Oasis vs Blur: The Pitch Battle

Earlier this week, it was announced that a new theatre production based on the mid-90s rivalry between Britpop big cheeses Oasis and Blur is coming to London's West End next year.

The play, currently being written by author John Niven ( Kill Your Friends , The Second Coming ), will centre around summer 1995's much-hyped 'Battle Of Britpop', when Oasis and Blur went head-to-head in a scrap for the UK's number one single slot with their respective singles Roll With It and Country House .

At the risk of spoiling the suspense for those too young to have lived through this seismic cultural ding-dong, and those who simply couldn't give a flying fuck about the over-hyped dick-swinging, we can reveal that Blur triumphed in this particular clash, but Oasis may have had the last laugh. For while Blur's 1995 album, The Great Escape , went triple platinum in the UK, selling 900,000 copies, Oasis' (What's The Story) Morning Glory set, released that same year, has been certified 17 times platinum, selling a remarkable 5,100,000 copies in the UK alone.

The Gallagher brothers also went on to pick up the British Album Of The Year, the British Video Of The Year (for Wonderwall) and the British Group trophies at the 1996 Brit Awards , while Blur won precisely nothing.

However, this was not the end of the hostilities between the Britpop giants, for on May 12 1996, Oasis and Blur faced off once again, this time on a football pitch in East London.

The occasion was the music industry's second annual Soccer Six tournament, organised to raise funds for the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre. Around 5,000 fans showed up to Mile End stadium for the tournament, and with all due respect to the likes of Reef , Shed Seven, Gene and Jamiroquai, it was immediately evident that, in the eyes of the British media, the competition was all about the mouthy Mancunians and their mock-Cockney rivals coming face-to-face.

Such was the interest in the competition, that British TV news network ITN sent cameras and a reporter along to cover the tournament, and patronise the teenage girls in attendance. They were duly 'rewarded' with the sight of Liam Gallagher briefly getting in Damon Albarn's face for a spot of what football commentators love to call 'handbags'. Ultimately, however, Gallagher's faux -hard man swagger counted for very little, as Blur went on to win the match 2-0.

Reef won the tournament, incidentally. No-one cared.

Watch ITN's archive footage of the sporting encounter below: