On a glorious morning in late summer, Liam Gallagher and Patsy Kensit stepped onto the tarmac at Cork Airport and set off for the Aer Lingus jet tarrying at the edge of the runway. Kensit proceeded with the practiced, unblinking stride of someone who had spent much of her adult life fleeing press photographers. Liam, by contrast, wore a big, ragged grin and walked with a cheery swagger, a rather scruffy-looking backpack swinging from one shoulder.
Dashing alongside Britpop’s most glamorous couple on that sunny day 25 years ago were a seasoned photographer and a rookie journalist. Gallagher and Kensit were moving so fast it was hard to fire off a question. But finally Liam turned, smiled from behind his John Lennon sunglasses and said something cheery.
In my note-book I wrote it down as “top gig”. And then they were up the stairs and away. Noel appeared a few minutes later.
The photographer ran straight over and encouraged Noel to give a thumbs up. The elder Gallagher assented. He looked on top of the world.
And with good reason. The previous evening, on August 15, 1996, Oasis had played the second of two sold-out shows at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. And the weekend prior, they’d sang to a cumulative audience of 250,000 at Knebworth House in Hertfordshire.
For good measure, they’d also performed a brace of shows at Loch Lomond in Scotland. This, then, was the week Oasis were unofficially crowned the biggest band of their generation. It was the pinnacle of their imperial ph.