Oasis - Live in Oslo (8th September 1997)

Oasis
Location: Oslo, Norway
Venue: Spektrum
8th September 1997
Audience Recording

Following on from the U2 support gigs, this is where the proper Be Here Now Tour begins. The majority of shows across this tour range from great to excellent, and I personally cite the 1997 leg of this tour the final shows where Oasis sounded truly unstoppable night after night. This ‘97 leg also had the most extravagant stage and lighting rigs the band ever put on tour, as the stage is filled with objects from the Be Here Now album cover such as the clock, the Rolls Royce (which doubles as Alan’s drum platform) and the inflatable globe. Though not included on the cover, a massive red telephone box doubled as the band’s entryway and exit from the stage, which Liam would also use once Noel takes over on Magic Pie. The keyboard players would be playing behind a mock-up of a pub’s bar, and Noel would later recollect how the pitcher on the keyboard was operated by pulling one of the levers on the counter. Depending on what size the venue was or if the crew didn’t have enough time to assemble the stage, bits and bobs of the stage were not assembled on some nights. The lighting rig is a circular crest shape with four corners that meet at the highest point of the arena roof. By the North American leg in 1998 however, all this would be dropped for a far more bland stage show.

This show is solid enough, with the band sounding tight, however I feel they are holding back a bit as the audience (at least from what I hear on this recording) aren’t very enthusiastic for the first half of the show and that is exemplified when you look at gigs from the U.K. However, this could just be down to the sound mixing, as for some reason this tour infamously has Bonehead almost always turned down in turn of the keyboards, which makes most of the Be Here Now concert tapes sound flat, and you can only really hear him on high-quality soundboard recordings from this time. Here we have the first performances of several more Be Here Now songs, those being Stay Young, Stand By Me, Magic Pie and All Around The World. Unfortunately these set-lists aren’t as creative as the August ‘96 set-lists but they are still very enjoyable nonetheless. Oasis’ new opening song is Be Here Now replacing Acquiesce which is now the final song of the set. Of course things in this set can be improved upon but I did like the ambition to show off plenty of the Be Here Now songs throughout 1997 (even if some of these aren’t the best choices) and I always enjoy listening to it.

Despite the setback of a not-too-interested audience, this remains an essential listen as it has the first performances of the Be Here Now songs (though more would be added later on into the tour) The band put on a nice performance overall, with Noel really playing well on some songs like Don’t Look Back in Anger and Live Forever and he copes well on the new ones too. Speaking of Live Forever, Liam dedicates the song to Princess Diana who had died just over a week before the start of this tour. Liam himself sounds very fresh here having 3 months off touring (especially on the first few songs), and though it would soon begin to falter as the tour continued his voice here is quite clean for the time period with Supersonic and Champagne Supernova being great performances by him. It should also be said that this is the last known version of Be Here Now with Liam singing the “please sit down, you make me feel giddy” line, still in the wrong verse, but for whatever reason he’d soon omit the line entirely.

Be Here Now - 0:00
Stay Young (first performance) - 5:22
Stand By Me (first public performance) - 10:48
Supersonic - 16:53
Some Might Say - 22:23
Roll With It - 28:11
D’You Know What I Mean? - 32:30
Magic Pie (first performance) - 39:23
Don’t Look Back In Anger - 46:37
Wonderwall - 51:56
Live Forever - 56:10
It’s Getting Better (Man!!) - 1:01:34
Champagne Supernova - 1:08:35
Fade In-Out (first performance) - 1:18:29
All Around The World (first public performance) - 1:25:52
Acquiesce - 1:35:53

A big thanks to the taper and uploaders!

Видео Oasis - Live in Oslo (8th September 1997) канала Shakermaker