'I had to photograph my home's Oasis moment'

Yahoo

16-07-2025

"It feels like more than a gig. It feels like a bit of a Mancunian moment and a bit of a happening."
After decades of capturing the biggest names in music, photographer Emma Gibbs has seen most things, but the arrival of Oasis on her doorstep has been something different.
She was not intending to work the huge homecoming gigs at Heaton Park, but seeing the masses of fans milling around the streets near her Prestwich home, she felt she had to record it.
She said it was "a mix of people with tickets and people without tickets, all in this same place enjoying the moment".
Spurred on by the good vibes, Gibbs grabbed her camera and she joined the legions of fans on the borders of Heaton Park to document what she called the "really lovely atmosphere".
Across the afternoon and evenings of Friday and Saturday, she captured everything from Oasis-themed motorway signs and packed Metrolink platforms to people singing and dancing in the streets and ticketless fans gathering on what has been called Gallagher Hill, a vantage point where it was possible to see a small portion of the stage.
She said the atmosphere in the Bury suburb was fantastic, with the camaraderie between fans being boosted by the baking sunshine - and the need to pop on a bucket hat for protection.
"Standing on Bury Old Road, I just saw so many people in T-shirts, and new T-shirts that they'd gone out and bought," she said.
"It's this sense of uniform, of everybody going 'I'm part of the tribe and I'm going to wear the T-shirt as well'.
"Everybody wants to identify themselves."
She said she found fans from near and far soaking up the atmosphere, regardless of whether they had a ticket for the show.
"There was a couple of lads and they were like 'we didn't get tickets and so we've come down from Newcastle' and there were people from Wales," she said.
"I just thought it was extraordinary how people had travelled... just to be still part of that experience.
"People were in the street and dancing - there were a lot of kids and older kids and and then adults.
"It was multi-generational and everybody coming together."
After decades of photographing Manchester's music scene, Gibbs said she had never seen that kind of buzz around a gig before.
"There's been quite that atmosphere of people going: 'I'm going to go and stand outside the gate and sing along'. That's a new one for me," Gibbs said.
"I don't feel disappointed that I'm not photographing the band.
"Weirdly, I'm enjoying photographing the fans."
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