A PRIEST who obtained last-minute tickets to see Oasis along with his son said that he “felt like God was involved”.
The Revd Huw Thomas, Priest-in-Charge of St Michael’s, Flixton, in Manchester diocese, told the Church Times that his son, Billy, and he “had the night of [their] lives” after a girl gave them her tickets.
Seeing the band play live was especially poignant for Huw, as he and his late wife had been devoted fans and had introduced their Billy to the music they each loved.
Mr Thomas, who had purchased seated tickets to see the 2 brothers perform in Wembley, said that he sold them when a “friend of a friend” offered him a pair of standing tickets for Heaton Park, in Manchester.
Yet, when the concert date got closer, the friend “went quiet and didn’t reply to phone calls or texts”. Mr Thomas thinks that he “should have sold them at the next price [to someone else].
“So I used to be gutted. I had just been left within the lurch. I had to return to my lad and say, ‘We’ve now not got any tickets,’ he’s crying his eyes out, and I used to be panicking not knowing what to do.”
Mr Thomas spent three weeks attempting to obtain tickets but “was getting no where” because the ticket prices went “sky high”.
Like many other fans, Mr Thomas and Billy went to “Gallagher Hill”, a sloping area in Heaton Park on condition that name by fans for its view over looking the concert venue, to listen to the performance. “It was good, however it wasn’t quite the experience.”
In a last-minute try and get in, last Wednesday, Mr Thomas and Billy stood outside the concert venue holding an indication that read: “My son grew up in his cot listening to baby Oasis lullabies. The music never left him. He knows every word to each track. Please help him to grasp his dream and watch the very best band he’s ever known.” He said that, although fellow fans were sympathetic, they couldn’t help.
“People kept coming over, giving us free alcohol, but nobody had any tickets.”
Yet, just before the concert began, a girl saw them and offered them her tickets free of charge, as she had a family emergency to take care of. “I felt like God was involved, the moment she caught us within the midst of her own crisis and problems,” Mr Thomas said. “She thought beyond herself and her own pain to assist out others.”
Billy said: “I used to be feeling a bit shocked because we got in last-minute, however it was just sensible. It was an incredible atmosphere.” He had had hopes of getting in to see the band “at the beginning once we were first there”, but by “half an hour before they got here on the stage”, he had nearly given up.
Mr Thomas favourite Oasis song is “Live Forever”, played at his wife’s funeral: she died of cancer several years ago. Billy also counts that amongst his favourites, together with “D’Yer Wanna Be a Spaceman?” and “Cast No Shadow”.
“It was a dream come true,” Mr Thomas said. “I just felt someone was watching over us. I felt my wife was an element of the night. From the minute we got there, and throughout the gig, we just cried our eyes out, like tears of joy. We were surrounded by a lot love.”
