Oasis: Manchester ‘buzzing’ to welcome icons back for homecoming gigs

Excitement at the return of Oasis has swept through the city where the brothers found their fame, before they became one of the defining bands of the Britpop era.

Mr Ashraf hugged the BBC Manchester reporter he spoke to in delight after being spotted singing by a mural to the brothers outside Sifter’s record shop in Burnage.

“I’m over the moon, it’s the swagger of the city, it’s baggy jeans with your Adidas, it’s the way you walk, it’s the way you talk, it’s the way you say hello to people, it’s everything man.

“Oasis are more than just music, they’re icons, you know what I mean.”

One person said the band “captured a time period when I was a young lad”, while another said he would never forgot “their attitudes, their swagger, their fighting, their songs, their tunes, it was mega”.

Oasis’s first performance to feature both Gallagher brothers came at the Boardwalk nightclub in the city in 1992, after Noel joined having been a roadie for Oldham band Inspiral Carpets.

A year later they signed their first record deal with Creation Records in London and were photographed in their first official shoot by James Fry of the band World of Twist at Nomad Studios in Manchester.

“They were great, and they were all about running around Manchester”, Mr Fry said, adding back then the band were a five-piece, and the Gallagher’s individual stardom had yet to shine through.

“They found a car in Withington, outside a shop called the Sharp Dressed Man, they knew this guy who had this Jaguar, and Noel went up and said, ‘can we use your car for some photos’.

“All five were really good to me and my assistant, we had a laugh, it was quite laid back.

“I think it’s inevitable a band that good will get back to together,” the music photographer said.