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If you’re an Oasis fan, I’ve found the definitive coffee table book for you. Authored by Daniel Rachel and photographer Jill Furmanovsky, Oasis Knebworth takes a fond look back at the weekend that a generation will never forget: Two nights in Herfordshire’s Knebworth Park with Oasis as headliners.

While Oasis gave Furmanovsky unfettered access to photograph them from 1994 to 2009, readers will discover that many of the book’s images have been released for the first time.

Oasis Knebworth is formatted to showcase the photography first and foremost, broken up by a handful of stories provided by Rachel. Award-winning photographer Furmanovsky has photographed some of the greats, including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, James Brown, The Clash, Bob Dylan and The Pretenders over a highly-successful 50-year career.

According to Oasis press officer Johnny Hopkins, the band could have done a week of gigs and still not have satisfied demand, such was their popularity back in the mid-90’s, where a whopping 40% of UK households owned a copy of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?.

Readers will get an inside peek at rehearsals, backstage areas, production, candid chats between the band members, and folks behind the scenes. As a Blur fan (vs. Oasis), I was intrigued by this book, focused on a pair of UK shows that saw audiences of a quarter million, making it the largest outdoor gig ever staged by a band in Britain.

All 250,000 tickets sold out within nine hours (at a rate of over 20 sales a second), plus a further 80,000 tickets for two additional concerts. This was pre-Internet too. Had there been online sales, these shows would have likely sold out in five minutes!

As the band didn’t have the patience to pose for photos, many of the shots were taken on the fly, which is what the band felt captured their spirit the best (Furmanovsky was able to quickly grab a few posed images between rehearsal sessions).

This book will bring readers up to speed with five working-class lads who, in just over three years, went from being discovered at Glasgow’s King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut to conquering the world. I was lucky enough to have spotted their name in that very venue while visiting Glasgow five years back.

Oasis Knebworth is available via Octopus Books (CAD $55/USD $50/UK £40) in both hardcover and e-book formats.