![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753524616_917_w=1024.jpeg\")
Members of Cast \u2013 L_R Liam Tyson, Peter Wilkinson and John Power <\/p>\nCast return to Edinburgh to support Oasis for the \u201cbiggest support slot of the year, if not the decade\u201d.<\/p>\n
John Power discussed his first meeting with Liam Gallagher, before the singer\u2019s fame, when Gallagher was just a teenager. Power admits it was a \u201cstrange atmosphere\u201d as he was going to see The La\u2019s, the band he had just left. \u201cThis lad came up to me and asked for a smoke, I told him to p**s off, it was Liam Gallagher. \u00a0<\/p>\n
A couple of years later, Oasis was doing a gig in Liverpool and had appeared on The Word, playing Supersonic. Liam came over and said: \u201cI asked you for a smoke and you told me to p**s off, and we just both burst out laughing.\u201d <\/p>\n
There\u2019s been a long history between Oasis and John Power. The \u201cScouse-Irish\u201d songwriter and front-man of Cast was a teenager himself when he first joined The La\u2019s and mercurial musical magus Lee Mavers back in 1986. \u201cAt the height of it, it was like nourishment,\u201d explains Power of the band\u2019s mystical sea shanties, Mersey melodies and spirited flamenco rhythms, \u201cHow can you not be blown away by songs like Son of Gun when you are that age and learning the guitar. There were Biblical highs, there was something eternal within The La\u2019s, and with Lee\u2019s songwriting, the waters were crystal clear and you could baptise yourself within them. I couldn\u2019t play before that, with those songs, they were the first bass lines I played and understood. It all felt very natural, Lee was like a mentor and a massive influence on my songwriting, and it was a beautiful part of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
While The La\u2019s made only one self-titled album released in 1990 featuring their hit There She Goes, Power would go on to form Cast two years later. During his time in The La\u2019s he began to write what would soon be a string of hit singles, among them Alright and Sandstorm would eventually appear on Cast\u2019s debut album All Change. <\/p>\n
Later this year the band will tour the 30th anniversary of the LP but before then they are about to embark on as Power suggests, \u201cthe biggest tour of the year, if not the decade\u201d with Oasis. I suggest to him it\u2019s like a gathering of the clans for the last Kings of Ireland. \u201cI like that,\u201d he laughs, \u201cwe all have those working-class Irish connections so there has to be something in the lineage or the blood, it\u2019s too common for it not to be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noel Gallagher is quoted as saying Oasis came to finish what The La\u2019s started. As Power suggests Oasis gave Cast \u201ca bump\u201d when asking them to play support in May 1994 at The Venue in Newcross. \u201cI remembered Noel from when he was a roadie with Inspiral Carpets back when The La\u2019s played at G-Mex in Manchester, we were always zig-zagging and crossing paths. Cast got a record deal from that gig in Newcross, and then Noel would give us a shout for gigs like Irvine Beach, Loch Lomond and Knebworth.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s fair to say that Loch Lomond often gets overlooked for Knebworth, but author Simon Spence points to the importance of the band\u2019s links with Scotland, even using a shot from one of the gigs for the limited edition version of his book Feeling Supersonic: From Manchester To Britpop. <\/p>\n
Spence said: \u201cOasis have strong and deep links to Scotland, which explains the fervent reception they get here and the sense among fans that Oasis are part of them. Liam and Noel\u2019s mum Peggy lived in Glasgow before moving to Manchester and, crucially, the band\u2019s big break, the infamous meeting with Alan McGee that led to them being signed to his label Creation in 1993, also took place in Scotland at Glasgow\u2019s King Tut\u2019s Wah Wah Hut. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor many, including McGee, their best ever gig during their 90s heyday, and one of the defining moments of Britpop, took place in Scotland, on the shores of Loch Lomond in Balloch Castle Country Park, where they played to 80,000 over two rapturous nights. \u00a0After Manchester, Scotland is the band\u2019s second home. Noel and Liam have both spoken with pride of their Scottish fans who have remained ferociously loyal over the years. Liam described them as \u2018the f**king bollocks\u2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe band\u2019s two previous shows at Murrayfield were epochal, for different reasons, and these three nights are set to reignite joyous memories for both the band and the fans (if not the local council). Remarkably, after a 15-year absence, the bond between the band and their Scottish fans has only strengthened. Expect to party like it\u2019s 1999 again; Hogmanay comes early this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Power is only too familiar with what it\u2019s like to play alongside Oasis in Scotland. It was another gig here that helped put the band on the map. Inertia had set in for The La\u2019s with Lee Mavers halting progress at every stage, partly due to his obsession with the debut album\u2019s sound and a refusal to play or record new songs. Cast soon managed to build on a head of steam with a memorable sonic force during performances that buried those previous disappointments. Power said: \u201cBefore it happens, you are working spiritually and physically towards a dream. As a band, we were all connected to it and cutting it live, through that, you are discovering this new ground, it\u2019s like heading towards the promised land. We knew we would see it, and we were getting there, which gave us that strength. When you do break, it\u2019s all about maintaining it like with Oasis or U2 you go into another stratosphere but for most of us having a top ten record, getting on Top of the Pops and meeting the fans. That\u2019s as good as it\u2019s ever going to be and that\u2019s more than most bands ever get a whiff of. At that time you can feel it happening and no one can get in the way or tell you otherwise.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cast and The Verve both made an impact on fans as support at the Irvine Beach shows. As Cast walked off stage Noel Gallagher remarked that it was \u201clike a religious experience\u201d. The line was picked up by a journalist and quoted in the press. \u201cFine Time was massive in Scotland before we had a hit with it,\u201d added Power. \u201cPeople would go off their nut.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oasis gifted coveted support slots to both bands at key gigs, it was fitting that both The Verve\u2019s frontman Richard Ashcroft and Cast are both invited thirty years later as support for the long-awaited reunion. <\/p>\n
Power said: \u201cI think we are all really looking forward to seeing Noel and Liam walk on that stage together again in Edinburgh. Cast is in such a great place and we\u2019ve got momentum, it\u2019s going to be a big year. The line-up is stratospheric with Richard Ashcroft as well \u2013 it\u2019s real northern soul rock n\u2019 roll, and here we all are thirty years later. It was easy to miss things back then because I was always looking forward. When the Oasis tour becomes the present time I\u2019ll be in the eye of the hurricane and right in the presence of it in all these places like Dublin and Edinburgh and the rest of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next year will mark forty years since Power joined The La\u2019s, he now performs tracks such as Son Of A Gun, taking him full circle. \u00a0\u201cThe ifs and buts could go on forever, but those two voices together\u201d, he says of the hypnotic connection with Mavers, \u201cI did some of the best songs I ever wrote with Lee, together we were a force to be reckoned with, it\u2019s like letting the genie out of the bottle. I hope we can get together for a cup of tea and play together again, even if it\u2019s just in his kitchen\u201d. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cast will support Oasis in Edinburgh on August 8, 9, and 12 along with Richard Ashcroft.<\/p>\n
Feeling Supersonic: From Manchester To Britpop by Simon Spence is out now<\/p>\n
Members of Cast \u2013 L_R Liam Tyson, Peter Wilkinson and John Power <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753524616_368_w=1024.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/w=685.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n