Настоящее и будущее

НОЭЛ: Для нас это больше не соревнование. Нам ничего не нужно доказывать другим. Мы задавались целью стать величайшей группой в мире, и мы этого добились.

БОНХЭД: Прямо здесь и сейчас Oasis и я одержали победу.

НОЭЛ: Есть ли кто-то, кто может угрожать статусу Oasis? Нет. Travis нормальные. Embrace могли бы быть лучше, если бы вокалист брал уроки пения. Хорошо, что The Verve возвращаются. Radiohead сносные. Может им играть чуть быстрее некоторые песни, но мне нравится музыка и звучание записей.

Если Oasis и Radiohead две самые важные группы в мире - да, я это принимаю. REM и U2 сейчас в 2-3 летнем туре, не думаю, что они могут нам помешать. Мне серьёзно не о чем беспокоиться. Но если бы всё сводилось ко мне, я бы продолжил записывать пластинки. Никогда бы больше не поехал в тур.

ТОМ ЙОРК: Я их уважаю, да - круто иметь такие стальные яйца. Не знаю, как они это делают, я блять понятия не имею. Я не могу как они. Но ещё у меня сложности с рок-н-ролльным мифом. По мне, это дерьмовая ерунда. Но надеюсь, их не поймают, Ноэл слишком умён. Надеюсь, что он умён, иначе это сумасшествие.

АЛАН МАКГИ: Творчески, кто знает, на сколько хватит Oasis? Но если мы о коммерции, это может продолжаться годами! Посмотрите на Rolling Stones. Они остановились в творчестве ещё в 1973, но заработали ещё 200 млн долларов за свое турне по Америке.

Но что это доказывает?

ГИГСИ: Сама по себе возможность играть в группе - очень особенная вещь; просто пакуешь инструмент и присоединяешься к друзьям.

Главное, что несмотря на все эти попытки поссорить нас, на давление, на всё то, что пишут газеты, говорят по телевизору - мы всё ещё здесь, и мы продолжаем.

МАРКУС РАССЕЛ: Считаю, у них есть потенциал на долгую жизнь. Музыкально, они самые талантливые в мире. И для поддержки у них есть внушительное число фанатов.

У них есть всё, чтобы продолжать ещё пару десятков лет. Сейчас всё сводится к тому, хотят они этого, или нет. Если хотят, то получат. А по моим наблюдениям останавливаться они точно не собираются.

АЛАН МАКГИ: Да они могут разбежаться завтра. Кто знает? Но я не думаю, что это случится - они ведь братья. The Kinks, Jesus And Mary Chain, Oasis - все они братья.

Драки всегда хуже, когда случаются между братьями, ссора может вспыхнуть в любую минуту. Но в конце дня братья снова вместе. Семья снова вместе. Это друзья расходятся.

НОЭЛ: я думаю, мы станем как The Beatles и The Stones! Не могу представить себя, делающим это в 50, но и не вижу, как мы заканчиваем через 5 лет. Оглядываясь назад, скажу, что я бы ничего не поменял. Даже учитывая всё дерьмо и враньё, которое сваливает на нас пресса.

It all adds up to the overall thing which is the creating of this great mythical rock band. Which is what we are. I mean, I live a life that most people wouldn't be able to imagine. Same with the rest of the band. Мы в общем и целом счастливы, всё время.

ЛИАМ: Мы никогда не распадёмся. Просто пожмём руки и скажем, "Это было здорово. Не должен ли ты мне чек?" И всё. Пойдём в паб. скажем, "Было отлично! Займёмся чем-нибудь другим".

НОЭЛ: Не вижу, чтобы кто-то достиг того, чего добились мы. Не считаю, что это случится с кем-то другим снова. То. что случилось с нами за последние два года - феномен. Не думаю, что мы и сами сможем повторить этот успех.

MOJO MAGAZINE - DEC. '97

Mojo - December 1997

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU...but we are not allowed to watch back. Nick Kent tells the story of the Oasis TV documentary that the band don't want you to see.

Hang around Oasis for any length of time and you'll hear, with almost comic frequency, the term "havin' it large". But thew word "large" is scarcely adequate to describe the seemingly gargantuan and omnipotent stature they've attained in the UK over the past three years. "Knocking the Gallagher brothers these days in the popular press is about as popular as trying to ban the eating of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding in this country", was the succinct observation of one prominent British newspaper editor this September.

So it was indeed strange that the normally matey-with-everyone Paul 'King-of-Dad-rock' McCartney should end that same month by taking them to task so sourly in an interview given to The New Staesman. Like an angry father publicly disowning a wayward step-child, the Big Mac sternly stated, "They're not my problem. Oasis 'future is their own problem...They're derivative and they think too much of themselves...I hope they don't make too much of it and start to believe their own legend because that can start to cause problems as others have discovered... Really they mean nothing to me."

Ouch and double-ouch! But what got Sir Paul's dander up in the first place? Is he really seriously concerned about the coke-and-booze inflated mega-egos of successful young me literally half his age? Or is he just a little bit jealous? One explanation might throw real light on the source of his ire. According to Oasis' official biographer Paolo Hewitt, Sir Paul sent a copy of his last album 'Flaming Pie' upon its release with a short, friendly hand-written "hear you liked the old stuff/hope you like the new stuff" kind of message attached to the sleeve. Liam sent a habd-written note back to the great man telling him - in blunt, no-nonsense terms - that he thought 'Flaming Pie' was a total waste of time. As it turned out, McCartney was to be only one of four senior rock legends whom Liam Gallagher "invited out" for a punch-up during a live broadcast on Radio 1 during the evening of October 24, 1997 [erm, actually Thursday 23rd, Nick - but who cares about facts, eh? - Andrew]: "I will beat the fookin' livin' daylight shit out of them," quoth the mighty Manc. "That goes for George [Harrison], [Mick] Jagger, [Keith] Richards and that other c**t that gives me shit...If any of them old farts have got a problem with me, then leave yer Zimmer frames at home and I'll hold you up with a good right hook. They're jealous and senile and not gettin' enough meat pies. If they want to fight, I'll beat them up."

The reason for this much-publicised outburst was not unconnected with the fact that earlier that week the brothers had privately viewed a 52-minute long TV documentary that featured - among others - the mystic Beatle and the two head Stones condescendingly addressing the Oasis phenomenon. Richards wished them luck but called them "crap". George didn't address the thorny topic of Noek Gallagher's larceny of his title 'Wonderwall' (nor the flat-out theft of his middle eight from "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" for the bridge of "She's Electric"), but did weigh in with the view that their music "lacked depth" and that Liam was "just a pain... they don't need him". Jagger was the gentlest: choosing to deliver his judgment while speaking French in a rather fruity accent, he simply found them "melodic but hard to dance to".

The brothers were livid, and the whole country got to hear about it at exactly the same moment that the TV show's producers discovered via their office e-mail that Ignition - the Oasis management company headed by Marcus Russell - was effectively banning any showing of their programme on British television. No reason was given. I know all this because I'm the schmuck who directed the offending documenatry throughout the summer months of 1997. Neither a passionate mega-fan nor a condescending old curmudgeon, I'd always liked their music, felt both their first two albums were fantastic, played them loads and genuinely admired the way they managed to get British rock back into serious fighting shape on the world stage. I never really felt comfortable with the Beatles/Sex Pistols parallels, though. To me, they're Slade with better songs, more sensible clothes and haircuts, and a genuinely charismatic, zanily volatile lead singer.

It all started anyway on July 1 when the Gallagher brothers, Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs and manager Marcus Russell rolled - separately - into the billiard room of their Paris hotel for a series of filmed interviews. Noel was first and managed to come across as simultaneously mega-confident and yet slightly unsure of himself. There was plenty of boasting in his taciturn rhetoric but almost every other sentence he started, he ended with a resigned, "I dunno". His younger brother, on the other hand, wasn't plagued by anything resembling uncertainty. "Oasis are the most important band in the world. That's what people have got to get together," he'd brag, his finger jabbing the air before him. Liam and his band had just played a gig in the States with U2; it was the first time he'd seen the Irish quartet and he thought they were double-top, "but they're not the most important band in the world," he'd quickly add. "And they don't have the singer with the world most important eyebrows."

In New York just a week earlier, he'd informed a writer for Spin: "I was watching When We Were Kings the other day and he just jumped in me, man. I've got a bit of Lennon...and now I've got a bit of Ali. I've got two loudmouth arrogant bastards living inside me." But for me his incessant bragging had infinitely more in common with Jerry Lee Lewis: it was similarly flamboyant, self-glorifying, drink-and-drug addled, frequently hilarious and - from time to time - completely incomprehensible. With his recently cropped hair forming a short fringe way above those trademark eyebrows, he physically most resembled thae dangerously reckless, slightly demented character Robert De Niro first shot to fame portraying in Mean Streets - the accident-waiting-to-happen King of The Mooks, Johnny Boy.

By contrast, Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs came across as a pleasant, salt-of-the-earth type unburdened by a gargantuan ego and clearly nowhere near as dense as his nickname would indicate.

Last but not least came the Welsh-born Russell who bears a marked resemblance to Neil Kinnock and behind whose quiet, unassuming exterior all the real power-moves involving Oasis were being very astutely planned. His group may take most of their cues from The Beatles' glorious past, but Russell is considerably less impressed by the business legacy left by their manager Brian Epstein. As role models go, he professes to have one key business figure he looks up to more than any other: Led Zeppelin's terrifying human barracuda of a manager, Peter Grant. "Everything that moved was as a result of his band: that was Grant's philosophy. And he was right," he told me. With that kind of logic feeding Russell's business savvy, it quickly became apparent to me that we'd probably end up in some state of conflict over what would turn up on the screen in due time.

Arriving in England during the second week of September with Princess Diana not long dead, the nation in shock, and Oasis about to embark on their on-going European tour, the full force of the country's on-going love affair with the group finally made itself apparent to me. It seemed like the nation had suddenly become little more than the Galagher's personal fiefdom. We filmed up in Manchester for a day, and everywhere we went, there'd be these merry gangs of kids in Brother sweat-shirts sporting spiky cropped hair, kicking a football and perfroming spirited a cappella versions of Wonderwall and D'you Know What I Mean? back and forth.

Back in London, however, a less halcyon vision of Oasis' omnipotence over Old Blighty duly made itself manifest: "Oasis are control freaks," declared Steve Sutherland, editor of the New Musical Express, during a film interview. "They know they've got the whip hand. As a result, everyone is a little intimidated by them in this business and in this country." It was abrave thing to say because increasingly these days the group seem satisfied only by being feted with the grandest of superlatives available in the English dictionary, cutting off access to anyone who dares say anything less than how unbelievably fantastic they are.

The real problem for Oasis is that this is the wrong time to surrender to such a we-are-the-champions self-love fest. The dust has settled on that third album and most people are now saying, hey, it's not really that great. Radiohead's OK Computer is undeniably a great classic rock album. Ditto The Verve's wonderful Urban Hymns. By contrast, Be Here Now is merely good - with sevearl excellent tracks, specifically My Big Mouth, D'You Know What I Mean?, the title cut and It's Getting Better, Man - weighed down by lesser material. (It's also too damn long.) Those new B-sides aren't up to much either - barring the spirited Stay Young. Yet the release of the new material has heralded the brothers' most arrogant bouts of self-assertion to date. Noel earlier in the summer echoed Lennon by claiming Oasis were bigger than God in England. Now it's degenerated to Liam calling out George Harrison for a punch-up on Primrose Hill in front of millions of radio listeners. (Can you imagine The Rolling Stones going on Memphis radio in 1965 abd offering to atke Howlin' Wolf on in a fistfight? "Come on down if you think you're hard enough, you big black c**t" etc? I think not.)

So they're getting a little too smug, putting on a little weight here and there, and keeping their profile high with some championship-level bouts of public swearing. Can Oasis meaningfully continue as front-runners for the job of being the world's most important rock'n'roll band? To paraphrase Michael Caine's great line from Get Carter, Oasis are very big men but they're starting to get a little out of shape. The following is all the dialogue from the TV show you British folks can't see, plus a lot of extra quotes from interviews I added later.
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OASIS UNCENSORED THE EARLY YEARS NOEL: What did I inherit off my parents? From my dad I don't think I inherited anything. Well, my dad was a DJ so maybe I inherited my musical instincts off him. That's about the only thing he ever did for our family. From mu mum, I inherited honesty and hard work. All the good things come from my mum, all the bad things from my dad.

PAOLO HEWITT: Peggy met Thomas Gallagher at this Irish Social Club they used to go to. He was very quiet and didn't drink. They get married and suddenly he's out every night drinking and this whole side erupts that she'd never seen before. People tend to repeat childhood patterns and I've got a big, big feeling Thomas Gallagher was beaten and kicked around as a young boy. When he married Peggy, Paul was the first son, then Noel, and he was just repeating the pattern that he'd suffered when he was growing up.

NICK KENT: What did you inherit from your mother's values and character?
LIAM: Her looks, personality, good heart and a fookin' wobbly nose.
NK: Nothing from your dad?
L: Nothing from me dad - no! Except for a bad ass! (points at his buttocks) Me dad had a bad ass and so have I! Otherwise - nothing from that c**t!
PH: Liam was there, watching his father hitting his two brothers badly and beating up his mother as well, though he was spared most of the beatings himself. The effect it had on Noel was to totally make him withdraw within himself and think: "If I can't trust my father, who can I trust?"

N: Didn't really enjoy school much. Didn't enjoy growing up. Didn't enjoy anything until I was maybe 18. We never had any jobs. We were all unemployed and shit like that. I just remember spending hours and hours sat alone in my room playing guitar, quite isolated and cut off from everyone.
CLINT BOON (of the Inspiral Carpets): Noel was never a teenager. He's always been thirty something.

N: My heroes as a kid in Manchester? Paul Weller, Johnny Marr, John Lydon, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Moon, Pete Townsend, Steve Jones, Chuck Berry, Elvis Prseley.
GUIGSY: Me and Liam started out together when I was 14 or so, playing football. Then Noel got a flat, moved out of his mother's house and went off with the Inspiral Carpets, and I didn't see him for a few years.

CB: Towards the end of the 1980s we needed a new singer and Noel presented himself at an audition. We all liked him but didn't feel his voice suited what we were looking for. So we took him on board as a roadie and general cosmic adviser. Noel was always the last person in the Inspiral Carpets' crew to break a sweat. In fact, I can honestly say I've never seen him sweat. He just knew how to pace himself. You's see him a lot walking around Manchester delivering "Cool As Fuck" T-shirts and sundry cow memorabilia [Inspirals logo was a Cow]. He'd sometimes pretend to be one of us and do phone interviews with Japanese journalists.

Noel was one of the strongest characters I've ever met. On a street-level, he was a very inspiring bloke to hang out with. He was like a latter day Artful Dodger. Any city in the north is full of guys just like Noel was. He ran a nice line in nicking trainers to order. He could always get you a nice rwaincoat that's just fallen off the back of a lorry. He wasn't involved in organised crime. It wasn't like Noel was doing the nicking. He just knew the lads who were doing all the ram-raiding. He used to ask, "Does anyone here want a mountain bike?" Stuff like that. I got kitted out by him several times.

Noel always made it very obvious that one day he wanted to front his own band or at least lead his own band. He was always writing songs. Technically, we sacked him. We didn't lose any sleep about it. He had his band. It was up and running. We sent him off with a nice wedge of cash and said "God bless you, brother".

RAIN
BONEHEAD: I owned an amplifier, a bass guitar, a drum machine, an electric guitar and a microphone, and I had no money.
GUIGSY: Rain wasn't really a proper band. It only lasted about a month. It was just me and Bonehead and this other guy we didn't really like.
BONEHEAD: It was me, Guigsy, Tony [McCarroll] and this singer. The singere wasn't very good so we sacked him and then someone just said - word of mouth - we know a guy called Liam Gallagher.
CLINT BOON: Everyone always says how cute Noel's younger brother looked and how he'd make a great frontman for a group. The girls were falling over themselves to get to him, even then. Actually, he came across as being a lot more placid and sheepish then. At that time, Liam wouldn't have said boo to a goose! He seemed very vulnerable then. I think it's only the success of Oasis that brought Liam out of his shell.
BONEHEAD: First impressions of Liam? Cocky bastard. Cool as fuck. How the fuck's he got clothes like that when he's on the dole and got no money?
L: And the other three were in that band Rain...
NK: And thenm you joined and it became Oasis...
L: Yeah, man!
NK: Do you think you'd have been a success without Noel?
L: No. Well, who knows? It's like...would Jesus Christ have been a pervert if he'd had a crisp packet on his head? Nobody knows! Maybe I'd still be doing my stuff, whether it'd be good or not - who knows? 'Cos when Noel joined, we left him to write all the songs. But who's to say - two or three years ago, if I'd carried on writing music, I could've got better. I could've got worse. I could've been a horse jockey in France!
N: Rain? They were rubbish! Terrible! Absolutely dreadful! Then they changed their name to Oasis and then I went to see them again and they were just as bad. But they had a different singer which was our kid. And he asked us to join the group. I had fuck all better to do, so I said, yeah, I would.

OASIS BEGINS
MARCUS RUSSELL: The first time I heard about Oasis it was through Johnny [Marr, another member of Russell's Ignition management roster] and his brother. My first recollection of seeing them live was in May '93 [9th June actually - Andrew], going with Johnny from his studio into town where we saw them play in Manchester University's Union Bar supporting Dodgy. A lot of people say when we first saw Oasis it was like the new Beatles - it blew them away. I've got to be honest - it's never like that for me with any new band. At the same time, they were really positive and taking a lot from the spirit of bands in the late '60s and '70s with them, but adding a whole new layer of confidence about guitar music.
What really set them apart was the whole exhilarating feel of their music. I didn't rush backstage and go down on my knees but I did speak to Noel a couple of days later. He came down to London and we sorted things out.

ALAN McGEE: It was the 29th or 30th May 1993 [31st actually - Andrew] and they were playing fourth on the bill, unannounced, at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow. I arrived two hours early, by mistake, drunk. They were on stage and they were great. It was a shock that somebody fourth on the bill could be so good. It's like it gets written up in fairy stories.

MARCUS RUSSELL: Things didn't bode well for any guitar group in Britain at the time 'cos the whole scene with The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays had already been and gone.
ALAN McGEE: When I met them, they'd been going for between one and two years and had played maybe 21 gigs. They should've been picked up but they'd fallen through the music business net because post-Madchester it was very untrendy to sign bands from Manchester. What does Creation give Oasis? Total 100% belief. From day one.
STEVE SUTHERLAND (NME editor): There was a large undertow of feeling that something great was about to happen again in British music. There had been bands like Suede who'd paved the way. Blur were becoming popular by making what we call indie music while at the same time having a very good-looking singer that young people were getting into on a pop star level. And then this band come virtually out of nowhere.
JAMES BROWN (then NME writer, subsequently editor of Loaded and GQ magazines): There'd been other bands like Happy Mondays and The Jesus and Mary Chain who'd had a cool rough edge, made interesting music and who were very singular. But they didn't really have that extra bloodlust that made them want to be the best.

STEVE SUTHERLAND: Alan McGee actually phoned me up - which he never does, and said: "Remeber the last time I called you? I called you in 1980-something and told you I have this band, The Jesus And Mary Chain, and they're going to be the best band in the world. Well I'm calling you again for a second time [to tell you] I've got the greatest rock'n'roll band in the world." So I went along to see them and the minute you entered the room, it was evident they were different from anything else. Liam just took the room by the scruff of the neck. He had such a snotty attitude - not only to the audience, but to the rest of the band, the songs, everything. It was like everything you'd been watching for the last few years suddenly didn't matter anymore.

MARCUS RUSSELL: The British music scene was very fragmented. It didn't know whether to get more into dance music and a lot of guitar bands were getting very subdued. Shoegazing was the term used at the time. Oasis came along like a hurricane: a proud, strong rock'n'roll band in the true tradition. It was time for England to come up with something as poignant as Nirvana. I think every English band at the time were completely in the shadow of Nirvana. It's quite ironic Kurt Cobain committed sucide when Oasis were on the rise.

ALAN McGee: They've got the best rock'n'roll singer in the world that's ever been. Ever! They've got one of the greatest songwriters the world has ever known. They're a great live band. That's got a lot to do with it. Plus they've got great management. Add all that up in one package and put it with a great record company and you're going to get success.

DRUGS - AN ON-GOING SAGA
PAOLO HEWITT: When they first went out on tour and suddenly it was, "What? We're staying in this hotel and you're paying for it?" And suddenly there are all these girls turning up. As well as drug dealers saying, "Hey, have this for nothing!" It's like every kid's dream come true.

ALAN McGEE: It happens to everybody in their twenties: we all take too much cocaine, crack, amphetamines, Ecstasy. Then you crash. Some crash harder than others, but at some point Oasis will crash. But they haven't yet!

THE FIGHTING GALLAGHERS
BONEHEAD: They've always been the same. But the more public recognition we've got as a band, the more they've blown up these stories. I could tell you about some good fights they had five years ago. They're brothers - that's all.
GUIGSY: It wasn't all punching. It was more shouting and pointing - that sort of thing. But if a member of the press is there and snap! snap! Then suddenly it's, "Look at this! Big fight! Brothers! End of the world!"

OASIS AND THE BEATLES
PAOLO HEWITT: You know people who've had an out-of-body experience? Well, Liam had one at a very early age and that's when he thinks the spirit of John Lennon entered inside of him. It's a funny statement. Liam was born in 1972 and John Lennon died in 1981 [1980, actually]. When exactly could this transferring of souls have taken place?
GEORGE HARRISON: The one who writes the songs - Noel - he's OK. But they don't have that much depth. The other bloke's just a pain. I don't think they need him. The one who writes the songs - he can sing them just as well. Maybe it's because he's his brother that he has to keep him in the band.
NOEL: George Harrison doesn't know Liam 'cos he's never met him. And if you haven't met Liam and just read about him in the papers, I can understand why anyone wouldn't like him. But unless you get to know him, you shouldn't be making statements like that. But we all love you, George. We think you're top!

OASIS AND 'THE LADS'
NOEL: A lad is of the male sex. He goes to football matches, drinks lager, likes taking drugs and swearing a lot.

STEVE SUTHERLAND: The thing about something like laddishness is it's always going to be there because basically it's a celebration of ignorance. Part of it was about recreating an English identity in the aftermath of grunge and Adidas. But we ended up with something more boorish and Falkland-esque. It was fun for a while though, and ultimately pretty harmless.

NOEL: I suppose it's just an attitude, really. It's just about people who gop to football matches and afterwards go drinking with their mates.

JAMES BROWN: Mrs Thatcher took away all the opportunities and it forced people to follow their passions. And I hear and see a lot of that in Oasis. There's a hard-bitten edge to the music. You can call it ambition. Or you can call it loutishness.
NOEL: Liam's the King of the Lads. Not me. I'm the King of Kings!

NOEL'S BREAKDOWN IN '94-'95 (BRIEFLY LEAVES OASIS DURING TOUR)
NOEL: The dangerous thing was just being so busy you wake up one morning and you forget where you are, which country you're in and what you're supposed to be doing there. Then you think, Oh! I've been doing this for so long that I can't remember when I started and I don't know when I'm going to stop.
MARCUS RUSSELL: It was worrying at the time. In '94 that was the first time I had to consider, as a manager, how we had to get the pacing and development of this group right and not just try and do too much all in one time. If you're in the eye of ther hurricane, you're going to get affected by things going on around you. If there have ever been problems within the band, it's mainly caused by the charge around them - not anything within the group.

TONY McCARROLL GETS THE BOOT (1995)
ALAN WHITE: Noel phoned me up and said, "Do you want to be in my band?" I said, "OK, let's meet up." So we went to a rehearsal room in London, just me and Noel. Met Guigsy and played some new tunes which, at that time, were Don't Look Back In Anger, Roll With It - all these songs from WTSMG?. Then it just happened from there.

AND THEN GUIGSY COLLAPSES:
GLEN MATLOCK(ex-Sex Pistosl, Rich Kids): A couple of years ago, they had an Earl's Court show lined up and their bass player had gone AWOL.
GUIGSY: I wasn't well, basically, I couldn't get up out of my bed in the morning so I couldn't go on the tour that was starting in three days' time. So they got somebody else in - which is right and quite correct. 'Cos I didn't know if I'd ever be well again.

GLEN MATLOCK: Through McGee, they asked me if I fancied doing it and I said yes. But in the end they decided they wanted someone who'd just stand still (laughs).

BLUR vs. OASIS, AUGUST 1995
ALAN McGEE: Blur were bigger than Oasis when they went into that battle. Blur wanted to have that battle. They lost. They won the battle, they lost the war.

GLEN MATLOCK: There was this battle-of-the-bands war going on between Blur and Oasis and I thought Oasis won hands down because Blur were this studied, dare I say, art-school-trying-to-be-working-class band whereas Oasis were the real thing.

STEVE SUTHERLAND: There's a lot of Muhammed Ali about Noel Gallagher. If you tell people you're the greatest enough times they'll believe it, particularly if you make popular music into a kind of sport. That's essentially what Oasis have done. They made their Blur battle into a football match and they knew they'd win it. Simply because they were harder.
NOEL: The whole AIDS thing was my fault. She [journalist Miranda Sawyer] didn't ask any loaded questions but she did keep going on about Damon from Blur until I said I hated him. She siad, "How much?" and I said what I said. I've said worse things about people. It just hasn't gotten written up.

DAMON ALBARN: It didn't bother me that much because I like them. What anyone says about me is not going to have a big effect, really. You learn about that sort of thing at school. It's pretty childish.

ALAN McGEE: It was good for Oasis because we became a household name. And when Oasis released their second album, it was a better album than Blur's. After that, Blur got pushed to one side.

STEVE SUTHERLAND: At one point, Noel became like the Sun King on the English social circuit. You'd see him in clubs standing there and people would radiate around him in concentric circles, the more important at the front, the less important, the courtiers, at the back.

CLINT BOON: Oasis finished what The Stone Roses started. They've taken 'Manchester cool' to its absolute extreme. They've taken it all around the world.

STEVE SUTHERLAND: Morning Glory was a great album because it achieved everything a great pop album should do. It sold tons and meant things to people. When I reviewed it, however, I made a complete monkey of myself saying the lyrics to Wonderwall were absolute nonsensical drivel. How was I to know it was going to connect as an enormous bonding song for a whole generation of people who'd been brought up on Ecstasy, raves and dance music and felt alienated by everything around them? And all they ever wanted was to be in a room with a loot of other people who felt the same way they did. And Wonderwall glued them together. It became something they could hug each other to and it became an anthem in every pub, club, disco, school playground and old people's home throughout the land.

KEITH RICHARDS: Oasis basically copy Beatles-Stones '60s-ish sort of things, but I don't think they're anywhere near either of us. I don't listen to 'em. I just hear them on the radio. I mean, I wouldn't go out and buy that crap! I wish 'em luck. I have nothing against them. But it's all a blur to me.

SONGWRITING
LIAM: I'm not the songwriter. I'm just the foookin' singer.

NOEL: I write the songs for this group. Always have and always will do.

BONEHEAD: I'm quite happy to stand on-stage and play Noel's songs. But they're our songs too.

PAOLO HEWITT: For Bonehead, Guigsy and Alan White, they're playing on the same team as Mardona and Pele.

NOEL: If you let Liam write a song, the Bonehead's got to write a song, then Guigsy's got to write some songs, then Alan...and it's no longer Oasis. Oasis is my songs - and it's as simple as that.

LIAM: The Seahorses? They're certainly not the Roses. But they're all right. They'll do. Mine's the best song on the album, though. I've written three songs but no-one's gonna hear 'em. Maybe in the future people can hear 'em. But I'm not gonna sell 'em to a record company 'cos they'd only destroy 'em. I prefer to keep things personal. It's got to be a personal vibe 'cos everything else is out in the open. Everyone knows what kind of underpants I wear, what kind of socks I wear, how many times I pick my nose in a day - so fuck 'em all, I'm gonna just keep these songs to myself.

BEGINNING OF 1996 BREAKDOWN
STEVE SUTHERLAND: There was always a seed of disaster there. And obviously that's part of what makes Oasis so exciting - the fact that they might break up at any second or that something really extraordinary might happen. And Liam's already proven that - even in what people term the biggest band in the world, he doesn't give a damn about anything.
NOEL: He claimed he had nowhere to live and he needed to find somewhere - which was complete rubbish.
ALAN WHITE: He only missed one gig of the US tour. The we played six or seven gigs and then Noel decided - well, all of us really - to come home.
NOEL: I didn't particularly want to be in a band anymore. Not because of Liam or anything like that. I just didn't want to be part of a band, travelling the world, playing the same old songs to the same people every night.
MARCUS RUSSELL: I never thought it was the end of the group. I was more worried about the implications and commitments we had there and then. A lot of people read too much into what happens to the band in America. Twice we haven't completed tours there but that could've happened anywhere. Both times it was just due to tour fatigue.

NOEL: A lot of people have said that we've cracked America but I don't think we have and I'm not particularly bothered whether we do or not. I'm not interested in having an aeroplane or anything like that. I don't have the parking space for it.

GUIGSY: Everyone expects us to go and spend 9 months touring like U2 did. But we can't do that 'cos we've got to go everywhere.
NOEL: It's not about going to America to crack it anymore. We just do things because we want to, not becasue we have to.
MARCUS RUSSELL: In the late '90s, with information technology being what it is, you don't have to schlep around North America for three or four months. You don't have to do arduous world tours anymore, even though some bands still choose to do them. Of course, Led Zeppelin had to do that in the '70s, The Police, U2 and The Clash had to do them in the '80s. But I personally believe you don't have to adhere to that kind of schedule anymore. It's an incredibly alienating experience for everyone involved, both the band and their support staff. And what's the point in becoming successful, improving your lifestyle, getting married, having kids, etcetera, when you've worked so hard to get to this stage and yet you still have to spend two years in a bunch of different hotel rooms? It's insanity. Believe it or not, Sony in America understand that. They're willing to work with the way we are.

NICK KENT: What about long tours?
LIAM: Nah, fuck all that.
NICK KENT? How long is long for you in terms of touring?
LIAM: Anything over an hour and a half! With no fuckin' encores! (laughs)
NICK KENT: On tour, how hard is it to keep your voice in shape?
LIAM: I like me voice at the moment. It's rockin'! Just go to bed at night, that's all. If you don't go to bed at night you'll get a sore throat. I don't take throat lozenges or drink honey and goat's fuckin' essence or any of that shit. I just smoke cigarettes, drink Jack Daniels a lot and feel fuckin' great!

OASIS AND THE TABLOID FRENZY
BONEHEAD: The IRA had just bombed somewhere in London. But that got page two. We got page one.
LIAM: I don't see how the tabloids could get any worse for me, unless they claimed I'd had anal sex with an alien, for example: "Liam Gallagher was caught last night bending an alien across a pool table and poking his bottom." What more can they say about me?
NOEL: You can't be in a big famous rock band and not have that. It'd be quite bizarre to be in a big band and not have journalists following you around.
MARCUS RUSSELL: You can't control the tabloid frenzy and I think if it was going to affect the guys they'd been swallowed up by it by now. There are other bands like The Spice Girls who provide stuff and - fair enough - that's their choice and prerogative. It's just a complete irrelevance to us. The British tabloids are just a soap opera in print. For some reason, they've adopted Noel and Liam as key characters in their soap opera each day. You can't control it. You don't want to control it. You just ignore it.
STEVE SUTHERLAND: From the very beginning, they were saying, "Yeah, we take drugs. Yeah, we shag. We smash up hotel rooms. We're working class. We're yobs but we love music." So everything they did - when Liam got busted for cocaine, all those other scenarios that went on - people just said, "So what?" And the tabloids didn't really understand this and were trying to make out that the group was disgusting. At the same time, we had a Tory government in decline, where the so-called pillars of establishment were sleazy, lying cheats. The whole country was rotten to the core. And there's these two brothers - completely out of their heads - who appear to be the only two honest people in the country. And the country responded in the most remarkable way. Because the Gallaghers are now very simply perceived as salt-of-the-earth. love-their-mum, Northern working class lads who like a bit of fun. Knocking the Gallaghers these days in the popular press is about as popular as trying to ban the eating of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding in this country.
LIAM: "Bad boy!" "He takes drugs." "Bad boy!" "Fucking hell - he gets in fights." "Bad boy!" "He's in that rock'n'roll band." "Bad boy!" Fuckin' mad! All those press - I've got 'em in the bag. All the tabloids. In my back pocket. No problem!

ABBEY ROAD
BONEHEAD: Abbey Road all went a bit pear-shaped for us. There were a lot of press hanging about. You'd finish recording at 5am, the cleaners would move in, they'd find a roach in an ashtray and it'd all be in the papers the next day. For security reasons, we had to get out.
NOEL: It's all right 'cos when you look out the window into the room you realise The Beatles recorded Day In the Life there but it's not conducive to a rock band playing there 'cos we play so loud people in other studios were asking us to turn it down. It was shit really.

ALAN WHITE: It was everyone's ambition to record there. We did Stand By Me, Magic Pie and It's Getting Better, Man, but after that, they asked to turn the volume down.
GUIGSY: We told 'em no. And left.
BONEHEAD: We're in there, amps on 10, making a racket and next door you've got Sir fookin' Fred Godfreys tryin' to record his string concerto and he needs quiet. So a knock comes on our door one day - lights are flashing - we opened it and some bloke goes, "Can you turn the sound down, Sir John's doing his violin solo." So we said, "Get the flight cases - we're getting out of here."

MARRIAGE
NICK KENT: Marriage - has it mellowed you?
LIAM: Yeah, it's great. It's not mellowed me, it's just made me feel more important. 'cos someone wants to spend the rest of her life with me - it's nice.
ALAN WHITE: We're still the same; we've just got rings on our fingers.
GUIGSY: It's growing up.
ALAN WHITE: In this business, you need something to come home to.
MARCUS RUSSELL: Has marriage mellowed them? I wouldn't say so. I haven't noticed any change in lifestyles.
NOEL: When one person gets married their wife talks to your girlfriend and she says, "If she's getting married, I wan to get married too." And before you all know it, you're all fookin' married. It's all a con.

TONY BLAIR
PAOLO HEWITT: If Keith Richards went to see Tony Blair, you'd think, What!! But with Noel going there, it seemed like, Oh yeah, that feels right!
ALAN McGEE: Noel's a staunch Labour party supporter and the fact that he openly Labour meant that the Tory party didn't get in after 18 years.

STEVE SUTHERLAND: Alan knew he was being used but Alan's argument was always, "it doesn't matter - we've got to get the Tories out, whatever the cost." The point is that people know Oasis and Alan McGee were used by Tony Blair, but they also know that Tony Blair will look very bad if there isn't some kind of pay-back.

It was very noticeable when Liam got busted for cocaine. Even though he got let off, the Labour Party backed off Oasis for a while. I know from talking to McGee that Labour were very worried about the whole drugs issue. McGee told them, "Look, I'm a reformed drug addict and every band at my roster is out of its head.

If you don't understand that, you understand nothing about the chemical revolution and nothing about young people living in great Britain today." And by trying to instill some kind of reality in them in this way, McGee - in a strange sense - does have the ear of the government.

ALAN McGEE: It's easy to be cynical and to not do anything. It's harder to stand up and be counted and say, "This is what I believe in. I don't know if I personally can make much difference but I can at least give it a try.
NOEL: All that Tony Blair stuff's been blown out of proportion. People were asking me who I was going to vote for, I'd tell 'em Labour and give them a reason. Then all of a sudden I'm being portrayed as the new spokesman for New labour, which is ridiculous. There's no way I got Tony Blair elected. The people of England elected him. I mean, I voted for him because I'm working class. It was good to see the working class getting mobilized and off their arses and down to the polling booths and actually voting the Tories out. But I don't think it had anything to do with me.

ALAN McGEE: I think Britain is great now. We've got great fashion. We've got great filmmakers. We've got great football again: Chelsea's phenomenal, even though most of the team's Italian. The music's great in the sense that we've got big bands. The Prodigy are massive. The Spice Girls are massive. Radiohead are massive. Oasis are massive.

JAMES BROWN: Culturally, there's an opportunity not to be so cynical. And if you don't take that opportunity you might as well stay in the Socialist Worker's Party listening to records of African drumming and American noise bands. There's nothing wrong with the mainstream. People just forgot because in the '80s the mainstream was all about money, so creative people were naturally excluded. You've got to remember that at the same time that HowardJones was number 1 and Elton John was spreading his fat face all over The Tube, the leading British sports figure of the '80s was an nept twat nicknamed Eddie the Eagle who was famous simply because he was no good at downhill skiing. These were the great cultural icons that Oasis and Glen Hoddle have replaced so I'm totally happy about that. British sports stars don't come last anymore. British music is back on top where it belongs.

BUSINESS
MARCUS RUSSELL: In many ways, it's an old fashioned band-and-management approach. More than most bands, they accept the demarcation. They deal with the music. I deal with the management. It generally works out well that way.
ALAN McGEE: I sometimes make musical suggestions to Noel but they go flying over his head (laughs). Nobody A&Rs Oasis. Oasis A&R themselves. They give us the records; we put them out. We trust 'em. They just sold 12 million copies of Morning Glory. It's worked so far. Why change it now?

MARCUS RUSSELL: Essentially, Peter Grant's philosophy was: A rock'n'roll band is all about the band, music and the fans. Everything else is peripheral. If you get that right, everything else is relatively easy to keep in perspective and develop from there. I thought he had a great relationship with Led Zeppelin. They were totally independent and indestructible for many, many years. That's really impressed me and I always look to that as an example.

ALAN McGEE: I've been involved in the biggest phenomenon in this country since The Beatles. I found the band. That pleases me. But I'm not the Peter Mandelson of pop! I just put the records out. Ignition is in control of the merchandising and almost all those facets. I'm amazed that Creation sues radio stations! Creation does sue Internet people also - it's true. But we act as an organization. It's not me personally playing at being Malcolm McLaren or something like that.
MARCUS RUSSELL: It's all a case of sitting down, realistically assessing what the demand for the record is going to be - and satisfying it, without trying to get everyone over-hyped. There are a lot of self-appointed music business experts - and even within our own record company - saying things like, "Oh, this is going to do 20 million," and fanciful things like that. I think it's laughable that people talk like that. We're not picking any figure.
ALAN McGEE: I think we might sell 20 million records. We might sell only 10 million - but who's counting.

BE HERE NOW AND THE BACKLASH
LIAM: What excites me the most about the new album? The singer! Name of Liam Gallagher. Born 21/9/1972 - St Margaret's!
NOEL: I didn't set out consciously to write a long record or a batch of long songs. That's just the way it came out. Some of the songs could be better. There are three or four old ones - the rest are quite recent. I've been listening to the songs for so long now that I'm getting a bit bored with it.

MICK JAGGER: I've listened to the new Oasis album once or twice. Their thing is quite melodic - but it's not good for dancing, Oasis. I've got a room here [in Toronto], I stick on the new Oasis and it's impossible to dance to. Really!
STEVE SUTHERLAND: At the NME, we're beginning to get an awful lot of letters from kids who've bought the album writing in to say, "Oh, I wish I hadn't bought the album. It's no good. Don't like them anymore. Boring. Too Beatles-esque. Too self-referential." Looking - in other words - for the next big thing.

GLEN MATLOCK: I think they've blown it a little bit, with what I've heard of the new album. I think they've sunk into a formula and they're in danger of going the Status Quo route.

STEVE SUTHERLAND: The new album came out and all the critics fell over themselves to say it was absolutely fantastic - partly, I'm sure, because they believe it but partly, also, out of fear. Because now Oasis are the only big band that make a difference to the circulations of most music papers and probably the tabloids too. I honestly think that if you put the Rolling Stones or even Paul McCartney on the cover of a daily paper, nobody would care. But if you put Liam on the cover, they probably would.
Oasis know they've got the whip hand and they're control freaks; they like to control whatever they're doing and they're exerting quite a lot of control over the press. Nothing too terrible - just veiled threats so that you know that if you step out of line too hard it's going to be very difficult for you to get back into Oasis' fold, as it were. And everyone keenly appreciates that in this business at the minute.
ALAN McGEE: There is a backlash starting in the press but what you've got to understand is Oasis sell 4 million records in this country. Melody Maker sell 50,000. The NME sells 90,000. Oasis appear on the cover of the NME and their circulation goes up 50 per cent. We're bigger than these publications. We're bigger than the press, to be honest with you.

NOEL
NOEL: If you're not into music, you'd find my life quite boring because that's what I'm totally immersed in. Oh, and I like watching football! The odd party, now and again. But generally, it's all music.
ALAN McGEE: Noel is very, very intelligent. Incredibly loyal. Very warm-hearted. But very, very hard to get to know. I mean, I think I'm his friend. I think he likes me (Pause). But I don't know.
PAOLO HEWITT: In a couple of early interviews, Noel said he sometimes wished he could be as instinctive as Liam and have that front that reacts automatically to things that piss him off. Because he's the opposite of that. He just takes it in, absorbs it all. And the it'll come out later in his music. Suddenly you'll hear something he's written and there are all these emotions bursting out. But they're never there socially with Noel. Just in his music.
STEVE SUTHERLAND: "All my people right here right now - do you know what I mean?" Well, no, actually - but it sounds good. "You're my wonderwall." OH, are you? OK, I can see it. So I think he's got the knack of writing popular songs. But there isn't anything like Strawberry Fields Forever - there isn't that voice of a generation. Historically, I don't think he'll count as much as he's trying to convince us at the moment that he will.
PAOLO HEWITT: Loads of his songs are about optimism. Stand By Me, It's Getting Better Man, All Around The World - "we're gonna live forever". The message usually is: Don't worry, you can get through this. Believe me. And that probably all stems from him getting through all the crap he had to live through during his childhood.
NOEL: I've been writing songs, seriously, since I was 14. Some songs take five, ten, fifteen minutes to write. Others take three weeks. I suppose they come from somewhere between your soul and your stomach. I wouldn't like to know, because it surprises me when I write something these days.

LIAM - THE NEXT ROCK CASUALTY?
NOEL: He already is a casualty. I don't fear for him at all. He can look after himself, I think. (Pauses. Smirks) I hope.
BONEHEAD: Liam? They'd need a flamethrower to drop him! If I was in his shoes, I'd have to shut the door and say, I can't cope with this shit. What's the point? But he just deals with it. And it takes something special to do that.
JAMES BROWN: He's a car-washer with a million pounds. That's what he is. And he hasn't rubbed the edges off - which is what's so good about him.
PAOLO HEWITT: Liam's quite a psychedelic character. At an awards ceremony, he was at the microphone accepting some trophy, saying, "I'd like to thank you very much" and Noel butted in, saying, "Yeah, all six of Liam". Because he has all these different personalities and you just can't pin him down. One minute he's one person, the next he's someone else entirely.
ALAN McGEE: The way he's portrayed by the media is completely false. He's one of the most sensitive, intelligent, sharp, warm individuals I've ever met. He's incredibly bright. And the way he's portrayed in the UK tabloids, they make him look like a football hooligan. I was round his house two days ago, and in two hours seven or eight times journalists were getting fans to ring his door bell. That's harassment, man. He's just a young bloke who's made it and who's enjoying himself - and that's as far as it goes. He's never tried to harm anyone else. But the press just hound him.
PAOLO HEWITT: He whacked a News Of The World photographer one night. But for the reason for that goes back to when they were recording at Abbey Road. At some point, they went to the pub andmet several fans there. They were walking back with this girl fan walking alongside of Liam - absolutely nothing going on. Still, someone takes a photo. When he comes out of the Q Awards with Patsy his wife two weeks later, the photographer pulls out the photograph and says, "Hey, Patsy, look what Liam's getting up to behind your back!" Because they know it'll wind them both up. Then there's a fight and - bam! - and it's another photo for the tabloids.
STEVE SUTHERLAND: I was determined to run a story that said: Now that Di's dead - will the tabloids cut Oasis some slack? Because obviously Oasis are the second candidates for being hunted down in this country. But we couldn't get anyone on the tabloids to speak and we couldn't get anyone from Creation to speak, because they didn't want to be seen to be playing Oasis up alongside Lady Di - because if they did, the tabloids would turn on them. Even though I insisted on running the story - no-one would talk! That's how paranoid it's got!
MARCUS RUSSELL: If Liam couldn't handle it, he would have gone under by now. He's already absorbed and taken on as much, if not more, pressure as anyone in the Royal Family and he's come out fighting the other end. He is handling it and will continue to do so.
LIAM: Do I look as if I can deal with it? Of course, I can deal with it. I can deal with anything. Easy-peasy!

THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE
NOEL: It's not a contest for us anymore. We've got nothing to prove to other bands. We set out to be the biggest band in the world - and we've achieved it.
BONEHEAD: Right here right now it's me and Oasis havin' it.
NOEL: Is there anyone around I find threatening to Oasis? No. Travis are OK. Embrace might be alright if their vocalist starts getting some singing lessons. It's good to see The Verve returning. Radiohead are all right. The could with speeding up some of their songs but I love the music and the sound of their records. Yeah, if Oasis and Radiohead are the world's two most important bands, that'll do me. But the likes of R.E.M. and U2 went out on two and three year-long world tours and I don't think our band is really cut out for that anymore. I certainly can't be bothered. If it was down to me, I'd just go on making records. I'd never tour again.
THOM YORKE (Radiohead singer): I've got a lot of respect for the, really. To have that much balls - it's amazing. I don't know how they do it, I haven't a fuckin' clue. I can't do it. But I also think I have a problem with the rock'n'roll myth thing. To me, it's fucking bullshit. But they won't get caught in it because Noel's too smart. I hope he's too smart, 'cos it's daft.
ALAN McGEE: Creatively, who knows how long it can last for Oasis? But if you're speaking commercially, it could go on for years! Look at The Rolling Stones. They stopped being creative in 1973 and they've just grossed another 200 million US dollars for their American tour. But what does that prove?
GUIGSY: Being able to play in a band is in itself a very special thing; just being bale to pick up your instrument and join in with your friends. And the fact is, despite everyone trying to break us up and all these things getting in the wat - papers, press and different pressures - we're still here and still going on.
MARCUS RUSSELL: I certainly think they've got the potential for longevity. Musically, they've got all the talent in the world. They've got the fan base to support them. They've got everything to keep going for a couple of decades. Now it's just down to whether they want it or not. If they want it, they've got it. I never get any signals whatsoever that this thing is going to stop.
ALAN McGEE: They could still break up tomorrow, mate. Who knows? I don't think they ever will, because it's brothers. The Kinks, Jesus And Mary Chain, Oasis - all brothers. The fights are always worse when it's brothers, and it could explode at any moment. But at the end of the day, brothers stick together. Families stick together. It's friends who disintegrate.
NOEL: I think we'll be The Beatles and The Stones! I don't see myself doing this at 50 but I don't see it ending in five years either. Looking back on it all from this day, I wouldn't change anything, really. Even with all the shit we've been through and all the lies they write about us in the press. It all adds up to the overall thing which is the creating of this great mythical rock band. Which is what we are. I mean, I live a life that most people wouldn't be able to imagine. Same with the rest of the band. We're quite happy, generally. All the time, really.
LIAM: We'll never break up. We'll just call it a day, shake hands, say, "That was nice. Don't you owe me royalty cheque?" And that'll be it. We'll go down the pub, say, "That was great!, and get on with the next thing.
NOEL: I can't see anyone achieving the success that we've had. I can't see it happening agin. What happened to us over the last two years has been a one-off phenomenon. I don't even think we'll match what's happened over the last two years.

story published by MOJO MAGAZINE - DEC. '97
interviews by: Laurence Romance, Philippe Manoeuvre, Eric Dahan & Nick Kent

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