My issues pale in comparison to you, but I am in total agreement that I would never go to Knebworth again.

I wonder how much Liam made (net profit) from the Knebworth gigs? Well into the millions, I’d assume…

I try to translate here an extraordinary Italian review on Knebworth:


While Her Majesty's subjects parade through Buckingham Palace for Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee, a few miles north of London, England pays homage to its king. How Liam Gallagher has returned to being the UK's most influential rock star is hard to say, it will be the three lucky solo records and a newfound voice that have awakened a dormant fervor waiting for a reason to explode, it will be the surprising following of fans. of the new generation that when Oasis dominated the charts were not even conceived which makes Knebworth 2022 much more than a revival for nostalgics. But no one a few years ago would have imagined that on 3 and 4 June the younger Gallagher would again find himself in front of 170 thousand people to send Knebworth twice sold out, where in August 1996 Oasis held the most important concerts of his career. Maybe for a reunion, but as a soloist? Impossible. And instead here it is, as it was 26 years ago, in iconic places in the history of Oasis and britpop: the Stevenage station where the procession to Knebworth House starts, that huge undulating and sloping lawn with the stage at the back. And he motionless, hieratic, sacred.
In '96 Oasis' two live shows at Knebworth were the highest paying show in British history: 250 thousand people in two evenings, 2.6 million tried to book tickets, 5% of the English population. It can be hazarded that if in '96 you were an Englishman between 16 and 40, you tried to go to those concerts. For some it marked the happiest moment in his life, for many the last carefree day before adulthood. He offered everyone the opportunity to feel part of something greater than himself. They made films, books, reports: it was the show that sanctioned the cultural hegemony of britpop, "the show that defined a generation".
Today that that scene no longer exists Knebworth is the private celebration of Liam Gallagher and that generation, which has never stopped believing in him, and in itself. But not only that, because to reach it is that of their children, who for reasons of age have never seen an Oasis concert but in 2022 they are perhaps the majority of Liam's audience. Like a story that starts over. And then there he is again on that stage, fifty years old, even if the shoulder groups are not as epic as then and among these only the Kasabian warm up. Instead, as in '96, the Stone Roses guitarist John Squire joins him on stage for Champagne Supernova: "It is thanks to him that I formed a band", remembers the singer above all to his new fanbase who is studying British classics.
For some, Oasis should have disbanded after those shows, at the peak. It was never an option for Liam: "It was always a matter of life or death, what was I supposed to do? Stay at home and count the money? Fuck it." This is why Knebworth 2022 is the story of a resurrection. Only eight years ago the Beady Eye shipwreck, the post Oasis project, less than a thousand paying at the Orion in Rome. Then the divorce, money problems, depression due to a musical failure that was also human: without a band, without being a rock star, Liam Gallagher no longer felt that he had a purpose in the world. In 2017 the turning point: a new manager and partner, a found daughter, a successful solo record. Seeing him on that stage over the weekend allows everyone to believe in second chances, and that if you go deep into someone's heart you will stay there forever, despite mistakes.
At the weekend London is a sea that flows between British flags and royal banners and the cross flow of Gallagherian faithful between those who go on Friday and those who wait for Saturday. Two tribes that mix in the streets and pubs of the City, including Gallagher's cosplayer haircuts, Oasis t-shirts and Pretty Green, the fashion line he founded. Here everyone talks like him, repeating things like "Biblical", "Celestial", "C'mon you know", slogans known to those who follow him on social networks that have become code words to recognize each other among members of the same sect.
And here everyone calls him by name, just Liam, like one of the family. And maybe it is, not only for the image of a boastful rock star but close to his people who has created himself in this career phase, perhaps the only big one of which among ramblings, blunders and insults we are sure he manages the profile in person. Twitter. But mostly because he is part of their lives, he has been the companion of the savage Saturday nights and psychologist in the days of depression, wedding witness at weddings and hugs at funerals. "Oasis are not a band, they are a generation, they are all that represents us", swear the old fans in the crowd. The younger ones can say the same through Liam. Because Oasis for everyone present on that lawn is Liam, useless to go around it. Noel wrote the songs, but Liam gave them a soul that makes the difference between a great group and one capable of changing your life. The Knebworth of '96 celebrated the epic of five boys from the lower Mancunian class in a year and a half passed from public housing to the largest live in English history. But they dressed like them, behaved like them, frequented their own pubs, talked to them: the young adults of the working class, the unemployed and the rejected. And if for the people Noel has betrayed him, Liam is still the working class hero of British rock, in an alchemy with the public that has no equal.
Perhaps it is easy to find it with the classics of the Oasis repertoire with which the show starts in bursts, immediately firing heavy loads, such as the Rock'n'roll Star synthesis of the band's iconography and incredibly excluded from the setlist 26 years ago, or the breathtaking sequence of cult songs. with which it closes. Less obvious to succeed with the solo pieces that have now been memorized by everyone and have enlisted that new generation of Gallagherian faithful to the cause. The essentiality of the 90s of the scenography, some lights and the big screen, is there to remind us that we are in front of one of the last rock icons. Bringing onto the stage machinery a la James Bond style Coldplay or Muse has never ever served Oasis, it is not useful to Liam, his static, immobile, papal presence is enough. As always, he only moves to get on stage, stands behind the microphone, argues with the sound engineer to have more volume in his voice and hands behind his back gives the verb. "We played in stadiums like we were in the pub, we were the biggest band in the world and we didn't give a damn", he said of Oasis. And if Noel has chosen other paths, pop, calm, for Liam it is still the question of life or death at the time. While he spits out the final lines of Live forever he does it as if it were the last thing he will do in life. And even though it is this way of singing that destroyed his vocal cords, it is a symbol of the connection with his fans: being here, now, together, is the only thing that matters. Then if it has to stop, it will stop. Were it not for this, Liam Gallagher would have been just a singer and Oasis just a band. But among Knebworth's ecstatic gazes, strangers hugging, laughing, crying together, people who have nothing in common but are one soul for 100 minutes, it is clear that there is much, too much, more.

Luca Bortolotti
(La Repubblica, 5 June 2022)

Yeah i admittedly was fearing he’d have blown out his voice after two gigs to 75k+ in three days. But nope, some people at all of them even said Saturday was the best.

Either way, one City fan from Longsight never afraid to speak his mind sure ain’t done yet…..And for a change it’s not my dad 😂

Thank you for that. One of the most astonishing reviews ever .. spot on.

And what a nice touch to bring out a full choir. So great

thanks for sharing/translating. great review, simply because it hits the spot where the UK press is still so class-ridden and blinkered.

Out of interest would Liam have made more ££ off recent live shows (2 knebworth Man City )
Then he will the album ??

After watching a good hour of footage from both nights, he definitely sounds better on the Friday to me.

Very annoying to be honest after going through the difficulty of getting tickets, only for the extra date to be added before the original. 3 big gigs in 4 nights was always going to stretch his voice and it's pretty clear to me if Knebworth was available, the extra date should've been the Sunday, not the Friday.

#Reported

LOL. Telling teacher!!

He was very good on Saturday, I don’t get what the problem is. Talking like he ballsed it up.