Bonehead
Liam Gallagher
Mark Coyle
Noel Gallagher
Oasis
Slade
The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
The Stone Roses
It’s been two decades since Oasis forged the soundtrack to a generation with all-conquering debut Definitely Maybe.
The sound of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Slade and The Stone Roses rolled into one glorious masterpiece is being rereleased this week.
Noel and Liam Gallagher haven’t been overly excited by the reissue but one former member was well up for it.
Ex-Oasis guitarist Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs told me: “I was really excited when I heard it was going to happen.
“The masters arrived at my house and it was the first time in years that I’ve sat down and listened to it from start to finish.
“It really brought back tons of memories and feelings.”
Part of the album’s success was finding the right producers, says Paul, 48.
He said: “We struggled at first, and I think we had the wrong producer and the wrong studio and the wrong approach to recording.
“Then we went to Sawmills and Mark Coyle, our front-of-house engineer, properly understood how we worked and got us down as a live band. It sounded like us and we got it right.
“We captured a feeling and our sound.”
Bonehead has his favourite moments from the album.
He said: “I might not think of a song for a while and then I’ll hear Rock ’n’ Roll Star or something, but broadly it’s Slide Away.
“I think it’s the most passionate vocal Liam’s ever done.” Bonehead quit the band in 1999 but he has no regrets.
He said: “It wasn’t a decision I came to overnight, I thought about it for ages.”
But he has got lots of memorabilia to reflect on those days.
He laughed: “I’ve got the fire surround, the chair, the ornaments, ash trays, all sorts from the album cover.”
Source: www.dailystar.co.uk
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here
Bonehead On The Definitely Maybe Re-Release
It’s been two decades since Oasis forged the soundtrack to a generation with all-conquering debut Definitely Maybe.
The sound of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Slade and The Stone Roses rolled into one glorious masterpiece is being rereleased this week.
Noel and Liam Gallagher haven’t been overly excited by the reissue but one former member was well up for it.
Ex-Oasis guitarist Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs told me: “I was really excited when I heard it was going to happen.
“The masters arrived at my house and it was the first time in years that I’ve sat down and listened to it from start to finish.
“It really brought back tons of memories and feelings.”
Part of the album’s success was finding the right producers, says Paul, 48.
He said: “We struggled at first, and I think we had the wrong producer and the wrong studio and the wrong approach to recording.
“Then we went to Sawmills and Mark Coyle, our front-of-house engineer, properly understood how we worked and got us down as a live band. It sounded like us and we got it right.
“We captured a feeling and our sound.”
Bonehead has his favourite moments from the album.
He said: “I might not think of a song for a while and then I’ll hear Rock ’n’ Roll Star or something, but broadly it’s Slide Away.
“I think it’s the most passionate vocal Liam’s ever done.” Bonehead quit the band in 1999 but he has no regrets.
He said: “It wasn’t a decision I came to overnight, I thought about it for ages.”
But he has got lots of memorabilia to reflect on those days.
He laughed: “I’ve got the fire surround, the chair, the ornaments, ash trays, all sorts from the album cover.”
Source: www.dailystar.co.uk
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here
Noel Gallagher
Sara Gallagher
He's more likely to be found celebrating a Manchester City win than enjoying a romantic stroll in Paris, however Noel Gallagher showed a different side to his personality on Saturday.
The former Oasis singer looked quite content as he walked hand-in-hand with his wife Sara McDonald during a break in the French capital.
The 46-year-old took in the city's Avenue Montaigne before heading for a spot of lunch with Sara, whose legs looked endless in her flared jeans.
He also opted for matching trainers and a white shirt, while keeping his silver aviator sunglasses firmly on.
Publicist Sara teamed her bell-bottoms with a loose-fitting beige blouse while boosting her height with a pair of heeled tan boots.
She left her two-tone hair down while also wearing a brown pair of sunglasses, and carrying a small designer shoulder bag.
Noel was enjoying a much more relaxed day following his earlier visit to his football club last week, when he saw the team crowned Premier League champions for the second time in three years.
Also in attendance was his brother and former bandmate Liam, 41, however they arrived separately, showing that fans perhaps shouldn’t expect any reconciliation soon.
Click here to see a number of pictures.
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Noel Gallagher And His Wife Sara Enjoy A Romantic Stroll In Paris
He's more likely to be found celebrating a Manchester City win than enjoying a romantic stroll in Paris, however Noel Gallagher showed a different side to his personality on Saturday.
The former Oasis singer looked quite content as he walked hand-in-hand with his wife Sara McDonald during a break in the French capital.
The 46-year-old took in the city's Avenue Montaigne before heading for a spot of lunch with Sara, whose legs looked endless in her flared jeans.
He also opted for matching trainers and a white shirt, while keeping his silver aviator sunglasses firmly on.
Publicist Sara teamed her bell-bottoms with a loose-fitting beige blouse while boosting her height with a pair of heeled tan boots.
She left her two-tone hair down while also wearing a brown pair of sunglasses, and carrying a small designer shoulder bag.
Noel was enjoying a much more relaxed day following his earlier visit to his football club last week, when he saw the team crowned Premier League champions for the second time in three years.
Also in attendance was his brother and former bandmate Liam, 41, however they arrived separately, showing that fans perhaps shouldn’t expect any reconciliation soon.
Click here to see a number of pictures.
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Alan McGee
Blur
John Lydon
Liam Gallagher
Noel Gallagher
Oasis
Sex Pistols
Alan McGee has been telling XFM about the making of Oasis's classic debut album, Definitely Maybe - which gets a deluxe, 20th anniversary reissue today (19 May).
One of the many interesting anecdotes about the album (you can hear his full commentary here) was that the song Digsy's Dinner was effectively the opening salvo of the "Britpop Wars".
McGee says: "I think it was a piss-take of Blur. I don't think Noel's ever admitted to that. It's a piss-take of that Britpop thing. It was Noel proving that he could do that in his sleep."
The rivalry between the bands would reach its height a year later in the summer of 1995, when Blur's Country House went up against the Oasis single Roll With It in a battle for the Number 1 spot.
He also revealed how Liam Gallagher adopted his characteristic "sneer", after a radio session version of the classic track Cigarettes And Alcohol saw him impersonating former Sex Pistols singer John Lydon.
"As a joke, he was sneering like Lydon," remembers McGee. "Noel played me that and I said, 'That stays!' And Noel went back and said to Liam: 'That stays!' Liam kind of brought in that sneer. He was always Lennon-y, but he brought in the Lydon thing to the vocal. Noel told me: 'Alan, he's only taking the piss'."
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Alan McGee: Digsy's Dinner By Oasis Was A Piss-Take Of Blur
Alan McGee has been telling XFM about the making of Oasis's classic debut album, Definitely Maybe - which gets a deluxe, 20th anniversary reissue today (19 May).
One of the many interesting anecdotes about the album (you can hear his full commentary here) was that the song Digsy's Dinner was effectively the opening salvo of the "Britpop Wars".
McGee says: "I think it was a piss-take of Blur. I don't think Noel's ever admitted to that. It's a piss-take of that Britpop thing. It was Noel proving that he could do that in his sleep."
The rivalry between the bands would reach its height a year later in the summer of 1995, when Blur's Country House went up against the Oasis single Roll With It in a battle for the Number 1 spot.
He also revealed how Liam Gallagher adopted his characteristic "sneer", after a radio session version of the classic track Cigarettes And Alcohol saw him impersonating former Sex Pistols singer John Lydon.
"As a joke, he was sneering like Lydon," remembers McGee. "Noel played me that and I said, 'That stays!' And Noel went back and said to Liam: 'That stays!' Liam kind of brought in that sneer. He was always Lennon-y, but he brought in the Lydon thing to the vocal. Noel told me: 'Alan, he's only taking the piss'."
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Oasis
20 years on from its release 'Definitely Maybe' has been remastered.
The album is available now, complete with b-sides and unreleased Oasis tracks from the 'Definitely Maybe' era.
CD/Vinyl: http://officialoas.is/Shop
iTunes: http://officialoas.is/yElZgI
Amazon: http://officialoas.is/TRefKN
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Oasis' 'Definitely Maybe' Reissue Is Available Now!
20 years on from its release 'Definitely Maybe' has been remastered.
The album is available now, complete with b-sides and unreleased Oasis tracks from the 'Definitely Maybe' era.
CD/Vinyl: http://officialoas.is/Shop
iTunes: http://officialoas.is/yElZgI
Amazon: http://officialoas.is/TRefKN
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Bonehead
Guigsy
Liam Gallagher
Noel Gallagher
Oasis
Tony McCarroll
It remains the iconic Oasis album, and 20 years after it first topped the British pop charts Definitely Maybe is being celebrated with a remastered release featuring rare material from the band’s early days.
Two decades on, founder member Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs exclusively told the MEN that the album remains the band’s finest hour. He said: “I think lyrically it just captured everyone’s imagination, and they’re songs you can only write once - about wanting to be a rock ‘n’ roll star and live a different life.
“It’s a bit lyrically bizarre in places, and it might not be our most musical album, but I do think it’s our best body of work.”
“Did I believe we were going to get quite that big? Probably not - the album went Top 10 and as it fizzled out I probably thought, ‘Well, you know what, we did what we did there and didn’t we do it well?’. Then you fast forward two years and you’re at Knebworth.”
Definitely Maybe album cover
The 20th anniversary edition of Definitely Maybe is released on CD, digital download and deluxe 12-inch vinyl and includes rare demos such as an acoustic take of Live Forever from a session in Paris and a version of Half The World Away recorded in Noel Gallagher’s Tokyo hotel room.
In 1994, Definitely Maybe stole the title of fastest selling debut record and ushered in a new era for Manchester music, heralding the start of the Britpop movement alongside Blur, Suede and Pulp. It has gone on to sell over eight million copies around the world.
Signed by Creation Records’ founder Alan McGee, Oasis struggled at first to capture the sound they’d perfected during rehearsals at Manchester’s Boardwalk club with first choice producer Dave Bachelor. “We expected to go in, on a count of four press record, and then we’ve got a record,” Bonehead recalls.
“That wasn’t the case, obviously; you’re living in a recording studio 24/7 with a producer. It just didn’t work - we had the wrong guy for the record, he wanted to do 32 takes of something until he was happy with it. Every time we played it back through the speakers it just didn’t sound right.
“We spoke to Creation and they said they’d spend money on it, and why didn’t we get in Mark Coyle? Eventually we went to his studio in Cornwall, everyone getting together in the studio making eye-contact, pressed record and that’s it - you’ve got it.”
The album made them stadium superstars, resulting in shows at Knebworth and Manchester City’s former ground at Maine Road within two years. “We were cocky, we were arrogant, we had a lot of self belief - which a band has to have,” Bonehead explains.
“When you’ve got a guy like Liam on stage and a guy like Noel writing your music and your words, then that’s going to give you confidence no end, isn’t it?
“Did I believe we were going to get quite that big? Probably not - the album went Top 10 and as it fizzled out I probably thought, ‘Well, you know what, we did what we did there and didn’t we do it well?’. Then you fast forward two years and you’re at Knebworth.”
Bonehead, who left the band in 1999 and is currently working on an album for new project Phoneys And The Freaks with young vocalist Alex Lipinski, denies Oasis have discussed the possibility of a reunion of the original line up to mark the anniversary.
“I’d love to see the band together playing that album again - of course I’d love to,” he says, “and the interesting thing is I can walk down the street and talk to 15-year-old kids who are massively into Oasis and they’ve heard it in their parents’ collections.
“I met up with Noel at a High Flying Birds gig up in Glasgow and he said the weirdest thing is looking at the audience - ‘The first five rows are 15-year-old girls and boys, they weren’t even born Bonehead! But they’re singing along to Wonderwall’.
“Half of these people weren’t around when Oasis were together - but would that warrant a reunion? I don’t know. There’s a moment for a reunion; no one wants to see old guys being wheeled on stage, or see them back on stage for the wrong reasons because they’ve been offered a million dollars.
“We all went to the Roses reunion which was incredible, and that did bring it all back. But an Oasis one - I don’t know, we’ve not spoken about it.”
KEVIN CUMMINS, PHOTOGRAPHER
I’d photographed Oasis and seen them live several times by the time I received a copy of the album from Creation - so I was familiar with the songs. The first time I heard it was on an early promo cassette! My initial thought was how exuberant and mature it was.
With the first two albums the whole of England became ‘Oasisworld’. Every bar, restaurant and shop played them on heavy rotation. It was the soundtrack to our lives. Whichever pub we used to go to before every Man City game, City fans would put the whole album on the jukebox...
I don’t listen to it very often - except when I get in my daughter Ella’s car. They were her absolute favourite band. And still are; I sometimes feel they’re the only two albums she owns.
NICK BAINES, KAISER CHIEFS
I was 16 in the summer of 1994 and I remember going to Way Ahead record shop in the Victoria Quarter in Leeds to buy Definitely Maybe on the day of release. I bought the gatefold vinyl as it was limited edition. The cover was warped from the day I got it so maybe it was a ‘special’ first batch!
The album changed a lot for me. Kurt Cobain died in early April 1994 and Supersonic came out a matter of days later. That spring and summer, my friend Pete Hiley and I switched from playing bad covers of Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins songs to bad covers of each Oasis single and b-sides, as they were released.
I remember coming back from town on the Monday and going straight to his house to put the needle on Definitely Maybe. The sound was exciting. Loud, but in a different way to Nevermind or Siamese Dream. The wall of noise was immense. We played it A LOT.
I started buying Ben Sherman and Fred Perry shirts, got more into The Beatles, Kinks, Stones and a whole world of music from the 1960s that I hadn’t paid attention to beforehand. All for the better. Obviously I got the standard-issue indie haircut too. My sideys never flicked out quite like Liam’s though...
I never skip past a track from the album if it comes on shuffle and I probably listen to the album every few months. Usually when driving, or a bit ****** off and I just wanna play something loud. Cloudburst is one of my favourite b-sides from the era too. That gets a regular playing.
TIM BURGESS, THE CHARLATANS
I was given my copy of Definitely Maybe by the band - I’d seen them quite early on supporting someone at The Boardwalk. I can’t remember who but even from the earliest gigs you could tell they were going to be massive.
Mark (Collins, Charlatans’ guitarist) bought a guitar from Noel before they had a record out (a blue Fender Jaguar that he still owns) and we recorded in the same studios as them and saw them at festivals when we were both on the bill.
We were pretty excited to hear Definitely Maybe and I think it was Bonehead that gave us one of the promo copies. I remember talking to Noel at Knebworth and we couldn’t quite believe that it had only been two years since they got the first copies of their debut album.
Definitely Maybe had a pretty huge impact on the whole of the music world. Before that The Charlatans were counted in with the baggy bands like Happy Mondays but that album kind of brought back some forgotten elements of guitar based rock ‘n’ roll - people definitely counted us in with them and that album ushered in the whole Britpop thing.
They didn’t necessarily change the way we did anything but Definitely Maybe brought the spotlight onto British bands from all around the world. Grunge had really taken a hold before then and it had all gone a bit checked shirt.
ROB DA BANK, DJ AND FOUNDER OF BESTIVAL
You could have picked a lot of rock albums that I wouldn’t have been able to talk about but Definitely Maybe did transcend a lot of genres and styles.
When it came out, I was DJing electronic music, funk, soul and hip-hop. The first bands I was into were the Stone Roses, The Pixies and the Happy Mondays, but at that time Oasis would have been the one band I was listening to all the time.
There are so many amazing singles on Definitely Maybe. I’ve got it on double gatefold vinyl and it’s still in the regular record collection that I take out. I spent the evening with Noel at Glastonbury last year watching Disclosure and seeing him embracing new music. At the time, people stereotyped Oasis as laddy, football types, but they’re intelligent guys who’ve written a great amount of brilliant songs - on that album and since.
Source: www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Bonehead: Definitely Maybe Is Oasis' Finest Hour
It remains the iconic Oasis album, and 20 years after it first topped the British pop charts Definitely Maybe is being celebrated with a remastered release featuring rare material from the band’s early days.
Two decades on, founder member Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs exclusively told the MEN that the album remains the band’s finest hour. He said: “I think lyrically it just captured everyone’s imagination, and they’re songs you can only write once - about wanting to be a rock ‘n’ roll star and live a different life.
“It’s a bit lyrically bizarre in places, and it might not be our most musical album, but I do think it’s our best body of work.”
“Did I believe we were going to get quite that big? Probably not - the album went Top 10 and as it fizzled out I probably thought, ‘Well, you know what, we did what we did there and didn’t we do it well?’. Then you fast forward two years and you’re at Knebworth.”
Definitely Maybe album cover
The 20th anniversary edition of Definitely Maybe is released on CD, digital download and deluxe 12-inch vinyl and includes rare demos such as an acoustic take of Live Forever from a session in Paris and a version of Half The World Away recorded in Noel Gallagher’s Tokyo hotel room.
In 1994, Definitely Maybe stole the title of fastest selling debut record and ushered in a new era for Manchester music, heralding the start of the Britpop movement alongside Blur, Suede and Pulp. It has gone on to sell over eight million copies around the world.
Signed by Creation Records’ founder Alan McGee, Oasis struggled at first to capture the sound they’d perfected during rehearsals at Manchester’s Boardwalk club with first choice producer Dave Bachelor. “We expected to go in, on a count of four press record, and then we’ve got a record,” Bonehead recalls.
“That wasn’t the case, obviously; you’re living in a recording studio 24/7 with a producer. It just didn’t work - we had the wrong guy for the record, he wanted to do 32 takes of something until he was happy with it. Every time we played it back through the speakers it just didn’t sound right.
“We spoke to Creation and they said they’d spend money on it, and why didn’t we get in Mark Coyle? Eventually we went to his studio in Cornwall, everyone getting together in the studio making eye-contact, pressed record and that’s it - you’ve got it.”
The album made them stadium superstars, resulting in shows at Knebworth and Manchester City’s former ground at Maine Road within two years. “We were cocky, we were arrogant, we had a lot of self belief - which a band has to have,” Bonehead explains.
“When you’ve got a guy like Liam on stage and a guy like Noel writing your music and your words, then that’s going to give you confidence no end, isn’t it?
“Did I believe we were going to get quite that big? Probably not - the album went Top 10 and as it fizzled out I probably thought, ‘Well, you know what, we did what we did there and didn’t we do it well?’. Then you fast forward two years and you’re at Knebworth.”
Bonehead, who left the band in 1999 and is currently working on an album for new project Phoneys And The Freaks with young vocalist Alex Lipinski, denies Oasis have discussed the possibility of a reunion of the original line up to mark the anniversary.
“I’d love to see the band together playing that album again - of course I’d love to,” he says, “and the interesting thing is I can walk down the street and talk to 15-year-old kids who are massively into Oasis and they’ve heard it in their parents’ collections.
“I met up with Noel at a High Flying Birds gig up in Glasgow and he said the weirdest thing is looking at the audience - ‘The first five rows are 15-year-old girls and boys, they weren’t even born Bonehead! But they’re singing along to Wonderwall’.
“Half of these people weren’t around when Oasis were together - but would that warrant a reunion? I don’t know. There’s a moment for a reunion; no one wants to see old guys being wheeled on stage, or see them back on stage for the wrong reasons because they’ve been offered a million dollars.
“We all went to the Roses reunion which was incredible, and that did bring it all back. But an Oasis one - I don’t know, we’ve not spoken about it.”
KEVIN CUMMINS, PHOTOGRAPHER
I’d photographed Oasis and seen them live several times by the time I received a copy of the album from Creation - so I was familiar with the songs. The first time I heard it was on an early promo cassette! My initial thought was how exuberant and mature it was.
With the first two albums the whole of England became ‘Oasisworld’. Every bar, restaurant and shop played them on heavy rotation. It was the soundtrack to our lives. Whichever pub we used to go to before every Man City game, City fans would put the whole album on the jukebox...
I don’t listen to it very often - except when I get in my daughter Ella’s car. They were her absolute favourite band. And still are; I sometimes feel they’re the only two albums she owns.
NICK BAINES, KAISER CHIEFS
I was 16 in the summer of 1994 and I remember going to Way Ahead record shop in the Victoria Quarter in Leeds to buy Definitely Maybe on the day of release. I bought the gatefold vinyl as it was limited edition. The cover was warped from the day I got it so maybe it was a ‘special’ first batch!
The album changed a lot for me. Kurt Cobain died in early April 1994 and Supersonic came out a matter of days later. That spring and summer, my friend Pete Hiley and I switched from playing bad covers of Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins songs to bad covers of each Oasis single and b-sides, as they were released.
I remember coming back from town on the Monday and going straight to his house to put the needle on Definitely Maybe. The sound was exciting. Loud, but in a different way to Nevermind or Siamese Dream. The wall of noise was immense. We played it A LOT.
I started buying Ben Sherman and Fred Perry shirts, got more into The Beatles, Kinks, Stones and a whole world of music from the 1960s that I hadn’t paid attention to beforehand. All for the better. Obviously I got the standard-issue indie haircut too. My sideys never flicked out quite like Liam’s though...
I never skip past a track from the album if it comes on shuffle and I probably listen to the album every few months. Usually when driving, or a bit ****** off and I just wanna play something loud. Cloudburst is one of my favourite b-sides from the era too. That gets a regular playing.
TIM BURGESS, THE CHARLATANS
I was given my copy of Definitely Maybe by the band - I’d seen them quite early on supporting someone at The Boardwalk. I can’t remember who but even from the earliest gigs you could tell they were going to be massive.
Mark (Collins, Charlatans’ guitarist) bought a guitar from Noel before they had a record out (a blue Fender Jaguar that he still owns) and we recorded in the same studios as them and saw them at festivals when we were both on the bill.
We were pretty excited to hear Definitely Maybe and I think it was Bonehead that gave us one of the promo copies. I remember talking to Noel at Knebworth and we couldn’t quite believe that it had only been two years since they got the first copies of their debut album.
Definitely Maybe had a pretty huge impact on the whole of the music world. Before that The Charlatans were counted in with the baggy bands like Happy Mondays but that album kind of brought back some forgotten elements of guitar based rock ‘n’ roll - people definitely counted us in with them and that album ushered in the whole Britpop thing.
They didn’t necessarily change the way we did anything but Definitely Maybe brought the spotlight onto British bands from all around the world. Grunge had really taken a hold before then and it had all gone a bit checked shirt.
ROB DA BANK, DJ AND FOUNDER OF BESTIVAL
You could have picked a lot of rock albums that I wouldn’t have been able to talk about but Definitely Maybe did transcend a lot of genres and styles.
When it came out, I was DJing electronic music, funk, soul and hip-hop. The first bands I was into were the Stone Roses, The Pixies and the Happy Mondays, but at that time Oasis would have been the one band I was listening to all the time.
There are so many amazing singles on Definitely Maybe. I’ve got it on double gatefold vinyl and it’s still in the regular record collection that I take out. I spent the evening with Noel at Glastonbury last year watching Disclosure and seeing him embracing new music. At the time, people stereotyped Oasis as laddy, football types, but they’re intelligent guys who’ve written a great amount of brilliant songs - on that album and since.
Source: www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Andy Bell
Foo Fighters
Gem Archer
Liam Gallagher
Noel Gallagher
Oasis
Zak Starkey
Lyla is a song by the English rock band Oasis. The song was released on May 16th 2005 as the first single from the band's sixth album Don't Believe the Truth.
The song was written by Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher, who has varyingly described the track as "specifically designed for pogoing", "annoyingly catchy", and the "poppiest thing since Roll with It".
Gallagher says that the song existed in an early form as a song called Sing and dated from the Heathen Chemistry-era. He also says that the title for the final song should have been Smiler, but was changed seeing as guitarist Gem Archer's previous band, Heavy Stereo, also had a song called "Smiler".
Sony's insistence that it should be released as the first single from the album has helped to fuel the tension between the band and their record label, which has led to Oasis not renewing their contract with the record label following the release of Don't Believe the Truth.
Lyla became the band's seventh UK number one when it reached top spot in its first week of release. The song also debuted at #31 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart and has reached #19 since then. It is the first Oasis song to appear on any US singles chart since 2000 when Go Let It Out hit number 14 on the Modern Rock chart.
Noel has also joked with the fact that the Lyla in the song is actually the sister of the Sally mentioned in the Oasis single Don't Look Back in Anger. Also, he had said that the song is a "love song", being about Sally Cinnamon's sister.
Originally claiming that he wasn't very fond of the song, Noel has said that Lyla "isn't even the fifth best track on the album". The song had existed as a demo since the early recording sessions for the album but was all but forgotten until practically the last minute. However, on the Lock the Box feature on the Stop the Clocks, Noel admitted that he "didn't realise how good it was until [we] played it live," and admitted he loved the "guitars, the drums, and the vocals" of the song.
Live performances
When performing on the UK music chart show Top of the Pops, Liam, who was forced to mime to the music, made no secret of the fact, walking away from the microphone with his mouth closed mid-way through lines that he was supposedly 'singing'. It would be Liam's last performance on the programme before its demise in late 2006. However, Noel and the rest of the band would return in August 2005 to perform The Importance of Being Idle and later in 2009 to perform their last ever released single Falling Down.
Lyla was covered by the Foo Fighters during a performance at BBC Studios.
The song is included on Oasis' compilation album Stop the Clocks. It is also included in FIFA 06 as a track.
Track listing
CD RKIDSCD 29
"Lyla" (Noel Gallagher) - 5:12
"Eyeball Tickler" (Gem Archer) - 2:47
"Won't Let You Down" (Liam Gallagher) - 2:48
7" RKID 29
"Lyla" (Noel Gallagher) - 5:12
"Eyeball Tickler" (Gem Archer) - 2:47
DVD RKIDSDVD 29
"Lyla" - 5:14
"Lyla" (demo) - 5:29
"Can You See It Now?" (Documentary) - 9:22
The DVD also contains a hidden piece about new drummer Zak Starkey. The video lasts for 1:16 and is accessed by highlighting the word 'Credits' on the main menu, then pressing right until you see the name Zak appear. Then press 'Play' or 'Enter' to view the video.
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On This Day In Oasis History...
Lyla is a song by the English rock band Oasis. The song was released on May 16th 2005 as the first single from the band's sixth album Don't Believe the Truth.
The song was written by Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher, who has varyingly described the track as "specifically designed for pogoing", "annoyingly catchy", and the "poppiest thing since Roll with It".
Gallagher says that the song existed in an early form as a song called Sing and dated from the Heathen Chemistry-era. He also says that the title for the final song should have been Smiler, but was changed seeing as guitarist Gem Archer's previous band, Heavy Stereo, also had a song called "Smiler".
Sony's insistence that it should be released as the first single from the album has helped to fuel the tension between the band and their record label, which has led to Oasis not renewing their contract with the record label following the release of Don't Believe the Truth.
Lyla became the band's seventh UK number one when it reached top spot in its first week of release. The song also debuted at #31 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart and has reached #19 since then. It is the first Oasis song to appear on any US singles chart since 2000 when Go Let It Out hit number 14 on the Modern Rock chart.
Noel has also joked with the fact that the Lyla in the song is actually the sister of the Sally mentioned in the Oasis single Don't Look Back in Anger. Also, he had said that the song is a "love song", being about Sally Cinnamon's sister.
Originally claiming that he wasn't very fond of the song, Noel has said that Lyla "isn't even the fifth best track on the album". The song had existed as a demo since the early recording sessions for the album but was all but forgotten until practically the last minute. However, on the Lock the Box feature on the Stop the Clocks, Noel admitted that he "didn't realise how good it was until [we] played it live," and admitted he loved the "guitars, the drums, and the vocals" of the song.
Live performances
When performing on the UK music chart show Top of the Pops, Liam, who was forced to mime to the music, made no secret of the fact, walking away from the microphone with his mouth closed mid-way through lines that he was supposedly 'singing'. It would be Liam's last performance on the programme before its demise in late 2006. However, Noel and the rest of the band would return in August 2005 to perform The Importance of Being Idle and later in 2009 to perform their last ever released single Falling Down.
Lyla was covered by the Foo Fighters during a performance at BBC Studios.
The song is included on Oasis' compilation album Stop the Clocks. It is also included in FIFA 06 as a track.
Track listing
CD RKIDSCD 29
"Lyla" (Noel Gallagher) - 5:12
"Eyeball Tickler" (Gem Archer) - 2:47
"Won't Let You Down" (Liam Gallagher) - 2:48
7" RKID 29
"Lyla" (Noel Gallagher) - 5:12
"Eyeball Tickler" (Gem Archer) - 2:47
DVD RKIDSDVD 29
"Lyla" - 5:14
"Lyla" (demo) - 5:29
"Can You See It Now?" (Documentary) - 9:22
The DVD also contains a hidden piece about new drummer Zak Starkey. The video lasts for 1:16 and is accessed by highlighting the word 'Credits' on the main menu, then pressing right until you see the name Zak appear. Then press 'Play' or 'Enter' to view the video.
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Noel Gallagher
Oasis
Paul Weller
Taken from an interview with Paul Weller from standard.co.uk read the full article here.
Does he think Noel Gallagher will hold the line and not yield to the increasing clamour for an Oasis reunion?
‘I would have thought so, wouldn’t you? He’s in a great place now. I love that High Flying Birds record,’ he enthuses of the elder Gallagher’s solo project. ‘I don’t want to speak out of turn, but he’s played me a couple of things from the next record and they’re f***ing great as well. He’s in a good creative place, so why would he do it? Well,’ he adds with a snort, ‘I know why people would do it — for money. That’s the bottom line.’
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Paul Weller Says New Tracks By Noel Gallagher Are F***ing Great
Taken from an interview with Paul Weller from standard.co.uk read the full article here.
Does he think Noel Gallagher will hold the line and not yield to the increasing clamour for an Oasis reunion?
‘I would have thought so, wouldn’t you? He’s in a great place now. I love that High Flying Birds record,’ he enthuses of the elder Gallagher’s solo project. ‘I don’t want to speak out of turn, but he’s played me a couple of things from the next record and they’re f***ing great as well. He’s in a good creative place, so why would he do it? Well,’ he adds with a snort, ‘I know why people would do it — for money. That’s the bottom line.’
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Noel Gallagher
Noel Gallagher talks to TalkSPORT about Manchester City winning the Premiership title and England's chances at the World Cup.
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Noel Gallagher On Manchester City's Title Win And More
Noel Gallagher talks to TalkSPORT about Manchester City winning the Premiership title and England's chances at the World Cup.
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Oasis
On May 15th 1996, at the time Oasis became the fastest-selling group in U.K. history after all 330,000 tickets for their summer shows sold out in just nine hours.
The tickets for shows at Knebworth and Loch Lomand were priced at £22.50.
Over 2.6 million people applied for tickets for the shows, making it the largest ever demand for concert tickets in British history.
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
On This Day In Oasis History...
On May 15th 1996, at the time Oasis became the fastest-selling group in U.K. history after all 330,000 tickets for their summer shows sold out in just nine hours.
The tickets for shows at Knebworth and Loch Lomand were priced at £22.50.
Over 2.6 million people applied for tickets for the shows, making it the largest ever demand for concert tickets in British history.
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Bonehead
Guigsy
Happy Mondays
Johnny Marr
Liam Gallagher
Noel Gallagher
Oasis
Peggy Gallagher
Primal Scream
The Smiths
The Stone Roses
Tony McCarroll
In a year that has seen much consideration of Ireland’s cultural impact on British life, this month’s re-issue of Oasis’s classic debut, Definitely Maybe, offers solid evidence of its impact, 20 years on from the album’s original release.
It is a record that Noel Gallagher once described as “the sound of five second generation Irish Catholics coming out of a council estate” and true to that summation, Definitely Maybe is perhaps a work that could only have been made by a group of Irish Mancunians.
England saw a wave of Irish migrants arrive in the 1960s as cities such as Manchester provided essential labour during a construction boom.
The children of those immigrants would find new sub-cultural identities in football, fashion and pop music creating a vital and expressive contribution to the communal social fabric and culture of British life, particularly in the north west of England.
Inspired by the anti-establishment, anti-imperial post-Thatcher working class sensibilities laid down by The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Primal Scream, all five members of Oasis came from a strong Irish sub-culture.
Within the story was sibling rivalry, protective Irish mammies, absent fathers, hymns, rebel songs, support of Celtic and the Republic of Ireland, holidays in the west of Ireland and everyday post-industrial city life in backstreets Mancunia.
The rise of Oasis amplified the triumphs, humour and tragedy of Irish diaspora life to the nation.
Two decades on, Oasis founding member and rhythm guitarist Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs confirms the significance of that background to the music, attitude and character of the band.
“He’s absolutely right in what he said,” Bonehead says of Noel’s comment. “That’s exactly what we were. We were five lads off the street. I get asked that a lot; ‘what is it about Manchester and Liverpool bringing out such great music?’ and my answer is the same, Celtic blood. It really is that, it’s the only explanation.
“It’s working class people from strong Irish backgrounds making music. My mother was from the west of Ireland in Mayo, a place called Swinford which is literally a few miles from Noel and Liam’s grandparents. My dad was from the North, about 30 miles south of Belfast.
“I went to very Irish Catholic schools, St Roberts in Longsight — everyone was Irish Catholic, we all went to church on a Sunday. I was an altar boy until I was 16 and it was time to hang up the cassock. The family had visions of me being a priest not a rock ’n’ roller.”
Was Irish music a conscious influence on the band? “I was talking about this with Alex (Lipinsky) who I’m in a band with,” he says.
“I put on Sweeney’s Men and he said it sounded like Oasis and The Stone Roses. If someone asked if we were influenced by that, well consciously no but subconsciously probably yes. You can hear their influence in a lot of other Manchester bands like Doves.”
Whether it is later episodes of Shameless or Benefits Street, the media often convey a feckless one dimensional vision of working class life. It’s fair to say Oasis were instilled with a resolute Irish work ethic and for the most part the five-piece held down steady jobs while rehearsing six nights a week. The nuts and bolts of the band were in place as early as 1991.
Liam Gallagher fronted The Rain with Bonehead, a plasterer, bassist Paul ‘Guigsy’ McGuigan, a call-centre telephonist, and drummer Tony McCarroll, a labourer. Noel Gallagher was the last to join. After stockpiling songs working for an Irish building firm, he would immediately take creative control.
Speaking shortly before Oasis split in 2009, Liam reflected on the period: “We had the music. From my point of view you have to try that bit harder with the Irish thing or if you’re Scottish; you’ve got to dig deep because everything revolves around England. My mates, the lads that were English had everything on a plate.”
On leaving school without qualifications Noel Gallagher’s mother Peggy asked him, “what is going to become of you? If music is what you really want to do, I don’t care if you stay on the dole but you better not let me down.”
A stint as a roadie for the Inspiral Carpets provided the budding songwriter with some vital insider awareness. Bonehead casts his mind back to his first recollections of the brothers.
“I knew Noel worked with the Inspiral Carpets and I’d see him at gigs and around the streets and boozers where we lived. I knew Liam before he joined the band, Liam was a young kid, and always a cool f**ker with the best clothes and when you’d see him he’d let on ‘alright mate’.
“I knew he’d make a great front-man. Peggy was everybody’s mate, she was a wonderful woman, still is — and no one is prouder of what Noel and Liam achieved with the band. She’s still here, there and everywhere with them; Queen Peggy.”
Oasis walked the same Manchester avenues and alleyways and came from the same Irish environment as The Smiths. Notably Johnny Marr also offered the band a helping hand. “He hooked us up with our manager (Marcus Russell) and invited us down to his studio,” says Bonehead.
“He was like ‘take this, borrow that, whatever you need.’ We loaded everything in the van. I’ve got to know all The Smiths apart from Morrissey; I’ve become close with Mike Joyce, we grew up two miles from one another. I didn’t know him then but we all knew the same people. It was an instant bond. Those guys are very much the same as us in many ways.”
The Chasing The Sun 20th anniversary edition of Definitely Maybe charts the evolution of the band. The songs and production took a number of attempts to get right and among the 33 extra tracks is the previously unreleased Strange Thing. You can literally hear the band’s self-belief grow as they shake off the indie/baggy era in exchange for a juggernaut of slice-of-life foot stomping, four to the floor rock ’n’ roll.
The bonus discs include a clutch of early sketch recordings and demos which indicate the effort and craft that went into delivering the finished versions, said Bonehead.
“Some of the early songs, like Strange Thing, have got a baggy beat. There’s more songs from that time that have that very Manchester sound, we were still finding our feet. There were times it wasn’t happening in the studio. We tried to record Bring It On Down, which was meant to be the first single, but we weren’t nailing it.
“Noel was in the control room and started writing down some words for what was to become Supersonic; he literally wrote it in minutes. He sang us the melody and wrote the words down for Liam and that was it; bang, recorded in a couple of hours.
“We then brought the song down to Maida Vale and played it to Alan McGee [Creation Records label boss] who was like ‘where the f**k did that come from?”
As momentum gathered throughout the summer of 1994, word of the band’s euphoric gigs swelled like a revival movement. Month by month they outgrew venues as Noel Gallagher enjoyed his most prolific period as a songwriter, never bettered since. Over the next few years his “stockpile” would fill airwaves, pubs, tenements and night-clubs with a run of anthems, said Bonehead.
“He had written Whatever and All Around the World years before Definitely Maybe. I remember saying to him, Whatever has got to be on the album. He had a vision for the band by that point and he didn’t want to record it. He decided to wait until we had a 40-piece orchestra. There’s a strings version on the re-release, it’s been great even for me to hear this stuff.”
Touring with The Verve was also fundamental to the band’s development. “We all looked up to The Verve, they were one of those bands that we aspired to and when we went out on our first proper tour it was supporting them. We learned a lot watching them on stage every night. That was an incredible experience in itself.”
The live versions of Supersonic from around that period sound very spontaneous, particularly Noel’s lead? “That happened sometimes especially at a good gig he extended the outro, he would literally make it up.” Were you never tempted to deliver a solo yourself?
“I went up the neck a few times and Noel would be like ‘nah man, keep it chugging’. Doing bar chords used to do my head in sometimes. I came up with the riff for Up In The Sky and he built the song around that one but generally Noel would arrive with the finished song.”
A number of the live recordings are from early Glasgow gigs. The city where they were discovered by Alan McGee was a stronghold for the band, sharing its diaspora link with Manchester and a well-documented support of Celtic.
“I always had a thing for Celtic because my dad was a die-hard supporter,” says Bonehead, “that was his team. My favourite player was Jimmy Johnstone. Every weekend he made a point of travelling up in the work van with a load of Irish lads, they would get pissed and watch Celtic. Glasgow and New York are my favourite cities in the world.
“Scotland in general was always really good, I remember we played this record company gig with reps flying around and we blew the place apart, that’s where the version of I Am The Walrus comes from.”
The special edition album repeats the inaccuracy that the recording was taken from the Glasgow Cathouse. Noel Gallagher previously explained that “it would look shit if you put ‘Live at Sony Seminar in Gleneagles’! We had a version of it from the Cathouse in Glasgow, which sounded quite similar but it was rubbish.”
The last gang in town currency that created Definitely Maybe wasn’t lost on Noel Gallagher either: “We were all from working class Irish backgrounds, we weren’t the best looking band in the world, apart from Liam who’s a good looking lad, but the point is anyone could have been in the band.”
As the structure of the band was slowly dismantled in favour of ‘professionals’ with the ‘right haircut’ they also conceded the folk spirit and idealism that captured the British public’s imagination. The first to go was drummer Tony McCarroll in April 1995. Although much lambasted by Noel Gallagher, it’s widely acknowledged the drums characterised the raw power of the now classic album.
“No matter what people say there was only one person who could have played drums on Definitely Maybe,” says Bonehead, “and that was Tony, it really was. If you strip away Noel’s guitars and listen to the rhythm section, it’s pure punk attitude in that record.”
Bonehead would quit the band himself in 1999 after a drunken argument with Noel followed by Paul McGuigan. “We were all f**ked by that point,” he says, “but I don’t think it hit me until prior to recording (Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants). I think he picked his moment (McGuigan). I didn’t expect him to leave as well.
Oasis were the first and last band since The Beatles to enjoy such widespread public esteem in Britain. Until their final split in 2009 they would routinely sell out stadiums across the globe. Rumours of an Oasis reunion continue to abound.
A recent exhibition, Chasing The Sun 1993-97, celebrated the early years of the band and a reunion of the original line-up would undoubtedly exhilarate a generation of fans whose lives were sound-tracked by the band’s early output.
Of late, Bonehead has returned to playing live with Phoneys & The Freaks. He has also re-established a solid friendship with Liam Gallagher. “I’m probably closer with Liam now than I ever was, we’ve played together at a couple of events recently.” Will you play together again? “I’d love to,” comes the reply. Is there talk? “There might have been.”
For now Paul Arthurs is staying tight-lipped but if he gets a call from the man he still calls “the chief”, he won’t stand in the way of what the public wants. In many ways he displays something of the Irish Mancunian steadiness that underpinned Oasis.
“I went to see Noel’s High Flying Birds in Glasgow,” he says, “and he dedicated a song to me. We’re not close, I bump into him from time to time but if he wants me to play a gig or whatever — I’m there.”
Definitely Maybe: Chasing The Sun Edition will be released on May 19.
Source: www.irishpost.co.uk
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Oasis: ‘We Were Five Lads From Strong Irish Backgrounds Making Music’
In a year that has seen much consideration of Ireland’s cultural impact on British life, this month’s re-issue of Oasis’s classic debut, Definitely Maybe, offers solid evidence of its impact, 20 years on from the album’s original release.
It is a record that Noel Gallagher once described as “the sound of five second generation Irish Catholics coming out of a council estate” and true to that summation, Definitely Maybe is perhaps a work that could only have been made by a group of Irish Mancunians.
England saw a wave of Irish migrants arrive in the 1960s as cities such as Manchester provided essential labour during a construction boom.
The children of those immigrants would find new sub-cultural identities in football, fashion and pop music creating a vital and expressive contribution to the communal social fabric and culture of British life, particularly in the north west of England.
Inspired by the anti-establishment, anti-imperial post-Thatcher working class sensibilities laid down by The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Primal Scream, all five members of Oasis came from a strong Irish sub-culture.
Within the story was sibling rivalry, protective Irish mammies, absent fathers, hymns, rebel songs, support of Celtic and the Republic of Ireland, holidays in the west of Ireland and everyday post-industrial city life in backstreets Mancunia.
The rise of Oasis amplified the triumphs, humour and tragedy of Irish diaspora life to the nation.
Two decades on, Oasis founding member and rhythm guitarist Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs confirms the significance of that background to the music, attitude and character of the band.
“He’s absolutely right in what he said,” Bonehead says of Noel’s comment. “That’s exactly what we were. We were five lads off the street. I get asked that a lot; ‘what is it about Manchester and Liverpool bringing out such great music?’ and my answer is the same, Celtic blood. It really is that, it’s the only explanation.
“It’s working class people from strong Irish backgrounds making music. My mother was from the west of Ireland in Mayo, a place called Swinford which is literally a few miles from Noel and Liam’s grandparents. My dad was from the North, about 30 miles south of Belfast.
“I went to very Irish Catholic schools, St Roberts in Longsight — everyone was Irish Catholic, we all went to church on a Sunday. I was an altar boy until I was 16 and it was time to hang up the cassock. The family had visions of me being a priest not a rock ’n’ roller.”
Was Irish music a conscious influence on the band? “I was talking about this with Alex (Lipinsky) who I’m in a band with,” he says.
“I put on Sweeney’s Men and he said it sounded like Oasis and The Stone Roses. If someone asked if we were influenced by that, well consciously no but subconsciously probably yes. You can hear their influence in a lot of other Manchester bands like Doves.”
Whether it is later episodes of Shameless or Benefits Street, the media often convey a feckless one dimensional vision of working class life. It’s fair to say Oasis were instilled with a resolute Irish work ethic and for the most part the five-piece held down steady jobs while rehearsing six nights a week. The nuts and bolts of the band were in place as early as 1991.
Liam Gallagher fronted The Rain with Bonehead, a plasterer, bassist Paul ‘Guigsy’ McGuigan, a call-centre telephonist, and drummer Tony McCarroll, a labourer. Noel Gallagher was the last to join. After stockpiling songs working for an Irish building firm, he would immediately take creative control.
Speaking shortly before Oasis split in 2009, Liam reflected on the period: “We had the music. From my point of view you have to try that bit harder with the Irish thing or if you’re Scottish; you’ve got to dig deep because everything revolves around England. My mates, the lads that were English had everything on a plate.”
On leaving school without qualifications Noel Gallagher’s mother Peggy asked him, “what is going to become of you? If music is what you really want to do, I don’t care if you stay on the dole but you better not let me down.”
A stint as a roadie for the Inspiral Carpets provided the budding songwriter with some vital insider awareness. Bonehead casts his mind back to his first recollections of the brothers.
“I knew Noel worked with the Inspiral Carpets and I’d see him at gigs and around the streets and boozers where we lived. I knew Liam before he joined the band, Liam was a young kid, and always a cool f**ker with the best clothes and when you’d see him he’d let on ‘alright mate’.
“I knew he’d make a great front-man. Peggy was everybody’s mate, she was a wonderful woman, still is — and no one is prouder of what Noel and Liam achieved with the band. She’s still here, there and everywhere with them; Queen Peggy.”
Oasis walked the same Manchester avenues and alleyways and came from the same Irish environment as The Smiths. Notably Johnny Marr also offered the band a helping hand. “He hooked us up with our manager (Marcus Russell) and invited us down to his studio,” says Bonehead.
“He was like ‘take this, borrow that, whatever you need.’ We loaded everything in the van. I’ve got to know all The Smiths apart from Morrissey; I’ve become close with Mike Joyce, we grew up two miles from one another. I didn’t know him then but we all knew the same people. It was an instant bond. Those guys are very much the same as us in many ways.”
The Chasing The Sun 20th anniversary edition of Definitely Maybe charts the evolution of the band. The songs and production took a number of attempts to get right and among the 33 extra tracks is the previously unreleased Strange Thing. You can literally hear the band’s self-belief grow as they shake off the indie/baggy era in exchange for a juggernaut of slice-of-life foot stomping, four to the floor rock ’n’ roll.
The bonus discs include a clutch of early sketch recordings and demos which indicate the effort and craft that went into delivering the finished versions, said Bonehead.
“Some of the early songs, like Strange Thing, have got a baggy beat. There’s more songs from that time that have that very Manchester sound, we were still finding our feet. There were times it wasn’t happening in the studio. We tried to record Bring It On Down, which was meant to be the first single, but we weren’t nailing it.
“Noel was in the control room and started writing down some words for what was to become Supersonic; he literally wrote it in minutes. He sang us the melody and wrote the words down for Liam and that was it; bang, recorded in a couple of hours.
“We then brought the song down to Maida Vale and played it to Alan McGee [Creation Records label boss] who was like ‘where the f**k did that come from?”
As momentum gathered throughout the summer of 1994, word of the band’s euphoric gigs swelled like a revival movement. Month by month they outgrew venues as Noel Gallagher enjoyed his most prolific period as a songwriter, never bettered since. Over the next few years his “stockpile” would fill airwaves, pubs, tenements and night-clubs with a run of anthems, said Bonehead.
“He had written Whatever and All Around the World years before Definitely Maybe. I remember saying to him, Whatever has got to be on the album. He had a vision for the band by that point and he didn’t want to record it. He decided to wait until we had a 40-piece orchestra. There’s a strings version on the re-release, it’s been great even for me to hear this stuff.”
Touring with The Verve was also fundamental to the band’s development. “We all looked up to The Verve, they were one of those bands that we aspired to and when we went out on our first proper tour it was supporting them. We learned a lot watching them on stage every night. That was an incredible experience in itself.”
The live versions of Supersonic from around that period sound very spontaneous, particularly Noel’s lead? “That happened sometimes especially at a good gig he extended the outro, he would literally make it up.” Were you never tempted to deliver a solo yourself?
“I went up the neck a few times and Noel would be like ‘nah man, keep it chugging’. Doing bar chords used to do my head in sometimes. I came up with the riff for Up In The Sky and he built the song around that one but generally Noel would arrive with the finished song.”
A number of the live recordings are from early Glasgow gigs. The city where they were discovered by Alan McGee was a stronghold for the band, sharing its diaspora link with Manchester and a well-documented support of Celtic.
“I always had a thing for Celtic because my dad was a die-hard supporter,” says Bonehead, “that was his team. My favourite player was Jimmy Johnstone. Every weekend he made a point of travelling up in the work van with a load of Irish lads, they would get pissed and watch Celtic. Glasgow and New York are my favourite cities in the world.
“Scotland in general was always really good, I remember we played this record company gig with reps flying around and we blew the place apart, that’s where the version of I Am The Walrus comes from.”
The special edition album repeats the inaccuracy that the recording was taken from the Glasgow Cathouse. Noel Gallagher previously explained that “it would look shit if you put ‘Live at Sony Seminar in Gleneagles’! We had a version of it from the Cathouse in Glasgow, which sounded quite similar but it was rubbish.”
The last gang in town currency that created Definitely Maybe wasn’t lost on Noel Gallagher either: “We were all from working class Irish backgrounds, we weren’t the best looking band in the world, apart from Liam who’s a good looking lad, but the point is anyone could have been in the band.”
As the structure of the band was slowly dismantled in favour of ‘professionals’ with the ‘right haircut’ they also conceded the folk spirit and idealism that captured the British public’s imagination. The first to go was drummer Tony McCarroll in April 1995. Although much lambasted by Noel Gallagher, it’s widely acknowledged the drums characterised the raw power of the now classic album.
“No matter what people say there was only one person who could have played drums on Definitely Maybe,” says Bonehead, “and that was Tony, it really was. If you strip away Noel’s guitars and listen to the rhythm section, it’s pure punk attitude in that record.”
Bonehead would quit the band himself in 1999 after a drunken argument with Noel followed by Paul McGuigan. “We were all f**ked by that point,” he says, “but I don’t think it hit me until prior to recording (Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants). I think he picked his moment (McGuigan). I didn’t expect him to leave as well.
Oasis were the first and last band since The Beatles to enjoy such widespread public esteem in Britain. Until their final split in 2009 they would routinely sell out stadiums across the globe. Rumours of an Oasis reunion continue to abound.
A recent exhibition, Chasing The Sun 1993-97, celebrated the early years of the band and a reunion of the original line-up would undoubtedly exhilarate a generation of fans whose lives were sound-tracked by the band’s early output.
Of late, Bonehead has returned to playing live with Phoneys & The Freaks. He has also re-established a solid friendship with Liam Gallagher. “I’m probably closer with Liam now than I ever was, we’ve played together at a couple of events recently.” Will you play together again? “I’d love to,” comes the reply. Is there talk? “There might have been.”
For now Paul Arthurs is staying tight-lipped but if he gets a call from the man he still calls “the chief”, he won’t stand in the way of what the public wants. In many ways he displays something of the Irish Mancunian steadiness that underpinned Oasis.
“I went to see Noel’s High Flying Birds in Glasgow,” he says, “and he dedicated a song to me. We’re not close, I bump into him from time to time but if he wants me to play a gig or whatever — I’m there.”
Definitely Maybe: Chasing The Sun Edition will be released on May 19.
Source: www.irishpost.co.uk
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Andrew Metcalfe
Sound Of Guns
This Feeling
This Saturday will see the long awaited live return of Andrew Metcalfe. The former frontman of Sound Of Guns is about to embark on a solo career and is kicking it off in his hometown in Liverpool and will play This Feeling, Purple Turtle, Camden on 16th May.
Visit www.thisfeeling.co.uk for tickets and infomation on club nights all over the UK.
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
What's Going On At 'This Feeling' This Weekend?
This Saturday will see the long awaited live return of Andrew Metcalfe. The former frontman of Sound Of Guns is about to embark on a solo career and is kicking it off in his hometown in Liverpool and will play This Feeling, Purple Turtle, Camden on 16th May.
Visit www.thisfeeling.co.uk for tickets and infomation on club nights all over the UK.
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Alan White
Bonehead
Guigsy
Liam Gallagher
Noel Gallagher
Oasis
Don't Go Away is a song by Oasis and is taken from their third album, Be Here Now, written by the band's lead guitarist Noel Gallagher. The song was released as a single in Japan on May 13th 1998, peaking at number 48 on the Oricon chart.
It was also a success in the United States, where it hit #5 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart in late 1997. It was the band's last major hit in the United States until 2008's "The Shock Of The Lightning".
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Another On This Day In Oasis History...
Don't Go Away is a song by Oasis and is taken from their third album, Be Here Now, written by the band's lead guitarist Noel Gallagher. The song was released as a single in Japan on May 13th 1998, peaking at number 48 on the Oricon chart.
It was also a success in the United States, where it hit #5 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart in late 1997. It was the band's last major hit in the United States until 2008's "The Shock Of The Lightning".
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
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