Not many people can say Queen and Oasis have played in their back garden. Henry Lytton Cobbold can.

Forty years ago, on 9 August 1986, Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon brought Queen’s sold-out European tour to a close at Knebworth House in Hertfordshire.

Lytton Cobbold, now the owner of the estate, was 24 at the time and remembers the suitably rock-and-roll celebrations backstage afterwards, complete with fairground rides and naked women mud wrestling.

“They had a lot to celebrate,” he recalls. “They’d really smashed it live the year before… And then of course it became legendary for various rather sadder reasons.”

Five years later, Mercury died from bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS. His performance in front of 125,000 people at Knebworth was his final time on stage with Queen.

Lytton Cobbold says: “He was at the top of his game and nobody knew about his illness at that point.

“The other thing, of course, that makes it legendary is this bizarre fact that although the field was full of screens nobody pressed record.

“The only record we’ve got of the show is a little bit of news footage from the beginning and then a really bizarre bootleg that a Dutch guy took on his little home video camera of a screen at the back of the audience.

“I mean, imagine going to a Freddie Mercury gig and spending the whole time at the back of the audience filming the screen with your wobbly video camera.”

Lytton Cobbold never met the band, unlike some of the other stars who had played Knebworth in earlier years.

“Back in the old days, they didn’t used to helicopter off the minute they’d done the encore, they would come up and chill at the house until the roads cleared.”

Knebworth Park has hosted live music since 1974. Pink Floyd were the first major act to play the venue in 1975, with the Rolling Stones following a year later.

He said: “My mum and dad generally loved a party.

“I mean my dad’s birthday was on 14 July, and every summer holiday began with a big party and the concerts just gave us that encore party. “

Genesis, Led Zeppelin, The Beach Boys and Cliff Richard were among the names to play Knebworth in the 1970s and 80s, but it was the 90s when guitars in Hertfordshire were heard around the world.

There was a lot happening in the UK in the summer of 1996: England hosted Euro 96, the Spice Girls made their debut, Dolly the sheep was cloned, and Oasis played two nights at Knebworth to 250,000 people.

“Our catering company did the bars in 96 and that was one of our biggest trading days ever… Quite a lot of beer was drunk that day,” he recalls.

The band slept backstage in Winnebagos. Then, on the Monday morning, a dishevelled Noel Gallagher appeared at the back door.

Lytton Cobbold says: “We’ve got a four poster bath as part of our main guest room, our old Tudor guest room, and so my dad brought him a bottle of champagne in the bath.

“Subsequently in interviews he said that he was brought champagne by a liveried servant- it was actually my dad!”

Oasis only released recordings from those shows in recent years, but their Knebworth legacy has stayed strong.

Two turrets attached to the house, named Noel and Liam, were built using income from the 1996 shows.

Lytton Cobbold said: “The rest of this house is still falling down and you know, we’ve got massive repairs and bills still to pay to to do the rest of the house.

“So, we do need them to come back and help us fix the rest of the roof!”

Earlier this week, SJM Concerts, the promoter behind Oasis’ 2025 reunion, was granted a licence to host large events at Knebworth.

However Lytton Cobbold insists “there is nothing set yet”.

He adds: “I’m confident that Oasis will play Knebworth again, and I would love it to be next year, I would love it to be whenever they want to come, whenever feels right for them.”

When asked if it would be fitting to announce a return on Monday, the 30th anniversary of their Knebworth shows, he agrees, but says his wife handles bookings and he does not know what is planned.

“They have got a documentary coming out in September and they’ll want to make a bit of buzz around their documentary. If they want to make some announcements, I would have thought that would be more of the time to do it.

“We’re delighted that our local authorities are supporting the licence, that’s great, fingers crossed that all comes together, but it’s not happening as of today.”

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