Rock group Oasis are playing their biggest UK gigs for two years to coincide with their expected return to the top of the album charts at the weekend.

The band sold all 80,000 tickets to their first two shows on Friday and Saturday at London's Finsbury Park within one hour. A third night was added later.

Oasis turned down Glastonbury to play these gigs

Their new album, Heathen Chemistry, is expected to be revealed as the UK's number one just before they take to the stage for the last show on Sunday.

The gigs were to include a mixture of tracks from the new album, such as The Hindu Times and Stop Crying Your Heart Out, and old favourites.

"We're just going to play the songs that people grew up with, the songs that people fell in love with each other to," singer and songwriter Noel Gallagher told BBC London News.

Despite a recent poll in which fans said all the group's best songs were written years ago, Gallagher said Oasis were still the best band in the country.

 Click here to watch Oasis perform The Hindu Times on Top Of The Pops

"Over the last 10 years, and even now, who else is there that generated the excitement within the music itself to get 40,000-50,000 people all jumping around in unison?" he said.

"You can't do that to Radiohead, can you?"

Oasis fans' favourites

1. Live Forever (1994) 2. Acquiesce (1995) 3. Supersonic (1994) 4. Slide Away (1994) 5. Half The World Away (1994)

The survey found that the fans' favourite song was Live Forever, from 1994's debut Definitely Maybe - with the next 28 places on the list taken up by songs written in 1995 or before.

Oasis turned down the Glastonbury Festival so they could play these gigs, which will also feature The Charlatans and new bands Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Coral.

They had already played in Europe and elsewhere in the UK, and were due to headline the T in the Park festival in Scotland before playing more European dates and moving on to the United States and Japan.