Kent looks back without anger as Oasis reunite

As Oasis announce comeback tour, a venue Tunbridge Wells recounts their memories with the rock'n'roll star.   Finn Macdiarmid reports.

Transcript

00:00It's been 15 years since the brothers split, almost to the day, with Noel posting a short

00:05message on August 28th 2009 that he had quit the worldwide phenomenon known as Oasis.

00:13Now they're back after all this time, announcing a run of 14 shows in the UK and Ireland next

00:18summer, saying, the guns have fallen silent, the stars have aligned, the great wait is

00:22over, come and see, it will not be televised.

00:26Now when you think of Oasis, you mostly think of Manchester and Wembley Arena, but 30 years

00:31ago the Gallagher brothers had a humble start, right here in a converted toilet block in

00:35Tunbridge Wells.

00:37Well here at the Forum, 30 years ago in Tunbridge Wells, two brothers, Liam and Noel Gallagher,

00:42performed under the name Oasis.

00:44They were the opener for a band from Scotland called White Out, and little did they, or

00:48the band themselves know, that they were going to be going straight to stardom when they

00:53released their first single, Supersonic, shortly after their performance.

00:57Despite the low turnout and mostly mild reaction they got, some, including the Forum's co-founder,

01:03remember the gig for what it did for the local music scene and beyond.

01:06Oasis coming did genuinely change that venue in a really significant way.

01:11Suddenly everybody wanted to play there.

01:13But for the 116 people who were there when Oasis played, yeah, you got to meet the band,

01:18just like you can get to meet the band every Friday and Saturday, Thursday night now.

01:23It's a space to be around musicians and they were part of that.

01:27Rather famously, the bit that I do remember is that Noel couldn't get a drink at about

01:30five past midnight because we'd closed the bar, and insisted on letting us know that

01:35when he was big and famous, he'd be coming back to the venue to buy it just so he could

01:39sack us all.

01:40With Oasis performing there, the Forum became a great place for young, aspiring artists

01:44to perform, and created a community that still goes on today.

01:48Not too long after their stint at the Forum, they became a defining part of the 90s and

01:52early noughties, inspiring a new generation of music, including tribute acts like Kent's

01:57own Slide Oasis.

01:59Look, I think those tickets are going to sell out in minutes on Saturday morning.

02:02I'm going to be one of those people on the internet hoping to get one.

02:07And I think it's captured the zeitgeist.

02:09I've genuinely received more messages this morning about Oasis than I normally do on

02:13my birthday, which probably says more about me than anything else.

02:17Well, now that they are definitely maybe coming back, fans will hope the band will live for

02:22ever and that they don't go away.

02:24Finn McDermid for KMTV in Tunbridge Wells.