In this week's issue of NME magazine (Dated 12th August 2006) there is a giant Oasis poster, plus the top 25 Oasis songs as voted for by the fans.
In stores today nationwide (UK)
Inside This Weeks NME
In this week's issue of NME magazine (Dated 12th August 2006) there is a giant Oasis poster, plus the top 25 Oasis songs as voted for by the fans.
In stores today nationwide (UK)
Liam To Study Alternative Medicine
Our kid Liam Gallagher is starting to scare us.
The ex-wild man of rock and roll, 33, has not only turned into a fitness freak, but now he hopes to go to homeopathy classes.
Our mole said: "Liam is so excited about learning about alternative medicine, he can't wait to start."
Supersonic Stuff.
Source: Daily Star
Stop The Clocks Tracklisting
There’s already growing speculation about the track listing of Oasis Stop The Clocks album, with a number of incorrect versions in circulation. Even the UK’s Sun newspaper has jumped on the band wagon (but their guess is miles off - nothing new there!). The full track listing will be announced in the coming weeks here on Oasisinet but in the meantime we will be running a competition shortly for you to send in your choice for what should be on the album. The closest to the correct list will win an amazing prize. Keep checking the site for details.
Source: www.oasisinet.com
Blast From The Past.......
Scans from the October 1995 copy of Loaded Magazine.
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Many Thanks To oa515.com For The Original Scans
Oasis Refrain From Cigarettes And Alcohol
By Pete Snodden
I was really surprised to hear the track-listing for the forthcoming greatest hits album from Oasis.
They're a band that I have grown up with, who have been an inspiration to teens around the world.
The only difference now is that the listeners who grew up with the band have grown up and Liam Gallagher is still acting the same age!
I don't want to take anything away from him - let's just say if you or I could get away with some of the antics he gets up to, we probably would!
It's good to see the band still making a positive impact in the music world, breaking boundaries and recording great music.
And one thing is for sure - the greatest hits album will be a top seller.
It's due for release on November 20 to cash in on the Christmas market.
But I was totally shocked to see the track-listing and to find Cigarettes and Alcohol - the track that first really got me into the band - excluded.
I was even more surprised to see that Live Forever was not going to be included either. This tune will always be, to me, the tune Liam dedicated to George Best the last time Oasis played Belfast.
Still in there are Wonderwall, Don't Look Back In Anger, Lyla, All Around The World, plus two new tracks.
Source: www.sundaylife.co.uk
Mad For It!
Where were you while they were getting high? Here, the fans themselves tell you
Iain, 28, Glasgow
"The very mention of the word Knebworth brings a big smile to my face. What a day I had, and it was my first ever gig. I was 18 at the time, had just left school and was about to go to uni. I'm from Ayrshire so I was on the phone all day when the tickets went on sale trying to get one for Loch Lomond, but I couldn't get through. Later that night a friend phoned to say he had a spare for Loch Lomond. Unfortunately my younger brother answered the phone and accepted the offer. World War III broke out in the house and I left the dinner table distraught! I was livid with my brother but a few days later another friend said his dad had tickets for the Sunday at Knebworth. He would drive us down on the morning of the gig and we would stay overnight in London. I was absolutely ecstatic as, like everyone at the time, I was obsessed with Oasis."
Gary,22, Stevenage
"As we lived in nearby Stevenage, me and a few mates went down to Knebworth with about two quid in our pockets just hoping to soak up the sun and listen from the outside. Well, just after The Bootleg Beatles played, out comes some guy and gives me a ticket! I was gob-smacked. After running three miles to a telephone box to tell my mum I was going to see the greatest band on Earth I got my chance to see them for the first time. This year I saw them for the tenth time. I can easily say Oasis changed my life."
Russ, 30, Hertfordshire
"I have to thank the FA cup final for me getting my Knebworth tickets. I'd been at work all morning so my mate and my mum tried to get tickets for me, but when I got home they told me there'd been no joy. Twenty minutes into the Cup Final, I thaught, "Hold on, there's about 70,000 people here not phoning for tickets." Second attempt on the phone and they were in the bag!"
Rob, 25, London
"My dad dropped me and my best mate Rich off at Knebworth at 9am. When Oasis arrived, the perfect position we had been in all day was torn from us by thousands of eager fans. After half an hour, I lost Rich, then I lost my bag, then one trainer, then I got hit by a bottle of piss, then John Squire came on for 'Champagne Supernova'. Oasis were amazing! Every song was brilliant and they ruled the world - In my eye's, anyway. At the end of the night, I was dehydrated, alone, with one shoe on and no bag, but with a great big smile on my face. Then I found my bag, then my shoe, then Rich! Then my dad, complete with a big bottle of squash and a warm journey home."
Dan, 27, Bristol
"The highlight for me was when Liam handed me his tambourine! We went both days and during the first day we were in the second row while Liam was bantering with the crowd. So as we'd managed to get to the front row the second day, we decided to have a bash. Halfway through the set, I asked Liam for his tambourine and he replied, 'Don't you worry mate, I'll be down there later, it's yours.' I didn't believe I'd get it and my mates certainly didn't, especially as he always just throws it in the crowd. Anyway, half way through the last track he went to throw it but stopped, pointed at me and proceeded to get down off the stage and head for me. There were a few security guards around holding the rest of the crowd back. Sure enough Liam gave me the tambourine and shook my hand. I still have it, and it's now been signed by the man himself! I stood outside his house in the February of the following year. I was an Oasis nut at the time, still am I guess. I have been to over 30 gigs now."
Jay, 20, Buckinghamshire
"Knebworth was one of the most surreal days of my life. My dad's friend Mark Feltham was playing harmonica with Oasis on the '...Morning Glory' tour, but being only 10 this didn't mean much to me. We were in the VIP tent, which was exclusively for griends and family of the band, when my dad started chatting to some Irish guy and introduced me to him as I had just started playing guitar. His name was Tim and he was the singer/guitarist in some band called Ash! I remember Mick Hucknall hiding away in a corner spending most of his time chatting up Martine McCutcheon off Eastenders. I think I spent most of my time playing on a huge Scalextric track. I also got Jarvis' autograph, later which was the highlight of my day 'coz he'd only just got his arse out at Michael Jackson during the Brits. Later we headed out for the gig, but I only really recall seeing my dad's mate on the screens. I do remember my dad shaking hands with a guy who had the biggest smile on his face though. That, of course, was Noel. Now being 20 years old, most people think it's bullshit when I tell them, but in truth it's one of the biggest regrets of my life, as I wasn't old enough to remember and appreciate this part of Rock and Roll history."
Ryan, 26, Berkshire
"Me and my girl spent the early part of the day in the crowd for The Bootleg Beatles and Ocean Colour Scene, but we sat out The Chemical Brothers to get some grub. We were sat under a tree when, on the dirt track nearby, a golf buggy ran into some unlucky punter. The passenger immediately got out... 'twas only Liam Gallagher himself! he gave the guy a hug and got back in, not 20 meters from us. My girl covered this 20 meters in approximately four seconds but it was too late - Liam continued to drive into the backstage area."
Louise, 29, Caerphilly
"One of my friends bought a ticket for £200 from a tout - well it was the gig of the century! The PA system was so loud that even before the bands started I was suffering with tinnitus, I had to join a queue fir over three hours to get a warm lager and the toilets were worse then the one in Trainspotting. But on the other hand all the support acts were brilliant and the temperature was in the high 70's. Oasis came on stage to the biggest roar I have ever heard in my life, followed by Noel shouting, "This Is History!" When John Squire came on for 'Champagne Supernova' the crowd all sang along; even 10 years later it makes my hair stand on end. even the three hours it took to get out of there were worth it. We got back to Wales 24 hours after we'd left, realising we had just enjoyed the gig of our lifes."
Raja, 24, London
Me and my friends took far too many pork pies along with us that day, so the only thing we could do with them as high into the air as possible. I was personally responsible for starting the Knebworth food fight that day and remember vividly the scene as hundreds of bags of food and rubbish flew above the crowd as we waited for Oasis to come on."
Helen, 25, London
"Watching Oasis live was almost a weekly occurrence for me in the 90's and it was always entertaining, mostly to witness what Liam would be wearing and saying. Knebworth, though was far the biggest although perhaps not the best (surely Maine Road!). Define highlight was seeing Squire come on for 'Champagne Supernova', which lasted way too long, but after that many warm beers, who cares?"
Source: NME
Blast From The Past.......
This interview is taken from the NME in May 1994. The band are on their first ever headline tour of the UK and Simon Williams catches them in extremely high spirits. The interview gave Oasis their first magazine cover and highlights the mood within the band at the time. Within six months the band reached number one in the UK album charts and the rest is history.
It Is common knowledge that hotels are utterly brilliant places.
Let's face it, if you get smashed off your nuts in the confines of your own home and gleefully decide to trash your living room prior to catching a bit of shut-eye, are the cleaning pixies likely to rearrange the furniture into some kind of social order while your hangover works itself into a midday frenzy? Nope, you'd just wake up to discover that, somehow, World War III had kicked off during the night and your house is in a state of blitz.
But, hotels being hotels, when Oasis shamble into the bar the following lunchtime - apart from the occasional dark stare from the receptionists - life is back to normal. Stunningly overpriced pots of tea are being drained. Liam and Noel are comparing wounds and laughing about their fight. The swimming pool has been cleared of chairs and Boneheads. And everyone logically decides it was the hotel's fault, anyway.
"It's a stupid place to put a pool, innit?" frowns Liam. "It was just asking for trouble putting us in this hotel." "It's true," nods Noel, wisely. "Those plate glass windows are just saying, 'THROW A CHAIR THROUGH ME!'" In fact, were it not for a bar bill totalling £150, the odd bruised band member and some suspicious chinking noises emanating from a large black bag being heaved through the foyer out to the van, you could almost convince yourself that nothing had happened. Really.
"Still, we don't need a rider tonight," sneers Liam, waving carelessly at the departing baggage. "We can just go in and say 'Newport - you can stick your rider UP YER ARSE!""
THIS IS life On The Road, Oasis style. You may not think it's big, or indeed clever. But it is rock'n'roll bastard bonkers. This becomes screamingly apparent when, lounging around the hotel lobby preparing for the drive to Newport, white most sane people are dreaming of a world with no spirits and a nice weekend on a country health farm lest their livers quit and their brains implode, Bonehead studies the tour itinerary and suddenly yells, "F—ing brilliant! The curfew at the venue tonight is half past one!" Oh good.
Our task is to follow Oasis around the country for three nights, from Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms to Derby Wherehouse via Newport TJs and all blurred points in between. In this time various people will threaten to leave the band to set up haberdasheries, the band will threaten to leave, several people and several senses will most certainly leave everyone.
Liam, Noel, Guigsy, Bonehead and drummer Tony McCarroll fuelled by little more than raging testosterone, Big Macs, gin and tonics and whatever powders they can dust their nasal passages with - will play three splendid sold out gigs, abuse more hotel staff and talk utter brilliant bollocks. Like about the time they stunned half of Manchester by appearing on The Word a full month before the 'Supersonic' single was released: here, Paula Yates was "up for a bit of sorting out", according to the ever- charming Liam, and Oasis once again made friends in their own inimitable style.
"Bonehead had his arm around Hufty," recalls Noel with a sad shake of his head. "He was shouting in her ear, 'What are you into birds for, anyway?' Then he started ticking her head, right in the middle of the bar..."
It's hard to tell when the on-the-road psychosis actually kicks in, such is the all-pervading air of insanity from day one. This is the second nationwide jaunt by Oasis, the first being a co- headline with Whiteout. And beneath the manic Manc exterior, the swaggering, crowd-shagging arrogance that dictates that they think they really, really are the best band in the entire galaxy, Oasis are freaked. Totally.
"I had to climb onto the PA to escape," he winces. "And someone's trying to untie my laces and someone else is grabbing hold of my trouserleg. I get to the dressing room just as the crowd is spilling onto the stage. Three-quarters of an hour later, the rest of the band appear and they look as though they've been in a fight! They were mobbed - the crowd wouldn't let them go! tt was f—ing hysterical, like Beatlemania or something?"
"We expected the gigs to be full," he admits, warily, "so we could be really arrogant and say, 'Oh yeah'. But I tell you man, we're more shocked than anyone! It's like, we've only had one record out - what's it gonnabe like when we get an album out?"
There's a great - probably entirely mythical - story which sums up Oasis perfectly. After all the band (bar Noel) were arrested on the ferry to Amsterdam a couple of months back, Creation President Alan McGee took the group's press officer to one side and said: "F—ing hell, man, I've been trying to make Teenage Fanclub sound interesting for five years! Look what you've landed here!"
Fact is. Oasis are a dream come true. They fight! They flirt! They go f--king mental! And they make music that creeps through your intestines, squeezes your kidneys and proposes to your heart. Probably. They are so OBVIOUS that the more manipulative record company sorts should be leaping off their high rise ledges in droves, because Oasis - with their housing estate backgrounds, their working class clumsiness and semi-genius pop sensibility - could never be invented in a million units. Put simply, as The Stone Roses once said, Oasis are what the world has been waiting for.
Which, funnily enough, takes us to Newport, where Noel is comforting yet another G&T in a pub around the corner from the hotel. The fact that this particular hostelry has so many games it resembles a boozer's indoor sports centre, and thus leads to all manner of theories, vis a vis whether people in Newport actually talk to each other, is marginally interesting. What is fascinating, however, is that the posters advertising tonight's gig proclaim Oasis plus Very Special Guests. With The Stone Roses supposedly recording a few miles up the road in Rockfteld it doesn't take a Nobel Prize winner to hazard a wild guess that the Manchester of yesterday is going to make an appearance next to the Manchester of today.
Noel laughs off the idea that the Roses intend to play, although subsequent rumour-mongers insist that Geffen had phoned TJs a few days before to book the slot for lan Brown's bunch. Yet you can't rid yourself of the feeling that, in the absence of the Roses and Happy Mondays, there is a massive demand for a cocky, rocking, PC-shocking Mane band. And that band is Oasis.
"It's like, you get a band like Suede," ponders Noel, "and they write pretty decent music and all that, but Brett Anderson's lyrics are basically a cross between Bowie and Morrissey and I don't think some 16-year-old on the dole is going to understand what he means by 'Animal Nitrate' or whatever.
"The thing about The Smiths is that Johnny Marr was a lad and you knew he was a rock'n'roller that's why I got into them. And think a lot of kids find Suede too intellectual, while with Blur they don't understand all that stuff about sugary tea. But with Oasis, like the Roses and the Mondays, it's the bottom line: here's a guitar, here's the songs, you have them. We're not preaching about ye olde Englande or how it was in the '60s. We're not preaching about our sexuality, we're not telling kids how to act.
"You want to write about shagging and taking drugs and being in a band. You don't wanna write about going down the supermarket or anything like that - I know it's terrible, so I'm not gonna write about it. I met a girl another night and I felt really sorry for her because she came up to me and said really quietly) 'I've got 'Supersonic' and I'm, er, really into your lyrics and, er, I've been through a lot as well'. And I went, 'What do you mean?
"Supersonic' is about some f—i'ng nine stone geezer who got Charlie'd off his nut one night... it's not about anything! It's just about a feeling, you just get up and play it. All I know is the gigs are selling out and we're probably gonna get in loads more trouble on this tour..."
FACT: OASIS talk a lot of bulls--t. After the Portsmouth gig Liam insists that he's going to "sort out" East 17 because, he alleges, they've "ripped off 'Imagine'". Half an hour later, the singer is insisting that all he wants to do is sit down with East 17, neck a few beers and sort out how they can "topple Take That".
Source: NME May 1994
"It All Felt Like It Was Leading To Knebworth..."
The view from the stage, the crowd and the backstage bar by Knebworth's rock-istocracy.
The Main Players:
Liam Gallagher
"I'm very proud of it, I am. What do I remember? Not a lot, really. Nothing. I remember forgetting that we were doing a second night - I thought we were doing just one, so I got really drunk after the first night. But I can't remember anything else."
Noel Gallagher
"It got to a certain point after '...'Morning Glory', and then 'Wonderwall' took off. It felt that everything was leading up to something that was gonna define not only the size of the band, but what British pop music was about at that time. It all felt like it was leading to Knebworth. But I think we were too busy doing it to worry about it. If we'd thought about it...well, I'd have certainly worn a better outfit, let's put it that way. And may have gone to bed a little bit earlier. And may have tried to keep Liam off the sauce. I remember us flying over and just being sort of normal. We were worried about other stuff; 'Have you got the beers backstage?'; 'Are they cold?'; 'And have you got Sky?'; 'Is it Sky Plus?' Stuff like that."
The Supporting Cast:
Tim Burgess, The Charlatans
Knebworth marked The Charlatans' first live appearence after their keyboard-player Rob Collin's was killed in a car accident just three weeks before.
"After Rob died in the accident, we wanted to pull out of the show, but when you fall off the bike you have to get up and do it again. Bobby Gillespie told [Primal Scream - Keyboard-player] Martin Duffy that he should [step in and play with us] as a show of support and strength. I think we only had a weeks practice with Duffy before we played in front of all those people. Not bad for a first gig. I remember we came out with a lot of determination and a lot of fire. We brought people to their knees, down to tears! It wasn't the intention; our intention was just to survive. I remember walking off and thinking, 'That's the last gig we'll ever play', to be honest. Then me and Mark [Collins] were just crying on the way home. The comedown after the gig was quite difficult but we just had to get through it. I think if we'd played badly that would have been the end of the band, but we didn't. It was a pivotal moment in The Charlatans story."
Nicky Wire, Manic Street Preachers
"It was the year that 'A Design For Life' had taken off, and we were kind of on the fringes of the great beast of Britpop! I'm not sure Oasis realised the gigantic nature of what they were doing. I remember John Squire being in a cabin backstage noddling away. And the singer of Ocean Colour Scene saying to me, 'This is history, man!' I just smiled - I didn't have the heart to say someting nasty. The moment for me was when John Squire came on and played 'Champagne Supernova' and just turned it into this Jimmy Pageesque, Lez Zeppelin guitar solo from f*****g Mars. That moment did seem like a coming together of the great Mancunian mafia. Even today, Oasis are still a vital force. And Liam is a true Torette's Syndrome wit which is something we sadly lack in pop music. Anyone who calls Franz Ferdinand 'The Wiggles' is alright by me."
Alan McGee, Creation Records Boss
"When I signed Oasis to Creation, I thought they were gonna be big, but I'd be lying if I said I thought they would get that big. I think we should have stopped after Knebworth, and I think maybe Noel thinks that too. Oasis should have split and we should have shut Creation. But it's easy to say that now. I mean, they still love what they do and that's great. It's like when Robbie Williams said he was going one better that Oasis and doing three nights at Knebworth. Now Robbie, I'm not being funny, but Oasis changed '90s British culture, and you were a dancer in a boyband."
Liam Howlett, The Prodigy
"Noel was the only one into us at the time. He was definitely the one who instigated us playing. Just before we came onstage, Bonehead was f*****g moaning about us, like, 'what the f**k are they doing here?'. Then we just went up there and rocked it. At the back of the stage, all the Oasis boys had a Portakabin each, and I remember Liam popping his head out of his as we came offstage shouting, 'What the f**k was all that noise? turn the f*****g bass down!' I've spoken to him since and he said the whole caravan was shaking, so, y'know, we'd done our job properly. Knebworth was just so beautiful, it was like a big f*****g rave, loads of people were on Es everywhere and stuff. It was an event never to be repeated. It was a moment in time."
Neil "John Lennon" Harrison, The Bootleg Beatles
"They couldn't get The Beatles, I suppose, so they asked us! On the day of the gig they'd opened up the gates just before we came on, so there were just hundreds of people that looked like ants running towards the stage. We played more late-period, psychedelic stuff and obviously the big crowd-pleasers. The Chemical Brothers come on afterwards, and said to us, 'It's not going to be easy following The Beatles doing 'Hey Jude!' I suppose it was our Shea Stadium!'
Marcus Russell, Oasis Manager
"Knebworth wasn't designed to be a historic event. It's what people made of it - every kid who went. If they all say 10 years on that it was an important moment in their lives, that's not for the band to decide. I think Oasis went out of their way to out a special bill together that was representative of the time and pretty diverse. And not cheap! They really went to town with it. After the show the band stayed onsite - They all had their own Winnebago, because it was such a nightmare getting out. They slept backstage, so they were prisoners in their own fortress!"
In The Crowd:
Dirk Tourette, Towers Of London
"I was 15 and went with my older brother. We got given the tickets for the Sunday and sneaked some wristbands off a security guard for a fiver each so we could get closer to the action. They were brilliant Oasis changed my life. I stood next to Gaz from Supergrass in the crowd. To me, Oasis mania meant something to wake up for in the morning instead of boring old school."
Nick Hodgson, Kaiser Cheifs
"I'd actually describe Knebworth as the weirdest day of my life. I went down, didn't eat all day, didn't drink any water, dehydrated myself, got back on the bus to leave, and then was stuck for four hours in the car park! When I got home, I went to bed and woke up in the middle of the night having hallucinations! My bedroom had turned into woods! i got up and walked across the room that had become a garden, walked into my mirror thinking that was the way out, shouting for Simon [Rix, Kaisers' bassist] and then looked at my curtains. they'd become trees! It was truly bizarre, no drugs were involved, just dehydration, lack of food, car fumes and Oasis - oh dear."
Jarvis Cocker, Pulp
" Well, yeah, I did quite enjoy it, though I remember we got stuck with a massive bill at the end of it, though. We'd hired a posh car up, a Merc or something, with posh cream leather seats and we picked up this friend of ours on the way. He was already hammered and first of all he bought loads of porn at a garage on the way, which was was a bit unsavoury. Then he proceeded to light a fag, fall asleep and burn a hole in the upholstery, which cost a f*****g fortune to get fixed. It's a bit of a sad thing to stick in your mind, but yeah, thats it. I remember playing Scalextric too - they had a thing set up for people to play backstage. Plus i remember when I got there the first thing i saw was Mick Hucknall trying to chat up Martine McCutcheon - that set the Standard for the day really."
Source: NME
This Is History
Like so much of Oasis' career, playing Knebworth was an idea half-inched from the greats of the past. Since the early 70's, Knebworth House and its surrounding grounds have been the home of the British mega-gig, with everyone from Led Zepplin to the Rolling Stones to, ahem, Cliff Richard gracing the stately mansion of Lord and Lady Cobbold - rocking the b******s off their fair green expanses. Yet, if as the case for the Oasis defence has gone for the last 12 years - talent borrows and genius steals, then the Gallagher brothers appropriationof a fading British Rock tradition must surely stand alongside their theft of Bowie's All The Young Dudes' for 'Whatever' as the lasting testament to their musical genius.
First, a few statistics for you. Oasis' two nights at Knebworth House in August 1996 involved over 3,000 people in the staging alone. The world's (then) largest video screen was built specially for the gig; not that it was much use for the poor b******s at the back, because on each night the crowd was 125,000 people deep. That said, life was probably a little easier if you managed to find your way on to the 7,000-strong guestlist.
At the end of the weekend, Oasis had amassed £5.6 Million between them and reached the absolute zenith of their career. But thats nothing. The truly startling facts are these - such was Oasis' monstrous popularity in the summer of '96 that when tickets went on sale, 3 Million people frazzled the phone lines of Britain in a desperate attempt to get them. That's one out of every 20 people in the country. Conceivably, Oasis could have sold out 24 consecutive nights at Knebworth without breaking a sweat. But Knebworth was about more than just numbers. It was Britpop's crowning glory, it's death knell and it's Woodstock all rolled into one. It didn't matter that Portaloo queues snaked up to 400 yards long, that Oasis'performance - by the bands own admission - was below par. This, as Noel Gallagher astutely reminded the crowd when Oasis took to the stage on the first night, was history.
As DJ and event compare Gary Crowley so eloquently put it, "I could've built Pink Floyd's wall with what was coming out of my underpants at the time." Quite. But a quick glance at the list of support acts for the two nights will tell you why it was such a big deal. The Prodigy, Manic Street Preachers, Ocean Colour Scene, Cast, The Charlatans, Chemical Brothers and Kula Shaker, summed up everything in British popular music at the time that wasn't Oasis, Blur or the Spice Girls. These were bands at the peak of their commercial powers (yes, even Kula Shaker), capable of drawing in huge crowds on their own, thank you very much. That they'd all gathered in a field in Hertfordshire to pay homage to the biggest band in the world felt epochal.
In essence, the Britpop generation amounted to little more than renewed interest in catchy songwriting and the unfortunate emergence of laddism in popular culture. But in the summer of 1996 at least, it stood for something far grander.
Britain was on the cusp of revolution; the Tories, in power since the days of Thatcher, were almost certainly on their way out. On their way in was a revitalised Labour party, led by a youthful, exciting (no, really) politician named Tony Blair. All the talk was of 'Cool Britannia' and Oasis were to be at it's apex; a 21st-century, monobrowed Beatles. Knebworth was the staging post for this cultural shift, a Woodstock where Stella and Bensons were the drugs of choice, and where Cast were the country Joe & The Fish to Oasis's Hendrix.
Oasis themselves may have been comparatively underwhelming on the night(s), but with songs of the calibre of 'Live Forever'and 'Wonderwall' in the set, it hardly mattered. In any case, Noel's rendition of 'The Masterplan' - dedicated to everyone in the audience who was young - was the entire weekend's most poetic five-and-a-bit minutes; the point at which it all (seemingly) became clear: 'Life, on the other hand/Won't make you understand/We're all part of the masterplan."
It went off without a hitch, too. Until the morning after, that was, when Noel Gallagher conceded, "You can't play anywhere bigger than Knebworth. After this, what are we gonna do? Where are we gonna go?" It wasn't just a problem for Oasis, though - after Knebworth, Britpop itself had nowhere to go. Blur, the ying to Oasis' yang, conceded that the game was up as far as commercial competitiveness went, and retreated to Iceland to record the lo-fi, Pavement-inspired 'Blur'. Pulp would take two years to record 'This Is Hardcore' - the dark, sadistic follow-up to 'Different Class', while the likes of Sleeper and Kula Shaker scurried into obscurity. All floundered to some degree, but Oasis most of all. They themselves were in the impossible position of topping two of the biggest albums in history and the biggest British gig of all time. And, merely weeks after Knebworth had primed them for global domination, Liam Gallagher elected, at the last minute, not to join the band's crucial US tour and go house-hunting instead.
Oasis' commercial hopes in the US never recovered. Blur and Pulp's mainstream muscle also faded, and it became clear to all that Britpop had no answer to Knebworth. With the possible exception of Radiohead at Glastonbury the following year, Knebworth still towers over every other subsequent British gig in terms of sheer size and significance. In 10 years, only Robbie Williams has attempted to top it - selling out three nights in front of 375,000 people. But let's put some prospective on that - it's Robbie f*****g Williams. A man who only registers as a cultural force in branches of TK Maxx.
No, Knebworth '96 was the defining moment of a generation; the making and the breaking of a musical movement; and Oasis' greatest achievement. Arguably, only Arctic Monkeys have the potential to equal it, but until then, it should stand reveredas the single greatest, most culturally significant weekend ever to feature Ocean Colour Scene on the bill.
Source: NME
Rock 'N' Rovers
A New family rocks Coronation Street - with a pair of brothers based on Oasis badboys Liam and Noel Gallagher.
Paul and Liam Connor (Sean Gallagher and Rob James-Collier) move in with sister Michelle, played by former Hear'Say star Kym Ryder, and her teenage son (Ben Thompson).
Within days of her return, feisty Michelle beds Steve McDonald and feuds with his mother Liz. Single mum Michelle appeared in the ITV1 soap last March as a singer for drummer Vernon Tomlin's band. She is the first on the scene at the end of August, when Vernon persuades Fred Elliott to give her a job at the Rovers.
Kym, 30 ??" married to Jack Ryder who played Jamie in Eastenders - says: "It's not long before Michelle is pulling more than pints."
Source: www.mirror.co.uk
Oasis To Feature In Japanese Movie Soundtrack
Music from Oasis is set to feature in a new Japanesse movie called Sugar 'N' Spice.
Lyla is being used as the theme song for the movie, other songs in the films soundtrack include, Rock 'N' Roll Star, Let There Be Love And Mucky Fingers.
Film Information: www.sugarandspice.jp/
Trailer: www.sugarandspice.jp/movie.html
Oasis Mark Knebworth Anniversary
The Charlatans, Manic Street Preachers and The Prodigy have described Oasis' massive Knebworth gigs as a pivotal moment in musical history, 10 years on from the Gallaghers' biggest ever shows.
With the band supported by all three acts in front of 250,000 people over two historic nights, the event was one of the defining moments of the Britpop years.
The shows marked a major turning point for The Charlatans after keyboard player Rob Collins was killed in a car accident just three weeks before.
Frontman Tim Burgess told NME: "We brought people down to their knees, down to tears! I think if we'd played badly that would have been the end of the band, but we didn't. It was a pivotal moment in The Charlatans story."
Prodigy mainman Liam Howlett described the event as a "fucking big rave".
He added: "Knebworth was just so beautiful, loads of people were on Es everywhere and stuff. It was an event never to be repeated, it was a moment in time."
The shows also marked a career highpoint for the Manic Street Preachers after 'A Design For Life' brought the Welsh three-piece to the masses.
Bassist Nicky Wire said: "I'm not sure Oasis realised the gigantic nature of what they were doing. The moment for me was when John Squire came on and played 'Champagne Supernova'. That moment did seem like a coming together of the great Mancunian mafia."
Source: www.nme.com
Inside This Weeks NME
KNEBWORTH 10TH ANIVERSARY SPECIAL
"If I'd thought about it, I'd have worn a better outfit." It's the 10th anniversary special issue! Find out how Oasis 'ad it at the gig of the '90s-
"That moment did seem like a coming together of the great Mancunian mafia." NME has the views of the bands, backstage movers and future stars who were there to witness it all unfold.
In Stores Nationwide (UK) 2nd August 2006.
Oasis Best Of LP Is Wrong
Oasis have rubbished tabloid reports that the tracklisting of their Best Of album Stop The Clocks had been leaked.
The Sun printed what it claimed would be the 18 songs on the compilation, out on November 20. It had two new tracks.
But the band's PR told PS: "We said what some songs are, like Wonderwall and Acquiesce, but the rest won't be revealed until September. Anything else is guesswork. The Sun's was wrong.
Source: Planet Sound
Turn Ibiza Into... Club MAD! That's Noel's Tip For Kasa Lads
Noel Gallagher has promised Kasabian that playing Ibiza Rocks will cement their live reputation.
The Oasis legend, 38, who owns a home on the island, regularly shares pearls of wisdom with the band.
And he is the latest musician to praise the Manumission event turning the tide on dance music.
Kasabian play the gig on August 11 and 12 and lead guitarist Serge Pizzorno 24, told me: "We've never been to Ibiza so were talking to Noel about Ibiza Rocks. He said it's the final piece of the pyramid for us.
"It'll be a case of lock all the doors when we get to the Manumission villa. We're not staying at Noel's - everyone's maddest friends are coming out so it could get messy and we wouldn't want to do that on the man.
Source: Daily Star
Liam's A Rock 'N' Roller Star
Some might say Liam Gallagher has been splashing out on girlie hair products.
The Oasis hardman is snapped leaving his local Sainsbury’s in Finchley, North London, with a can of what looked worryingly like hairspray.
The singer – doing his weekly food shop with girlfriend Nicole Appleton and son Gene – has a well coiffured barnet that looks like it takes a lot of careful maintenance. I wonder what else he had in his bags. Roll-on With It, perhaps?
Let’s just hope it was Cigarettes And Alcohol.
Source: www.thesun.co.uk
More On The Gallagher's Secret Sister
The estranged father of Oasis rockers Liam and Noel Gallagher has confirmed press reports that the musicians have a secret sister. Tommy Gallaher was married to Liam and Noel's mother Peggy when he fathered a love child, Emma Davies, who was born only 11 months after Liam in 1973. The 62-year-old says, "Yes, it's true. I'm her dad and I'm happy to say so." The Wondewall hitmakers have refused to have any contact with their father since he divorced their mother in 1986.
source: www.contactmusic.com
Noel To Write For Monkeys?
Noel Gallagher wants to write songs for his new drinking buddies Arctic Monkeys.
The 39-year-old Oasis star was impressed by the lads after ex-Monkey Andy Nicholson, 20, stuffed him in a tequila drinking contest in May.
And a pal said: "Noel doesn't want to tour any more. He'd prefer to write for other people and top of the list is the Arctic Monkeys.
"He really likes lead singer Alex Turner and thinks they could be the next Oasis."
Source www.people.co.uk
The Gallaghers Are Set To Become The Biggest Unsigned Band In The World With Their New "Definitive Collection"
Oasis have announced that they will release a new album this year.
Despite warning fans that they would not be releasing anything before 2007, the band have confirmed that new record 'Stop The Clocks' will come out on November 20. The record represents a U-turn for the group. It collects together Oasis' best moments despite Noel Gallagher's insistence that the band would never release a greatest hits.
"This is from the horse's mouth. We will only do a best of when we split up. The only thing we've got that might be in the pipeline next year will be another B-sides album, all the B-sides from 'Standing...' up to this lot," he told NME last year. "I never understood Manics and Blur putting out Best Ofs - I mean, what the f**k's all that about? It's kind of saying that whatever you're gonna do from there on is not gonna be your best. We'll put out a Best Of when we stop. No Best Of or singles album until it's done and dusted."
However, rather than collect together the flipsides from the group's recent singles, Oasis are now opting for a "definitive collection" with tracks handpicked by the band members themselves - although even this Noel was not initially keen on. "I think they're [the record label] going to force our hand. I really wouldn't want to do it, but if they put one out we'll have to get involved otherwise it will be s**t," he explained last December. "It's all a scam. You should put one out only when you're finished - in chronological order. But I have a feeling they'll do the dirty on us."
So far the band have revealed the 18 track compilation will contain the "greatest B-side ever" 'Acquiesce' and 'Half The World Away', the Noel-fronted song that became the theme tune to The Royle Family. Other selections include singles 'Supersonic', 'Wonderwall' and 'The Importance Of Being Idle', while the band are finalising what else they want to make the cut.
Significantly, the release of 'Stop The Clocks' marks the end of Oasis' current deal with their label SonyBMG, and with Noel indicating he would look for a new label after the contract was up, Oasis look set to start 2007 as the biggest unsigned band on the planet. "Any artist at the end of their deal, still selling albums, is in a position to negotiate a much stronger deal," explained Stuart Clarke of music business bible Music Week. "Oasis are in the financial position where they don't need record company investment to make records; they can approach their deals differently."
It's likely they could command something upwards £3 Million for a one record deal with a major label. "The band may choose to make the albums using their own money," explained Clarke, "and deliver a finished product to the label that makes the strongest offer, as we saw with Thom Yorke's solo record 'The Eraser' recently."
For now though the band are planning to take a "Sabbatical" before they're expected to start work on new material next year.
Source: NME Magazine
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