In August 1991, The M.E.N. gave Oasis their first review in the mainstream press – and predicted their remarkable successThe picture that accompanied Oasis’ first major piece in the M.E.N. , in June 1992

Millions of words have been written about Oasis since Noel and Liam Gallagher announced their highly-anticipated reunion.

But back in August 1991, outside of a small circle of Mancunian music heads and industry insiders, the fledgling band were still unheard of. However the band’s debut gig at the much-missed Boardwalk on Little Peter Street was about to change everything.

‘Oasis will go places’ read the prophetic headline in the Manchester Evening News the following Friday. Underneath was a brief but glowing 98 word write-up from CityLife journalist Penny Anderson.

“They sound different from all the rest,” she wrote as she described an audience ‘full of local pop luminaries’, including Noel’s then bosses Inspiral Carpets. “They’re much harder, rougher and erm… madder, but not so much as to preclude commercial success.

“People were already predicting they could be the next big thing to come out of Manchester. Let’s hope it’s a prediction and not a curse.”

The first mention of Oasis in the M.E.N.

It was the first time the band had been reviewed in the mainstream press. The following June the M.E.N. took the unusual step of giving the still unsigned group a full page feature, including Noel’s first major interview.

And the infamous swagger, attitude and vaulting ambition was on show from the start. At the time the city’s music scene was suffering from a bit of a post-Madchester hangover.

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But an ever-canny Noel was determined to use that to his new band’s advantage.

“If we’d been around in 1989, we would have been signed by now, but we would have been under serious pressure to deliver an album, but in 18 months, we’re going to be five times as good,” he told Penny Anderson.

“We’re going to bide our time until we feel confident enough to come up, and then go for it.”

In June 1992 the M.E.N. took the unusual step of giving the still unsigned group a full page feature, including Noel’s first major interview

And when asked to describe the band’s sound, he coined a new genre and revealed an unlikely love for a 70s glam-rocker turned 80s pop megastar.

“Not pop, not rock but somewhere in-between. Maybe pock?” he said. “I’ve always been into guitars.

“We want to put keyboards on, but keyboard players don’t look cool on stage, they just keep their heads down. There has never been a cool keyboard player, apart from Elton John.”

Of course, what happened next became the stuff of legend. Creation Records boss Alan McGee signed the band after seeing them at Glasgow’s King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Definitely Maybe soundtracked a generation, What’s The Story… became one of the fastest selling albums of all time, while 2.5M fans tried to get tickets for Knebworth, before the whole thing collapsed into a series of fights, slanging matches and bitter recriminations.

But before all that, came the story of five lads from south Manchester trying to make it big. After the band split in 2009, Ms Anderson, a near neighbour of Noel’s in early 90s, revealed how she’d been bumped into the song-writer a the day after Oasis signed their record deal, and recalled what it was like to witness the birth of one of the UK’s biggest-ever bands.

Writing for the Guardian, she said: “Noel told me how Alan McGee had barged backstage after their now-legendary gig at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, and signed them on the spot. I threatened him with battery if he was lying.

“I interviewed a still-reeling Noel that day, alongside an admittedly unpredictable but otherwise sweet and pleasant Liam, who tempered his obvious glee by striding around in a show of brash, comedy bravado.

“I witnessed their live debut. No matter what you think of them, they had the tunes, and even for an audience of roughly 25, Liam exhibited that trademark swagger, as if he was headlining Glastonbury, not the Boardwalk.

“Geoff Travis of Rough Trade checked out the long-forgotten support band, leaving soon after. My snippet in the M.E.N. was headlined ‘Oasis Are Going Places’. They were, and they did.”