What’s the story? British counterpart says Oasis will play Knebworth – then backs down | oasis

The wood-panelled House of Lords chambers are not known for their over-the-top rock and roll music or for being a place where big music announcements are made.

So when one of their British peers stood up in the Senate and announced that Oasis would play five consecutive anniversary concerts at Knebworth House, the music world barely noticed.

The concerts, reenactments of pop culture folklore almost as famous in the UK as the Beatles’ rooftop concert or Freddie Mercury’s turn at Live Aid, will mark the 30th anniversary of the record-breaking group’s first visit.

The band played two concerts in front of 250,000 people at their stately Hertfordshire home in 1996 and tickets sold out in less than 24 hours. It is believed that 2% of the British population applied for tickets.

On Wednesday, Lady Taylor of Stevenage said: “Next July I will have the benefit of five days of Oasis concerts at the wonderful venue of Knebworth House, which is about a mile from my house.”

The Labor counterpart added: “I can listen and enjoy [the gigs] From my home, it represents the important cultural role of music venues and… makes an enormous contribution to our economy.

However, hours after this statement, she retracted what she said in the hall.

She told The Guardian: “I was speaking hypothetically following speculation that they would play Knebworth again as they did in August 1996. I understand the band have not confirmed this.”

The peer said she was comparing the proposed event to local festival Old Town Live, during a discussion about the decline of music venues and the fact that new bands were finding it difficult to transition from local gigs to the stadium gigs Oasis now plays.

Oasis representatives declined to comment, but The Guardian has learned that the band’s management are unaware of the proposed five-night hiatus.

Some people were holding out hope that concerts could be held. The current occupant of the estate, Henry Lytton Cobbold, has invited the band to play an anniversary concert in 2024.

“Wembley is a good warm-up place for Knebworth,” he joked after the reunion concerts were announced. “Then get ready for the huge 30th party in 2026.”

When contacted by The Guardian after Oasis’ press team poured cold water on gigs, Lytton-Cobbold encouraged the band to get in touch.

“This is clearly what people want, and it clearly needs to happen – but let’s put it in the diary, as the weekends in the summer of 2026 are filling up fast,” he said.

The dates will mark another huge cultural moment for the band, who dominated the summer of 2025 with a reunion tour that included sold-out dates at Wembley.

Oasis are now in South Asia on part of their world tour, which includes concerts in South Korea and Japan. Their concerts this year are the first time Liam and Noel Gallagher have performed together since 2009.

The band played Knebworth in 1996, a year after the release of their second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? Which took first place, as the concert was considered the crowning moment in their career.

The two concerts, along with the Maine Road concerts, also in 1996, have become an essential part of Oasis lore. They’ve inspired documentaries, and Liam Gallagher returns to the stately home in 2022 for a solo gig.

While this performance received mixed reviews, the reunion tour has been viewed as one of the most successful – and lucrative – returns in British music history.

Taylor, the former leader of Stevenage City Council, which neighbors Knebworth in rural Hertfordshire, made the comments in response to Tory peer Lady Mackintosh of Pickering’s concerns that planning legislation threatened the small venues that Oasis and others played as they went on stadium tours.

Of the 34 venues Oasis played to begin their career, only 11 remain. “The numbers speak for themselves,” McIntosh said.

Ticket sales for the new Knebworth shows will be heavily scrutinized following the “dynamic pricing” used when fans tried to buy tickets for the original run of the reunion gigs, with tickets originally priced at £148.50, rebranded as “On Demand” and rising to £355.20.

For now, the gigs are still just rumours, despite having started in the Senate – but Oasis fans may want to start checking Hansard, rather than social media, for the next big announcement from their favorite band.