Teacher Grabs Two Oasis Tambourines

Lee Thomas is the world’s luckiest Oasis fan having twice caught a tambourine thrown by singer Liam Gallagher at two concerts more than a decade apart.

The Cardiff headteacher could not believe his luck when at Thursday’s Oasis concert in the CIA in Cardiff history repeated itself and he caught the lead singer’s tambourine when Liam tossed into the crowd. The same thing had happened when Lee was among the 8,000-strong crowd at the same venue on December 10, 1997.

Lee said: “I was at the concert with my wife and father-in-law. They wanted to hang around near the back so I went up the front of the crowd for the first song, Rock ‘n’ Roll Star.

“I have always been a big Oasis fan so I thought I would relive my youth and get up close. The song ended and Liam put it in his mouth. It is moon shaped so he was making a smiley face with it and then he threw it into the crowd and before I knew it I had grabbed it.

“I put it up my jumper and made my way back to my wife Jo. I was absolutely delighted but I could not believe my luck and neither could Jo.”

The chances of this happening twice in the CIA are around 64 million to one making Lee one of the luckiest Oasis fans in the world.

Lee returned to work in Meadowlane Primary in St Mellons on Friday with the tambourine to show the pupils.

But the excitement was not as great as it had been in 1997 when he was a teacher at Marlborough Junior School in Penylan and Oasis were still one of Britain’s biggest bands.

“I had to give them a few clues last week.

“They did not know Oasis but they did know songs like Wonderwall.

“Both tambourines are exactly the same size and I will certainly look after them as a piece of Oasis memorabilia.”

Lee has another chance of adding to his collection of “shaker makers” next year when he will be among the 60,000-strong crowd at Oasis’ gig in the Millennium Stadium in June.

Source: www.walesonline.co.uk

Oasis UK Stadium Shows: Limited Additional Tickets Available

A very limited number of additional tickets have become available for Oasis' 2009 stadium shows. These are credit card returns from orders cancelled after credit card processing. A very small number of tickets are available for all shows.

Go to www.seetickets.com/oasisf for full availability listings.

Source: www.oasisinet.com

Matt Costa To open For Oasis & Ryan Adams In The USA

Oasisinet is pleased to announce that Matt Costa will once again be opening the show for Oasis & Ryan Adams on their forthcoming tour of the USA.

The tour begins on 3rd December in Oakland. For more info about the tour dates, click here.

Source: www.oasisinet.com

Got A Question For Noel Gallagher?

Every fan has a bunch of questions they'd love to ask their favourite band and in a special interview, to be broadcast this Boxing Day, Radio 2 will be giving you the opportunity to submit your questions to Noel.

The deadline for entering your questions is midnight on Sunday 9th November so have a think what you'd most like to ask Noel then click here to submit.

Source: www.oasisinet.com

Oasis Wrap Up BBC Electric Proms

Oasis attracted a star-studded audience as they closed the BBC Electric Proms in style at the London Roundhouse.

The Manchester five-piece drafted in the Crouch End Festival Chorus for six songs, including their most famous hits Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger.

James Bond star Daniel Craig, Joe Cole and comedians Russell Brand and Ralph Little were among the stars at the gig.

The show rounded off five days of music spread across Liverpool and London.

'Best ever'

Dean Swift, 17, from Wellington said the performance was the best he'd ever seen Oasis play.

He added: "That was blinding. That's the best gig they've done. I saw them at Wembley Arena the other week but the choir added something different to them."

Natlie Lawrenson, 22, from Barnsley travelled all the way down from Leeds to see her heroes perform.

She said: "I've seen Oasis a few times now but that was out of this world. To see them at such an intimate venue was just breathtaking. The choir added that extra wow factor too."

Kicking off with Rock 'n' Roll Star the band played a host of songs from their back catalogue along with six new tracks from their current album Dig Out Your Soul.

Both frontman Liam Gallagher and his brother Noel dedicated songs to their wives, who were watching in the audience, during their set.

Noel then introduced the band's 50-member backing choir, who were dressed in plain clothes, at the beginning of Wonderwall b-side Masterplan.

"This is the Crouch End Choir, I won't introduce them all by name because there's 50 of them and we'll be here all f*****g night," he joked.

James Bond

The ensemble also teamed up with the band for I'm Outta Time, Wonderwall, Champagne Supernova, I Am The Walrus and Number One hit Don't Look Back In Anger, which saw the whole venue singing.

During the show, Noel spotted Daniel Craig in the crowd and said: "James Bond is upstairs, I might see if I can blag it so that he can get me the next James Bond theme tune instead of f****g dopey Americans doing it all the time."

The actor was then greeted with chants of, 'Who are you? Who are you?' from the fans before Noel interjected, 'He's Bond, James Bond'."

He also pulled a similar trick with comedian Russell Brand later in the show when he dedicated Falling Down to the Radio 2 presenter.

"Russell will have been up there tonight trying to wangle some introduction to James Bond so he can become some effeminate James Bond baddie," Noel added.

The band wrapped up the show with their cover of The Beatles classic I Am The Walrus before Noel added: "Thanks for coming. We'll see you at Wembley next year."

Earlier, Glasvegas opened the night by performing a host of tracks from their self-titled debut album including hit singles Geraldine and Daddy's Gone.

Singer James Allan told Newsbeat that Oasis inspired him to form his own band. He said: "Before I saw Oasis I'd never really felt the urge to be in a band. They made me pick up a guitar.

"It's great too because tonight I get to see them for free."

Oasis setlist:

Rock 'n' Roll Star

Lyla

Shock Of The Lightning

Cigarettes And Alcohol

The Meaning Of Soul

To Be Where There's Life

Waiting For The Rapture

Masterplan

Songbird

Slide Away

(What's The Story) Morning Glory

Ain't Got Nothing

The Importance Of Being Idle

I'm Outta Time

Wonderwall

Supersonic

Don't Look Back In Anger

Falling Down

Champagne Supernova

I Am The Walrus

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Watch Oasis At The Electric Proms Now

You can watch the full show of Oasis at the Electric Proms in London's Roundhouse by clicking here.

Oasis New Single Details

This is the artwork from the Promo CD, of the Oasis new single "I'm Outta Time' that is in stores on December 1st.

Thanks to Ethan

Old Hands Show Young Pretenders There Is Life In The Old Songs Yet

Oasis closed the BBC Electric Proms last night with the most intimate and forceful gig of their tour so far. But the novelty came from support band, Glasvegas, recently No 2 in the album charts with their debut, and pretenders to the Oasis throne. "They're the reason that we're even in a band," Glasvegas's singer James Allan confessed to the crowd. "The reason that I even picked up a guitar is Oasis." And they are, in so many ways, the band Oasis once were.

They adore the echo-drenched pop of Phil Spector and Suicide as the Gallaghers once spliced The Beatles with punk. Both bands draw heavily on their working-class backgrounds. But Oasis reacted with football-chant defiance, rooted in mundane situations rock'n'roll would lead them out of. Allan picks at the pain of his past, and makes it grand. The catch in his throat as he sings "Daddy's Gone", a hymn to his helpless devastation when his father walked out, may be showbiz but Glasvegas otherwise radiate urgent faith.

It isn't the material to provoke the joyous, beery melée Oasis do when they walk on. Watching them earlier on this tour, a gradual improvement in energy was undercut by a feeling of sadness. You could see them searching desparately for their lost greatness.

The intimate Roundhouse, rather than their giant stadium gigs next summer, proves the right place to make their last stand as a relevant band. Their buzzing, thick sound is enclosed here, bouncing claustrophobically off the walls. Liam, looking ready to punch his own shadow, roams the small stage like a caged beast. Holding his tambourine in his teeth during "Cigarettes and Alcohol", he delicately tosses it into the crowd, just to watch the riot.

Noel is hampered by broken ribs still weeks from healing after a Canadian on-stage assault. For "The Masterplan" he is bolstered by the Crouch End Choir. Noel introduces Daniel Craig and Russell Brand up in the rafters, but dedicates "The Importance of Being Idle" to Glasvegas. "Apart from the lyrical content," he can't help adding. "Because that could do with some work."

He has never let Allan's lacerating self-exposure into his songs; and he may be intimating this isn't the way to stadium success. And yet new album Dig Your Own Soul provides, in "Falling Down", his first moment of middle-aged doubt. And he sings his best song "Don't Look Back in Anger" like a comforting friend.

Oasis end with "Pomp and Circumstance", inserted by the generally redundant choir into The Beatles' "I Am the Walrus".

They are a band that cannot reinvent their sound, only reinforce it. Sensitivity and the future may be Glasvegas's. But the sheer force of Oasis's past takes the night.

Source: www.independent.co.uk

Oasis: Lord Don't Slow Me Down (Blu-ray) In Stores Today

In Stores today 27/10/2008 (UK) Other countries check local stockist.
RRP: £24.99

Special Features
Live Concert
Commentary from the Band



Review

What happens when a film maker follows one of the world's biggest bands on a year long world tour? What happens when the film maker is granted unique access to that band, is present for the ups and downs, the moments of greatness and the periods of the same interview in 10 different languages in as many days? What happens when that band is Oasis, travelling across 26 countries on their biggest world tour to date playing to a total of over 2 million people?

The answer is Lord Don't Slow Me Down, a Blu-Ray set that not only gives you the definitive feature length documentary seen in selected cinemas last year, but also the option of voice over commentaries from the band, a Noel Gallagher Q & A session with fans from New York City and out takes from the film.

Directed by Baillie Walsh who has previously worked with Massive Attack (he made 'Safe From Harm'), Spiritualised, New Order and Kylie's Slow, and is now working on a film with Daniel Craig, this Blu-Ray is a compendium of Oasis entertainment par excellence.

Oasis At The Electric Proms Setlist & Photos

Britain's greatest rock n roll band Oasis are the final headliner on this year's festival bill.

Oasis are set to treat music fans to a very special performance at the festival and will be accompanied by the Crouch End Festival Chorus at the Roundhouse London.

Rock 'N' Roll Star
Lyla
The Shock Of The Lightning
Cigarettes And Alcohol
Meaning Of Soul
To Be Where There's Life
Waiting For The Rapture
The Masterplan (with the Crouch End Festival Chorus)
Songbird
Slide Away
Morning Glory
Ain't Got Nothing
The Importance Of Being Idle
I'm Outta Time (with the Crouch End Festival Chorus)
Wonderwall (with the Crouch End Festival Chorus)
Supersonic
Don't Look Back In Anger (with the Crouch End Festival Chorus)
Falling Down
Champagne Supernova (with the Crouch End Festival Chorus)
I Am The Walrus (with the Crouch End Festival Chorus)

The video for the show should be up in the morning, click here for more information.

Photo Credit: BBC

Top 10 Selling Albums In The UK This Week

01 AC/DC - Black Ice
02: Kaiser Chiefs - Off With Their Heads
03: Kings Of Leon - Only By The Night
04: Leon Jackson - Right Now
05: Katherine Jenkins - Sacred Arias
06: Keane - Perfect Symmetry
07: Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul
08: Sugababes - Catfights And Spotlights
09: Boyzone - Back Again - No Matter What
10: Sash - The Best Of

The Shock Of The Lightning has now left The Official UK Singles Chart top 40.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Oasis At The BBC Electric Proms TONIGHT TV And Radio Times

Tonight Sunday 26th October, times are for the UK.

BBC Radio 1, 21:00 to 22:30 'Oasis Live at the BBC Electric Proms'
Radio 1 comes direct from the Camden Roundhouse in London for the finale of this year's BBC Electric Proms, featuring Oasis performing with the Crouch End Festival Chorus.

You can listen online at www.bbc.co.uk/radio1

The Electric Proms 2008: Oasis

BBC HD, BBC 2 Scotland, BBC 2 England and BBC 2 NI are all at 2310
BBC 2 Wales at 2355

Edith Bowman presents the grand finale of the Electric Proms 2008. Oasis front a night of anthems with accompaniment from the 50-strong Crouch End Festival Chorus.

Source: bbc.co.uk/radio1 and Sky EPG.

Tales From The Middle Of Nowhere

Taken from Noel Gallagher's Tour Diary on www.oasisinet.com

Yes people. We're on the bus. Leaving the Wales. Heading back to London. Cardiff, the shows and the people were brilliant. There was quite a bit of violence at both gigs. Not nice. Can't those fuckers take it outside. Or at least sort it out in the car park before the gig? Just a thought.

We did have much fun though. Caught up with Rhys and The Peth. Lovely, lovely lads.

The Roundhouse is up next. For them Electric Proms. With a 50-piece choir. Rehearsals were immense. Celestial in fact. I wish you could all come along and hear it. There's always YouTube though, eh?

By the way, if any of you got involved in any of that ticket buying business yesterday I thank you from the bottom of my guitar case. Can't speak for anyone else but I promise that I'LL be brilliant at those shows. Saying that - who knows where we'll be next year? There's plenty of time for the shit to hit the fan before then, eh?

In a bit.

GD

Source: www.oasisinet.com

Inside The Current Issue Of Webuser Magazine

A Email about this blog, I sent in to Webuser Magazine is printed inside the current issue of the UK's biggest-selling internet magazine.

Click here to buy a digital version of this magazine right now!

Oasis Happy To Dig It Out In Comfort Zone

Their new album is a very spiritual affair, as befits the band's more mature profile, writes Barry Egan.

The Gallagher brothers are not the cokehead bon vivants that they used to be. (What pop star is, in these recessionary times?) Noel once told me one night in Cork in the mid-Nineties that he spent a small fortune on the Devil's Dandruff each week.

He is now father to a nine-month-old son (with long-time girlfriend Sara MacDonald) and an eight-year-old daughter (with ex-wife Meg Mathews). Liam is a father of two boys -- one with an ex-wife (Patsy Kensit), one with his present wife (Nicole Appleton) -- and a daughter from a brief relationship with Lisa Moorish, Pete Doherty's ex. The various tasks of fatherhood haven't, however, stopped big brother Noel from caning it on occasion.

In August, Noel rolled onto Chris Moyles's BBC breakfast show after staying out until 6am on a bender. Later the monobrowed legend said he had "no recollection of actually being in the studio. All I know is what I said was printed in the paper the next day. I kind of take my own disclaimer on that, that morning. If someone starts firing other people's band names when you've been out all night drinking Jager bombs . . ."

Let me refresh Noel's mind for him then. He said that Block Party are "a bunch of middle class kids trying to rebel about against mum and dad. They sit on top of an apex of shit". Keane "will always be squares. Even if one of them started injecting heroin into his groin people would go 'Yeah but your dad was a vicar, goodnight'.'' How "everyone in Oasis hates Coldplay" and how Amy Winehouse, well . . . the less vicious bits were that she should "learn three chords on the guitar and go write a tune".

Her producer Mark Ronson retaliated on his MySpace blog that "I just wanted him to know that I'm actually taking guitar lessons from Jay-Z right now and he's already taught me both chords to Wonderwall (tune!)".

(Noel famously criticised the organisers of the Glastonbury Festival during the summer for having rapper Jay-Z as a headlining act.)

Ronson went on: "In fact, it's so much fun having Jay teach me all of Noel's songs on the guitar (hooray!) that I'm thinking of doing an Oasis/Jay-Z remix album a la The Grey Album. Potential titles are Champagne Superhova or Definitely Jay-Z. I'll keep you posted."

I might point out, now, that Oasis's new album Dig Out Your Soul will have neither Jay-Z nor Ronson shaking in their Converse runners. It is all very good (Waiting For The Rapture -- echoing The Doors' Five To One; Get Off Your High Horse Lady -- pure Plastic Ono Band weirdo-brilliance; I'm Outta Time -- Liam channelling John Lennon) but nowhere near the masterly genius reached on Definitely Maybe or (What's The Story) Morning Glory?.

In fairness, even the dogs on the street know that Definitely Maybe and (What's The Story) Morning Glory? were two of the greatest albums ever made. Still, the band's seventh studio album, their first in three years, might, as one critic astutely noted, "finally change perceptions of Oasis as being some sort of Beatles rip-off. For the first time, they've put away the guitars -- well, sort of -- and embraced a trippier, Stone Roses-type feel. Lyrically, Noel has also turned inward, with religion and spirituality common themes on the album."

There are, as befits the band's advancing years, quite a few mentions of God and the like; which suggests Noel has possibly traded in cocaine -- whatever about Jager bombs -- for that other, allegedly greater, high of religion.

"The strange thing is, is that the lyrics are all quite similar -- they all mention God, and Jesus, and the f***ing light and the rapture, and angels," Noel said recently. "And that's happened very much by coincidence because none of us write together and none of us discuss what we're writing about. That would make us like Radiohead."

Asked whether this is the first album in a while when Oasis appear to be operating outside their comfort zone, Noel, who plays in Lord Henry Mount Charles's back garden at Slane on June 30 next year, snapped to a journalist from NME: "I can't stand it when bands say, you know, on this album we really stepped out of our comfort zone. What does that mean? This is not a f***ing game. This is soul, man. It's about humanity. It's not a test. People who went to university are always trying to get themselves out of their comfort zone and I always say, 'I'm working class. It's taken me 15 years to build a comfort zone and I'm not getting out of it for no f***er'."

Source: www.independent.ie

Oasis To Add Another Show In Murrayfield Stadium?

Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher have not ruled out adding another Scottish show to their tour after the first sold out in record time.

All 55,000 tickets for their gig at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh on June 17 were snapped up in just two hours.

A band insider said: "It's the fastest sell-out in Murrayfield history - a second show could be a possibility."

Source: www.sundaymail.co.uk

Tales From The Middle Of Nowhere

Taken from Noel Gallagher's Tour Diary on www.oasisinet.com

Now then. Hello there. I'm on a choo-choo train. On my way to Cardiff. I travel alone today. Sitting in silence. People watching. Perfect. I've got that bastard cold, see? Have you?

Bournemouth was odd. Strange clientele (I thought so anyway). Good shows though (I thought so anyway).

Just stopped at Reading. No one got off. No one got on. Just got a COFFEE from the "buffet trolley". I'm not much of a fan of coffee. Too middle class for me. But as I won't be served tea by anyone other than my missus, "coffee" it is.

Just stopped at Swindon. A person got off. Couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman. They was too fat, y'see?

The scenery has become more green. it's nice, innit...the greenery? A couple of lads just come to say hello. They're going to see the gig, they say. So am I. They're already on the piss. Nice enough lads though.

That "coffee" was shit by the way. Better than the tea I expect though.

Why do trains do that thing? They all of a sudden go from 1,000mph to walking pace for 20 minutes. Why? Is it sleepy time for the cows and sheeps or summat? We're going REALLY fast again. Why?

We're stopping at Bristol. Let's see what happens here then, eh? Hmm..not a lot. 2 more stops to go. Newport and then Cardiff.

I'm bored now. Fuck all happened at Newport.

Source: www.oasisinet.com

Would You Pay Touts £200 For Tickets For A Sold-Out Oasis Gig?

Oasis fans are getting ready to Roll With It after getting their hands on sought-after Oasis tickets.

About 1,000 fans queued at the Stadium of Light as tickets went on sale yesterday for the Sunderland leg of the band's UK tour.

The crowds were so large that stadium officials brought forward the sale of the 4,000 available tickets from 10am to 8am.

And within an hour of going on sale online and over the phone at 10am, tickets for next June's show sold out. Christopher McGowan, 22, of Hylton Castle, was first in the queue after beginning his lengthy wait at noon on Wednesday.

He said: "It feels great having the tickets in my hand. This is the first time I will have seen them."

Ticket touts have already put their purchases on auction websites, with some going for £199, more than four times their face value of £45.

Source: www.shieldsgazette.com

Oasis Hat-Trick At Wembley

Oasis have added a third tour date at both Wembley Stadium and Manchester’s Heaton Park after the first two at each venue sold out yesterday.

Liam, Noel and Co will now also play Manchester on July 4 and Wembley on July 9. Plus tickets for new venue Coventry will go on sale on October 30.

Dublin, Sunderland, and Edinburgh are sold out. Meanwhile, Champagne Supernova has been voted the best Oasis song ever by Absolute Radio listeners.

Don’t Look Back In Anger came in at No 2, with Acquiesce, Cigarettes And Alcohol, Cast No Shadow, Live Forever, All Around The World and Little By Little following.

Be sure to include that lot in your set list, lads.

Source: www.dailystar.co.uk

Liam Gallagher's A Flirt.....

The time Liam Gallagher brazenly flirted with me

By Jane Graham

Time for a confession — despite my regular attempts to position myself at the very crest oto position myself at the very crest of the zeitgeist wave at all times, I am a member of that exclusive and not very lauded group who has loved Oasis for 14 years without once wavering or admitting that they aren’t as good as they used to be.

I say ‘admit’, but that suggests I secretly believe they’ve lost it, so I should say ‘concur’, because I still can’t utter out loud, or commit to print the notion that Liam and Noel ever went off the boil.

I’m aware that there are many who will assume I’m both mutton-headed and out of touch for my loyalty to the brothers Gallagher, but there may be a few who will understand my heartfelt commitment to the cause. For me, betraying Oasis would feel like giving up on a much loved family member who changed my life when I was young by injecting it with such excitement, hope, passion and romance that I saw the world differently for evermore. Something far deeper than infatuation occurred when I fell in love with Oasis, and for those beautiful, heady times, I will always be grateful.

I first saw Oasis in March 1994 in the Tramway Theatre in Glasgow. I would have missed them— they were second or third on the bill — but my boyfriend at the time happened to have met them when he was a member of the long-forgotten Scottish indie band 18 Wheeler and briefly signed to the same label, Creation Records. Despite their rather unnerving reputation as troublemakers, my ex said that Oasis were “brilliant guys”, that Noel was “an undiscovered genius” and that the lead singer was “completely your type”.

When Oasis appeared that evening, there were about 30 people in the room, most of them sitting down. I’ll never forget the way Liam Gallagher sauntered on stage as if he was coming on to the applause of 100,000 screaming fans whom he had eventually, grudgingly, decided to placate. He nodded approvingly at himself, ignoring the audience, his bottom jaw jutting out with steely determination. He had already perfected that intimidating 1,000 yard stare which, it was later suggested, may be the result of impaired eyesight, but which gave him an immediate aura of entitlement.

My boyfriend was right, he was my type; dark and Irish with a Neanderthal sexiness and a great mod haircut. And then he sang! This was the mid 1990s, remember — British guitar pop was adrift in a sea of weedy, winsome voices like Damon Albarn’s, Jarvis Cocker’s and Brett Anderson’s. This rough-edged Lennon-esque rasp, full of raunch and self-belief, was a shocking, thrilling revelation.

Not many people saw Oasis that night, but NME journalist John Harris did, and he went back to the band’s hotel to record an interview with Liam and Noel that was so hilarious that he released it as a single under the name Wibbling Rivalry a year later (it reached No 52 in the charts). By then Oasis were the biggest band in Britain and the feuding Gallaghers — tough, smart, focused Noel and self-destructive, vulnerable, daft Liam — as well-known to the public as the prime minister.

In the meantime I’d seen them many more memorable times, and spent one delicious half-hour flirting my way (fruitlessly) through a chat with a passionate, funny, warm-hearted Liam. Their first T in the Park appearance, in a small tent, remains my favourite gig of all time. The atmosphere that day was terrifyingly intense, a kind of uncontrolled hysteria as close to Beatlemania as I’m ever likely to witness. As the Knebworth and Loch Lomond shows in the summer of 1996 proved, Oasis could unite hundred of thousands of disparate souls like no one else — they could provoke such violent feelings of love and ecstatic bliss that you were happy to throw your arms around people you would normally have changed trains to avoid.

They also kept surprising people — Liam could be as playful as a puppy or as monosyllabic and sulky as a chastised child. He developed an occasional habit of walking off-stage halfway through a show, or off planes taking him to the first stop on a world tour. In an increasingly stage-managed industry, he kept wafting in like a breath of fresh air.

After their second album in 1995, What’s the Story Morning Glory, Oasis were everyone’s favourite band, but I felt I had a

special connection with them which couldn’t be contested by the Johnny come latelys. Even when, working as a producer at Radio 1, I saw their 1997 single D’You Know What I Mean being delivered by a grim-faced SWAT team to ensure its safe arrival, I refuted accusations that the band’s egos were out of control (Noel unfortunately later confessed that they were).

I had one of the most unforgettable nights of my life in October 1997, when a drunken Noel and Liam came into the Radio 1 studios to be interviewed live by a nervous Steve Lamacq. I sat in the adjoining studio, gazing through the glass, as Liam launched into the most outrageous and funny rants ever committed to tape.

After threatening “old farts out of the day centre like Keith F**king Smitchards” to a duel on Primrose Hill and having a go at Noel for selecting a “sh*t” dance record, he walked out. The papers next day were full of outrage about his disgraceful language but I felt secretly very proud that he had been grinning at me through the glass while he’d been talking, and that I, by clearly enjoying every word, had only encouraged him (the interview can still be heard in all its glory on YouTube).

It may be true that Oasis have never quite repeated the creative highs of their first two albums, but there is always something wonderful on an Oasis record, apart from Liam’s soaring vocal. Be Here Now, which Noel now says was a reflection of their bloated egos and cocaine habits, houses the truly beautiful Don’t Go Away. Heathen Chemistry has the show-stopping singalong Stop Crying Your Heart Out.

Seeing Oasis live never stopped being a hugely exciting and utterly unpredictable prospect – only this week Noel admitted that the craziest show I ever saw, at Wembley Stadium in 2000, during which Liam seemed to be entirely unaware of his surroundings and Noel looked perpetually ready to kill him, was the result of Liam “being out all night with a Spice Girl”.

And perhaps least predictable of all is Oasis’ current resurgence. Their new album, Dig Out Your Soul, sold 90,000 copies on its first day of release, making it the fastest-selling album of the year after Coldplay’s Viva la Vida. In America it gave them their highest chart position (No 5) since the hugely hyped Be Here Now more than ten years ago. Reviews have been remarkably positive, with most people declaring the album a true return to form, and ex-Creation boss Alan McGee saying it is the true follow-up to What’s the Story. Is it really that good? Don’t ask me, I really don’t know. Enduring love like mine is both blind and deaf.

Oasis play the Odyssey Arena on October 29 and 30. Both shows have sold out. Tickets for Slane (June 2009) went on sale today and are limited to 8 tickets per person. See ticketmaster.ie or Ticketmaster outlets for details.

Source: www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk