Definitely Maybe - The Oasis Photographs Q&A With Michael Spencer Jones

Monday 16 June 2014 - 8:30 PM

Berry Bros. and Rudd No.3 Bar

As part of Definitely Maybe - The Oasis Photographs an exclusive exhibition of pictures taken by photographer Michael Spencer Jones during the band's early years, the Royal Albert Hall has teamed up with Q Magazine to present a very special Q&A with the photographer in the relaxed atmosphere of our Berry Bros & Rudd No 3 Bar.

The evening will provide fans with a unique opportunity to ask questions about Michael's time with the band and to discover the stories behind some of his famous album covers.

Tickets include a glass of wine upon arrival and access to the exhibition after the event.

For more information and to purchase your tickets for the Q&A evening click here.

Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.

Definitely Maybe – The Oasis Exhibition

In a five year journey, which began in 1993 with a photo shoot at Manchester's Out of the Blue Studios, Michael Spencer Jones worked closely with Oasis, becoming their official photographer and creating a series of truly iconic images which adorned their first 3 albums and their accompanying singles - imagery which helped to define a musical era.

In the 20th anniversary year of Oasis' timeless debut album Definitely Maybe, the Royal Albert Hall presents a London exclusive of images from Michael's huge and mainly unpublished archive of over 8,000 shots.

Many of the photographs included in the exhibition have never been seen in public before.  Having last welcomed Oasis to the Hall in 2002, we are very excited to present these photographs as part of an iconic and celebratory exhibition.

The exhibition can be viewed when attending performances or on the following free open days:
Saturday 28 June 10am - 4pm
Sunday 29 June 10am - 4pm

Q&A with Michael Spencer Jones.

In addition to the free public open days, the Royal Albert Hall has teamed up with Q Magazine to present a very special Q&A with photographer Michael Spencer Jones, which will take place in the Hall's Berry Bros. and Rudd No.3 Bar on Monday 16 June.

For more information please click here.

Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.

Michael Spencer Jones Talks Oasis

We recently brought you an exclusive Q&A with Brian Cannon, who designed some of Oasis’ most memorable sleeve designs and this month, Michael Spencer Jones, the man behind the lens of those iconic shots has discussed some of his favourite pieces which are now available in a limited edition 198 page box set. As much as Oasis were influenced by the music of the likes of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, Michael was equally inspired by their artwork. Both parties created something completely unique whilst referencing these bands and many others like them and the result was a perfect symmetry between music and artwork on records still considered the most defining of their era.

After starting out working in advertising, assisting renowned photographer Stak Aivaloitis on some of the iconic Benson Hedges campaigns, Michael Spencer Jones turned his attentions to Rock ‘N’ Roll. Against the flow of industry traffic to London, Michael moved to Manchester, working with bands such as The Verve and The Stone Roses, earning one of his first commissions shooting the latter’s legendary performance at Spike Island. Two years later in 1992, Michael was introduced to Oasis and over the next 5 years would be on hand to capture their ‘golden years’ as they made their ascent to becoming one of the biggest bands in the world.

The new portfolio boxset features hand signed photographs of all the Oasis artwork created by Michael in his time working with the band. Strictly limited to only 250 copies, the set recollects the group’s history from the early stages of the group to the peak of their popularity.




















Supersonic

The shot was taken at Monnow Valley studios in Wales where they had started recording Definitely Maybe. The idea was to have a cluttered studio environment with amps and cables strewn everywhere. Liam was only 21 at the time and already looked like a fully formed rock star so I decided to have him at the front of the shot.

I thought it would be a nice twist if I had my tungsten lights in view, the idea being to put Oasis firmly in the ‘spotlight’ for their debut single. I cross-processed the film which gives the shot its bluey tint.




















Shakermaker

The cover was a dali-esque type concept. I’ve always really been into the surrealists such as Magritte and Dali and I liked the idea that hard objects can take the form of soft ones. The idea was that if you played Oasis music loud enough the contents of your room would melt.

The shot was taken in the corner of my apartment in Manchester which had become an improvised studio. I went around all the junk shops in Manchester buying various plastic objects which I then melted on my front porch with an industrial blow torch not too dissimilar from a World War 2 flame thrower! It was really funny seeing the reaction of my neighbours, they just couldn’t figure out what was going off.


















Live Forever

When it came to do the photography for Live Forever nobody had any ideas on what was to go on the cover. My first thoughts were that it should feature a scene from everyday life; people walking in a street, or a group of people standing at a bus shelter in the rain maybe; something ordinary. This process of ‘writers block’ went on for several weeks until the band asked me if I had anything in my archive which would be appropriate.

I remembered a photograph that I'd taken a few years earlier of John Lennon’s childhood home in Liverpool that had an ethereal and mysterious quality. The photograph seemed to work on two levels: firstly it was a picture of an ordinary suburban semi which reflected some of the song's lyrical content and secondly when you considered that the greatest artist of the 20th century had grown up in the house the picture took on a far more powerful quality. Noel loved the picture and the sentiment behind it as soon as he saw it. So in many ways it was one of the easiest covers I worked on because the picture had already been taken.




















Definitely Maybe

The initial idea for Definitely Maybe came from the back cover to A Collection of Beatles Oldies which was a group photograph of The Beatles gathered round a small table in a Japanese hotel room. Oasis had decided that a similar group photograph should be taken in Bonehead’s front living room. I’d already heard the album many times and knew that it was a great challenge to create an image suitable for the cover. I was therefore horrified when I went to recce the room and saw how small and uninspiring the room was.

The band had assumed that I would take the photograph looking into the room with the bay window as a source of illumination – in other words the opposite direction to how it finally appeared on the cover. To me the bay window was the most interesting feature of the room and so I decided to take the unusual step of shooting into the light of the bay window. I then lit the room accordingly to avoid the band appearing as silhouettes.

The size of the room was made to look bigger by using a wide angle lens but this created a problem with the floor. The stripped flooring (which I believe Bonehead had done himself) had been transformed into this huge ‘desert’ expanse which overwhelmed and dominated the shot. The empty space and what to do with it became a real problem. A week before the shoot I had visited the Egyptology section at The Manchester Science Museum and as a result, the whole notion of lying in a preserved state and the way the Egyptians honoured and represented their past kings was very much fresh in my mind. The idea then occurred to me to have Liam lying outstretched and motionless on the floor with his head towards the camera and with his eyes closed; a rock icon ‘lying in a state’ or indeed some other transcendental state but not of this world.

This would create a first for an album cover but more importantly would solve my problem of what to do with the empty space and the stripped flooring. On the face of it asking the lead singer to adopt this pose for his debut album cover was a bizarre request and so I was relieved when Liam agreed to do it. I know many other singers who would have refused. This along with the spinning globe was the catalyst to the whole shot. Definitely Maybe has to be one of the best covers I did for Oasis and I know the band themselves were really pleased with it.




















Cigarettes & Alcohol

I shot the sleeve to Cigarettes & Alcohol at the Halcyon Hotel in London which was a favourite haunt of actors and musicians. The band had just returned from a controversial visit to Sweden where they had been given a ‘free lift’ back to the airport by the Swedish authorities after a number of reported incidents. When they arrived at the hotel they were in very high spirits.

The idea was basically to do a rock’n’roll type scene which mirrored the elements in the song. It was a great and memorable evening; Noel did an impromptu acoustic set for those of us still left in the room in the early hours. There were numerous complaints from the other residents and a four figure room service bill! Tim Abbott is the guy at the front of the shot who had been one of the directors at Creation Records. I shot it on fast grainy b/w film and later hand toned the image blue.




















Whatever

The original plan was to shoot the sleeve in the vast open spaces of the Arizona desert. Noel had wanted a vast landscape to evoke a sense of freedom. It was a very simple brief and was to be a relatively straight forward shot. I flew out to the states to photograph the band but after only a few days in Los Angeles the band had the infamous fall-out at the Whisky-a -go-go and Noel disappeared.

At the time it was very serious because the US tour had to be called off and for a while Noel was on the missing persons list. I went back to the UK feeling really disappointed but after two weeks news came through that Oasis had patched things up and the release was still to go ahead. Noel suggested doing the shot in Salisbury Plain but in the end I took the photograph on the Derbyshire moors close to where I had grown up in Sheffield.




















Some Might Say

This shot was basically a visual interpretation of the lyrics. Noel had wanted to have the photograph set at a working train station but I thought it would make for a more interesting and surreal shot if the station was disused with a set of characters waiting for a train that would never arrive.

The platform could act as the stage. I must have spent 2 weeks reccying the shot all around England, in the end a neighbour who I had been chatting to about the shot suggested Cromford station near Matlock in Derbyshire. I checked it out and it was the ideal location. I shot it on black and white film and spent a week or so hand painting the photograph with watercolours and a brush to create more of a surrealist effect.




















Roll With It

The original idea came from a dream that Noel had where he saw hundreds of TV’s floating down a river. This idea developed to TV’s in the sea and then TV’s on the beach. As Alan White, their new drummer, had just joined the band it was decided the cover would be a band shot so it became the band watching TV’s on the beach. They had wanted to wear Duffel coats which I thought was a nice visual pun and very much Oasis.

The shot which I wanted on the cover was the one that went onto the CD disc itself which in my opinion was a far better shot than the one that appeared on the sleeve. In the end record company messed up with the barcodes and initial sales were not registered thus affecting its chart position, furthermore and quite astonishingly, a batch of CD’s were pressed and distributed with the wrong music on! The pressing plant had put some obscure reggae artist onto the Oasis CD by mistake and so instead of hearing ‘Roll With It’ you heard African reggae music.

I can remember playing my copy and thinking ‘hang about, this doesn’t sound like Oasis’. I’m not quite sure how many copies were pressed like this but I’m sure they’re now highly collectable.




















(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?

Noel had described the recent music Oasis had been recording as riot music, and so that was taken as a green light to develop concepts about rioting and anarchy. So early on in the creative process there were one or two discussions about a Molotov cocktail featuring in some way on the cover, however that theme was quickly shelved when we heard tracks like Wonderwall and Cast No Shadow.

After many meetings about the artwork and what was to feature on the cover, it was finally agreed that we would have an early morning street scene with two men walking towards each other. I wanted the shot to be ambiguous and without any moral perspective. Unlike film, the power of the still image comes from its inherent weakness to portray the truth or to tell a narrative; we don’t know if the characters know each other, whether they are good or bad, friendly or hostile, whether they are going to stop and talk to each other or who they are?

It’s a brief narrative rooted in a very ambiguous moment and is for those reasons one of my favourite Oasis covers.




















Wonderwall

I had originally shot Liam for the front cover of Wonderwall in Primrose Hill, London but Noel had accidentally stumbled across us doing the shoot on his way to Creation Records. I can remember a bloke jumping out of a black cab and yelling at us through the railings of the park. I thought it was an Oasis fan heckling us so I ignored all the shouting and continued with the shoot.

The shouting continued so I finally decided to go and tell this bloke to leave us alone and then realized to my astonishment that the bloke was in fact Noel Gallagher. He explained that Wonderwall was ‘a f**king love song!’ and that no way was ‘our kid’ appearing on the cover. The shoot was quickly aborted and in the end I re-shot it the following day with a girl from Creation Records called Anita Heyert. I used the same black and white infra-red effect on this cover as I did on Live Forever.





















Don’t Look Back In Anger

For the cover of Don’t Look Back In Anger Noel had decided to pay homage to an incident which had happened at Abbey Road studios in 1968. It was inspired by a story about Ringo Starr walking out on the Beatles because he felt that he was not wanted. He was eventually persuaded to come back into the band and on his return George Martin, the Beatles producer, had decided to deck his entire drum kit out in flowers as a statement of love and gratitude. Noel thought this sentiment would make an interesting idea for a cover and so suggested we had the bands equipment covered in thousands of red, white and blue flowers, the colours of the Union Jack.

It was originally going to be an overhead shot and I had a scaffolding tower erected but I then decided to shoot it at eye level so that the bass drum with its Union Jack swirl could feature more prominently in the shot. The white piano was a reference to John Lennon. I had Creation Records import 5,000 carnations, of those 3,500 were white and of those 3,500, half were dyed blue as blue carnations do not grow naturally. A real privilege to have done this cover as it is one of the greatest pop songs ever.




















D’You Know What I Mean?

I shot the cover to D’you Know What I Mean? in an alleyway in Wigan, Lancashire next to a boxing club. An extremely difficult shoot to execute simply because of the number of people involved. Initially there was no shape to the photograph, and the band melted into the crowd and almost became invisible. The light was also very poor which did not help matters.

The photograph eventually came together when I positioned a young woman holding her baby alongside a girl in her school blazer in front of the band. This seemed to give the shot the extra depth and shape it needed. The sun briefly came out and I knew this would be the shot that would end up on the cover. The single, although not political, was released just prior to the 1997 general election. After 18 years of Conservative government there was definitely a sense that this was a rallying call for change. It certainly went through my mind when I was taking the shot. It turned out to be one of my favourite photographs of the band.




















Be Here Now

Originally the cover was to feature 4 separate photos each with a separate band member. To overcome the mathematical problem that there were five people in the band Liam would have a cameo presence in all of the shots. Noel wanted to be photographed up a tree playing guitar, Alan White in some east end pub, Guigsy on a beach in St. Lucia and Bonehead wanted to be photographed relaxing by a swimming pool at night with a rolls Royce submerged in it as an homage to Keith Moon. However, concerns grew that 4 separate images on a CD cover would have little impact and the idea was dropped.

All was not lost as it became apparent that of all the ideas put forward by the band Bonehead’s idea of a Rolls Royce in a swimming pool was by far the best. Many locations were considered including Clivedon where the Profumo scandal of the 1960’s had taken place. Eventually Stocks Hotel in Hertfordshire, the former home to the Playboy magnate, Victor Lowness was chosen as it had a swimming pool directly in front of the house. The shoot was fraught with difficulties. Firstly, Stocks Hotel was a hotel open to the public and as word got out the hotel came under siege. Secondly far too much alcohol was consumed on set and so by evening time the shoot had become chaotic, also one of the generators blew. In the end a shot from the daytime session was chosen although the shots I took at the night-time session are very interesting.




















All Around The World


With any conceptual photograph there is always an initial idea or trigger which forms the basis for the inspiration. With All Around The World the initial inspiration came from a photograph taken from the top of a beach side hotel in Florida where Beatles fans had communicated with their idols above by writing messages to them in the sand.

To write the song title in the sand was an obvious development for the cover, it also fitted in with the global sentiment of the song. People have been writing messages in the sand for centuries and so for me I saw the beach as a global messaging board or forum where anybody could come along and post a message, in retrospect like a Stone Age version of twitter.

However, conceptual ideas don’t always work visually and the problem with this shot was that there was nothing of substance to give the photograph depth or shape. At this point I decided that it was vital to have the sea featured in some way in the shot. It would also add to the notion that the message was transitory and that at some point the message would be washed away by an incoming wave. In the end it was myself who wrote the message in the sand by using a stick.

The positioning was vital, too close to the sea and the sea would wash it away and too far away and it would not be possible to have both the message and the sea in shot at the same time. I took the shot from the top of an extended hydraulic arm attached to a fire engine which was in a fixed position on the beach front (in Bournemouth, England). There was only one stretch of beach so the positioning of the lettering had to be right first time. It would not be possible to rub it out and start again as this would have disturbed the appearance of the sand.

When I was taking the picture I was struck by the way the sea entered the frame at the top of the picture, this was very reminiscent of beer overflowing down the side of a glass and this to me makes the shot.

For more details on the limited edition box set and to see a number of rare images visit www.spellboundpublications.com and Michael's own site www.michaelspencerjones.com.

You can download a PDF of the 'Out Of The Blue' brochure by clicking here, here or here.

Click here to win a Black Denim Long Western Jacket from Pretty Green.

Out Of The Blue: The Oasis Photographs

Original and official Out Of The Blue: The Oasis Photographs by Michael Spencer Jones.

Strictly limited to 250 worldwide.

In excellent unused condition. This set is worth £2500, so the auction gives you the chance to own an exclusive piece of Oasis memorabilia.

The auction starts at just 99p. 10% of the proceeds of the final auction price will go to The Teenage Cancer Trust, a charity fully supported by Noel Gallagher and Oasis over the years.

For more details, click here.

Out Of The Blue - The Oasis Photographs

Michael Spencer Jones, the celebrated photographer best known for his work with Noel and Liam Gallagher's Oasis, has released a beautiful portfolio entitled "Out of the Blue - The Oasis Photographs" containing 15 limited edition prints and a deluxe coffee table book, all hand signed by the photographer. Available to purchase on Hypergallery.com, an on-line gallery specializing in limited edition fine art prints of album cover and associated art.

Hypergallery is proud to present a beautifully-produced portfolio box set containing 10 signed limited edition photographs of Michael Spencer Jones' iconic artwork as well as a large format book of mainly previously unseen images of Oasis as you've never seen them before.
The box-set represents a publishing first and offers the discerning collector with an investment opportunity which can be enjoyed for many years to come.

Unlike most bands of their stature, Oasis seemed to burst onto the music scene 'fully formed'. This, of course was partly due to their innate understanding of the history of rock and their own place within it. It was also due to the public image that was projected by the pictures of the band, which adorned their first single, and album releases…pictures, which were created by Michael Spencer Jones.
In a five year journey which began with a photo-shoot of an unknown band at Manchester's Out of the Blue studios in 1993, Michael Spencer Jones worked closely with Oasis to create a series of enduring images which adorned the bands first three albums and their accompanying singles.

Appearing in a strictly limited edition of 250 copies worldwide, Out of the Blue brings together for the first time an important collection of extraordinary photographs of one of England's finest ever bands during what is often referred to as their 'golden years'.

The portfolio comprises 10 signed original limited edition photographs of Oasis' iconic sleeve artwork. They include their first 3 album covers, Definitely Maybe, (What's the Story) Morning Glory? and Be Here Now; together with 7 of their single covers, Supersonic, Shaker Maker, Cigarettes & Alcohol, Whatever, Roll With It, Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger. All the photographs have been printed onto crystal archive paper using the original camera negative, and are of stunning quality. Furthermore, all the photographs have been individually mounted within museum acid-free window mounts, and all have been individually signed and numbered by Michael Spencer Jones.

Michael Spencer Jones had unprecedented access to Oasis; backstage, in the studio, in concert, and off duty. The photos featured in the book, the majority of which have never been seen before, have been carefully selected from Michael's vast Oasis archive of over 8,000 images. An illuminating 12,500 word text written by Michael of his experiences with the band also accompanies the book.

The 198 page large format book is only available as part of this portfolio box set and is strictly limited to 250 copies worldwide. Each book is individually signed and numbered by Michael Spencer Jones, hand-bound in quarter leather and printed on 200gsm acid free matt art paper with silver gilt edges. The book has been printed and bound by Grafiche Milani of Italy, one of the world's leading makers of fine limited edition books. All images in the book have been spot varnished and have been printed using the finest offset printing technology. The book has been beautifully designed by Wherefore Art? who designed the multi million selling The Beatles Anthology and many other fine books.

To maintain the integrity of the edition the plates used to produce the book were destroyed after production ensuring the books investment potential.

The book reveals not only a deep insight into Oasis, the making of these great covers and the shoots surrounding them but also into the mind, art and surreal world of Michael's photography

In order to accommodate and protect both prints and book for posterity, a beautiful and stylish bespoke case has been designed. Handmade by craftsmen, the portfolio case is made from durable and hard wearing Pellaq and luxuriously lined with silsuede. The book is housed in its own 'secret' recess beneath the limited edition photographs.

The Photographs
The image size is approx. 28 x 28cm, the mount size is approx. 38.5 x 39.5 cm. Each limited edition photograph is housed within its own archival acid-free museum mount and is personally numbered and signed by Michael Spencer Jones and is further authenticated by his photographer's seal. They have been printed on crystal archive paperusing the original camera negative or transparency. These are limited edition are first generation photographs, not inkjets.
The Book
The book contains 198 pages of full colour including pages of trace and acetate. Each copy is ¼ bound in leather with silver foil blocking on the front and spine and has silver edged gilt pages. It weighs 1.9 kilos and has been printed on 200 gsm acid free matt art paper with spot varnishing to each image. Each book has been individually numbered and personally signed by Michael Spencer Jones.

The Portfolio Box
The box measures 42 x 40 x 8cm and has been hand-made by craftsmen in durable dark blue pellaq. It is lined with dark blue silsuede with in its own silsuede recess to house the limited edition book.

Source: PR Web

Oasis Cover Art: Win Prints And Come To The Exhibition Party

Sarah Tierney has news of a Confidential readers' evening at Richard Goodall gallery where Michael Spencer Jones' iconic images of Oasis are on display.

Wandering around this exhibition of Oasis cover art, you're struck by a strong sense of familiarity. From the shot of Liam lying prostrate on Bonehead's living room floor on the cover of Definitely Maybe, to the semi-submerged Rolls Royce on Be Here Now, Michael Spencer Jones's photographs are a visual shorthand for the mid 1990s. If you had to pick an image that sums up Britpop – that optimistic era when we liked our political leaders as much as we liked our pop stars, chances are, it'd be one of these.

Michael Spencer Jones worked with Oasis from 1993 to 1998 when the band's influence was at its height. He remembers it as an exciting but pressurised time; “Coming up with a great image that the band were happy with and you were happy with was the most challenging thing,” he says. “You're working under pressure to create an image that you know is going to be around for a long time.”

It's difficult to say whether the images on display at the Richard Goodall Gallery have stayed in the collective consciousness because they were so widely seen in the 1990s, or because they have a power in their own right, outside of the music that came with them. It's probably a bit of both. Spencer Jones mixed elements of surrealism with the classic iconography of rock'n'roll: guitars, cars, champagne and girls, to create a style that was distinctly and recognisably 'Oasis'. The ultimate rock band with a bit of humour and cultural referencing thrown in.

He says his favourite image is the cover from Definitely Maybe but he also likes Be Here Now. If there was ever a cover image that asked to be analysed by over-attentive fans, it's this one. It's full of visual symbols: clocks, telescopes, gramophones, telephone boxes...with the band looking equally incongruous amongst it all. When a tabloid journalist smuggled his way onto the photo set and published a picture the next day, the papers pounced on the date on the calendar: 3 September – the day the second world war started.

Says Spencer Jones: “They were saying, what is this? Why are they making reference to the outbreak of the second world war? But that wasn't the case at all, it was just an arbitrary date that just happened to go on the calendar.”

It was actually Spencer Jones' guess at the date the album might be released. Noel had requested they have the release date on the cover, but at the time of the shoot, they weren't sure when it would be.

Other images seem designed to create a feeling rather than invite speculation on their meaning. For example the grainy black and white shot of a suburban house half hidden by overgrown trees on the sleeve of 'Live Forever', and the image of the Arizona desert on 'Whatever'.

It's a diverse collection on display, but what links all the images is their desirability to Oasis fans and music memorabilia collectors. With this in mind, Spellbound Publications have brought them together into a portfolio comprised of 10 original limited edition photographs of Oasis’ sleeve artwork, including Definitely Maybe, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Be Here Now and seven of their single covers, plus a 198 page large format book called Out of the Blue – The Oasis Photographs. This includes photographs that Spencer Jones took of the band on tour, in the studio and off duty, and is a definitive pictorial record of the band during this era.

There's no doubt that Oasis fans will want to own this portfolio and book. It will also appeal to those who want to invest in artworks that they feel a particular connection to – after all, the Britpop kids are now all grown-up with money to spend.

Whether you're interested in investing or not, you're invited to come and see the artwork for yourself at a special readers' evening that Confidential is holding at the exhibition next Thursday (21 May). You'll be able to chat to Michael Spencer Jones about his photography and working with Oasis, and peruse the gallery with a complimentary glass of wine or beer. It's free and it'll be held at the Richard Goodall Gallery on High Street, near the Market Restaurant, in the Northern Quarter, from 6.30pm to 8pm.

We've also got five Oasis collages by Michael Spencer Jones to give away, worth £95 each. To be in with a chance of winning, fill out the form by clicking here and scrolling down (UK ONLY).

Source: www.manchesterconfidential.co.uk

Tickets are still available for a number shows on Oasis' largest-ever UK Stadium tour, click here for availability.