Catalogue No: - ESCA-6948
01: Don't Go Away
02: Cigarettes & Alcohol (Live from GMEX, Manchester, December 14th 1997)
03: Sad Song
04: Fade Away [Warchild version]
Release Date: May 13th 1998
Highest UK Singles Chart Position: 48
Don't Go Away is a song by Oasis from their third album Be Here Now written by Noel Gallagher. The song was released as a single in Japan.
The song, according to Noel, is about losing someone close and it was written when his mother, Peggy, was suspected of having cancer. His mother did not have cancer, but the experience gave Noel the idea to write something "quite bleak. The line "Cold and frosty morning" appears on The Kinks track Dead End Street.
Liam Gallagher claims to have cried whilst recording the song, as a result of dwelling on "a certain thing". He said, in a 1997 interview, "I just thought 'f*ck that, I can't be singing this song' and I had to go away and sort myself out". Listening back to the song he admits to being very proud of his vocal performance.
Interview
In a 1997 interview promoting Be Here Now, Noel Gallagher had the following to say about the song: "It's a very sad song about not wanting to lose someone you're close to. The middle eight I made up on the spot.I never had that lyric until the day we recorded it: 'Me and you, what's going on?/ All we seem to know is how to show/ The feelings that are wrong.' It's after a row. Quite bleak."
"We put Burt Bacharach horns on because he was the master of break-up songs. I did all the string arrangements. I tried to keep them as simple as possible. I like the way Marc Bolan used them on Children Of The Revolution. People do remember string parts as separate hooklines, you know. You just don't want to use them slushily."
Artwork
The cover of the single features the old Liverpool Speke Airport building.
The airport is famous as the scene thousands of hysterical fans greeting The Beatles on their return to Liverpool at the height of Beatlemania. Derelict at the time, it has now been turned into an exclusive hotel managed by Marriott.
B-Sides
The live version of Cigarettes & Alcohol was recorded on December 14th 1997 at the G-MEX Exhibition Centre in Oasis' home town of Manchester.
Sad Song originally appeared as a bonus track on the vinyl release of the first Oasis album, Definitely Maybe. It also appeared on the Japanese CD edition of Definitely Maybe.
The Warchild version of Fade Away is from the HELP album recorded in September 1995.