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Oasis Leisure Centre - Live Music Venue in Swindon

The Oasis Leisure Centre (commonly called Swindon Oasis) was an entertainment and sports complex just outside the town centre of Swindon, Wiltshire, England, with facilities including a lagoon swimming pool, gym, bar, and concert hall. It was in operation from 1976 to 2020.

Venue
Oasis Leisure Centre
Town
Swindon, GB
Capacity
3,000

The Oasis Leisure Centre (commonly called Swindon Oasis) was an entertainment and sports complex just outside the town centre of Swindon, Wiltshire, England, with facilities including a lagoon swimming pool, gym, bar, and concert hall. It was in operation from 1976 to 2020. The building was designed by Peter Sargent of Gillinson, Barnett and Partners for Thamesdown Borough Council, on part of the site of the former railway works. It was constructed in 1974-5 at a cost of around £3 million and opened on 1 January 1976. Its 45-metre (148 ft) diameter glazed dome, rising from a grass berm, is described by Historic England as "a sophisticated and architecturally striking structure which provides a dramatic setting for the pool within". The leisure pool was designed to appeal to families, irregular in shape, overlooked by balconies and decorated with artificial rocks and planting troughs. There were waterslides and a wave machine. Alterations in 1987 added three enclosed waterslides, at the time the longest in the country, which were accessed from a tower outside the dome. In that year the Oasis was Wiltshire's most popular tourist attraction. The concert hall became a major venue for touring acts and held approximately 3,000 people standing, or 1,620 seated. In the 1990s, the rock band Oasis took their name from the leisure centre after lead singer Liam Gallagher suggested it, having seen it listed as a venue on an Inspiral Carpets tour poster in the childhood bedroom he shared with his brother Noel. 20 years later, in 2011, Liam performed there for the first time with his new band Beady Eye. In October 2009, singer Morrissey was taken to hospital after collapsing during his opening song while performing at the Oasis. The site is owned by Swindon Borough Council, which replaced Thamesdown in 1997. It was announced on 18 November 2020 that the leisure centre would be permanently closed, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2021 the Twentieth Century Society place