Oasis
Oasis
Rock band
Definitely Wowed Critics, Fans
Noel Gallagher, lead guitarist, songwriter and musical director of the English band Oasis declared, “I could say to any band member from any era, ’Pick your best song. Give me the best song you think you’ve written, and I’ll pick mine.’ And I think the best of ours would be above the best of theirs.” This pronouncement from an interview with Spin’s Neil Strauss gives a fair indication of Gallagher’s confidence. Yet unlike many other U.K. hopefuls, Oasis managed with their first two records to match their voluminous hype with large-scale success. After a critically lauded debut and a couple of strong radio singles, they returned with an even more popular sophomore album; and despite alienating some listeners with their foul-mouthed, cocksure behavior and often lackadaisical live shows, they showed every indication of continued growth. And unlike many of their American compatriots, these self-proclaimed “lads” embraced stardom unequivocally. “I can’t stand snivelling rock stars who complain about being famous,” Noel groused to Entertainment Weekly. “Why not just work at a car wash or a McDonalds? There’s no point in starting a band unless you wanna be famous.”
The story of Oasis begins in the industrial, northern English town of Manchester, where Noel and his younger brother grew up. Their father poured concrete floors by day and worked parties at night as a country and western disc jockey. Though Noel was introduced to some classic country artists through his father, he discovered classic rock on his own. The crafted, eclectic pop of the Beatles, Led Zeppelin’s thunderously adventurous rock, the glam-rock opuses of T. Rex, and punk standard-bearers the Sex Pistols’ sneering iconoclasm all melded in his mind. He received his first guitar at age 13 and learned the Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride” ; soon he was writing his own songs. Though he shared his music with no one for many years, little else interested him. He gave up on school early on, as did many of his working-class peers. “As soon as I learned to read and write,” he revealed to Jason Cohen of Rolling Stone,” I didn’t even bother turning up half the time. I can’t even spell, but who needs to spell? There was just nothing there for the musician in me.” A period of rootlessness and petty crime followed.
“So I Started Me Own Band”
Liam Gallagher played soccer, which most of the world calls “football,” and didn’t gravitate toward music until the end of the 1980s, when Manchester became England’s hot music town. Hosting a variety of successful bands that mixed post-punk energy with dance beats, “Madchester,” as it was briefly known, swirled with excitement. Liam got together with some of his “mates,” Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs and Paul McGuigan, and
For the Record…
Band members include Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs (guitar); Liam Gallagher (born c. 1972, vocals); Noel Gallagher (born c. 1967, guitar, vocals); Tony McCarroll (drums; left 1995); Paul McGuigan (bass); and Alan White (drums; joined 1995).
Band formed c. 1992 in Manchester, England. Signed with U.K. label Creation and released debut album Definitely Maybe, 1994; released by Epic Recordings in U.S.
Selected awards: Gold Record for U.K. sales of Definitely Maybe, 1994.
Addresses: Record company —Epic/Sony, 550 Madison Ave., 22nd Floor, New York, NY 10022.
started up a band. McGuigan told Liam he couldn’t play anything, he informed Musician, to which the younger Gallagher replied “Then play bass,’cause you only have to play the top string if you want.’ So I said okay.” They enlisted the only drummer they knew, Tony McCarroll, to round out the lineup. “We had f—all else to do,” guitarist Arthurs recollected to Rolling Stone. “It was either get in a band or get drunk every night.” The two pursuits turned out not to be mutually exclusive.
Noel, meanwhile, became the “guitar tech” for the band Inspiral Carpets, accompanying them on the road to keep their instruments and other equipment in shape. “I knew how to change strings, how to tune a guitar, and change a fuse or a plug, and that’s about it, really,” he told Musician. Though other guitar technicians he met possessed all manner of arcane knowledge about the gear, he admitted, “I haven’t got a clue, mate. Not a clue. I just lied when I got the job.”
Going on tour with the Inspirals was frustrating for him, since “they didn’t treat us well at all, and I didn’t like the music. They had a couple of good tunes, but they didn’t have any spirit. They were just going through the motions for the money. And then, well, I’d be looking at them and thinking, ’F—ing hell, if they can get away with it, I can.’ So I started me own band.” In reality, he offered to take over Liam’s band. Having written a number of songs during the Inspirals tour, he felt that his kid brother’s group had little to offer beyond Liam’s surprisingly powerful, sneering voice. He therefore announced that he would join—provided they stand aside and play his songs according to his exacting instructions. In Rolling Stone he reported having said, “I can only do this one way: with me in complete control of it.”
Definitely Wowed Critics, Fans
Oasis began working far more intensively. “All our friends would say,’Let’s get drunk, let’s chase some women, let’s take some drugs,’” Noel recounted in Musician. “We’d say,’No, no, we have to practice.’They all thought we were mott [crazy] for quite a while.” After spending the requisite period learning to play Noel’s songs exactly as he wanted to hear them, Oasis talked themselves onto a bill at a Glasgow, Scotland club. Closing their set with an earsplitting rendition of the Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus,” they got a record offer from a member of the audience, Creation Records founder Alan McGee. “It was agreed that we were going to sign [a contract] that night,” Noel told Rolling Stone, “but we didn’t sign until two or three months later.”
Their debut album, Definitely Maybe, was released in 1994 and synthesized the pop, glam-rock and punk influences that had informed Noel’s youth. The band immediately became the darlings of the passionately fickle British music press. Thanks in part to singles like the evanescent ballad “Live Forever,” the album rocketed up the English charts. Their status as darlings of U.K. rock scribes certainly derived in large part from their way with a pop tune, but the band’s bad-boy attitude also contributed. “We always knew we were going to be good,” Noel said with characteristic immodesty in Guitar Player, “because you don’t write a song like’Live Forever’ and disappear. We weren’t surprised that the album reached #1 in England and went gold. It was just surprising how fast it got there.”
Unfazed By Skeptical Yanks
Things took a bit longer in the United States, where audiences and reviewers scarcely took Oasis’ purported Godhead on faith. Despite largely glowing reviews for the album, the band’s live shows often drew fire. Julia Rubiner complained about their “lackluster live set” in Music Connection, faulting Liam’s “unvaried vocal presentation” and tendency to stand still with his hands behind his back most of the time. “Maybe delusions of grandeur pass for entertainment in England,” Rubiner wrote, likening the band’s performance to “the fulfillment of a contractual obligation.” Onstage, Jason Cohen wrote in Rolling Stone, “Oasis act completely oblivious to the rich nuances and joyous, thudding impact of their music,” and described their performance as “frus-tratingly passive-aggressive.” A disgruntled concert-goer interviewed by Musician’s Charles M. Young, meanwhile, dismissed the band as “a very loud version of [1970s bubblegum popsters] The Bay City Rollers.” Yet the record fared quite well, thanks in large part to the airplay earned by “Live Forever.”
Oasis very loudly replied to such criticism that they didn’t care. They toured relentlessly—so much so that McGuigan had to take a break from the band, citing “exhaustion,” and was briefly replaced—and proudly indulged in classic rock and roll pursuits like drinking, drugs and the trashing of hotel rooms. They also engaged in a very public feud with fellow Brit band Blur and derided most other bands, especially American ones. Their acerbic esprit de corps had its limits, of course; Liam and Noel quarrelled constantly. “Some days we get on really well,” Noel reported to huhfs Mark Blackwell. “Other days we f—ing’ate the sight of each other. But that’s life.” And the band’s high opinion of itself was recorded faithfully in a stream of interviews. “I’m always sayin’,’We’re the best band in the world,’” Liam informed Blackwell. “The reason I say it is because we jus’ f—ing are. I don’t say it for the sake of just sayin’ it. I believe it, man. Every band should be able to go,’Yeah, we’re the best band in the world,’” though he added that not many bands could say so with conviction.
Morning Glory Showed Growth
While the band’s meteoric rise and unflinching arrogance invited many a prediction—and no doubt a fervent wish or two—that they would wind up as one-hit wonders, Oasis instead came back stronger on their sophomore effort. They replaced McCarroll with Alan White before going back in to the studio, however. “Tony’s a nice guy and all that,” Noel explained to Elysa Gardner of Rolling Stone.” But the band is moving on, and he wasn’t really up to standards.” McCarroll would later file suit against the band for firing him wrongfully. The new album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, showed greater songwriting depth, according to reviewers like Rolling Stone’s Jon Wiederhom, who called it “more than a natural progression; it’s a bold leap forward that displays significant personal growth.”
Morning Glory stormed up the American charts on the strength of “Wonderwall, “another anthemic ballad. By its fourteenth week in release it had reached the num-ber-eighteen position on the Billboard200 album chart, and was dubbed the week’s “pacesetter” disc. Such triumphs hardly stunted Noel Gallagher’s already towering self-regard. If Oasis had existed at the same time as the Beatles, he told Spin,” I think we’d be the Beatles.” He described his band, “an unstoppable ball that is rolling down a mountain, and when it gets to the end, that’s it. It’s finished. I don’t think any of us will be able to go off and do something else and have it be as big as that.” In Musician he proclaimed, “I just want a back catalog, something for the kids to plagiarize. I’ll have done my service to rock4 n’ roll. So long as I have my music and I feel enthusiastic, that’s all I want. I want to realize my own potential.”
Selected discography
Definitely Maybe (includes “Live Forever”), Creation; reissued on Epic, 1994.
(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (includes “Wonderwall”), Epic, 1995.
Sources
Billboard, January 20, 1996.
Entertainment Weekly, March 10, 1995.
Guitar Player, March 1995.
huH, April 1995.
Music Connection, March 6, 1995.
Musician, September 1995.
Rolling Stone, December 15, 1994; May 18, 1995; August 5, 1995; October 19, 1995.
Spin, January 1995; November 1995; December 1995; February 1996.
—Simon Glickman
Oasis
Oasis
Rock group
Definitely Wowed Critics, Fans
Noel Gallagher, lead guitarist, songwriter and musical director of the English band Oasis declared, “I could say to any band member from any era, ‘Give me the best song you think you’ve written, and I’ll pick mine.’ And I think the best of ours would be above the best of theirs.” This pronouncement from an interview with Spin’s Neil Strauss gives a fair indication of Gallagher’s confidence. Yet unlike many other British hopefuls, Oasis managed with their first two records to match their voluminous hype with large-scale success. After a critically lauded debut and a couple of strong radio singles, they returned with an even more popular sophomore album; and despite alienating some listeners with their foul-mouthed, cocksure behavior and often lackadaisical live shows, they showed every indication of continued growth.
The story of Oasis begins in the industrial, northern English town of Manchester, where Noel and his younger brother Liam grew up. Their father poured concrete floors by day and worked parties at night as a country-and-western disc jockey. Though Noel was introduced to some classic country artists through his father, he discovered classic rock on his own. The crafted, eclectic pop of the Beatles, Led Zeppelin’s
For the Record…
Members include Gem Archer (joined group, 2000), guitar; Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs (left group, 1999), guitar; Andy Bell (joined group, 2000), bass; Liam Gallagher (born on September 21, 1972, in Manchester, England; divorced from Patsy Kensit; children: Lennon), vocals; Noel Gallagher (born on May 29, 1967, in Manchester, England; divorced from Meg Mathews; children: Anaïs), guitar, vocals; Tony McCarroll (left group, 1995), drums; Paul Mc-Guigan (left group, 1999), bass; Alan White (joined group, 1999), drums.
Group formed in Manchester, England, c. 1992; signed with U.K. label Creation, released debut album Definitely Maybe, 1994; released by Epic Recordings in U.S., 1994; first American tour, 1994; released record-breaking (What’s the Story) Morning Glory, 1995; cancelled American tour due to in-band fighting, 1996; released Be Here Now, 1997; released B-sides disc Masterplan, 1998; released Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, 2000; released Heathen Chemistry, 2002.
Awards: European MTV Award, Best U.K. Band, 1994; NME Awards, Best New Band, Best Album for Definitely Maybe, Best Single for “Live Forever,” 1995; British Recording Industry Trust (BRIT) Awards, Best British Newcomer, 1995, Best Video for “Wonderwall,” Best Album for (What’s the Story) Morning Glory, Best Group, 1996; NME Awards, Best U.K. Band, 2003.
Addresses: Record company —Epic/Sony, 550 Madison Ave., 22nd Floor, New York, NY 10022. Website —Oasis Official Website: http://www.oasisinet.com.
thunderously adventurous rock, the glam-rock opuses of T. Rex, and punk standard-bearers the Sex Pistols’sneering iconoclasm all melded in his mind. He received his first guitar at age 13 and learned the Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride”; soon he was writing his own songs. He gave up on school early on, as did many of his working-class peers. “As soon as I learned to read and write,” he revealed to Jason Cohen of Rolling Stone, “I didn’t even bother turning up half the time. There was just nothing there for the musician in me.” A period of rootlessness and petty crime followed.
“So I Started Me Own Band”
Liam Gallagher played soccer, which most of the world calls “football,” and didn’t gravitate toward music until the end of the 1980s, when Manchester became England’s hot music town. Hosting a variety of successful bands that mixed post-punk energy with dance beats, “Madchester,” as it was briefly known, swirled with excitement. Liam got together with some of his “mates,” Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs and Paul McGuigan, and started up a band. McGuigan told Liam he couldn’t play anything, he informed Musician, to which the younger Gallagher replied “Then play bass, ‘cause you only have to play the top string if you want.’ so I said okay.” They enlisted the only drummer they knew, Tony McCarroll, to round out the lineup. “We had f*** all else to do,” guitarist Arthurs recollected to Rolling Stone. “It was either get in a band or get drunk every night.” The two pursuits turned out not to be mutually exclusive.
Noel, meanwhile, became the “guitar tech” for the band Inspiral Carpets, accompanying them on the road to keep their instruments and other equipment in shape. “I knew how to change strings, how to tune a guitar, and change a fuse or a plug, and that’s about it, really,” he told Musician. Though other guitar technicians he met possessed all manner of arcane knowledge about the gear, he admitted, “I haven’t got a clue, mate. Not a clue. I just lied when I got the job.”
Going on tour with the Inspirals was frustrating for him, since they didn’t have any spirit. “They were just going through the motions for the money. And then, well, I’d be looking at them and thinking, ‘F***ing hell, if they can get away with it, I can.’ so I started me own band.” In reality, he offered to take over Liam’s band. Having written a number of songs during the Inspirale tour, he felt that his kid brother’s group had little to offer beyond Liam’s surprisingly powerful, sneering voice. He therefore announced that he would join—provided they stand aside and play his songs according to his exacting instructions. In Rolling Stone he reported having said, “I can only do this one way: with me in complete control of it.”
Definitely Wowed Critics, Fans
Oasis began working far more intensively. “All our friends would say, ’Let’s get drunk, let’s chase some women, let’s take some drugs,’” Noel recounted in Musician. “We’d say, ’No, no, we have to practice.’ They all thought we were mott [crazy] for quite a while.” After spending the requisite period learning to play Noel’s songs exactly as he wanted to hear them, Oasis talked themselves onto a bill at a Glasgow, Scotland club. Closing their set with an earsplitting rendition of the Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus,” they got a record offer from a member of the audience, Creation Records founder Alan McGee.
Their debut album, Definitely Maybe, was released in 1994 and synthesized the pop, glam-rock, and punk influences that had informed Noel’s youth. The band immediately became the darlings of the passionately fickle British music press. Thanks in part to singles like the evanescent ballad “Live Forever,” the album rocketed up the English charts. Their status as darlings of United Kingdom rock scribes certainly derived in large part from their way with a pop tune, but the band’s bad-boy attitude also contributed. “We always knew we were going to be good,” Noel said with characteristic immodesty in Guitar Player, “because you don’t write a song like ‘Live Forever’ and disappear. We weren’t surprised that the album reached #1 in England and went gold. It was just surprising how fast it got there.”
Unfazed By Skeptical Yanks
Things took a bit longer in the United States. Despite largely glowing reviews for the album, the band’s live shows often drew fire. Onstage, Jason Cohen wrote in Rolling Stone, “Oasis act completely oblivious to the rich nuances and joyous, thudding impact of their music,” and described their performance as “frustratingly passive-aggressive.” A disgruntled concertgoer interviewed by Musician’s Charles M. Young, meanwhile, dismissed the band as “a very loud version of 1970s bubblegum popsters The Bay City Rollers.” Yet the record fared quite well, thanks in large part to the airplay earned by “Live Forever.”
Oasis very loudly replied to such criticism that they didn’t care. They toured relentlessly and proudly indulged in classic rock and roll pursuits like drinking, drugs and the trashing of hotel rooms. They also engaged in a very public feud with fellow Brit band Blur and derided most other bands, especially American ones. Their acerbic esprit de corps had its limits, of course; Liam and Noel quarrelled constantly. “Some days we get on really well,” Noel reported to huH’s Mark Blackwell. “Other days we f***ing ’ate the sight of each other. But that’s life.” And the band’s high opinion of itself was recorded faithfully in a stream of interviews. “I’m always sayin’, ’We’re the best band in the world,’” Liam informed Blackwell. “The reason I say it is because we jus’ f***ing are. I don’t say it for the sake of just sayin’ it. I believe it, man.”
Morning Glory Showed Growth
While the band’s meteoric rise and unflinching arrogance invited many a prediction—and no doubt a fervent wish or two—that they would wind up as one-hit wonders, Oasis instead came back stronger on their sophomore effort. They replaced McCarroll with Alan White before going back in to the studio, however. McCarroll would later file suit against the band for firing him wrongfully. The new album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, showed greater songwriting depth, according to reviewers like Rolling Stone’s Jon Wied-erhorn, who called it “more than a natural progression; it’s a bold leap forward that displays significant personal growth.”
Morning Glory stormed up the American charts on the strength of “Wonderwall,” another anthemic ballad. The album became the second biggest-selling British record of all time after the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Such triumphs hardly stunted Noel Gallagher’s already towering self-regard. If Oasis had existed at the same time as the Beatles, he told Spin, “I think we’d be the Beatles.” The press began to faithfully follow and report every last move the band made, focusing especially on Liam and Noel’s increasingly heated arguments. Their volatile relationship lead to the cancellation of an American tour in support of Morning Glory and a tour the following year in support of their next album, Be Here Now.
The name of the album was taken from a comment John Lennon once made when asked what the “message” of rock ‘n’ roll was. A shortened version of his reply, “to be here now,” became the title of Oasis’s third studio album. Hastily recorded in a drug-induced environment, the album failed to meet expectations set after the huge success that was Morning Glory. Noel later acknowledged the extreme lifestyle he and his bandmates were living: “We did our share [of partying], and then we did everyone else’s who couldn’t afford it.” The work was generally dismissed by critics for its close stylistic resemblence to the Beatles. A Time reviewer remarked, “Oasis would be a better band if it started to innovate more and imitate less.” Noel, in an attempt to regain his musical focus, sobered up late in 1997 and asked that the other band members do the same for the length of their next recording session.
Founding Members Departed
Arthurs left the band in 1999, reasoning that he’d like to spend more time with his family. McGuigan also left the band around this time. Noel’s comment to NME after the two founding members departed was, as reported by All Music Guide, “It’s hardly Paul McCartney leaving the Beatles.” Changes in the band’s record label also occurred that year. Alan McGee sold the rest of Creation Records to Sony (Sony previously owned only 49 percent of the once-influential independent label). Oasis planned to finish the two albums remaining on their six-album obligation on Sony, but Noel was wary of signing with another label after their contract expired. “Somebody’s got an awful flicking long way to go to convince me record companies are worth anything these days—they’re just a bank.”
Oasis recruited two new band members for the recording of their fourth album. Guitarist Gem Archer and bassist Andy Bell joined the group, adding more musical input and songwriting skills than the previous members had offered. The result, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, was released in 1999. The name came from Noel’s drunken misinterpretation of the Isaac Newton quote inscribed on the British £2 coin, which reads, “If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.” This title seemed to acknowledge the debt Oasis owed to their predecessors. The official Sony biography that was sent out with the record spoke to that: “Oasis have always stood on the shoulders of giants, which is why they towered above their peers.” A live album recorded at London’s Wembley Stadium, Familiar to Millions, was released later in 2000.
Oasis’s fifth studio album, Heathen Chemistry, was released in 2002. Deciding to forego big-name producers, the members of Oasis instead produced the album themselves at their own studio near London. Liam had previously contributed one song he penned to an Oasis album (“Little James” on Giants), but the songwriting balance was even further shifted from Noel on this album, with Liam contributing three songs and Archer and Bell one each. Noel, with characteristic immodesty, told Music & Media, “It’s far and away the best record since Definitely Maybe —I’d probably say the whole thing will be an eight out of 10.” Some critics seemed to agree. A Guitar Player reviewer commented, “Obvious style-checking notwithstanding, Heathen Chemistry is full of well-crafted and enthusiastically performed material.”
Even Liam and Noel’s well-publicized sibling rivalry seemed to be dying down. “I’ve grown to love that boy so much,” Noel remarked about his younger brother on a Sony biography posted on their website. “Now he understands that when you’re working you can’t go on acting like you’re sixteen when you’re thirty.” But some old habits apparently die hard. A ruckus in a Munich nightclub in December of 2002 between Liam and Alan White and five Italian businessmen ended with Liam and Alan in jail.
Despite ongoing internal and external band struggles, a changing lineup, and constant criticism from the press that they take too much from their predecessors, Oasis shows no sign of falling apart. Speaking to NME in early 2003, Noel told them that they band was too “important” to him to break up, calling it “the best gig in the world.” He acknowledged in another NME report that Oasis hasn’t change their style much: “We do Oasis music and that’s it,” which had been a criticism from the press, but said he was content with the music they play.
Selected discography
Definitely Maybe, Creation; reissued, Epic, 1994.
(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Epic, 1995.
Be Here Now, Epic, 1997.
Masterplan, Epic, 1998.
Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, Epic, 2000.
Familiar to Millions (live), Epic, 2000.
Heathen Chemistry, Epic, 2002.
Sources
Periodicals
Billboard, January 20, 1996.
Entertainment Weekly, March 10, 1995; September 5, 1997.
Europe Intelligence Wire, December 4, 2002.
Guitar Player, March 1995; September 2000; November 2002.
huH, April 1995.
Interview, January 1998.
Music & Media, July 6, 2002.
Music Connection, March 6, 1995.
Musician, September 1995.
New Statesman, October 10, 1997.
Newsweek International, March 6, 2000.
Rolling Stone, December 15, 1994; May 18, 1995; August 5, 1995; October 19, 1995.
Spin, January 1995; November 1995; December 1995; February 1996.
Time, August 25, 1997.
Time International, July 29, 2002.
Variety, August 18, 1997.
Online
“D’You Know What I Mean?,” NME, http://www.nme.com/news/104045.htm (January 28, 2003).
“Oasis,” All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (January 17, 2003).
Oasis Official Website, http://www.oasisinet.com (January 27, 2003).
“Roll With It,” NME, http://www.nme.com/news/104028.htm (January 28, 2003).
—Simon Glickman
Oasis
OASIS
Formed: 1991, Manchester, England
Members: Noel Gallagher, guitar, vocals (born Manchester, England, 29 May 1967); Liam Gallagher , vocals (born Manchester, England, 21 September 1972); Alan White, drums (born London, England, 26 May 1972); Andy Bell, bass (born Cardiff, Wales, 11 August 1970); Gem Archer, guitar (Colin Murray Archer, born Hunwich, County Durham, England, 29 May 1967). Former members: Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs, guitar (born Manchester, England, 23 June 1965); Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan, bass (born Manchester, England, 9 May 1971); Tony McCarroll, drums (born Manchester, England, 4 June 1971).
Genre: Rock
Best-selling album since 1990: Definitely Maybe (1994)
Hit songs since 1990: "Cigarettes and Alcohol," "Wonderwall," "Don't Look Back in Anger"
For a time in the mid-1990s, the British rock group Oasis appeared to be an unstoppable force. Riding on the crest of the Britpop wave, the Manchester band outgunned most of their rivals at home and built a sizable following in the United States.
Uncertain Start
Oasis was formed in 1991 in a city that had a powerful reputation as a rock center on the strength of recent acts such as Joy Division, the Smiths, New Order, the Stone Roses, and the Happy Mondays. Oasis had an uncertain start; they were originally called Rain, a reference to a Beatles song, and were then renamed for a little known British live venue called Swindon Oasis. The group featured Paul McGuigan, Paul Arthurs, Tony McCarroll, and the younger Gallagher brother, Liam.
Musical Coup D'etat
The older Gallagher brother, Noel, was working as a roadie for a band from the same part of the world, the Inspiral Carpets. He saw his brother's band play and was far from impressed. Invited to manage the act, Noel proposed a different strategy: He would come in as guitarist and songwriter. This musical coup d'etat saw him become the principal creative force in the group, the de facto leader.
Combining rock attitude with a pop sensibility, Oasis quickly made their mark. In 1993 they attracted the attention of the independent record company boss Alan McGhee, whose Creation label had already enjoyed success with the Jesus and Mary Chain. McGhee saw the Gallaghers' group play a powerful set at the notable Glasgow venue King Tut's Wah Wah Club. The gig was significant because the band had received no invitation to perform, but the promoter reportedly gave in to threats that the club would be wrecked if the group was not allowed on stage. Such behavior hinted that Oasis might be the new Sex Pistols, the notorious act that had ignited the flame of British punk in the mid-1970s. The prospect resulted in early music press interest and stimulated broader newspaper interest in the band's activities.
That gig clinched a deal with Creation, and Sony handled the act outside the United Kingdom; hence the band pulled off a useful trick: They drew a cult following because they appeared to be an indie group with a small label, whereas they were actually benefiting from the commercial muscle of Sony, one of the most powerful global record concerns.
In 1994 the group issued their debut single, "Supersonic," which enjoyed a modest Top 40 placing. The next four singles were bona fide hits: "Shakermaker" stalled just outside the British Top 10, but "Live Forever," "Cigarettes and Alcohol," and "Whatever" all seized positions in the upper reaches of the chart.
Album's Spectacular Impact
When the group unveiled their first album, the results had even more spectacular impact. Definitely Maybe (1994) became one of the fastest-selling debut releases of all time, entering the British charts at number one and emerging as one of the great success stories of the decade.
Heading to Japan and then the United States to build momentum outside the U.K., Oasis quickly began to show the strains of touring. When they played a disappointing gig in Los Angeles, Noel Gallagher departed, suggesting he was determined to quit the group. Although the wound was stitched, early 1995 saw the first of a number of departures from the original quintet. While "Some Might Say" reached number one in the United Kingdom in the spring of that year, it proved a swan song for the drummer, McCarroll, who had clashed with the two Gallaghers. His replacement was Alan White, who debuted with the band at the Glastonbury Festival that summer.
By August 1995, as the Britpop phenomenon peaked, the two leading bands in the movement, Oasis and Blur, clashed head-on. The period had seen a string of new groups emerge on the British scene, many of whom featured a classic four- or five-piece, guitar-led lineup that presented upbeat pop with a potent rock rhythm, creating styles and sounds that had made the U.K. a pop super-power in the 1960s. Supergrass and Pulp, but most notably Oasis and Blur, made guitar acts fashionable once more.
Oasis versus Blur
When Oasis and Blur announced that rival singles would be issued on the same day in 1995, the media transformed the chart struggle into a contemporary version of the Beatles versus Rolling Stones contests. Amid press headlines and acrimony between the artists involved, Blur's "Country House" entered at number one to hold off the challenge of Oasis's "Roll with It."
The battle intensified in the coming months as the Gallaghers and Damon Albarn became involved in a war of words, a strategy that kept both groups in the public eye. Noel later turned down a prestigious Ivor Novello songwriting prize because it had been jointly awarded to his rivals.
Toward the end of 1995, the band's second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, immediately topped the U.K. charts; by early 1996 the record had peaked at number four in the United States. Meanwhile, "Wonderwall," the song that became Oasis's signature, raced to the number two position in the U.K. in December 1995.
By now the group was accelerating toward triumph around the world. The single "Don't Look Back in Anger" made an appearance at the top of the U.K. charts; Maine Road, the soccer ground that is home to the Gallaghers' beloved Manchester City, hosted a legendary Oasis gig featuring two consecutive nights at Knebworth in front of more than 200,000 fans.
Noel's Vocal Stint
When they took part in MTV's popular Unplugged series—minus a temporarily absent Liam, whose laryngitis meant that Noel took over vocal duties—their place in the aristocracy of rock and their foothold in the American market seemed quite secure. Attempts to solidify their U.S. stature stalled, however, because of infighting, problems in personal relationships, and an aborted tour. When the group did return to the United States, it was to support U2, a clear sign that the seat of power was in the possession not of Oasis but their Irish counterparts.
Slowing Momentum
When the group's third album, Be Here Now (1997), was released to some lukewarm reviews, the wind in Oasis's sails seemed to have calmed. While the record initially sold well in the U.K. and the United States, it proved not to have the staying power of the first two albums and seemed to portend a decline in the band's fortunes. Nonetheless, the group had hardly stalled. "Do You Know What I Mean," "Stand By Me," and "All Around the World" were high-placed U.K. singles, and "Champagne Supernova" and "Don't Go Away" gave the band a pair of U.S. hits.
Spot Light: "Wonderwall"
The song "Wonderwall" has become Oasis's defining piece. For the band it is an anthem both treasured and burdensome. In 2002 Noel Gallagher threatened to leave the stage of a gig unless the audience stopped joining in on the song. But as a major hit on both the U.S. and U.K. charts, it is likely to be one of the group's most enduring legacies. Thought to be a tribute to Noel's girlfriend at that time, Meg Matthews (later his wife and then his ex-wife), the song reflects on the uncertainties of a love affair. "Backbeat the word was on the street / That the fire in your heart is out," the lyric reveals but contains a strong plea: "I don't believe that anybody / Feels the way I do about you now"; the lovers thus reaffirm their affections. With a title inspired by a George Harrison solo album, "Wonderwall" has attracted the attention of other artists, too. Within weeks of its emergence as a hit, an act called Mike Flowers Pops rearranged the song as an easy-listening vocal tour de force. A little later Thom Yorke of Radiohead contributed, with the Posies, to a surprising tribute: an impromptu live performance of the piece on Canadian radio.
New Members
Personnel changes transformed the band. In 1999 Arthurs left the group and was replaced by the former Heavy Stereo guitarist Gem Archer. Then ex-Ride member Andy Bell took over bass duties from the departing McGuigan. It seemed that all was not running smoothly in the Oasis camp.
Yet the albums kept coming. Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000) featured "Go Let Out," providing the band with another U.K. number one, and Heathen Chemistry (2002) spawned a string of Top 10 successes, including the Indian-influenced "Hindu Times." It appeared that the demons that had haunted the Gallaghers at the height of their fame were finally being held at bay.
After more than a decade of gigging and recording, Oasis have become a familiar fixture on the British charts and retain a substantial international following. While their glory days may be behind them, their core fan base has stuck with the group through its ups and downs. Yet the group seems to have squandered an opportunity to attain the heights reached by the Beatles in the United States a generation earlier. Unwilling to play the obligatory industry games, they have left a legacy not as significant rock innovators but as rabble-rousers with the talent to skillfully ape the composing styles of their heroes, John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:
Definitely Maybe (Epic, 1994); (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (Epic, 1995); Be Here Now (Epic, 1997); Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (Epic, 2000); Heathen Chemistry (Epic, 2002).
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
M. Krugman, Oasis: Supersonic Supernova (London, 1997); D. Cavanagh, The Creation Records Story: My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry for the Prize (London, 2001).
WEBSITE:
simon warner
oasis
o·a·sis / ōˈāsis/ • n. (pl. -ses / ōˈāsēz/ ) 1. a fertile spot in a desert where water is found. ∎ fig. a pleasant or peaceful area or period in the midst of a difficult, troubled, or hectic place or situation: an oasis of calm in the center of the city.2. (Oasis) trademark a type of rigid foam into which the stems of flowers can be secured in flower arranging.ORIGIN: early 17th cent.: via late Latin from Greek, apparently of Egyptian origin.
oasis
1. In an arid region, an isolated area that supports water-loving plants throughout the year. Oases most commonly occur in depressions, where the water-table lies close enough to the surface to be within the reach of plant roots. The groundwater supplying the vegetation is often enriched with salts and the vegetation can be zoned according to the concentration and type of salts present.
2. By analogy, a small area supporting vegetation of one type (e.g. woodland) which is surrounded on all sides by a much larger area supporting vegetation of a quite different type (e.g. an arable field).
oasis
1. In an arid region, an isolated area that supports water-loving plants throughout the year. Oases most commonly occur in depressions, where the water table lies close enough to the surface to be within the reach of plant roots. The groundwater supplying the vegetation is often enriched in salts and the vegetation can be zoned according to the concentration and type of salts present
.
2. By analogy, a small area supporting vegetation of one type (e.g. woodland) that is surrounded on all sides by a much larger area supporting vegetation of a quite different type (e.g. an arable field).