Revealed: Unseen pictures from Oasis' first Edinburgh gig, and the night out with Liam that never happened

Noel Gallagher | Rolf Rae-Hansen

Since Oasis announced they were going to reform and tour to Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium in August next year, everyone's been reminiscing about the big gigs.

Oasis in 1994 | Rolf Rae-Hansen

However, there was a time when they did tiny ones. Back in April 1994, before they released their debut single Supersonic and when they were still virtually unknown, they played their first ever Edinburgh gig at La Belle Angele, in the Cowgate.

My husband, Rolf Rae-Hansen, went along, with his SLR camera, to take a few black and white pictures of this up-and-coming band for the Edinburgh University student magazine.

He'd managed to blag some free tickets, via a friend of a friend who worked at Creation Records - the label Oasis were signed to from 1993 onwards.

Apparently, the gig was very quiet, and Liam Gallagher, then 22, noticed my other half taking photos at the front and seemed to enjoy the attention.

Liam playing the tambourine | Rolf Rae-Hansen

“He was posing like there were 40,000 folk in the room,” my husband says. “He had so much attitude already, and was like a proper rock star”.

After the gig, Liam asked him who the pics were for and if Rolf could recommend any good pubs in the city. He also asked if he wanted to come backstage to hang out with the band and was super friendly and chatty. 

Sadly, at this point, Noel appeared from the wings, and shuffled his little brother away.

These photographs, and a bunch of contact sheets, are all that's left of a potentially very good night out, which was scuppered at the very last moment. 

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