Wednesday 5 April 2017

Oasis - From Nowhere To The Biggest Band In Britain In 5 Years

1991/92, and Grunge was taking hold of the UK musical landscape.
Nirvana's 'Nevermind' (released in late November 91) was doing big business.  Pearl Jam's 'Ten' (dating back to late spring/early summer 91) was selling in similar quantities, as were releases from Soundgarden, Alice In Chains with Mudhoney and Stone Temple Pilots also joining the party.  Indeed, if you were in anyway related to Seattle or the SubPop label, or employed the "quiet-loud-quiet" technique then you were probably onto a winner.
American Alternative Rock/Indie was doing pretty well for itself in the UK - Sonic Youth, The Pixies, Pavement, Smashing Pumpkins et al, all doing pretty well for themselves.

From within the pages of factions of the Rock Press (primarily Select Magazine) a reclamation of national pride had begun.
Madchester, and the whole baggy-Indie dance scene had come and gone, and the patience was wearing thin waiting for the next Stone Roses album.  Blur had failed to crack America and returned home to record a mod-ish inspired second album, and Suede were busily soundtracking bedsit/student angst.
The groundwork had been done, all it needed was a snappy name and a "scene" could coalesce around it.
1993 saw the name "Britpop" appear in print for the first time - a name (allegedly) coined by Stuart Maconie, gave an identity to this collection of bands with the express intention (and media backing) to repel US imports and make Britain musically great again (not that it wasn't already, it just needed to be written about more and giving it a snappy name (albeit a slightly rubbish one) would help give it a raison d'etre.

Around the same time, a Manchester band landed an opening slot at a Glasgow club.  Alan McGee, the boss of Creation Records who was in the club to keep an eye on one of the bands he was managing, was so impressed by what he heard, he offered them a record contract on the spot.  Or so the legend goes ... - in truth it was another 3 or 4 months before the deal was finalised, including worldwide distribution with Sony (via Creation)

Oasis had originally formed two years previously.  Called The Rain, they consisted of  Liam Gallagher, Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs, Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll.
Liam's older brother Noel had previously been a roadie for the Inspiral Carpets didn't believe that his "dopey kid brother" was in a band and went along to see an early show.
One can assume that he must've been (at least) vaguely impressed by what he saw, as he took the opportunity to approach the band with a stash of songs he'd been writing, a work ethic, and a healthy dollop of ambition.
Local gigs, serious rehearsal, a demo recording followed.  They were then invited to Glasgow by another group they shared rehearsal rooms with on the off chance of playing a support show.

The band entered the studio in December 1993 to record their debut single for Creation.  After some time trying to capture the song "I Will Believe", the band started idly jamming and Noel created "Supersonic" (apparently on the spot).  "I Will Believe" (albeit in a previously recorded live version) was relegated to the B-Side, and "Supersonic" released in April 1994.
Second single "Shakermaker" followed swiftly in June, and August saw the release of "Live Forever".  This single was the first to crack the Top 10 and set the band up nicely for the release of debut album 'Definitely Maybe' at the end of the month.

Opening with a statement of intent, a manifesto in 5 minutes, "Rock 'n' Roll Star" ushers in 48 minutes of high energy raw attitude (plus 3 minutes of acoustic reflection).
Right from the start, there's a swagger to the album, a certain lairyness and a simmering danger.  But this is all underpinned by a stack of tunes that are both comfortably recognisable and also brand new.
Alongside all the previous singles, is the first outing for Creation (in the guise of a White Label demo) "Columbia" and a batch of other songs equally as urgent and snotty as the singles.
And then at the end is a change of pace with "Married With Children" showing (a) Noels ability to write a song with more than just barre chords, and (b) that Liam can actually sing (rather than just sneer.
Third single "Cigarettes and Alcohol" arrived in October with the album selling by the bucketload.

The final single of the year "Whatever" arrived in December.  This continues the acoustic-y nature of 'Definitley Maybe' closer "Married With Children", and led to a plagiarism suit from Neil Innes claiming (and rightly so) that the vocal melody and portions of the tune are nicked from "How Sweet To Be An Idiot".
The nick of the strings melody from Johann Pachelbel's Canon (or to give it it's full title:  Canon and Gigue for Three Violins and Basso Continuo), passed by un-noticed (or at least uncontested).
The B-Side was "Half The World Away" - this too had a reminiscent melody from Burt Baccharach's "This Guys In Love With You" - but no charges were brought.

And this wasn't the first time Noel G has been accused of "borrowing" - the band had already stumped up $500,000 for nicking portions of the lyric and vocal melody from "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing" for "Shakermaker".

When it comes to nicking stuff (re-appropriating) Noel has form - there are pages across t'interweb suggesting most Oasis songs are in some way stolen:
http://www.mygnrforum.com/index.php?/topic/77936-oasis-have-ripped-off-nearly-every-song/

Then again, as Noel says (admits?):
"We ripped about two songs off The Beatles and the rest off Slade."

Despite all the thievery, continued sales and media attention ensured that their next single release "Some Might Say" delivered their first Number 1 single.

Following the recording of this single, the drummer Tony McCarroll was replaced by Alan White.  There were reports of deteriorating relationships and punch-ups between band members, but the official announcement cited McCarroll's "technical limitations" as a drummer.

This period of time was the early days for Britpop (ie before the media got hold of it and sanitised it to mean "any two bit indie band with a guitar and attitude"), and Oasis, with their attendant lairyness and F**k You attitude became sort of anti-poster boys.  Indeed, the bands early recording career trajectory can be measured against Britpops rise and fall.
Their prime competition was "apparently" Blur, and the media wet-dream was duly delivered by the fact that both bands released new singles (Oasis: "Roll With It", Blur: "Country House") on the same day in August 1995, and their later albums were released within a month of each other.  Was there really any competition?  If there was, who won? and does anyone actually care?  These were 2 separate bands who just happened to find themselves releasing records in a similar style, to similar public and critical acclaim, at the same time.
Although there is something perversely pleasurable about the fact that the "biggest chart battle since The Beatles and The Stones" (copyright: just about every media outlet with little or no interest in the actual music) featured two bands releasing probably their worst singles.

Anyway, back to Oasis ...

Their second album titled '(What's The Story) Morning Glory' was released in October 95.  This album shows a softening of the sound (if not volume - the post-production compression makes it very loud) with more focus on the anthemic (holding lighters aloft sort of thing), and more instrumentation ( strings, piano, acoustic-y intentions) than the debut.
When it rocks, it rocks.  When it is downbeat, orchestral and anthemic, it does that too.  But, it just feels like it's peppered with filler ("Hey Now", "Cast No Shadow", "She's Electric") - almost like they were saving their best tracks for the B-Sides (and they probably were).
It is a thoroughly competent and easily accessible set of songs, and you can understand why after selling a third of a million in it's first week, it continued to sell for the next couple of years (current figures sit around 5 million in the UK, and 22 million worldwide).
But it just feels like "instant gratification", with no real lasting appeal.
Mind you, as with everything there's always an exception.  This albums exception goes to the epic closing track "Champagne Supernova".
OK, lyrically it's a bit vague and has one or two touches of "never be scared of a rhyme", but the atmosphere it builds (especially when performed live) is tremendous - I doubt that it would work so well if sung by anyone other than Liam though.

To be brutally honest, '(What's The Story) Morning Glory' is not a truly great album.  But it was the perfect album for the time, and the fact that it sold massively in many ways proves this point.

And talking of massive sales ...
The next single "Wonderwall" was released in November 95 and ensured that the album kept selling.  It hit number two, kept off the top by Robson & Jerome, but would go on to become one of their best known songs, and biggest selling singles.
A month after release, a claim was bandied about that the song was a cover of a little known 60s easy listening tune - all the talk of Noel Gallaghers magpie songwriting had some people convinced when Mike Flowers Pops released their lounge version.
If there was a prize for "the most over-played Oasis single", this one would probably win it - it is also their biggest selling single, achieving in excess of 1,250,000 sales (some 250,000 greater than their next best).

Oasis were now probably the biggest, or certainly the most known, band in Britain.
The massive sales continued in 1996 with further plundering of the parent album resulting in big seller number 2 - "Don't Look Back In Anger" (sung by Noel) hit number 1 and hung around the charts for most of the spring and summer.

In the spring, the band played 2 nights at Maine Road, followed in the summer by two nights at Knebworth in front of 250,000 people - demand was so high, it was conceivable that they could've done 10 nights.

Too much, too soon?
Could they sustain this adulation?
The next album must surely be the greatest slab of vinyl ever produced to begin to meet these expectaions ...


Album 1, Side 1, Track 1 - "Rock n Roll Star"

They kept their best stuff for the B-Sides - "Fade Away" (B-Side of "Cigarettes & Alcohol")

"... all the rest we nicked off Slade" (and Gary Glitter) - "Hello"