The wood-panelled chambers of the House of Lords aren’t renowned for rock’n’roll hyperbole or as being the place where big music announcements are made.
So when a British peer stood in the upper house and declared that Oasis would perform five back-to-back anniversary gigs at Knebworth House, the music world barely noticed.
The concerts, a re-enactment of pop-culture folklore as famous in the UK as the Beatles’ rooftop gigs or Freddie Mercury’s turn at Live Aid, would mark the 30th anniversary of the group’s record-breaking first visit.
The band played two concerts to 250,000 people at the Hertfordshire stately home in 1996 that sold out in less than 24 hours. It is thought that 2% of the British population applied for tickets.
And on Wednesday, Lady Taylor of Stevenage said: “Next July, I will have the benefit of five days of Oasis concerts in the fantastic venue of Knebworth House, which is just about a mile away from my house.”
The Labour peer added: “I can hear and enjoy [the gigs] from my house, and they represent the important cultural role of music venues and … makes an enormous contribution to our economy.”
Yet hours after she had told peers the concerts were due on, she rowed back on what she had said in the chamber. 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 had been comparing the proposed event with the local festival Old Town Live, during a discussion about the decline of music venues and the fact new bands were finding it harder to move from local gigs to the stadium concerts Oasis are now on.
Representatives of Oasis declined to comment on the record, but the Guardian understands the band’s management is unaware of the suggested five-night stand.
Some people have been holding out hope that the concerts could happen. The current occupant of the property, Henry Lytton-Cobbold, invited the band to play an anniversary gig in 2024.
“Wembley is a reasonable warmup venue for Knebworth,” he joked after the reunion gigs were announced. “Then get ready for a nice huge 30th shindig in 2026.”
When approached by the Guardian after Oasis’s press team had poured cold water on the gigs, Lytton-Cobbold encouraged the band to get in touch.
He said: “Clearly it’s what the people want, clearly it should happen – but let’s get it in the diary, as our summer 2026 weekends are swiftly filling up.”
The dates would be another huge cultural moment for the band, which dominated the summer of 2025 with a reunion tour that included sellout dates at Wembley.
Oasis are now in South Asia for a leg of their world tour, which includes gigs 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 went in at No 1, with the gig seen as the crowning moment in their career.
The two gigs, alongside the Maine Road concerts, also in 1996, have become a key part of Oasis lore. They have inspired documentaries, and Liam Gallagher returned to the stately home in 2022 for a solo gig.
While that performance earned mixed reviews, the reunion tour has been seen as one of the most successful – and lucrative – returns in British music history.
Taylor, the former leader of Stevenage borough council, which neighbours Knebworth in rural Hertfordshire, made the comments in response to the Tory peer Lady McIntosh of Pickering’s concerns that planning legislation threatened the small venues that Oasis and other played on their rise to stadium tours.
“Of the 34 venues Oasis played to launch their careers, only 11 remain. The figures speak for themselves,” McIntosh said.
Ticket sales for new Knebworth shows would be highly scrutinised after the “dynamic pricing” employed when fans tried to buy tickets for the original run of reunion gigs, with tickets originally priced at £148.50, rebranded as “in demand” and soaring to £355.20.
For now the gigs are just rumours, albeit ones started in the upper house – but Oasis fans might want to start checking Hansard, rather than social media, for the next big announcement from their favourite band.
