Let's Get 'Wonderwall' Back In The Charts

With the sad news that Noel Gallagher has quit Oasis, lets all try and get 'Wonderwall' back into the UK chart this week.

We are asking Oasis fan sites and forums Worldwide to help out with this project.

The song never got to number one on it's release in 1995, it only needs a few thousand downloads to enter the charts on Sunday.

Fans from the UK can buy the song from iTunes, Outside the UK you can get the song from the Official Oasis store here.

MGMT Cover Oasis

As previously reported MGMT started their show at the V Festival, Hylands Park on Sunday 23rd August 2009, with a cover version of Live Forever.

It's All Champagne Supernover

Noel's left and now the remaining members of Oasis could be about to leave Liam high and dry.

Liam is holidaying in Italy's Lake Como with his missus Nicole Appleton but we're told any plans for a new-look Oasis could sink without trace.

Says our mole: "It was always on the cards that Noel was to quit - the other band members saw it coming the night before he walked out.

"Some have already started to look for pastures new - as they have no idea how the new format of Oasis would work. Now that Noel has gone, no one else knows how they'll put up with Liam's big gob." It's an uncertain time for band members Gem Archer, Andy Bell and Chris Sharrock. Our mole adds: "They saw how Liam treated Noel, and don't know what will happen if he does the same to them. They have their doubts it can survive without Noel."

Noel announced he was walking out on the band after a punch-up with Liam just minutes before they were due to play in Paris.

Liam is reported to have smashed a guitar and yelled at Noel: "You're no brother of mine." However, their mum Peggy reckons they will reunite, saying: "Liam adores Noel." Funny way of showing it.

Source: www.mirror.co.uk

Noel Gallagher vs Liam Gallagher - The War That Defined Oasis

It was August 1991 when Noel Gallagher, back in Manchester after a stint working as a roadie for the Inspiral Carpets went to see his younger brother's new band for the first time. As he would recall years later, "fucking cheers mate" was his thoughts as he saw his brother fronting a band and looking to forge his own way into the music world. Noel's status as world-touring roadie was in danger of being over-shadowed by his brother. The spotlight which Noel desired was now being sought by Liam as well. It was the start of the rivalry which would come to define Oasis when Noel joined.

It was apparent from the start that Liam Gallagher was well aware of the talents and virtues of Noel. The very act of asking his brother to join, no matter how much he has tried to downplay it in the past, shows he knew immediately that Noel on board was an opportunity he couldn't resist. But it meant giving up control of the band to his brother, another action which went along way to starting the inter-band conflict between the two. Also, Noel's acceptance and insistence on becoming the band's leader was an obvious sign that he desired to be seen as superior to his brother right from the start. The awkward, unofficial positions of the two brothers in the band had already sown the seeds of a rivalry which would last for the best part of twenty years.

To begin with, all was well. The brothers were united in a desire to escape from the city they had grown up in, and in doing so create a new life for themselves. The brothers, along with Paul Arthurs, Paul McGuigan and Tony McCarroll, would rehearse religiously and play any gig they could. Hugely committed to the band, their passion would materialise on stage, where they impressed all who saw them at the time with their power and intensity - the amount of people they were playing to was irrelevant. It was immediately clear that the fire that was burning inside Liam and Noel was powering the band on to inevitable success in the future. It had already become an integral part of Oasis.

When the band landed a record deal two years later, the clashes of personality and ideology between the two brothers began to become more apparent, as Noel Gallagher combined his own desire to live the rock n roll lifestyle with a determination to drive the band on, while his brother embraced all that a band on the road offers and began to lose sight of the underlying importance of the music and the gigs.

The first real display of strife came when Liam and Guigsy were detained on an overnight ferry heading to Amsterdam. With Noel tucked up in bed, his fellow band members got into a scrap with other passengers. Noel learned of the fight the next morning, and found his own plans being interrupted by his brother's antics. It was a story which would be played out many times in the intervening years.

Not long after, Noel abandoned the group for the first time. After a disastrous gig in LA in September 1994, Noel walked away from the band. Heading off to San Francisco in the middle of the night, Noel apparently had the full intention of leaving the band not long after they had begun to breakthrough in the UK. However, he was persuaded to rejoin after being tracked down by Creation man Tim Abbott, and after a short stay in Las Vegas, Noel returned and the band he was leading once again began to scale unprecedented heights.

By 1996, Noel's songwriting and fierce commitment to the band, coupled with Liam's emergence as the most dynamic, passionate frontman since Johnny Rotten, had propelled the group to super-stardom in Europe. Once more though, Noel was left to pick up the pieces after Liam pulled out of a planned MTV Unplugged appearance just moments before he was due to go on stage. Noel completed the gig, but his patience was being stretched to breaking point.

As their second album '(What's The Story) Morning Glory?' began to make waves in the US on the back of the worldwide hit 'Wonderwall', the band were booked for a tour of the US in August 1996. However, Liam had other plans, and moments before they were due to board the plane, Liam turned away, saying he needed to "sort his house out" with his new bride Patsy Kensit. Once again, these were actions Noel interpreted as selfishness and against the good of the band, and the ever increasing bitterness between the brothers began to be played out more and more in the press as interest in the group hit fever pitch. It was a tension which undoubtedly helped give the band it's power, and helped to generate an interest in the group that was beginning to reach unprecedented levels.

After Liam's about-turn at the airport, Noel decided to continue without him, but when Liam rejoined the group a few weeks later, it wasn't long before Noel's patience had been snapped once more and he walked away from the band for the second time in two years. Not long after their generation-defining gigs at Knebworth, Noel had walked out of the band with the clear intention of not returning. Return he did though, and not only did the band continue the tour, they found themselves back in the studio shortly after.

In 1999, the future of Oasis was once again in doubt. Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs had announced his departure not long into the sessions for a new album, and was soon followed by bassist Paul 'Guigsy' McGuigan. With the troubles that the brothers had suffered over the past few years, it was unclear whether the pair would be able to pull together and guide Oasis through this transitional period. However, the brothers showed their mutual passion for the band and vowed to continue, recruiting new members Andy Bell and Gem Archer to fulfill the world tour that had been booked to support 'Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants'.

Once on the road, it wasn't long before trouble had flared once again between the Gallaghers. After the band were forced to cancel a gig in Barcelona in 2000 due to an injury to drummer Alan White, the members spent the night drinking in their dressing room. Insults were traded between Liam and Noel and after another punch up, Noel walked once more. The reported events of the fight were the first public sign that the tension had moved on from the petty squabbling and differences of two young brothers, to the more personal attacks which would begin drive them apart. After the now infamous fight in Barcelona, Liam soldiered on without Noel, and the band fulfilled the remaining European dates with stand-in guitarist Matt Deighton.

Yet again, Noel returned, saying he felt a duty to new members Archer and Bell to record a new album, and the band completed their 2000 summer UK stadium shows with Noel back on board, and returned to the studio a year later.

2005 was perhaps the strongest year for the brothers since 1996. With a new album under their belts that had spawned two UK no.1 singles, they hit the road for their biggest world tour to date which included huge US shows at venues such as Madison Square Garden and Hollywood Bowl. The tour passed off without incident, and relations between the two seemed to be well.

However, when the band reconvened in the studio to begin a follow up in 2007, it wasn't long before Liam was again putting personal wishes ahead of the group in Noel's eyes. Leaving the studio to marry his long-time girlfriend Nicole Appleton, Liam interrupted plans to record a couple of tracks for the album, one of which Noel said had been eyed up as a potential future single. The remaining members were forced to change their plans and record different tracks without Liam, and being forced change his schedule to suit Liam yet again seems to have finally pushed Noel close to the edge

The resulting tour was disappointing. The stories of separate hotels, dressing rooms and tour buses indicates a whole new level of antagonism between the brothers, one that was only working against the band and now holding it back. The only communication between the brothers came via Noel's tour blog 'Tales From The Middle Of Nowhere' and Liam's Twitter account. Frankly, it was all rather embarrassing and the feeling that all the animonisty, which now seemed to be bordering on hatred, was becoming too much, was hard to resist. Eventually, all the pent-up emotion exploded on Saturday night in Paris with another dressing room brawl between the pair, resulting in Noel announcing his departure from the band for the fourth time. But was it the right decision?

One thing is clear, Oasis wouldn't have functioned, or at least to the heights they once did, without the two brothers on board. However, the past 18 months has revealed that the rivalry between Liam and Noel Gallagher was no longer working for the band, and was in fact acting detrimentally. It's one thing not communicating on tour, but once in the studio, and if Oasis were to continue as a viable entity they would have had to record eventually, all members need to be speaking and on the same page. Warring in the studio is only going to stifle creativity, and the last thing Oasis as a band needed was to carry on simply as a money-making touring machine. It would have been excruciating for the antics that have been played out on the 'Dig Out Your Soul Tour' to be repeated again and again on subsequent tours.

So if the tension and rivaly, which was once the driving force behind the band is now only damaging it, then Noel is right to walk away. Certainly the online squabbling between the two since Oasis went back on the road in 2008 is a million miles away from the impassioned tension of the twenty-somethings that managed to captivate the public so much so that a recording of their argument, 'Wibling Rivaly', managed to make the charts.

Will Oasis carry on without Noel? Can they? It's by no means unprecendented to see a band carry on after the departure of a major member, and even go on to new heights. Pink Floyd managed it, as did The Rolling Stones. However, rarely has one man been so integral to the success and direction of a band and carrying on Noel-less would surely only further weaken Liam's position in what has already been a fairly one-sided argument.

Team Noel or Team Liam? Let us know which side you're on by leaving your thoughts below.

(Dave Smith)

Source: www.live4ever.uk.com

Promoter Cool Over Oasis Split

The French promoter faced with paying a refund to each of the 30,000-plus music fans who turned up in Paris to see Oasis says he has no plans to take legal action against the band.

Salomon Hazot of Nous Productions, who has run the city’s Rock En Seine Festival for seven years, told Pollstar he believes he can work out an amicable solution with the act’s management.

“I think I am dealing with someone who is very straightforward and professional,” he said, four days after the Manchester band pulled out of its headline slot only minutes before it was due onstage.

“What is the point in paying lawyers, who already get so much for doing so little, and then everybody except them loses in the end? If we get money, then we wait one, two or even three years before it comes.”

Hazot was eating dinner in the festival’s catering area when he got the news that the act wouldn’t be playing. At first he thought it was a joke.

“What can I say about it now? I think the two brothers are still like 6-year-olds fighting over a toy,” he explained.

International news reports suggest there was a dressing room bust-up in which lead singer Liam Gallagher broke his songwriter brother Noel’s guitar.

The latter quit the band immediately and has since posted a note on the band’s Web site claiming his departure was due to “lack of support and understanding from my management and bandmates.”

He also apologised to those who bought tickets to see the band in Paris and who bought tickets for the previous week’s show at the U.K.’s V Festival in Chelmsford, although that date was pulled due to Liam Gallagher suffering from viral laryngitis.

The two brothers’ stormy relationship has been well documented since their first public bust-up, when Liam hit Noel over the head with a tambourine on stage in Los Angeles in 1994 during their first U.S. tour. Not for the last time, Noel threatened to call it a day.

This time his online comments about his brother suggest the Paris row may have finally put a finish to the band.

At press time it wasn’t possible to get comment from the band’s manager, Marcus Russell of Ignition Management, on what the act is prepared to do to facilitate the amicable solution with Hazot.

It’s the second year in succession that the French promoter has paid out refunds because a headline act didn’t play.

In 2008, when Amy Winehouse failed to make it to Paris, those who paid euro 70 for a two-day ticket or euro 42 to see her headline the second day got a euro 18 discount for this year’s festival.

The acts who turned up and also played at Rock En Seine Aug. 28-30 included Faith No More, The Prodigy, MGMT, Amy Macdonald, Macy Gray, Vampire Weekend, Madness and Bloc Party.

Source: www.pollstar.com

Pete McKee Manchester Show

Great news the Pete McKee show in Manchester titled ‘Great Moments in Music History’ has grown in size. The lovely people at oddest in Manchester are helping him tour the exhibition around their three bars in the city. The show will now run from Thursday 8th October all the way through till Thursday 14th January 2010 and will call at Odd, Odder and Oddest Bars. The full dates and venues are:

Oddest – Wilbraham Road: 8 October – 5 November
Odd – The Northern Quarter: 5 November – 7 December
Odder – Oxford Road: 7 December – 14 January

This will be his first show in Manchester and should be something special...

The exhibition is his way of celebrating the role Manchester’s music scene has played in helping sullen teenagers grow up to be Sheffield’s Guardian-reading social workers and teachers — or Tesco night line managers — or artists.

Keep your eyes on www.therealmckee.co.uk for some special announcements about the shows in the coming weeks.

Inside This Week's NME

In the new issue of NME, on sale across the UK from Wednesday 2 September, we reveal the truth behind Oasis' split and salute two decades of Gallagher bust-ups by naming our top 5.

Source: www.nme.com

Bloc Party React To Oasis Split

Bloc Party have revealed they had to tell fans that Oasis wouldn't be coming on after them in Paris last Friday. The band split just before they were due to play at the Rock en Seine concert. Bloc Party front man Kele and drummer Matt said they didn't know while they were on stage how serious it was.

I understand you had to break the news to the crowd in Paris that Oasis had split up the day before you played the Leeds Festival? Is that right?

Kele: We were playing our set and my tour manager came up to me and said that Oasis had cancelled and we had to play for longer. And I was like, 'Oh. OK', and we told the audience.

We didn't know that they'd split up. We were just told that they'd cancelled. We were told afterwards.

Read the full interview by clicking here.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Supergrass Singer Gaz Coombes Confident Oasis Will Reunite

Supergrass's Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey, who have a new band Hot Rats, say Oasis will reunite.

Danny told us: "You can't really split when you're brothers."

Watch the interview interview is at www.mirror.co.uk/celebs

Source: www.mirror.co.uk

Bookies Slash Odds On Oasis Reunion

Whoever said breaking up is hard to do was telling porkies.

First Oasis split and now there are shocking rumours that the Pussycat Dolls are set to follow (cat)suit.

This is awful news because my bedroom is a shrine to the Dolls. I have a Pussycat Doll on each of my walls and a blow-up one in my bed.

A Doll break-up was on the cards. When you get five gorgeous girls in such proximity you can always bank on cattiness and bitching. You can also bank on naked mud-wrestling, at least in the movies I rent.

Hills quote 5-6 for the Dolls still to be together on Christmas Day and 5-6 to have split by then. In other words, it's take your pick - in which case I'll pick Nicole.

Oasis have split following reports the Gallagher brothers have failed for years to hit it off - the 'it' presumably being the head of the other.

But bookies believe the tiff is only temporary - Ladbrokes have slashed from 2-1 to evens the odds for Liam to sing with Noel again before the end of the year.

Source: www.mirror.co.uk

Oasis Split Divides Loyalties

The bitter split between Liam and Noel Gallagher has left their famous friends torn between the two rowing brothers.

Kasabian lead singer Tom Meighan is determined to stay neutral after he became close to the pair while supporting Oasis on their latest tour.

'It's not very nice because I'm friends with both Noel and Liam,' said Meighan, 28, talking exclusively to me just hours before the brothers' final bust-up in Paris.

'They're going to have some time out now to re-evaluate the situation,' he said. Some Oasis band members have already staked their loyalty with Liam, 36.

Bassist Andy Bell was pictured holidaying with Liam and his wife Nicole Appleton, 34, in Italy at the weekend. Noel announced he was leaving the band on Saturday.

'I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer,' the 42-year-old said on the Oasis website.

Meanwhile, Kasabian are performing at Guinness's 250th anniversary music festival in Dublin next month.

Source: www.metro.co.uk

Noel Gallagher Was Right To Quit Oasis, Says Midge Ure

Ultravox star Midge Ure says he respects Noel Gallagher for walking away from Oasis.

Midge, who played Retrofest at the weekend, believes Noel's decision to split from brother Liam and the band was "admirable".

The Scot said: "I respect Noel Gallagher for being big enough to stand up and say enough is enough.

"That sparring brotherly love-hate relationship is what drove Oasis on and kept the engine running - maybe it got to the point that is was so painful.

"You can't go on stage with someone pushing all your buttons all the time and can't go on and pretend it doesn't affect you." Midge believes Noel had wrestled with the decision for years.

He said: "The writing may well have been on the wall.

"It was maybe not that surprising. After all, when Alan McGee first saw them and signed them to his label, they had a fight that night.

"I don't know the guys but I imagine that's how it was.

"Liam seems quite a difficult character to get along with and I don't think it matters about the details of how it fell apart."

Like McGee, Midge, who met the band at the Brits, reckons Oasis may well reform in five years.

He added: "It's a very personal thing between brothers as to what's going on. When you are family, things come and go."

Source: www.dailyrecord.co.uk

The Office's Rainn Wilson: Ryan Adams Should Join Oasis

I don’t normally pay attention to the Twitter musings of actors, but we need to keep a keen eye on The Office’s Rainn Wilson because the guy’s attempting to meddle in music for the second time in recent memory and last time Weezer ended up with a quite unfortunate album title. As we all know by now, Noel Gallagher has quit Oasis following a last straw row with his brother, Liam, and the band has split. Here’s what Wilson had to tweet on the subject:

“Liam. You should grab Ryan Adams. He does y’alls songs better.” He then posted a link to Adams’ Grammy-nominated cover of “Wonderwall,” by Oasis.

I’m sure he’s joking, but nerdy rockers are sometimes powerless against Wilson’s charms. Here’s what Rivers Cuomo said just the other day on how Weezer named their 7th LP (via Pitchfork): [Rainn Wilson] has a super-rock persona. When it came time to find a title for the Weezer album, I asked him what he thought the ultimate album title would be, and he said ‘Raditude.’”

A collaboration between Ryan Adams and one of the Gallagher brothers wouldn’t be that random actually, as Adams did join Oasis for a successful (read: drama-free) tour last year, but he seems like more of a Noel man to me. I’ll spare you my opinion, but once I’m on a hit show, I’ll be tweeting all about it.

Source: www.twentyfourbit.com

Hitler's Reaction To The Oasis Split

Boy so politically incorrect but yet so funny...had to post ....sorry guys

At Least Nic Loves You, Liam

Yesterday I asked who you are backing in the Oasis break-up - and the results are in.

An incredible 88 per cent of you voted in favour of Noel, which bodes well for his future solo career.

That leaves just 12 per cent backing Liam.

Noel fled to London after quitting Oasis just before the Rock en Seine festival in Paris on Friday and hasn't been seen since.

But Liam headed to Lake Como in Italy with wife Nicole Appleton and bass player Andy Bell on Saturday and he's been looking happier than he has for a long time.

Yesterday he and Nicole were kissing and knocking back rosé next to the pool.

Louis Walsh is staying just up the road and has invited Liam to help out on The X Factor offering advice to contestants - but don't hold your breath.

Meanwhile, Xfm listeners have voted Live Forever Oasis's greatest ever song.

Source: www.thesun.co.uk

Oasis Hit Voted 'Greatest Song'

Oasis may have reached the end of the road following the departure of Noel Gallagher - but they can take comfort from one of their early singles has been named the greatest song of all time by XFM.

Their 1994 track Live Forever - only their third single - topped a poll of music fans, with three of their songs figuring in the top four.

Don't Look Back In Anger was placed third and Wonderwall came fourth in the international poll in which listeners were asked to choose the best tracks ever.

01: Oasis – Live Forever
03: Oasis – Don’t Look Back In Anger
04: Oasis – Wonderwall
19: Oasis – 'Some Might Say'
34: Oasis – 'Slide Away'
41: Oasis – Champagne Supernova
55: Oasis – Supersonic
61: Oasis – Rock 'n' Roll Star
68: Oasis – 'The Masterplan'
78: Oasis – Whatever
92: Oasis – Cigarettes & Alcohol

See the full list here.

What Next For Noel G?

What next for Britpop's most conspicuous under-achiever asks John Tatlock. Maybe Amorphous Androgynous point the way forward

It’s 1992, down a Manchester city centre back-street called Little Peter Street. You are leaving The Boardwalk, a combined rehearsal room and gig venue, where local bands play to small crowds alongside better known alternative acts from further afield – Sonic Youth, Husker Du and the like – while Fridays are given over to ex-Hacienda DJ Dave Haslam’s superb Yellow night, a no-rules mish-mash of soul, house and guitar bands. Maybe you’ll be up there later; you often drag the rest of the lads along too.

You turn left, then left again, then right onto Whitworth Street and observe the queue snaking along the opposite corner and into The Hacienda, perhaps past its peak, but still pumping out cutting edge dance and techno sounds to packed crowds. You walk straight ahead and pass The Venue on your left, a gnarly indie / punk club and The Brickhouse on your right, still hosting an assortment of cracking disco and soul nights.

Cross Oxford Road and arrive at the entrance of India House. You put down your guitar case and fumble in your pocket for your keys. You are Noel Gallagher and your walk home from rehearsal through the city centre has taken around four or five minutes, maximum. Maybe you could stay in tonight, or maybe head out for a drink a couple of minutes away in any of the venues you’ve just passed. Or head on out to the student boozers down Oxford Road for some indie sounds, or up to Legends (where the Mondays filmed the video to ‘Wrote For Luck’), or maybe even out to one of the new mixed gay / straight bars that appearing in Canal Street round the corner for a bit of cheesy Italo house.

You don’t mind a bit of that stuff, there are some great tunes; especially ‘Feel The Groove’ by Cartouche, brilliant. You’ve had the band rehearsing a cover version of that lately, just a repetition of the “Better let you know / it’s time for you to go” line over a mental wall of My Bloody Valentine feedback and Stooges riffing, but none of them like it, and it’s soon to be dropped from the set.

Anyway, whatever you decide to do, there’s pretty much any kind of music you can think of being played loud within a short walk, and you’re into it all.

Cartouche – 'Feel the Groove'

Oasis cover version – demo recording

Noel Gallagher has always been great at spinning a myth, and Oasis’s four-or-five-ordinary-lads-from-Burnage-who-shook-the-world back story has certainly played well in the papers over the years. The thing is, while that’s a roughly accurate description of the rest of the band, it barely describes Noel, who had got out of the (actually quite leafy and pleasant) suburb and right into the city centre music-biz action years previously.

India House was, and remains, something of a key institution for sharp youngsters on the make in Manchester. Adapted from an old warehouse into social housing flats, long before the current fad for city centre living, it provided a means of being right in the middle of the city action, but incredibly cheaply and with a landlord sympathetic to the fluctuating incomes of people struggling away in bands, promoting club nights and working in the theatre. (All of which could be supplemented with signing on the dole and a bit of low level drug dealing, if so desired.)

The flats themselves are not palatial, but are a much nicer proposition from the kind of high rise horror it’s all to easy to end up in in such circumstances. There are some nutters in there for sure, but the tenant list over the years has somewhat suspiciously favoured the city’s well-connected hipsters, including members of The Doves and Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown. The whisper around town has always been that if you know who to ask, and how to ask, you can get bumped up the waiting list.

Whether there’s any truth to that rumour or not, there was a certain cut-price boy-or-girl-about-town bohemian lifestyle to be had, and Gallagher grabbed it with both hands. By ‘91 he was well connected with many Manchester music scene movers and shakers (if not quite aristocracy). Having worked regularly as part of the Inspiral Carpets road crew, he’d travelled widely with them and befriended people like Johnny Marr – an important early champion of Oasis – and Mark Coyle, the Carpets’ sound man who later go on to produce Oasis’s first album.

The point of all this, of course, isn’t to suggest that Noel is hiding some kind of privileged past, as you can do all the above and still be horribly skint. It’s rather to point out that there’s always been something somewhat frustrating about Oasis’s self-imposed we-only-make-proper-songs-on-proper-instruments-for-the-milkman-to-whistle stance, especially when you know what broad musical exposure and taste the elder Gallagher actually has.

In an odd piece of serendipity, at more or less exactly the moment on Friday 28th of August that Noel Gallagher was announcing his departure from Oasis, the presses were rolling out the following day’s Guardian Guide, containing an interview with Jay Z, in which Gallagher’s musical broad-mindedness was discussed.

Referring to the storm in a tea cup surrounding Jay Z’s headlining performance at the 2008 Glastonbury festival, and Gallagher’s petulant complaint that “Sorry, but Jay-Z? Fucking no chance. Glastonbury has a tradition of guitar music. . . I'm not having hip-hop at Glastonbury. It's wrong.” Jay Z avoided a war of words with the Oasis man, simply electing to hand Gallagher’s ass to him by turning in an all-time festival highlight show, cheekily opening with Oasis’s ‘Wonderwall’:

For the rest of this article please visit The Quietus

Pete Doherty Covers Oasis In Russia

Pete Doherty plays Wonderwall from Oasis together with the audienceat a recent gig in Russia.

The X Factor 2009 - The Michael And James Audition

Oasis - Just How Rubbish Were They?

Over in the Daily Mail today I have a go at Oasis, the popular beat combo which has just split up. (Or so Noel Gallagher says, and since he’s the only one in the band who can write songs, that’ll be it till he changes his mind for the lucrative reunion tour).

To be honest, I probably don’t loathe Oasis quite as much as I make out in that article. When you’re writing polemic there isn’t much room for nuance like - “Well if someone put on Champagne Supernova right now I’d probably feel a pleasant nostalgic twinge for my lost youth” - which is more or less what I really think about Oasis: I’d never ever put on one of their records myself, but if someone else did I wouldn’t necessarily feel an intense urge to kill him.

But I very much stand by my main point which is that Oasis were derivative and overrated. Their second album (What’s The Story) Morning Glory remains the third bestselling album (after The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper and Queen’s Greatest Hits) in British pop history. Does anyone out there seriously still thinks it deserves a place even in the top 50? Personally, I wouldn’t even put it in my top 100.

It’s not that I don’t like Liam’s son-of-Lennon vocals (and I also like, incidentally, that way he had of placing his mic way too high so that he had to keep craning his neck upwards like a Gerenuk feeding on an acacia tree); and I do agree that a lot of Noel Gallagher’s compositions are very catchy. But there’s a reason for the last bit and it’s very simple: they all sound quite a bit like songs you already know, most of them written by the Beatles.

You might argue that originality is a much overrated virtue in pop, given that from Led Zeppelin borrowing from the blues and every heavy rock band ever borrowing from Led Zeppelin pop has always fed on itself. But to me a truly great band is one that disguises or alters the sound of its influences to the point where you no longer go: “Ohmygod, that is SUCH a rip off.” My true greats would definitely include Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, The Smiths, New Order, Kraftwerk and the Pet Shop Boys. They wouldn’t include Oasis.

So how did Oasis ever get to be quite so massive. Well hype, quotability and attitude clearly had a lot to do with it. But by far the most interesting theory on this is in a new book on the history of recorded sound (which I highly recommend: trainspotterish but lively and compulsively readable) by US journalist Greg Milner, called Perfecting Sound Forever.

Oasis’s career, he argues, coincided with the Nineties trend in studio recording techniques for “loudness” at all costs. By “loudness”, he means music which has been heavily “compressed” in the studio - removing most of the loud/soft dynamic range and instead making it sound like the kind of muddy wall of noise which comes across well in a crowded pub. It’s actually a form of musical brainwashing: stuff recorded like this is designed to lodge in the brain and achieve massive and overwhelming cultural domination. Which Oasis did most effectively.

But the effect this had on pop music generally was disastrous. As one muso purist - a Vermont studio engineer called Chris Johnson - has tried to demonstrate scientifically by comparing the most “culturally significant” albums of all time, the music we really like (as opposed to the stuff that is bombarded at us relentlessly till we succumb) is the stuff which has the greatest dynamic range . The top ones on Johnson’s list - led by the Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 and Led Zeppelin IV - are the ones with the biggest contrast between really loud and really soft. Oasis took us down a wrong alley. On the back of their success, every major label wanted to imitate that big, sludgy sound, in much the same way publishing companies try to replicate Dan Brown novels. Good commerce, maybe; but dreadful art.

James Delingpole

Source: Telegraph Blog