April 6, 1996
- STAYED AT #1:5 Weeks
In The Alternative Number Ones, I’m reviewing every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs, starting with the moment that the chart launched in 1988. This column is a companion piece to The Number Ones. As Scott explains here, the column is now biweekly, alternating with The Number Ones on Mondays.
In August 1996, Oasis played two shows on the grounds of Knebworth House, a gigantic 15th-century country house just north of London. Lots of that moment's big Britpop and electronic acts shared that bill with Oasis — the Charlatans, the Chemical Brothers, the Prodigy, Kula Shaker, the Manic Street Preachers, Ocean Colour Scene. There was also a tribute band called the Bootleg Beatles, and their presence might've been an effort to get people to acknowledge that Oasis were not a Beatles tribute act. But the people were there to see Oasis, not any of those other bands. And there were a lot of people.
Each of those Oasis Knebworth shows brought in 125,000 fans — a quarter-million motherfuckers over two nights. The press trumpeted the scope of the achievement, claiming that these were the biggest outdoor concerts in British history. Oasis could've played more. Four percent of the population of Great Britain applied to get Knebworth tickets. At that point, The New York Times reported that "there is an Oasis CD in roughly one of every three homes there." This was their transcendent moment, the weekend in which they truly served as the sun around which British culture revolved. If you can watch footage of Oasis at Knebworth without getting goosebumps, then you and I are not the same.