Oasis – Earls Court – November 1995 (fltr: Liam Gallagher, “Guigsy”, “Bonehead”, “Whitey”, Noel Gallagher)
Introduction
In 1995 Oasis released their second album. (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? was a huge success. In the UK it wasn’t just successful, it was a true phenomenon. The hype surrounding the band exploded. Things haven’t changed in 30 years, as the hype is at an all-time high yet again with the reunion shows underway now. Is Oasis a typical British fairytale or is it more than that?
Oasis
On August 14, 1991, Oasis played their first show. Founders Paul McGuigan (bas), Paul Arthurs (guitar) and Tony McCarroll (drums) had recently enlisted Liam Gallagher as their singer. Liam’s 5 year older brother, Noel, who was a roadie for Inspiral Carpets at the time, watched the show, was impressed and offered his services, under the condition that he would be the band leader and composer and that everyone would commit everything they had in turning the band into a success. Oasis was on its way.
Oasis – Definitely Maybe
The band played a lot of shows, recorded demos and caught the attention of Alan McGee, co-owner of record label Creation Records. Using a route via Sony for internation releases, the band secured a record deal and, following the release of the (promo-only) single Columbia in 1993, the official debut single Supersonic was released on April 11, 1994, a first hit for the band. After the Shakermaker single, the single Live Forever was released on August 8, 1994, the band’s first top 10 release in the UK. Three weeks later Oasis’ debut album Definitely Maybe was released, an exciting album and a huge success in the UK. A week after the release the album reached the number 1 position in the charts. A British phenomenon had been born.
The problems Oasis was soon known for, quickly emerged. The volatile relationship between the Gallagher brothers caused many issues from the very start. In September 1994 the band was in the US for some shows, where Noel temporarily left the band after a fight with Liam. Drink and drugs were already a big part of the band’s life.
On April 24, 1995, the new single Some Might Say was released. Drummer McCarroll was fired quickly thereafter and was replaced by Alan White. In May 1995 recordings for the next album commenced. The British press, never shy of a hype or two, introduced a “Battle of Britpop”, a genre Oasis didn’t feel a part of at the time, between Oasis and Blur. On August 14, 1995, the battle would be fought out. On that day Blur released their Country House single and Oasis their Roll With It single. Blur convincingly won. Oasis reacted poorly and came up with several excuses for their loss.
In September Noel stated “I hate that Alex and Damon. I hope they catch Aids and die” (Alex James and Damon Albarn are Blur band members). Soon, Noel tried to repair his ludicrous remark: “As soon as I had said it I realized that it was an insensitive thing to say as Aids is no joking matter and immediately retracted the comment. Although not being a fan of their music I wish both Damon and Alex a long and healthy life.”
Oasis – (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?
(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?
On October 2, 1995, the second Oasis album was released. (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? was recorded in 15 days, almost a song a day. Upon release the album shot to the top of the UK charts and would remain in the top 3 for the next seven months.
Internationally the album ruled the charts after the release of the Wonderwall single in late October 1995. In Europe the album was remarkably successful in the Scandinavian countries, where the album was certified platinum. In central West-European countries Oasis was noticeably less popular, nonetheless resulting in gold certifications in many of them. The album was successful in the US as well, but its success was nowhere as grand as it was in the UK, where it would be certified platinum 18 times over (!). in the US the album was certified 5 times platinum, representing more than 5 million copies sold.
The press was less enthusiastic. The main critical responses addressed the highly predictable and at times cringeworthy lyrics and the musical rip-offs (the album often seemed to be a cover jukebox, instead of original music). Others were more positive, in the US as well. But the ugly production was universally recognized.
And what about the “Battle of Britpop”? Blur had released their album The Great Escape on September 11, 1995, which was heralded by reviewers, but sales wise couldn’t stand in the shadow of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?.
Oasis was the biggest success of the British indie movement. The huge success was short, but unmatched heavy, with Oasis breaking every record in albums sales, single success and concert attendance numbers. The band could be found in the British (gossip) press almost daily.
Oasis – (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? – Ads
Review
I wasn’t too fond of Oasis, I’m still not. At the time, I bought the album because I was curious what all the fuss in the UK was about. I couldn’t care less. In preparation for this article I regularly listened to (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?. I think the album is overrated (as the band Oasis is overrated), the rip-offs annoy me as do the simplistic lyrics (She’s Electric is one of its prime examples).
And yet…
Oasis does have its moments. I read somewhere that the album’s popularity is a testament of the band sound’s familiarity and predictability. Maybe that’s correct. Hello, Roll With It, Don’t Look Back In Anger, Hey Now! and even earworm Wonderwall are great songs. During the second half of the album it all implodes, which makes you almost miss the closer Champagne Supernova, which is the best song on the album.
And, it has to be said, Liam Gallagher has charisma, much more than his brother Noel, giving many songs added value. Another thing that helps Oasis’ music is that the songs are easy to sing along to, which really gains strength in a live setting when the audience participates in “community singing”.
Besides the song quality on the album’s B side, the album’s production is another big issue. I need headphones to really hear the band play. Even then the sound is truly awful, bass and drums are mixed way into the background, with Liam Gallagher coming out on top of the sound mush.
Oasis if often name dropped as a primary example of the antidote to American rock music in the (19)90s, which supposedly had grown too negative. As if rock equaled grunge and only consisted of songs like I Hate Myself And Want To Die. Three weeks after (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? The Smashing Pumpkins would release Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. An album that’s superior to almost everything on (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?.
The main reason (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? is still valued this high, has more to do with the album’s status than the quality of its content. Good songs are intertwined with just as much fillers. Noel Gallagher stated to Reuters in 2007: “Morning Glory, I don’t think it’s the best-sounding record we have ever done. Some of the songs are not as great as people think they are. There was always going to be one defining British album that came out at that time, it just so happened we put ours out at the right time and the songs, being about hope and love, just struck a chord with people”, which is a fair assessment. In that same interview he stated that Definitely Maybe was the best the band ever released . He’s not wrong.
Oasis – (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? – Singles
Singles
Half of the album was released as a single.
- Some Might Say
(released on April 24, 1995) - Roll With It
(released on August 14, 1995) - Morning Glory
(released on September 18, 1995, in the US and Australia) - Wonderwall
(released on October 30, 1995) - Don’t Look Back in Anger
(released on February 19, 1996) - Champagne Supernova
(released on May 13, 1996, in Australia)
Oasis – (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? – Back cover
Songs
All songs written by Noel Gallagher, unless stated otherwise.
- Hello (Noel Gallagher, Gary Glitter, Mike Leander)
- Roll With It
- Wonderwall
- Don’t Look Back In Anger
- Hey Now!
- Untitled (The Swamp Song – Excerpt 1)
- Some Might Say
- Cast No Shadow
- She’s Electric
- Morning Glory
- Untitled (The Swamp Song – Excerpt 2)
- Champagne Supernova
Both Untitled songs were later renamed to The Swamp Song. On the initial album releases the titles of songs 6 and 11 were left blank.
Musicians
- Liam Gallagher – vocals, except on Don’t Look Back In Anger, Untitled, tambourine
- Noel Gallagher – guitar, vocals op Don’t Look Back In Anger, Mellotron, piano, EBow, bass on Wonderwall, Untitled (The Swamp Song – Excerpt 1), Cast No Shadow, She’s Electric, background vocals
- Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs – guitar, except on Wonderwall, Mellotron, piano, Hammond organ on Don’t Look Back In Anger
- Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan – bass, except on Wonderwall, Untitled, Cast No Shadow, She’s Electric
- Alan “Whitey” White – drums and percussion, except on Some Might Say
With help from:
- Tony McCarroll – drums on Some Might Say
- Brian Cannon – keyboards on Morning Glory
- Owen Morris – Kurzweil strings on Wonderwall, Don’t Look Back In Anger, Mellotron on Champagne Supernova
- Paul Weller – guitar on Untitled, Champagne Supernova, harmonica on Untitled, whistle on Champagne Supernova, background vocals on Champagne Supernova
Oasis – Knebworth – August 1996
After (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?
On November 4 and 5, 1995, Oasis played at Earls Court, London, the largest indoor performances in Europe. On April 27 and 28, 1996, they played their first outdoor shows, at the Maine Road stadium, home of football club Manchester City, the club both Gallagher brothers have supported ever since their early years. The record braking attendance numbers kept on coming in, especially on the British Isles. On August 3 and 4, 1996, the band played to 80,000 people in Balloch Country Park, Loch Lomond, Scotland. A week later (August 10 and 11) the famous Knebworth House shows took place. The 250,000 tickets were sold out within minutes, with demand 10 times as high. Never before demand for outdoor shows had been that high. It’s a record the band still holds to this day.
The insane popularity of the band caught the eye in other countries. Also in the US, where (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? sold well, the idolatry was news worthy.
What Oasis has done in Britain, unifying an entire country under the banner of a single pop act, a band could no longer achieve in a country like the US. In Britain the band reigns unchallenged as the most popular act since the Beatles, there is an Oasis CD in roughly one of every three homes there. Last month, the band drew 250,000 people to Knebworth for the biggest outdoor concerts in the country’s history. The group’s battling brothers, Liam and Noel Gallagher, appear as regularly as royalty on tabloid covers.
Neil Strauss, The New York Times, September 1996
Oasis – Liam & Noel Gallagher
The problems between the Gallagher brothers frequently surfaced and made for spectacular media headlines. On August 23, 1996, Oasis would perform in the popular MTV Unplugged program, but Liam withdrew at the very last moment (pain in his throat). Noel took over the vocal duties. During the show Liam appeared on the venue’s balcony carrying a beer and smoking cigarettes. In between songs he commented on Noel’s vocals. Four days later Oasis went out on tour again, but Liam refused to go, so Noel elongated his vocal duties during the first couple of shows, upon which Liam joined the band again. On September 4, 1996, the band played at the MTV Video Music Awards in New York and Liam misbehaved once again. After a good talk the tour went on without other major incidents.
Oasis – The last 5 studio albums
And then it was time for a successor. Late 1996/early 1997 the band recorded songs for the new album at the Abbey Road Studios in London and Ridge Farm Studios in Surrey. The issues between the Gallagher brothers caused some delay, but in August 1997 Be Here Now was released. The album was greeted by super sales, 5 star reviews and much attention. But that all passed by very quickly. The album rapidly descended from masterpiece to disappointment to disaster. It wasn’t before long that second hand record shops were filled with Be Here Now. Noel Gallagher had had reservations on the songs and the way the album came about even before its release. He thought it was for removed from the very best the band had to offer.
After the Be Here Now tour the compilation The Masterplan, comprised of B-sides, was released in late 1998. Early 1999 work started on the successor to Be Here Now. There was trouble, co-founder Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs left the band in August 1999. Two weeks later the departure of Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan was announced. The future of Oasis was publicly questioned. The Gallagher brothers felt obliged to organize a press conference ensuring that “the future of Oasis is secure”.
With replacements Colin “Gem” Archer (guitar) and Andy Bell (bass), and a new own label label Big Brother, Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants was released in February 2000. The first week sales were encouraging, but reviews were bad and sales plummeted after the second week of the album’s release. The Gallagher fight reignited on the following tour, resulting in Noel’s temporary withdrawal. Late 2002 the live album Familiar To Millions was released.
In July 2002 Heathen Chemistry was released, followed by a tour, which was also marred by several incidents, like car crashes and violence related arrests. While preparing for another new album, drummer Alan White was fired, followed by the band’s second Glastonbury Festival appearance in 2004. The show was lambasted. The new album Don’t Believe The Truth appeared in May 2005, which was a success in the UK. The following tour was highly successful and effortless.
Oasis – Rock En Seine – 08/28/2009
After the 2006 compilation Stop The Clocks, the album Dig Out Your Soul was released in 2008. The band went out on tour and before a show at the French Rock En Seine festival it all goes wrong.
[Liam] goes out the dressing room, for whatever reason, he went to his own dressing room, and he came back with a guitar, and he started wielding it like an axe, and I’m not fucking kidding. And I’m making light of it because it’s kind of what I do, but it was a real unnecessary violent act, and he’s swinging this guitar around; he nearly took my face off with it. And it ended up on the floor, and I put it out of its misery. And then I said, well look, I mean, there were people who were in the band, looking the other way; it wasn’t even a big dressing room. And I was like, you know what? I’m fucking out of here. And at that point, someone came in and said five minutes!… I kind of got in the car, and I sat there for five minutes, and I just said fuck it, I can’t do it anymore.
Noel Gallagher interview, Far Out magazine, 08/28/2020
Two hours after the announcement the band wouldn’t perform that night, Noel Gallagher posted a statement on the Oasis website.
It is with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight. People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.
Noel Gallagher, oasisinet.com, 08/28/2009
Liam Gallagher went on with the rest of Oasis using the moniker Beady Eye, launching a solo career afterwards. Noel Gallagher started a solo project using the name Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. Both Gallagher brothers relentlessly used the media to throw insults, slurs, insinuations at each other, basically being childish and petty. All the while, it was blatantly obvious what it all would turn into.
Oasis – Live ’25 announcement
On August 27, 2024, 15 years after the fight in France, Oasis announced their reunion and that they would perform in the UK and Ireland in July and August 2025. The ticket sales not only overloaded computers, but also made ticket prices soar, because Oasis decided to employ the so-called dynamic ticket pricing system, which had also led to ridiculous prices for Bruce Springsteen tickets in the US. Many UK Oasis fans have paid hundreds, is some cases even thousands, of pounds for a ticket. By now, the tour has been expanded to the US, Australia and Asia. Oasis and the band’s management haven’t used dynamic ticket pricing in those markets. On July 4, 2025, the first Oasis reunion concert took place, leading to renewed Oasis mania on the British Isles.
In closing
The main question of this article is Is Oasis a typical British fairytale or more? The (obvious) answer is that Oasis is a British fairytale that’s celebrated all over the world, though nowhere as intense as on British Isles.
What do you think of Oasis and (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?? Let me know!
Video/Spotify
This story contains an accompanying video. Click on the following link to see it: Video: Oasis and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, a British fairytale or more?. The A Pop Life playlist on Spotify has been updated as well.
