Oasis books are like buses, you wait for one for ages then about 19 come along at once. Such is the euphoria felt across the UK and beyond that every couple of weeks it seems there's a new Oasis book coming out at the moment. This book; 'A Sound So Very Loud, The Inside Story of Every Song Oasis Recorded' caught my attention early on when it went on pre-sale.
Ahead of the books release on Thursday we spoke to Hamish MacBain and Ted Kessler about the book, Oasis and more, read our review of the book here.
Ahead of the books release on Thursday we spoke to Hamish MacBain and Ted Kessler about the book, Oasis and more, read our review of the book here.
Producing a book is a long and intensive process and I surmise you and Hamish must be excited all of your hard work has finally seen the book in print.
Hamish: I would say that while it’s true that in most cases producing a book is a long and intensive process, in the case of ‘A Sound So Very Loud’ it was more the latter x 10. Nobody believes us when we say we were planning this book before the reunion, but we were: after bumping into each other in the pub before Liam’s o2 Arena Definitely Maybe shows and getting so excited about having heard a bunch of drunk, beautiful kids singing ‘Cloudburst’ on the tube on the way there. Then obviously when the news broke, we knew we were going to have to get a move on, cue a three-month period locked away when everyone was partying at the end of 2024. I actually wrote the ‘Sunday Morning Call’ entry on Christmas morning!
Ted: I’ve written two other books and devised/edited another one, and I’d say this has been by far the least stressful of the lot. It’s been such an enjoyable way to spend a bleak mid-winter – which is when we wrote it – largely because the story is so rich, rewarding and funny, and sharing the work with Hamish has made it all seem lighter. It’s good to be able to WhatsApp or phone or meet for a pint with the person you’re writing a book with, rather than just gnashing your teeth alone. And now the book is out in the full blast of summer, just six months later, it’s beautiful to see it in full bloom, just as the long-lost band you’ve writing about is ready to lift off again…but I imagine it’s bit like when your kids leave home. It's bittersweet. I’m actually going to miss the working routine with Hamish hugely.
What can readers expect to find in it? So much has been written about Oasis, why is this book different from all the other books out this year?
Hamish: The obvious reference point is ‘Revolution in The Head’, the book which goes through every song the Beatles recorded. Now, the mainstream press narrative may be that everyone stopped caring after Be Here Now but to me that’s absolute bollocks: I meet people all the time of all ages who only want to talk about the genius of ‘Let’s All Make Believe’ or ‘Pass Me Down The Wine’ or whatever it may be. Ted and I love all the eras of Oasis and feel that a lot of other people do too. This is a book for them, mainly.
Ted: The music often gets left behind in the telling of the Oasis story. Instead, it’s their one-liners, their chaos, all the rest. We love all that, too, of course, but it’s the music that they’ve made throughout their career that is selling out stadiums over the next year or so, not the off-stage shenanigans, and so we wanted to use those songs as a device for telling their story – from the start of their recording career to the end. It’s interesting that we can quickly tell from reading the book’s reviews who actually has an interest in Oasis records, as those people seem to love the book. Reviewers who’ve negative preconceived ideas about the band, who perhaps think Oasis peaked with Morning Glory, who think they were loutish or whatever, those reviewers are convinced that we’re pretending to like Oasis across their career. That’s projection. We genuinely love Oasis, from start to finish. I hope that comes over. I’m not sure every other book is written by people on board for the whole story.
What is the most interesting discovery you made while researching and writing the book?
Hamish: I mean it didn’t make the book in the end, but when I was researching the ‘Be Here Now’ tour I remembered going to the date at Sheffield Arena in September 1997 and happened to be texting the friend I went with that night. He reminded me that the boxer Prince Naseem came onstage as a special guest during ‘Acquiesce’. Because he’s not a musician he just stood there, and Liam was shadowboxing him during Noel’s bits. Not a good idea, Liam!
Ted: I feel uneasy answering this question for a website with such committed O heads reading, as I’m sure many things that were news to me will have readers rolling their eyes at my ignorance. But the thing that made me happiest wasn’t actually an Oasis fact. It was when Noel told Hamish during an NME interview for Definitely Maybe’s tenth anniversary that he wished he’d been 15 when it came out as that’s the perfect age for that album. Hamish then had the great pleasure of informing Noel that he’d been 15 when Definitely Maybe came out, switching him on to a lifetime of Oasis devotion. It’s a rare treat making Noel Gallagher jealous of you.
Every song the band recorded is covered in the book. What was the hardest song to find information about?
Hamish: There’s certain B-sides from the very early noughties that I think are so overlooked because I guess they weren’t ever in contention to be played live and interviewers weren’t asking about them. Things like ‘Shout It Out Loud’ and ‘Idler’s Dream’, both of which I love. But then they became some of the most fun to write about in some ways…
Ted: There were a few late-period B-sides that are not hugely documented, but, as Hamish says, these became enjoyable to write about as you just had to use your noddle and think laterally.
You have a long professional association Oasis, and some of them individually. Were any of them involved? And have you had any feedback from any of them?
Hamish: No, and we didn’t even want to ask because we assumed they’re too busy preparing for World Domination Part 2! We’ve both interviewed them dozens of times and found just so much stuff that didn’t make the cut in the final articles. For example, I’d completely forgotten about this interview I did with Liam about his favourite albums ever, and he starts talking about lyric writing and how he does it and stuff like that.
Ted: I think an official Oasis book would be a very different book. There’s a brilliant book to be written with their input, but I did love the freedom of not having their approval (or otherwise) for everything this time. I sent some pages early after we’d finished to Debbie Gwyther, just to let her know we were doing it, and she said she was into it and thought fans would be too. That’s good enough for me! We got the Liam quote comparing us to Dudley Moore and Peter Cook soon afterwards.
I’ve read the book and it is so well researched, what resources did you use to write it?
Hamish: Oh god, so many… I am blessed-slash-cursed with a Rainman-like ability to remember Oasis interviews from my youth, so I spent a lot of time tracking down old copies of long gone magazines like Select and Melody Maker when my brain somehow remembered something Noel had said about ‘Hey Now’ or something like that.
Just hours and hours and hours watching old YouTube clips and a few great afternoons spent in the British Library going back through all the ridiculous tabloid stories like “WILDMAN LIAM JUMPS OVER POWER CABLES ON TOP OF MOVING TOURBUS”
And gotta say this wouldn’t have been the book it is without people like your good self and James at the Oasis Podcast and the Live Forever forum massive…
Ted: My sources were the same as Hamish mostly. I have every NME and Melody Maker on file which is helpful. I have a bunch of old Q, Mojo and so forth about them, too, plus my own interviews with them over the decades, from 1994 to 2023, which was the last time I interviewed Liam. Twenty-nine years of interviewing Gallaghers! And in that time, Liam and his brother are still the undefeated champion interviewees in any field, none better. The fan sites – particularly yours, Oasis Podcast, the Live Forever forum – were really vital, as was Reddit (though not to be taken literally always), Behind The Curtain podcast, James Hargreaves, etc etc. Read all the books: Supersonic is by the best resource for those early years, along with Paulo Hewitt’s book. I don’t want to forget anyone but trust me – we read you too.
What was the first Oasis song you remember hearing and why did it draw you to the band?
Hamish: I had the ‘Mutha Of Creation’ cassette that came free with NME in February 1994 which had a demo of Cigarettes & Alcohol’ on it which I played a lot. But it was the live performance of ‘Supersonic’ on The Word - where Liam is wearing a bomber jacket and waving a Super8 camera around - that I was truly sucked in. I turned 15 years old five days after it happened and it just blew my mind in a way that bands like, say, Nirvana had not. I didn’t have the vocabulary to articulate why: I just knew this was my trip.
Soon after that, I taped their set off Radio 1 at a thing called Sound City and played that recording over and over until the cassette wore out. I still have the case somewhere: Liam didn’t introduce the first two songs, so the track list I’ve written on it reads:
Somebody Else
Lasagne
Live Forever
Cigarettes & Alcohol
Supersonic
Ted: I was working in the NME office in November 1993 when Johnny Hopkins, the junior PR at Creation, came in with a big mailer full of white labels of this band he was going to work on. It was a song called Columbia by this band named Oasis. At the time, PRs would come in on Tuesdays to pick up the new NME issue hot off the press and deliver their newest, best music to you at the same time. My memory might be conflating two Johnny Hopkins visits into one, but I’m sure he also gave me a compilation by Felt that day too, which I was initially more excited about. We played Columbia in the office and thought it pretty good on first listen, but it was a very busy, chatty office. A couple of weeks later, I went to interview the Charlatans at their studio and Tim Burgess put the white label on proper speakers: the penny dropped in a very, very big way that night. We played it on repeat.
In March of the next year, we got the Supersonic single in on pre-release cassettes and, Jesus, I never really recovered from that. Still haven’t.
Do you think the band will ever record new music or do you think this is "A lap of honour" as Noel Gallagher has stated?
Hamish: I think only two people in the world know the answer to that question. And even they probably don’t. Once they feel the outpouring of love from the crowds… that can change anybody’s mind. Add to that, every time I’ve seen Noel solo over the years, he’s always played pretty much the whole of whichever album was the most recent. ‘Council Skies’ was amazing. He’s clearly not even close to being done as a songwriter, and who knows? Maybe he’ll write one soon where he thinks, “You know who’d be great singing this…?”
Ted: I think it’ll become obvious one way or the other after they’ve played a good portion of gigs together again. Liam Gallagher does sound good singing Noel Gallagher songs, though.
Are you going to any of Oasis' gigs this summer?
Hamish: I will be at the first night in Cardiff - I’ve waited long enough! - and a Wembley night and then as many as I can get to after that. I would love to see them at River Plate in Buenos Aires, because whenever you watch anyone play there on YouTube (go have a look at AC/DC) it just looks absolutely crazy.
Ted: I’m going to the two Hamish are going to and then praying to the gods of rock for more down the line. Would love to travel far afield to see them – I’ve noticed Hamish has said Buenos Aires. That sounds good!
Do you have any other projects coming up?
Hamish: Not sure, I’m still in a bit of a daze that I’ve got to write a book about Oasis and that people are responding to it well… It’s been a pretty intensive few months, so in a way I don’t think I’ve had time to process the fact that I’m actually going to see Oasis live again: basically just planning to immerse myself in that moment and think about the future later.
Ted: I co-run a music newsletter, The New Cue, that publishes twice a week, which I’ve tried to do maintain my workload for during most of the time while writing this book, even if my colleague Niall might dispute that (he did carry a load of it for weeks in the deepest, darkest winter months). So, I’m going to try to do that with a bit more focus, while also publishing two books through a small imprint we’re launching in the autumn. And in the meantime, I’ll think of the next book to write.
Hamish and I also had some Oasis pub quizzes we wanted to host, partly as promo for the book but also because we think it’ll be a hoot. We’ve got them set-up with Sounds Familiar who run really fun, loud quiz nights: it’ll be an excuse to go to a pub and sing Oasis at top volume for two hours, which sounds good. Maybe we’ll get them up and running in a pub near you in the autumn/winter when you’re missing singing along to Oasis with your pals. It’d be nice to maintain the Dudley Moore and Peter Cook routine for a bit longer.
Finally, if you had to pick three Oasis tracks for the band's setlist this summer what would they be and why?
Hamish: As I’m sure you and everyone who reads this has, I’ve been talking about this for months. As I see it they’ve got about an hour and half’s worth of stuff that they just HAVE to play, but I really, really hope that they chuck in a couple of curveballs in as well. I felt such joy watching Noel at Alexandra Palace last summer, him introducing ‘Going Nowhere’ with something like “I appreciate most of you won’t have heard this before” and then having it sung back to him by everyone young and old in the audience. So that.
I think the version of ‘Headshrinker’ on Liam’s ‘Down By The River Thames’ album is outrageously good. You can hear what Bonehead adds to the sound on that so I’m made up that he’s involved and tunes like this are where you’ll notice him most.
And speaking of Bonehead, every time I go on TikTok I seem to be besieged by teenagers doing their own versions of ‘Bonehead’s Bank Holiday’. That is probably beyond the realms of possibility, but I live in hope of seeing a stadium singing “Dontcha knooow” back at him!
Ted: I’m a lot more route-one than Hamish. So:
Supersonic – I don’t think I could watch Oasis without hearing them play it.
Live Forever – in case Liam dedicates it to his missing teeth in Cardiff again.
I’d like a really 1964, R&B mod version of High Horse Lady, too. I can hear that song played like that in my head only.