Be Here Now

Be Here Now

Release Date: August 21, 1997 UK

August 26, 1997 US

Re-released:

Label:

Creation Records

Debuted at: #1 UK #2 US

Highest position reached (if any): #1 UK #2 US

Time: 71:38

Written by: Noel Gallagher

Produced: Owen Morris, Noel Gallagher

Other personal:
Johnny Depp- Slide Guitar on Fade In/Out

Album Tracks:
1. D’You Know what I mean?
2. My Big Mouth
3. Magic Pie
4. Stand By Me
5. I hope I think I know
6. The Girl in the Dirty Shirt
7. Fade In/Out
8. Don’t Go Away
9. Be Here Now
10. All Around the World
11. It’s Getting Better (Man!!!)
12. All Around the World (reprise)

Recorded when: Oct. 7, 1996- April 1997

Recorded:
Abbey Road, London
Ridge Farm, Surrey
Air Studios, London,
Master Rock, London,
Orinoco Studios, London

Formats:
CRECD
CRELP
EK 68530
RKIDCD008
RKIDLP008

Honors:


Cover Information:
Photographer: Michael Spencer Jones
Director:
Location: Stock House, Herfordshire UK
Notes:.

Videos for Album:
D’You know what I mean?
Stand By Me
Don’t Go Away

All Around the World

Mad fer It Things to Do

The Morning Glory era was possibly the madness era in Oasis History. Everyone was Oasis mad! So join in the Oasismania and print up your own Mad fer it tees! All you need is a white tee and  transfer paper. Create your own  design or download this OFG made designs:

SAVE AND PRINT OUT THE REVERSED ONES:

IT WILL LOOK LIKE THIS WHEN IRONED ON:

REVERSED:

TRANSFERED IMAGE: 

  

Personal Photos from Seattle and Vancouver!

Meeting Oasis :










Vancouver:







Seattle:






We'll I just got home at 6am this morning! I am still reeling from the madness of this gigs! Many thanks to Oasis, my dear husband and all the nice people I met! :D

(What's the Story) Morning Glory? Official Videos

Roll with it

Wonderwall

Don't Look Back in Anger (UK)

Don't Look Back in Anger (US)

Some Might Say

Champagne Supernova

Morning Glory

OFG MEETS OASIS!!!

TONS MORE PHOTOS AND THE WHOLE STORY SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Photos from the Morning Glory Era

 

September 1996. Outside the MTV Music Awards 

1996 Versce Ad.

 1995 San Francisco.

1996 .

1995 Sawmills Studios.

September 1996 on stage at the MTV VMAs.

Articles & Reviews: (What's the Story) Morning Glory?

Rolling Stone Review of (What's the Story) Morning Glory?

Many new rock bands leave the starting gate with fists flying, eager to batter down obstacles on the road to stardom. But few have been as hands-on as Oasis. In England the band's popularity has almost as much to do with the number of black eyes and bloody noses that brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher have inflicted on each other as it does with the number of hit singles they've created. Ironically, this stormy relationship is also what makes their new album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, so galvanic.It's no secret that tension and instability have been inherent traits of great rock teams, going as far back as Jagger and Richards, but for Oasis, the addition of shared genes gives their songs extra impact and dimension. No matter how much the Gallaghers fight – or pose – their brotherly bond holds at the center. This inner confidence allows the group to flaunt its jaded arrogance like a five-man biker gang – whether it's revving on amplifier overload or coasting through a pastel-washed reverie. It also permits. Oasis to borrow shamelessly from artists like the Rolling Stones, T. Rex, the Kinks, Small Faces and, especially, the Beatles without losing their own snide identity.
Oasis' first album, Definitely Maybe, was rebellious and attitude laden, revealing the decadent dreams of working-class British youths who watched The Kids Are Alright a few too many times. The music mixed Stones swagger with soaring melodies, and titles like "Rock 'n' Roll Star," "Supersonic" and "Live Forever" conveyed the band's desire to transcend the mundane. But for all the supercilious sneering, the disc – as good as it was – didn't quite live up to the hype.
(What's the Story) Morning Glory? is more than a natural progression; it's a bold leap forward that displays significant musical and personal growth, not to mention a far greater familiarity with the Fab Four's back catalog. Since pledging themselves to "Cigarettes and Alcohol" on their debut, Oasis have apparently had plenty of sex, done loads of drugs and lived rock & roll to the limit, and now they're searching for something more. Twenty-seven-year-old songwriter Noel Gallagher has crafted a number of tunes that downplay bravado in favor of self-discovery and even (gulp) sensitivity.
While Noel once filled melodies with sharp, bristling guitars and crisp, cracking beats, these days he's relying on gentle, reflective rhythms. And instead of merely crowing in a nasal tone that sounds like a cross between John Lennon and John Lydon, brother Liam sings with warmth and occasionally hints at vulnerability. "Wonderwall" (this year's "Live Forever") is a pensive, jangly tune that expresses Noel's disorientation at sudden stardom. "Don't Look Back In Anger" and "Cast No Shadow" flow with weepy strings, muted drumming and equally memorable choruses. Featuring a piano passage that echoes Lennon's "Imagine," "Anger" addresses the star's inability to sustain a relationship on the road, while "Shadow" expresses the pain of an artist in a consumer society.
Yeah, Oasis have discovered their feminine side on (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, but that doesn't mean they can't still rock. "Hello" is bent and stretched by wiggy wah-wah guitars and a shuffling beat, ending with a Gary Glitter chorus lifted verbatim from the original. The title cut starts with helicopters and static, then bursts into an invigorating riff that circles endlessly over wailing guitar echoes and hedonistic lyrics. There's the obligatory T. Rex ode "Some Might Say" and the whimsical "She's Electric," which ends with a passage nicked straight from "With a Little Help From My Friends."
Rather than hide from their influences, Oasis irreverently revel in them, even to the point of shoving a few in their critics' faces. Two tracks are followed by brief, dark, druggy instrumental interludes reminiscent of the end of "Strawberry Fields Forever"; "Wonderwall" borrows its title from a George Harrison solo album; and "Morning Glory" cheekily drops a Beatles song title in the line, "Tomorrow never knows what it doesn't know too soon."
Yesterday, Noel Gallagher's troubles may have seemed so far away, but today Oasis are grappling with success and fear in a way that gives their glorious pop new potency. If Oasis can avoid falling prey to the kind of brotherly shove that eventually destroyed the Kinks artistically, the future looks bright indeed.

-JON WIEDERHORN

(Oct 19, 1995)

Noel Gallagher - NME - 24th June 1995  

I See it as Three Albums and That's It


That, apparently, is NOEL GALLAGHER's verdict on the lifespan of Oasis, Number One pop group and headline Glastonbury act. In an exclusive pre-Glasters interview, Ted Kessler hears about Noel's wish to give up writing lyrics, leaving the band and his run in with Gilbert O'Sullivan's wife.

The rest of the band have nipped out for a spin in the company car. Down the shops, maybe. Could be on course for a brew a little later in a public house near Newport. Maybe they'll catch a film, if they've got time, or go browsing for fresh literature in the town's comprehensive WH Smith. Whatever, they've got the motor and Noel hasn't.

They've got wheels and he's got the phone. The bastards... "Yeah, bastards," he mutters into the receiver. "Total f--ing bastards, all of them. Some bright c-- thought it would be a good idea if they rented us a car while we make our album 'cos we're stuck in the middle of Wales with f-- all to do. Yeah, like, cheers but that was the f--ing point! We're here to make an album not ponce about in Newport looking in shop windows all day.

"And you should see the state of the f--ing car, man! I tell you, that car has arrived at this studio from every angle possible apart from by road! Over fields, through barn doors, the lot. I dunno.
Bastards..."

Noel Gallagher's actually in a very good mood considering everyone's dumped him. He's recently gorged himself on the triumph of Oasis' Number One single, 'Some Might Say', and bathed gloriously in the fulsome praise meted out to his group by their fanbase at a massive gig in Sheffield and also at a smaller more select affair in Southend. But he hasn't got any time to hang around backslapping, pal. No, too many songs to write, too many gigs to play, too many things to do before he can indulge himself that much.

Except he can't get working because those bastards have taken the company car for a spin. So he'll just do this interview and then he'll nip down to the studio and see if he can whack some more stuff down. If new drummer Alan White has bailed out of the shopping/drinking/crashing expedition then he could even lay down a drum track for another song. Hmmm... plenty to do, plenty to do.

But first the NME. Good. There's loads of stuff he wants to share with the outside world: stuff about the new album 'Morning Glory' and Oasis' impending starring role at Glastonbury, stuff about his friends (Weller, Black Grape) and rivals (Bowie, Bon Jovi), stuff about the politics of being the most important man in Oasis, stuff about Camden, and stuff about Morrissey, Tricky and Gilbert O'Sullivan, of course. And he hasn't had a proper rant since he stumbled up to bed a good 12 hours ago.
So what are you waiting for, man.

Why don't you start with that much rumoured bust-up in he studio a few weeks ago...
"I did walk out of the studio, yes. We'd put six tracks down, I was working 18 hours a day at the time in the studio and I came back one night and half of f ing Monmouth were in my f ing room. I'm well up for a bit of partying but all these people were there and I was 'who are you and what are you doing in my studio?'.

"They said that Liam and Bonehead had invited them. So I went back down to the studio and all these people were running around playing with the guitars. I don't mind but they cost thousands of pounds each so I told them to get out!

"I found the others and I said 'We're here to make a record not National Lampoon's Animal House. I'm off to Jersey for a couple of weeks, go and sort yourselves out'.

They freaked but I had to remind them that we were working."

You've done that before, though. Don't they ever think sat you might not come back?
"No, right, there, see, that's it. They know I'll come back. One day I will go and I won't come back, though. I don't see this Thing going on forever, even though tons of people do. I don't see it going past... I see it as three albums and that's it. That's it.

"I don't think I can do any more with Oasis after that. I think a band like us will have run our course after that. There's by so many anthems you can write, you can't write that many really. You've got to step up and change or step back a bit and change. I don't know for sure but I'd say the next one will be last one. I hope not, but that's the plan. I've no idea what I'd do then. Sell shoes probably."

If John Major was to award you an MBE - like Wilson did The Beatles - when you do split up, would you accept?
"Yeah, I would because you could probably flog it. I'd accept but I'd rather he offered me a place in the f ing cabinet. Minister For Rock! They've got a Minister For Sport but who gives a f-- about sport, all that bollocks, running around in shorts and that! F-- that nonsense! I could be the Minister For Rock. Just see myself in The House of Lords falling asleep and dribbling.

"One thing that is good about sport and that's football. And the best thing about football is that United lost the championship because I f ing hate them. We were here watching them lose it and it was a monumental occasion. When I was down in Jersey I stayed at Graham Le Saux's and had my photo taken with the championship medal. F--ing great! It's going to be a postcard to all my Man United mates."

How's the album coming along?
"It's going sky-rocketing upwards. Well, no, but it is going better than I expected. It's going really well. We've done ten songs, written two since we've been here and I think we've actually got more stuff than we need for the album. But it's going well.

"We had (Alan) McGee on the phone about it the other day and he wouldn't get off the bloody thing. He was f--ing wetting himself about it, thought it was bloody amazing. And you know us, we're not exactly short on self-belief but it is much better than the last one. Everyone who's heard it says that as well, and I don't think it's just arse licking I wouldn't want to knock the last one, it's still Top 20, still f--ing selling, but the new one's better."

How does it differ from the last one?
"I think the sound of 'Definitely Maybe' was a bit one-dimensional, everything was the same tone and wack it up to ten and off we go. There are a few songs on the new one that could've gone on 'Definitely Maybe' but overall I think there's a lot more variety in the songs and a lot more going on generally."

Do you do much singing?
"I do sing several, er, numbers. And I sound pretty good, too."

How does Liam take it?
"On the chin. No, but I like to sing. I like to sing a few songs on every record we make. There's one that I sing which is the first I've ever done with a full band. It started out as an acoustic number but I made them play it as a proper band song. Well, bribed them, actually, but..."

Why don't you take a little holiday? Why the rush to play more gigs and record all the time?
"Ha! Thing is, I've always thought that, as a fan myself, you get all these bands who get a bit of success and then they go and have a year off! Why?! There's all these bands who go, 'Oh, we're having a year off to get our heads together, to find some f ing perspective or something', and then they come back and they find that music's moved on so much that the place that they left has vanished and gone forever.

"So my plan was always that once we got to some place we'd just keep at it while we were on a roll. I mean, I'm only 28, I can take a year out when I'm 38. Plus, we get bored after a week or so. What are we going to do? Lie on a beach, watch f--ing telly? I don't think so. We either put out loads of records and do loads of gigs or we couldn't do it at all. Who wants to be a myth? It's either put up or shut up with our band."

How's the new drummer?
"Oh, f--ing hell! Brilliant, man. He does it all in one f--ing take, do you know I mean? Alan White, he's alright - as he's now known. When we got rid of Tony (McCarroll) we didn't have a replacement drummer and everyone was going, 'You idiot, what are you going to do about the album?' because it was just before we were meant to start recording. And I was the only one who'd heard the songs because we don't do demos or any of that shit and I knew, well, I like Tony as a geezer but he wouldn't have been able to drum the new songs. People can say, 'Oh you didn't give him the chance', and I didn't, but, well, call me a c if you want,"

You were reported as saying once that it was you five or nothing, though.
"No, no, no, no, our press officer said that. I never said that. 'Oasis exist as a unit.' Do they f-- , man! Everyone's dispensable! Too f--ing right, might even fire meself one of these days. "

Are you looking forward to another messy Glastonbury?
"Too f--ing right, but shame about The Black Crowes. You can't get much worse than Black Crowes as a support, can you? Apart from f--ing Suede or someone like that, but The Black Crowes are pretty bad enough. Still, eh, what an act to follow! Ooooh, the pressure's on boys! Personally, I'll be trying to catch some of these new bands I haven't seen yet. I'll be stood by the NME stage with me arms folded, scratching me chin, going 'mmmmmmm...'

"I'd like to see Elastica, never seen them, and I've seen Gene once, they were... sort of alright. I'd like to meet some bands, too, but they're always scared of us. You put your hand out to shake their hand and they look at it as if it's got one of those joke electric buzzers. It's like, 'Pleased to meet you, got to go and mow my lawn now, mate.'

"But I am looking forward to seeing Roger Daltrey And Friends, the cheesy c--! Apparently, Gilbert O'Sullivan is playing. He is! I've just been down in Jersey for a week and I was walking around the town centre and this young girl comes up to me and asks for my autograph and she says, 'I'll see you at Glastonbury'. And she's only a kid, so I say, 'Are you going?' And she says, 'My dad's playing. Yeah, my dad, f--ing Gilbert O'Sullivan!' l

"I was, like, 'That old c--?' And her mum grabbed me arm and said, 'Easy, that's me husband!'

Maybe he's one of Daltrey's friends, poor sod."

Would you blow Glastonbury out for Bon Jovi if he said come and co-headline with me for three nights? "
He did, actually. We turned him down. Turned loads down, actually. Turned down Bon Jovi, turned down The Rolling Stones at Wembley, turned down the David Bowie world tour. The only thing we're committed to is the REM show.

"We could've done them, too, I think everyone expected us to do The Stones shows, and I personally wanted to but it would've held up the album too much. But the Bon Jovi show, well, nah, it's not worth the humiliation. I like him as a bloke, but his group... and as for Bowie, well, 20 years ago maybe but not now. He's just an old git."

That's what some say about your mate Paul Weller, though.
"But he's a good old git. People think he's some deep god, but he's a moany old bastard. He's like Victor Meldrew with a suntan. He's a nice bloke, I love him like the day is long and he's so honest. Too honest maybe. But I was shitting myself when I played with him on The White Room, bricking it. Still, must've been as bad for him as it was for me. It was probably an honour for him to play one of my songs for a start, let alone do it on TV.

"The weird thing is that because we've got so many young fans, they were coming up to me asking who that old bloke playing with us on piano was! We're going, 'That, right, that's f--ing Paul Weller!' They're going 'What does he do?' Then you realize these kids are II, 12 and they've never heard The Jam. So you put them on your knee and go, 'Let's go back to 1976, there you go!' "

Have you heard the Black Grape stuff?
"F--ing great! Bonkers! Have you heard that song? I hadn't heard it before Top of The Pops the other night, but I was sat there with my hand over my mouth. I couldn't believe it! It's such a great record because the music's so f--ing out there. I thought he must have been singing live because of the vocals and that, but he wasn't. What a performance! Them and Pulp, I mean Pulp were brilliant. That 'Common People' should've been a Number One any week. The lyrics are hilarious, I think he's a top guy."

What have you been writing about?
"Same old shit, really. I want to give up, actually. I hate writing Lyrics. Hate it, hate it. Don't like it at all. It's a problem. When we came up to the studio I had all these songs written and they were all arranged, they all had melodies but I just found myself repeating myself over the things I wrote on 'Definitely Maybe'. It's becoming a pain in the f--ing arse, so, if there's anybody out there who's got some lyrics they don't want, give them to me. Feel free."

You sounded a little miserable on the B-side of 'Some Might Say', 'Talk Tonight'.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm a miserable twat sometimes. See, all the stuff on 'Definitely Maybe' was written when we didn't have a record deal and I wasn't writing with anything in mind, I was just writing. But now when I write sometimes I think of what all the people in brackets are going to read into it. I know I shouldn't but I can't help it. Now we're a business thing we're not as happy-go-lucky as we used to be."

Do you feel under pressure?
"Yes, I do. But it's only internal pressure because of the standards that I set, it's nobody else that puts me under pressure. I don't give a f-- if anybody likes it, I don't care if it gets slagged off. That's not why I'm in it. Any journalist can pick holes in the new record if they like but the thing is that it won't come out of the studio if I'm not happy with it. You lot could love it, McGee, our kid, anyone, but I have to like it, too. Otherwise you'll never hear it. Once it's in the shops you can rest assured that I'm happy, you can slag it off then because that's what people do, innit?"

What are you listening to at the moment?
"'Stanley Road', obviously. 'Common People' by Pulp. Black Grape. 'Staying Out For The Summer' by Dodgy. I'd like to hear the Tricky album because I met him the other night and he was trying to get work off us. He was going (adopts heavy West Country accent) 'we should work together us because we've both got the same enemies!' I was going, 'F--ng speak for yourself, I haven't any enemies, everybody loves me, mate!' It was at the Massive Attack show and he was saying we should be doing some stuff together, I said, 'Sure, if you've got the stuff, I've got the razor blade and mirror.' But he meant music, unfortunately. I'd love to hear this Bjork song called 'Definitely Maybe'."

You mean 'Possibly Maybe'.
"So we can't sue her? Oh bollocks. I haven't been listening to that much contemporary music for ages and ages. Too busy making me own."

Where are you living?
"Camden, but not through choice. I'd rather not be there but we had to get out of Johnny Marr's house because he sold it, the f---ng bastard. How dare he sell it, where am I going to go? So I'm in Camden, even though I don't really want to be there. But it was me birthday the other day and I was walking up the street and I bump into f--ing Morrissey! And I'm thinking, 'I've slagged him off in the past and he's going to fill me in here!' He's about six foot, f--ing enormous and I'm only a skinny c-- drug addict and he's going to kung-fu kick me in the chest! I thought he was going to batter me!

"So we walk past each other and sort of go '...Alright, Alright. And we stopped and had a bit of a chat. And it was alright until he went, 'Do you live around here?' So I tell him where and then he notices I've got this huge bag of booze and he goes, 'Are you having a party?' And I go 'Yeah, it's my birthday' and I was thinking to myself, 'Oh God, I can feel myself inviting him to my party, oh no!' And you know what it's like when you can feel yourself inviting someone along somewhere when you know you shouldn't? It would've freaked me mates out if he'd turned up.

"But I could feel the words coming out anyway, I'm thinking don't do it, don't do it but I'm saying, 'Why don't you come along?!?' And he goes, 'Well, what time should I be there', so I go home and start thinking I'm going to have to call the f ing thing off. Nothing for it. Next thing this card appears through the letterbox from Morrissey saying, 'Sorry, I can't make it, but give us a ring if you want to go shoplifting'.

"He was alright considering I'd proper slated him. I would've nutted him if it had been the other way. Maybe. Yeah, nice bloke. Sarcastic little c-- but I can dig that...

"On I go now, please? I'm dying to play some guitar, man, dying. Yeah, loads to do now those bastards have pissed off in the car. Loads. So, can I go please?"

Seems like a fair request from the little guy with the big eyebrows, so we bid him farewell and good luck with his 'Morning Glory'.

Videos:

There And Then (Click to buy) Recorded April 28, 1996  Maine Road, Manchester & April 4, 1995, May 5, 1995 at Earls Court London. 

Blurb on back of DVD:
Earls Court, London and Main Road, Manchester. Four record breaking nights. 120, 000 people, a whole world of possibles at the heart of  the hurricane. If you were there, here's the memories to go with the tingles. If you weren't get a load of what you missed.
Great songs, exculisive interviews, the sights and sounds of Oasis at their very, very best. 

Live Forever
Paul Mathur


OFG Notes: The Earl Court verison of I am the Walrus features the Bootleg Beatles and could be one of Oasis' very best peformances of the song. Liam is ON IT! :)

Bootlegs:

If you can get your hands on them  here are some  OFG recommendations: 

Earls Court May 5, 1995
Sheffield Arena April 22, 1995 (the PEAK Oasismania, and the first acoustic set from Noel)
Slane Castle , July 22, 1995 

Also if you can  find it ,  the  boot of Knebworth is awesome. It was professional done, but never released, rumor has it, it was stolen and Oasis decided  not to put it out.

You Tubes:
 

Some Might Say on Top of the Pops May 1995 



1996 Interview with Chris Evans



Oasis at the 1996 Brits



Liam "modeling" classic 1996 Liam.  

Books: 

Getting High by Paolo Hewitt 

Its goes through EVERYTHING back to the birth of Noel to Morning Glory.  

Oasis 96 by Pat Glibert
I am not sure who Pat Gilbert is, but this great book for classic photos of Oasis through 1996. Some mis-truths though.  

Lost Inside by Paul Moody

 

(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?

(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?

 

Release Date: October 2, 1995 UK

October 3, 1995 US

Re-released: August 14, 2000 (Big Brother)

Label: Creation Records

Debuted at: 1# UK

Highest position reached (if any): 1# UK

4# US

Time: 50:03

Written by: Noel Gallagher, Gary Glitter, Leander.

Produced: Owen Morris, Noel Gallagher

Other personal:

Tony McCarrol-Drums on Live forever

Paul Weller- Lead guitar, backing vox on Champagne Supernova

Album Tracks:

1. Hello

2. Roll With it

3. Wonderwall

4. Don’t Look Back in Anger

5. Hey Now

6. Untitled

7. Some Might Say

8. Cast No Shadow

9. She’s Electric

10. Morning Glory

11. Untitled

12. Champagne Supernova

Recorded when: March 1995

Recorded:

Rockflied Studios, Monmouth

Formats:

CRECD 189

CRELP 189

EK 67351

RKIDCD007

RKIDLP007

Honors:

NME Awards 1996 Best Album

1996 Brit Awards Best British Album

1996 Mercury Prize

Cover Information:

Photographer: Michael Spencer Jones

Director: Brian Cannon

Location: Berwick Street, London

Notes:. The street was picked because there is a Noel Street near by.

Videos for Album:

Wonderwall

Don’t Look Back in Anger

Champagne Supernova

Some Might Say

Mad fer It Things to Do: Definitely Maybe

The Gift of Definitely Maybe: 

Make some Cd-R copies of the record and leave them around in public places. Simply put "Definitely Maybe" on the cover and leave them at the mall, the bus stop, public restroom! You never know!  Its a very random and Oasis might just gain a fan!

Definitley Maybe Offical Videos

Supersonic



Live Forever (UK version)



Live Forever (Us Version)



Shakermaker



Rock N Roll Star

Photos From Definitley Maybe Era

Virgin Mega Store Definitely Maybe promo 1994.

Liam just before going on stage at the 1994 Glastonbury Festival.

Backstage 1994.

Just a Note from OFG

I really hope everyone is enjoying Definitely Maybe Week :) I know I am :) Anyway just a quick note I will be in Seattle and Vancouver from Aug 25 -29, seeing you know who! I am bringing my camera and my laptop so hopefully I will be able to post some photos from the gigs along with a review. (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? Week is scheduled so there will be no interruptions from the madness, only more updates from the gigs.
Also anyone attending the Seattle and Vancouver gigs welcome to say hello, I will down on the floor 8th row in Seattle and 6th row in Vancouver with my husband. Please don’t be shy! I love Oasis fans :D That’s us in the photo (Jenny & Brian) :)

Articles & Reviews : Definitely Maybe

Noel Gallagher - Select - Spring 1991/April 1997

The great lost Noel Gallagher interview

'IT'S GOOD THAT BLUR ARE IN THE CHARTS', so said an Inspiral Carpets roadie in 1991, speaking - in the absence of his employers - into a journalist's tape recorder. We present, with no little fanfare, the Great Lost Noel Gallagher Interview...

'He was dead chuffed because he'd never been interviewed before.' Freelance writer Stella Blackburn isn't speaking of your average no-hoper. She's recalling the time she interviewed Noel Gallagher, in a Swindon venue sppokily called The Oasis, during his time roadie-ing with Inspiral Carpets.

'It was in the spring of 1991,' she remembers, speaking down a phone line from Bolton. 'I wanted to interview the Inspirals with a view to getting published in 'Spiral Scratch' [now extinct collector's meta-zine], so I sorted it out with their manager and went down to find out that they'd changed their minds. So I thought I might as well interview the roadie, Noel.'

Among the expletive-laced tirades against Chesney Hawkes, Noel was equally dismissive about his own particular talents.

'When,' she recalls, 'he told me a year later that him and his kid had got this band called Oasis, I just thought it was hilarious.'

The chat proceeded as follows...

What do you think of the British Music industry at the moment?
'Current charts? Chesney Hawkes - bag of shit, right, but Gary Clail and that, Inspirals, Happy Mondays, Ride, Blur and all them lot, it's good that they're all in the charts. Very, very, very healthy. Indeed.'

You've always been a fan, but how did you end up working with the Inspirals?
'When Stephen Oat [first singer] left, they said to me, "Do you want to do a bit of the singing cos, like, you know all the songs and that", and I said, 'Yeah'. So I auditioned, couldn't sing a fucking note but they said, "Be a roadie" and I said 'I'll be a roadie, that'll do me.'

I've been accused of trying to get an Inspirals interview in an underhand way...
'All I can say to that is, they are the way they are. Y'know if I was in the band I'd do an interview with any c**t.'

What do you think of the Happy Mondays playing stadiums?
'The Mondays are trying it now but they'll find out that it'll be half full - 35,000 people...It's a lot of fucking people, man. It's like saying that everyone that's ever bought one of your records is gonna come to your gig. It doesn't happen like that. I mean, like Spike Island. It was hyped in the press as being 40,000 sold out, there's no way there was more than 20,000. Y'know, I've seen gigs. I can judge how many people are in a fucking field. So there's no point in putting on massive great big gigs outdoors on the fucking side of a hill and being shit - you can't get the sound right, the facilities are shit, you can't get the right support bands...'

I think you should get rid of Tom Hingley (Inspirals second singer after Oat). New year's resolution: get rid of Tom.
'You'd be justified in saying that, and the rest of the band would, if he wasn't such a good singer. This band don't need a Shaun Ryder at the front of the stage, I'd be stood there, it's as simple as that.

Tom's a good singer. Maybe he's a knobhead, maybe he pisses people off like you. That's the way it is. All I'm concerned with is what comes out of them speakers at the end of the fucking night, and what goes on to records. What it's all about is the songs, anyway, innit? And from the crew point of view, it's all about taking loads of drugs and having a good time!

Tom's a top singer, that's all he's paid for, being a singer in a band. He's not paid to be a spokesman for the youth, that's Shaun Ryder, who's not a singer. You see that in Happy Mondays interviews and Stone Roses interviews - do they ever mention the songs? Never, They mention how many drugs they've taken the night before or how they grew up.

With Inspiral Carpets there's none of that bullshit about them. If it's about image and being hard and all that you might as well set a big stage up and have five guys sat round taking drugs and charge a few thousand people ten pounds each to watch five guys taking drugs.'

I can't see what kick Martyn (Walsh, bass) gets out of the band...
'Well, all I can say is, it's like, say you're in Chesney Hawkes's backing band, right? You might think the music's total shit, you might hate everyone you're with but someone says "I'll give you a grand a week." What would you say? I know what I'd do. I'd be in Rod Stewart's backing abdn for a thousand pounds a week [laughs]. Wouldn't you? I would.'

So are you going to stay with the Inspirals then?
'Nah...I'm going to shoot off. Gonna work for the World Of Twist. They're a top band. Fucking mega mega mega band. No one could do what the World Of Twist do, except the World Of Twist. They are top me, one of the fucking bestest bands in Manchester.'

Do you not like working for the Inspirals anymore?
'I like it more now. I get paid more. I used to get a fiver a night when we started, now I get 350 quid a week, and as many crisps as I can eat, which is plenty. (Noel leans into the microphone) Cunnilinus fellatio contact, Noel-y Gallagher in the area.'

We could sample that and get Adrian Sherwood (On-U Sound Producer) to make a remix with it. Would the Inspirals be into being produced by someone like Adrian Sherwood?
'They'd, like, try anything. Because the way I see it, right, is, their album today sits at number five in the charts. We're all going to have a fucking gold disc on the mantelpiece. It wouldn't matter if that fucking fat bastard there in the green overall had produced it, because the songs would have been the same.

And that's what the people vibe off, I could have produced it, it would have been the same, cos that's what people vibe off, a good song. It doesn't matter how it's produced. Classic records, that's what it's all about. Producers. jack shit! They get paid too much. They just sit there. What they do is, there's an engineer, who knows all the mathematical, geographical, fucking religious terms, like PFL, and the producer just sits there, has a spliff and says, "I want to get it to sound like that." I could do it, man. It's about the songs.'

Which are?
'"Mermaid" (Inspirals album track, from 'The Beast Inside'). "Mermaid" is shit. Fucking lesbian tune: 'Skipping an a twirling'. Who the fuck goes round fucking skipping and twirling? Except Lesbians? You know what I mean? Never twirled in my life! Never do ant skipping, unless I'm down the Hacienda and Mike Pickering's on and I've had two and a half E's. Bit of skipping going on them.'

(From http://oasisinterviews.blogspot.com/ ) 

Review:

Review

by Lou Thomas
23 April 2007

 

In August 1994 just a few months after Kurt Cobain killed himself (and the grunge that he had been the reluctant figurehead of), Oasis’ debut Definitely Maybe was released.

To put this seismic attitude shift into perspective; Kurt’s working title for final Nirvana album, In Utero, was I Hate Myself And I Want To Die. Definitely Maybe’s most popular song is called “Live Forever”.

So how did two punters from Burnage, an unremarkable area of Manchester, become so famous? Despite the fact that the second album, (What’s The Story?) Morning Glory, sold more copies and propelled them to tabloid superstardom and No 10 Downing Street, the answers are all here.

The album kicks off with “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star”, which Noel has since said was the end of everything he wanted to say as a songwriter. He’s right in a sense, as it’s easily one of the greatest songs about being up on stage ever written. On arguably Liam’s greatest ever vocal performance he goads all-comers with: 'You’re not down with who I am/ Look at you now you’re all in my hands tonight.' And that’s without even considering the attendant guitar riffs that snag your brain like barbed wire on your best jumper. If you’ve got a mate or relative who’s having a bad time of it, play them this, then watch them grow ten feet tall and walk down the street like they rule the whole world.

Although at this point it’s easy to imagine the faces of every other British band of the time sadly searching the classifieds for a new vocation there are still ten more tracks left. How about “Supersonic”, a sky-scraping anthem about individuality adopted by the masses? Or “Cigarettes And Alcohol”, a brash T Rex paean to hedonism? Or “Bring It On Down”, a non-stop, no-messing punk stomp to certain death or glory?

It’s easy to trot out the tired argument that these Mancs don’t have the power of The Stone Roses or The Smiths because the songs don’t have the wistful, melancholic air that one comes to expect from songs emerging from that rainy Lancashire city. Is it true to say ‘It’s just Beatles songwriting with Sex Pistols attitude’? Maybe. But have these songs transcended the Conservative-greyed and Britpop-glossed years in which they became public property to become heroic, gigantic pop monuments in their own right? Definitely.