In a bizarre incident at the Virgin Music Festival on Sunday, the evening’s last performance by Oasis was interrupted when Noel Gallagher was attacked on-stage.

Midway through the band’s set during a performance of “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory”, a man who looked like he was in his 30’s rushed came out from the backstage area and knocked the lead singer to the ground. The intruder was taken care of immediately as security guards pushed him to the ground and escorted him out of the building. Shockingly, the band shed any too-cool-for-school criticism by only taking a 15-minute break and then returning to close out the show, delighting nervous fans who had witnessed the altercation.

According to police, the intruder has been charged with assault. After the show, Virgin spokespeople blamed a “security breach” for the unfortunate occurrence. The brief lapse did not really affect the excitement that anyone had to see one of the biggest bands in the world perform.

The biggest band to play this year’s Virgin Festival in Toronto, Oasis was undoubtedly the main reason that the estimated 20,000 attendees braved the early-morning rain. Fellow Brit rockers The Pigeon Detectives (whose second stage headlining act was scheduled to possibly conflict with the Oasis performance) even admitted to me that they would try and wrap their set up early to check out the weekend’s most anticipated act.

“The only pressure is to make sure we finish on time so we can go watch Oasis, ‘cause we’re big fans of theirs… we don’t want to overrun and miss them because we’re big fans of theirs,” admitted lead singer Matt Bowman.

The Pigeon Detectives were named as the “band most likely to make the jump to the stage in 2007” by NME Magazine and describe their sound as “fast-paced rock and roll,” adding that they had been looking forward to playing on one of Canada’s biggest platforms.

“We’re looking forward to playing to a big audience.”

The group’s tour is in support of their upcoming EP that will be available for download on their Web site on Tuesday, as they finish their search for a record distributor.

“I don’t think we really think about it. For us to be a British band, we have played a lot of venues and a lot of stages where a lot of big bands have played, and that’s actually a big achievement for us so we don’t really feel that pressure,” Bowman said. “We just do what we like to do.”

Guitarist Ryan Wilson piped in and admitted that it would be impossible to be bigger than their own personal idols.

“Our heroes are The Beatles and we’re never going to be bigger than The Beatles so there’s no pressure.”

We just like playing in new territories and playing to people that might not know us so we can win them over, and that’s kind of where we’re at best.”

Oasis played for over an hour and their show included both classic hits and new singles from their upcoming album, Dig Out Your Soul, which will be avaialble early next month. The groove-inducing set mesmerized all those in attendance.

Other main-stage highlights from Sunday included an inspired set from local boys Danko Jones and the unique sounds of Stereophonics. The legendary Paul Weller was the final warm-up to Gallagher brothers’ set.

In the media tent, I also ran into Evan Starkman (from MTV’s Fresh Meat and Gauntlet challenges). He was covering the show for MTV Canada.

Before The Pigeon Detectives, the TD Stage featured performances by Matt Costa, Yoav and Sons & Daughters.

The Bacardi B-Live Tent featured the biggest artist in its V-Fest history, when Moby played a DJ set to one of the biggest single-act crowds at the festival. Moby’s gig was in support of his most recent release, Last Night.

The success of the festival cannot be understated. Matt Bowman touched upon its wide appeal.

“Back home in England, V-Fest is kind of of known as the clean-and-cut Festival, so I think it’s good in terms of people who wouldn’t ordinarily come and traipse around in a field full of muddy company… it’s a good opportunity for them to get out there and if you make V-Festival your first festival, I think you’d enjoy it,” he said. “I think it might spur you on to go and check out other festivals.”