It was 30 years ago today,
Man City taught the band to play,
They’ve been going in and out of style,
But the brothers might just stay a while,
So may I introduce to you,
The act dressed in sky blue….
With all due respect to the Beatles, there is a very special musical connection to Manchester City. And in 2026, we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of a seminal moment in the history of that connection, one that elevated both rock ‘n’ roll and football.
In 1996, a band that was formed in Manchester called Oasis played two nights at Maine Road. Roughly 80,000 fans passed through the turnstiles across the two sold-out shows. It remains one of the defining moments of rock, and one of the greatest moments in the life of the football club.
Why it mattered to the band
The founders of Oasis, Noel and Liam Gallagher, grew up in Burnage, just a few miles from Maine Road, and had supported City since childhood. By April 1996, Oasis were just six months removed from releasing (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, an album that had transformed them from an interesting Manchester group into one of the biggest acts in the UK.
The Maine Road concerts were not only the first time Oasis had topped a bill of that size but doing it at City’s ground made the feat personal instead of simply commercial. Noel later recalled sceptics telling him a stadium show in Manchester in April was asking for rain. But that didn’t matter for Oasis.
Welsh band Manic Street Preachers and Birmingham’s Ocean Colour Scene opened for Oasis. The stage was constructed using a crane borrowed from the Manchester shipyards (with 51 trucks required to get the rig in). The whole weekend was filmed and later released as the video …There and Then.
Later that summer, Oasis would play an even bigger show at Knebworth, rocking out for two nights in front of 250,000 fans. But Knebworth was the commercial summit. Maine Road was the emotional one. It was the night the Gallaghers got to play their own ground.
Why it mattered to City
For City, the concerts landed at a strange time. The 1995-96 season was awful on the pitch. In fact, just one week after the Oasis concerts, the club were relegated from the Premier League.
The 1996 shows underscored a strong cultural association between Oasis and Manchester City that has grown over three decades. Two years ago, Noel Gallagher and City collaborated on a special-edition Definitely City jersey inspired by the 30th anniversary of the band’s Definitely Maybe album.
Last May, when Pep Guardiola stepped down, Liam Gallagher posted on social media: “HE CAME HE CONQUERED LONG LIVE THE KING THANK YOU FOR THE GOOD TIMES PEP MCFC CTID LG x.”
Three decades after their Maine Road shows, the connection between Oasis and City remains a fixture of both the band’s mythology and the club’s identity, a reminder of a weekend when a football stadium in Moss Side briefly became the centre of British music.
