen that in the careers room that I found the course and changed the direction of my life forever.
The Hindu Times will always remind me of the 'quiet night' with Big Dave where we ended up in the Sub Club belting it out at 2am when we had to be up and out of the door at 6am the next morning, it's one of my fondest memories of the big man and everytime I hear those opening chords it makes me smile
She's Electric was the song I most associated with my ex wife, and I can't deny listening to it now is a little tougher than it used to be, but it's got easier with time, but every time I hear it does briefly reminds me of her and the notion that I wanted to suggest it as our wedding dance.
If you had told 15 year old me that he would have got tickets to go and see them live at Knebworth I would have laughed at you, the idea of it was just absurd but now as a fully functioning adult and having a spare £170 has made that dream come true. When I made my list of 100 things that I wanted to do it wasn't even in a notion. The Gallaghers weren't on speaking terms and the idea of the band playing together again was a pipe dream. I of course tried to get tickets for the '25 reunion but like a lot of people I was unsuccessful. I didn't think it was going to happen this time either, I didn't get the code in the first wave but the amazing Emma did, who tried to get tickets for me but was thwarted by Ticketmaster, however in the second wave I got the code and a time slot to apply, then even more lucky I entered the waiting room and was on 1663 in line, within 5 minutes I was the proud owner of three tickets to Knebworth on 26th September 2027.
So now all that's left to do is dig out my old bucket hat, and wait a year for a dream to come true!
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