Oasis left me speechless at my first Man City game - the fans lapped it up

1 month ago 63

Manchester City goalkeeper Nicky Weaver had an interesting introduction to the Gallagher brothers when he signed for the club

Liam Gallagher (left) and his brother Noel, singer and guitarist respectively, of British rock band Oasis, at Manchester City's Maine Road stadium, Manchester, 2nd August 1994. (Photo by Kevin Cummins/Getty Images)
Liam and Noel Gallagher pose at Maine Road

It won't beat his memories from Wembley at 1999 but goalkeeper Nicky Weaver will never forget seeing Oasis for the first time. Two years before his shootout heroics set the football club on course for a phenomenal rise in world football, Weaver was experiencing a very different kind of dizzy heights.

The move to City in 1997 had been head-spinning enough with Weaver plucked from Mansfield Town as an 18-year-old to support the more experienced Martyn Margetson and Tommy Wright. This was a major opportunity to settle in at a big club that had just been relegated from the Premier League and were looking to go straight back up.

Before he had played a game for the Blues, Weaver was given an introduction into the unique matchday experience at Maine Road as he saw two men come out onto the pitch and nearly start a riot.

"I went up in the Millennium Suite at the top and when you look over the edge you get a bit nauseous. I always remember my first year I was there I was no.3 goalkeeper and the first game of the season was against Portsmouth," he told the Manchester Evening News in 2023.

"I was at the top of the Kippax watching from one of the boxes and Liam and Noel Gallagher came out before the game. I just thought two blokes had walked out and the Kippax erupted,

"Liam walked up to the away end and stuck two fingers up, they were trying to get on the pitch and kill him and then he walked to the Kippax, got to the halfway line, sparked a fag up and the Kippax just erupted.

"I'm thinking, all he's done is stuck two fingers up and lit a cigarette and the fans have gone wild! How much control could one man have over the stadium?"

A lot as it turned out, with the brothers having played two spectacular gigs at the ground the year before after becoming music superstars. They never lost their love for City and Liam dedicated a song to manager Pep Guardiola at their first Heaton Park gig on Friday night.

Jack Grealish was also among those in attendance as the band's reunion tour after 16 years apart continues to go down a storm.

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