As a new film opens in cinemas charting the meteoric rise of the legendary band Oasis from the council estates of Manchester to some of the biggest concerts, in some the biggest venues worldwide, Jamie Bowman talks to a fan about the night they played Buckley Tiv.
It’s more than two decades since Oasis graced the stage of Buckley’s legendary Tivoli venue to a crowd who’d paid just £6 for the priveledge of watching a band who would become one of Britain’s biggest ever.
Now fans of the Gallagher brothers, who spilt up in 2009, can relive those heady Britpop days with the release of a new feature-length documentary film, Supersonic, which charts their incredible rise and is premiered at a limited number of cinemas around the UK, including Wrexham, this weekend.
Much of the new film concentrates on the band’s breakthrough year of 1994 when Oasis released their critically acclaimed debut album Definitely Maybe two days before the Tivoli gig on August 29.
The gig itself has gone down in Oasis folklore as one of the band’s wildest, thanks to the story of how Evan Dando, frontman of US band The Lemonheads, invaded the stage with a girl while the band played Live Forever, before ending the evening performing an impromptu acoustic show on the venue’s roof.
TV cameras from Granada were there to capture the night.
Oasis fan Sara Parker looks back on the night with great fondness and it would be her first visit to the town she would later call home.
“I wasn’t local at the time of the Oasis gig so we travelled over from Liverpool with a pile of Liverpool musicians including Space and the Real People, who were one of the support acts on the night,” recalls Sara, who is now lives in Buckley and is a Lib Dem councillor for New Brighton ward.
“I’d never been to the Tiv before and didn’t go again until I moved to live here 14 years later.
“It was definitely an occasion. It was heaving and we were all excited because we’d seen Oasis in Liverpool’s Le Bateau in July ’93 and The Krazy House in December and The Lomax in April.
“By the time they played the Tiv they were a phenomenon locally and getting bigger all the time.
“I remember going to the bar and asking for whatever my normal drink was, probably cider, and getting a gin and tonic like in the song Supersonic. The bar staff had served that many it didn’t register I wanted something else.”
Supersonic, directed by Mat Whitecross and co-produced by Amy director Asif Kapadia, will make its debut in cinemas at a simultaneous screening in the UK on Sunday, October 2 with an exclusive livestream Q&A with Liam Gallagher.
The Wrexham screening takes place at Odeon Wrexham Eagles Meadow at 7.30pm. The film will be available to own on DVD and Blu-ray on October 31.
Supersonic documents the band’s rise to fame over a period of three years from 1993-96 up to their pinnacle at Knebworth and features hours of footage of new interviews with Noel and Liam, their mother and members of the band and road crew.
“I do remember the gig but I can’t remember whether the Real People were first support or Evan Dando was,” says Sara.
“Evan did a quiet set but then the other bands were full on. Oasis were always good live, and it was really uplifting, not because of the performance, which was always static, but because of the power of the songs. And obviously everyone was into them and the atmosphere was amazing.”
From the release of Definitely Maybe – which became the fastest-selling debut of all time – it was then less than two years before Oasis played their historic shows at Knebworth Park where 2.6 million people applied for tickets. The band played to 125,000 fans per night – they could have played 20 nights.
“After the Tiv gig we went backstage to say hello and there were crates filled with ice and gin bottles – huge gin bottles,” laughs Sarah.
“Backstage at the Tiv is like a flat and Evan was wearing a yellow fluffy jumper and throwing himself through the hatch from the kitchen into the seating area. Most people weren't taking any notice of him.”
Seeing Oasis rise to stadium headliners just adds to the gloss for the lucky fans who saw them at the Tivoli.
As Noel Gallagher says in Supersonic: “The love and the vibe and the passion and the rage and the joy that are coming from the crowd, if anything, that’s what Oasis was.”
l Supersonic is screened at Wrexham Eagles Meadow at 7.30pm on Sunday, October 2. Box office: 0333 006 7777; Website: www.odeon.co.uk
l The Real People play Buckley Tivoli on Friday, October 28.
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