Oasis Knebworth 1996

★★★★ Dir: Jake Scott

TRAFALGAR RELEASING. C

The Gallaghers’ peak moment documented as a landmark of mass unity.

A quarter-century behind us now, Oasis’s two-night stand at “Knebbo” has rather paled in cultural memory, as a signifier of empty Cool Britannia expansionism. This wonderful movie, collated by Jake Scott (son of Ridley), definitively sets the record straight: these shows represented no-frills rock’n’roll at its best on a mass scale, before smartphones ruined everything. Oasis’s audience back then – 250,000 in total, though they could’ve sold out

20 nights – is revealed as youthful, pleasingly mixed, not at all lumpenly blokey. As an expansive orchestral Masterplan glides past, one attendee heartbreakingly remembers her day as a carefree life’s highlight with mates, one of whom vainly battled cancer just six months later. The Gallaghers, too, seem vulnerable, even effeminate, with Liam, as brother Noel aptly notes during an impassioned Slide Away, at his absolute peak vocally. The younger sibling offers no testimony until the very final scenes: “It was biblical,” he summarises. Motion carried.