DO look back in anger at the urine supernova (Finsbury Park 2002)

Member Name: DeusXM

Product:	Finsbury Park 2002
Date:	31/01/03 (708 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's Oasis, dammit!

Disadvantages: Suitable for football hooligans only

I'd never been to a gig before (tragic, eh?), and so when Oasis announced their Finsbury shows, I thought I'd try and snap up a ticket. Of course I was too late, so I resigned myself to doing my A-levels and a summer of doing bugger all.

Then a mate of mine rang me and said he had tickets for the friday show, and did I want to come?

Is the Pope a guy in a wierd hat who lives in Rome?

So, anyway, 8 o'clock on Friday morning saw us waiting for a coach, and by 1.30, we were in Finsbury, and my first thought was, 'bloody hell, how many people?' 50,000, to be precise. Gates were already open, so we legged it in and bagged a great spot in the middle, not too far from the stage. I then went off on a recce mission to find some programmes, and then I made my first discovery of the day, which I'm sure most of you were aware of anyway. Stuff at gigs is expensive. I paid £8 for a programme, which appears to have been printed on recycled cardboard, and in monochrome, thus saving the printers a fortune. Actually, when I say 'programme', I mean 'list of lyrics for the new Oasis album, which should have been included in the CD cover anyway'. I'd just paid the best part of a tenner for an oversized CD insert. Thanks, Oasis.

We all then sat around for god knows how long, and then at about 3, new Liverpool band, The Coral came on. I know, it must be tough being first on stage, and they sure as hell gave it their best shot, but they suffered from several major flaws.

1. They couldn't have looked or sounded more Scouse if they'd been wearing shellsuits.
2. They also all looked about 12.

Furthermore, their lead singer appears to suffer from a highly localised case of epilepsy in his left leg, and you could tell they were having a bad time of it because the loudest cheer they got was when Andy Bell, Oasis guitarist, stumbled on stage briefly by accident. I really felt sorry for th
e Coral because they weren't bad, and full credit to them for giving it a shot.

Proud Mary were next up, but I don't really remember much of their set because it was at this point i discovered that the crowd here wasn't to pleasant. Somewhere the collective mind of the audience decided it'd be hilarious to start throwing bottles and cups around and hitting people with them. Thankfully, most of the bottles were plastic, but some people had smuggled glass ones in, and rapidly the whole park became a war zone. At any one time there were at least 80 bottles airborne, and this carried on for an hour, so you stood a bloody good chance of getting hit at least once. I know I'm probably sounding like some middle-class ponce, but when you pay 30 quid to stand in a field for 8 hours, you don't really want to have to put up with improvised artillery.

Then we had Swedish band Soundtrack of Our Lives up, and i thought they were quite good, although a little heavy, but i think the crowd had other ideas. Rule #216 of rock n' roll; doesn't matter how good you are, if you're fat with a beard, no-one's going to respect you. Yes, the lead singer looked like a fat ABBA reject, and rather stupidly kept walking right up to the crowd, or onto one of the raised bits by the video wall, where he became a fat bearded target for the bottles, which I suppose took the pressure off me for a bit.

By the time BRMC came on, any thoughts of restraint amongst crowd members had faded away, just like the sun. It was now chucking it down with rain, and there were 50,000 people, tanked up on alcohol, having stood around for 5 hours, and of course, most of them were having trouble with their bladders. Since by this point most people were desperate to save their place, you can guess the rest. The most depressing point of the whole day was when I felt some warm drops on my neck as a bottle sailed past. A bloke in front of me turned round and s
aid, 'That was warm, wasn't it?' I merely nodded. He said something that rhymed with 'clucking punts', and then threw his bottle back across the crowd. I could understand why, but let's be honest, it wasn't exactly going to make the situation get any better, was it?

When the Charlatans came on, things were improving, because most of the crowd actually gave a shit about them. Their set was top notch, but i couldn't really see them because somehow the crowd in front of me appeared to have doubled.

We all then stood round for another hour, and it rained again, which i suppose washed the urine off me. By now, crowd density was just plain stupid. I hadn't seen my chest for 2 hours, and as for my feet, they were just a distant memory and i couldn't remember whether they had actually ever existed. It was at this point when my mind was wandering when suddenly Fuckin' in the Bushes started blaring out.

There's nothing quite like being sandwiched in the middle of the population of a small city, all bouncig up and down. I have to admit, for the first half of the set, I was thinking the spectacularly wussy thought, 'Oh my god, I can't breathe, I'm going to die'. Then I saw that the stewards at the front were lobbing cups of water out. 'I'll have some of that!' I thought, and when Acquiesce started playing and world bounced again, I took advantage of the suddely increased mobility, and managed to do a ruck and drive that the England rugby squad would be proud of, and next thing i knew, i was actually up at the front bar, cup of water going down my neck. I then looked up. Holy shit, I can actually SEE Oasis! Bloody hell, it's actually Liam and Noel Gallagher in front of me! And there's Andy and Gem and Alan and they're playing and...woah....OW! OW! OW! Can't breathe! Gonna spew! I've fallen over and the whole front row's on top of me!

Unfortunat
ely, my original plan of barging to the front on the pretext of dehydration was in fact the plan of choice for everyone else in the whole park. However, it did help me see a new side to the fans. I'd decided that people who like Oasis come in two flavours:

1. 15-18 year-old losers with bad skin (such as myself)
2. Football hooligans

Not a pleasant combination, I'm sure you'll agree, but here's the great thing. Every time there was a mass collapsing in the front row, everyone standingup would be screaming 'Quick! Pick 'em up! Help 'em out!' and the suddenly you'd find yourself being grabbed and hauled to your feet, thus saving you from a re-enactment of Hillsborough. It was then that i decided it would be safer to relocate few rows back, where you could still see the band, and most of the rucks were absorbed by the poor sods in front. It was then that I started to enjoy myself.

Here's the set-list, compiled from my understandably hazy memory:

Fuckin' In the Bushes
Hello
The Hindu Times (Demo version, stunning stuff)
Hung In A Bad Place
Force of Nature
Columbia
Go Let It Out
Morning Glory
Acquiesce
Supersonic (I think)
Stop Crying Your Heart Out
Little by Little
D'Yer know what I mean
Cigarettes and Alcohol
Live Forever
She's Electric

They then did the usual 'we're off now' routine, before coming back on to play:


Don't look back in anger
Some Might Say

Then we had the stunning cover of 'My Generation', with all the great Mod imagery and Union Jack stuff, and at the end, Liam and Noel seemed to be getting on, and the last image we had on the video wall was the two with their arms around each other as Liam dragged Noel off the stage. Classic stuff.

This was a fantastic gig once Oasis got on stage and everyone had calmed down a bit, but I think
that the actual crowd really marred the event initially. As such, I've thought up of some guidelines for Oasis gigs.

Don't wear a leather jacket.
Take a crash helmet.
A plastic bag has a variety of uses, so take one.
Don't go if your relationship with your feet is a particularly poor one.
People with asthma or claustrophobia might want to stay away.
Unless your girlfriend is built like a rugby player, don't bring her.

Apart from that, you'll probably have a great time! Enjoy...I know I did, but I dont think I'll be going to an Oasis gig again.

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