"Cigarettes & Alcohol" is a song by Oasis, written by Noel Gallagher. It was released as the fourth single from their debut album Definitely Maybe, and their second to enter the UK top ten in the United Kingdom, peaking at #7 (three places higher than "Live Forever"), eventually spending 35 weeks on the charts, re-entering the Top 75 on several occasions until 1997. The single was released in the UK on October 10th 1994
Background
Whereas earlier singles "Supersonic" and "Shakermaker" had used psychedelic imagery, and "Live Forever" used softer chords and tender lyrics, "Cigarettes & Alcohol" was the first real taste of the wilder attitude that Oasis appeared to be promoting. The song proclaims the inherent appeal of cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs as a remedy to the banality and seemingly futile nature of the working class life. Lyrics such as "Is it worth the aggravation to find yourself a job when there's nothing worth working for?" taps into the common sentiment of western disenchantment that was particularly common in the mid-1990s.
Upon first hearing the song, the man who discovered the band, Alan McGee, claimed that the song was one of the greatest social statements anyone had made in the past 25 years.
Track listings
CD CRESCD 190
"Cigarettes & Alcohol" – 4:48
"I Am the Walrus" (live) – 8:15
"Listen Up" – 6:39
"Fade Away" – 4:13
7" CRE 190
"Cigarettes & Alcohol" – 4:48
"I Am the Walrus" (live) – 8:15
12" CRE 190T
"Cigarettes & Alcohol" – 4:48
"I Am the Walrus" (live) – 8:15
"Fade Away" – 4:13
Cassette CRECS 190
"Cigarettes & Alcohol" – 4:50
"I Am the Walrus" (live) – 8:15
Contrary to the sleeve notes, which claimed it was recorded at the Glasgow Cathouse in June 1994, "I Am the Walrus" was actually recorded at a soundcheck for a gig at the Gleneagles Hotel, Scotland on 6 February 1994, as part of a Sony Music seminar. The reason why this wasn't mentioned on the original sleevenotes is that Noel thought mentioning the fact that it was recorded at a corporate event would "look shit". The crowd noises at the beginning and end of the track are from a Faces bootleg of Noel's.
The single is the first Oasis release to feature the inclusion of a song not written by Noel Gallagher.
Noel in the Lock the Box interview says "I remember writing it in my flat in Manchester, and two guys used to live above me, and in those days, being the fucking geezer that I was, I used to write on the electric guitar with my amp in the fucking room, in a block of flats, on ten, and one of the guys passed me on the stairs and said "You're not gonna fucking write a song to that riff are you? That's fucking rubbish" and I was going "Listen fat arse, that's gonna be fucking amazing when it comes out"."
Noel has also said of "Cigarettes and Alcohol", "That song keeps getting better and better for me."
Noel claims that when they released "Cigarettes and Alcohol", he realised how big they were going to be. He said in an interview that "that was the moment when we realised we should belt up, it's gonna get a bit mad from here on in."
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
The video below is from the 9th October 1997 when Oasis appeared on The Late Show With David Letterman in New York, and played the classic Don't Go Away.
Check out Pretty Green's Capsule collection for Autumn Winter ’15 it's inspired by the Northern Soul movement that emerged in Britain in the late 1960’s. Fueled by the upbeat sounds of Black American soul music and the fast tempo beats of Tamla Motown, the Northern Soul scene exploded with new dance moves and fashions.
Below is a short interview with Liam Gallagher that was recorded in Italy, when asked what he's doing in Varese he said "I've come to buy a race horse and pizza".
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Click here to vote for Noel Gallagher at this years Q Awards, he's been nominated for 'Best Album', 'Best Solo Artist' and the 'Best Act In The World Today' categories.
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Click here and here to see a number of pictures of Noel Gallagher and his wife Sara at the London launch of Casamigos Tequila and Cindy Crawford's book 'Becoming'.
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds video for 'Ballad of The Mighty' has been nominated in this year’s UK Music Video Awards, the annual celebration of creative and technical excellence in music video making around the world which takes place at the Roundhouse in London on Thursday November 5th.
Best Rock/Indie Video – UK
Bastille vs Grades - Torn Apart
Florence + The Machine - Queen of Peace
Florence + The Machine - What Kind of Man
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds - Ballad of The Mighty I
Royal Blood - Out of The Black
Slaves - Cheer Up London
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
(What's The Story) Morning Glory? is the second album by the English rock band Oasis, released on October 2 1995. The album went straight to #1 in the UK, selling 347,000 copies in its first week. (What's the Story) Morning Glory? spawned four hit singles in the UK, two of which were #1s. It sold over 19 million copies worldwide, including over 4.3 million copies in the UK, 14x platinum, and is currently the third biggest-selling album in UK chart history. Morning Glory has gone 4x platinum in the United States In addition, the singles "Wonderwall" and "Champagne Supernova" went Gold in the United States.
The album, which was recorded in less than two weeks, contains arguably the band's two most famous songs, "Wonderwall" and "Don't Look Back in Anger", along with "Champagne Supernova" and their first UK #1 single, "Some Might Say".
In 1997 Morning Glory was named the 5th greatest album of all time in a 'Music of the Millennium' poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In 1998 Q magazine readers placed it at number 8, and in 2000 it achieved the same position in Q's list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. The editors of Q magazine declared it the "album of the decade" in 1999. The readers of Q placed it seventh on the 2006 top 100 greatest albums of all time list. In 2003, the album was ranked number 376 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
History
The success of Morning Glory catapulted Oasis from being a successful Britpop band to being one of the biggest bands in Britain, with substantial international fame, and considerable press coverage in the mainstream and music press. The band played several massive open air concerts in the UK during 1996, which included two nights at Knebworth in front of a combined audience of 250,000 people (125,000 each night), with over 2.5 million applying to buy tickets.
Tracklisting
01: "Hello" (Gallagher/Glitter/Leander) – 3:21
02: "Roll with It" – 4:00
03: "Wonderwall" – 4:19
04: "Don't Look Back in Anger" – 4:48
05: "Hey Now!" – 5:41
06: Untitled (aka "The Swamp Song - Excerpt 1") – 0:43
07: "Some Might Say" – 5:31
08: "Cast No Shadow" – 4:52
09: "She's Electric" – 3:40
10: "Morning Glory" – 5:03
11: Untitled (aka "The Swamp Song - Excerpt 2") – 0:41
12: "Champagne Supernova" – 7:27
Notes:
* Tracks 6 and 11 are officially untitled. In fact, the track listing bears no title whatsoever for these songs, merely a blank space. * The excerpts from "The Swamp Song" are parts of the instrumental B-side to the "Wonderwall" single. * The vinyl LP edition of the album features a bonus track, "Bonehead's Bank Holiday". This song appears as the 7th track on the album, immediately after the 43-second untitled track. * "Step Out" had to be removed from the album at the last minute. The song, sung by Noel, was intended to have been the original track 8 (after "Some Might Say" and before "Cast No Shadow"), but was removed as the chorus was similar to the chorus of Stevie Wonder's 1965 track "Uptight (Everything's Alright)". Wonder's publishing company were alleged to have demanded a substantial amount of royalties from the album which Oasis weren't prepared to pay, so the track was removed, although not before the first promotional copies of the album had been released with "Step Out" included. The track was eventually released as a B-side on Oasis' 1996 single "Don't Look Back in Anger", with an amended song writing credit of 'Gallagher/Wonder/Cosby/May', and was included on the live album Familiar to Millions.
"Morning Glory" (AUS only)
Released: 15 September 1995
Writer: Noel Gallagher
Producers: Noel Gallagher & Owen Morris
Chart positions: #25 AUS, #24 U.S. Modern Rock Chart
"Wonderwall"
Released: 30 October 1995
Writer: Noel Gallagher
Producers: Noel Gallagher & Owen Morris
Chart positions: #2 (UK), #8 (U.S.), #1 U.S. Modern Rock Chart (10 Weeks)
"Don't Look Back in Anger"
Released: 19 February 1996
Writer: Noel Gallagher
Producers: Noel Gallagher & Owen Morris
Chart positions: #1 (UK), #1 (IRE), #10 U.S. Modern Rock Chart, #21 (U.S.)
"Champagne Supernova" (AUS and US only)
Released: 13 May 1996
Writer: Noel Gallagher
Producers: Noel Gallagher & Owen Morris
Chart positions: #26 (AUS), #20 (US), #1 U.S. Modern Rock Chart (5 Weeks)
Miscellanea
"Hello" contains elements of Gary Glitter's "Hello Hello I'm Back Again" as Liam jokingly sings part of the song's chorus when the song begins to fade out.
On the cover of the album a man is seen brandishing what looks to be a vinyl record in its sleeve. This is in fact the master tape for the album. The man in question is Owen Morris, the producer. The photo was taken on Berwick Street in Soho, a London street well known for its independent record shops. The other man is BBC London's Sean Rowley.
Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' latest album 'Chasing Yesterday' is the biggest-selling vinyl album of 2015 so far.
The Official Charts Company has unveiled a list of the Top 40 vinyl albums of the year, with Gallagher's second post-Oasis LP, released in February, beating the likes of The Stone Roses, Royal Blood, Led Zeppelin and Arctic Monkeys to the top spot.
As well as 'Chasing Yesterday', among the Top 10 only two other albums were released this year: Blur's 'The Magic Whip' and Jamie xx's 'In Colour'.
Other records, such as The Stone Roses' eponymous debut and Led Zeppelin’s 1975 album 'Physical Graffiti', were recently reissued.
Outside the Top 10, new albums from Muse, Sufjan Stevens, Foals and The War On Drugs fill the top 20, while Tame Impala, Florence + The Machine, Wolf Alice and more feature elsewhere in the Top 40.
See the full Top 10 below. View a full list of the Top 40 vinyl albums of the year so far here.
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - 'Chasing Yesterday'
The Stone Roses - 'The Stone Roses'
Royal Blood - 'Royal Blood'
Led Zeppelin - 'Physical Graffiti'
Arctic Monkeys - 'AM'
Pink Floyd - 'The Dark Side Of The Moon'
Amy Winehouse - 'Back To Black'
Blur - 'The Magic Whip'
Jamie xx - 'In Colour'
Ed Sheeran - 'X'