Oasis, one of the credible, real bands from the 90′s are pretty much panned at every opportunity. Having listened to Oasis’s debut album today for the first time in absolutely ages I thought to myself why do the band get so little credit.
Us Brits hate winners. Example, Frank Bruno. Everyone loves him. Would he be loved if he’d knocked out Tyson? Yes, but not nearly as much.
Post Nirvana the music scene was very stagnant. Nothing was happening. The music scene was stuttering. Riot grrl, or whatever is was called just didn’t take off. SMASH and These Animal Men just did not deliver at all. Blur were bubbling along with Modern Life Is Rubbish – but that album is overrated in my opinion.
The first time I heard Supersonic was via MTV. The NME were falling over themselves about Oasis but the band sounded better than the early hype on first listen. I’d read the band were like an amalgamation of the Sex Pistols, The Stone Roses, The Smiths, T Rex and The Beatles with an equal measure of themselves. This outrageous claim was not far wrong.
Filling the void between The Stones Roses first and second albums, Definitely Maybe was a body of work too strong for the Roses to topple when they finally released “The Second Coming” – the real second coming had already arrived. All of a sudden the Manchester crown had switched. Quickly this became a nationwide crown.
Today, people mock Oasis. their back catalogue is ridiculed, but the band revitalised music in the near mid-nineties.
For a start, they just looked the part. Working Class rock n’ roll stars that just went for it. From the first 3 singles to the debut album and the “Whatever” single – it was like a groundswell that you just don’t get nowadays. The “B-Sides” of the singles were as good as the “A-Sides”, again this just does not happen with other bands.
I started working in a record shop the day “Definitely Maybe” was released. Talking with the rep from 3MV every week when he called in to the store we often discussed the band. He’d been backstage at the bands early gigs and confirmed they were the most “rock n’ roll band” he’d come across, in all aspects. He actually said he kept his distance from Liam as he was such a livewire.
Unlike The Stone Roses and more like The Beatles, Oasis did not rest on the laurels of their very succesful debut album. Before you knew it the new album was on its way. Despite two poorer singles (Some Might Say and Roll With It) the album clearly saw the band up everything a notch. In truth I prefer the band’s debut and its more rawcus delivery but by the time ”Wonderwall” was released as a single the band eyed America.
I realise how daft all this sounds written in very late 2011, but when Wonderwall won the masses over I did wonder to myself just how far the band could go. I can recall getting a 50 bus from Moseley to the 11 stop late on a Friday night. The entire bus, inebriated were all singing “Champagne Supernova” – it wasn’t even a single – I was pretty stunned. Could you imagine this today with everyone singing along to Adele? Again, probably not.
On top of a sonic climb to wide stardom, the band were like a living – 18 rated – soap opera. The tabloids were actually fun for a while. Attitude poured from Liam, as he stares into the camera with dead eyes I wonder if Mario Balotelli has nicked that stance for his current goal non-celebrations.
I’m not suggesting Oasis are a very important band, but I really do feel they deserve more credit for lighting up a dull void in the music scene. The band did fall away, but some of their later material is worth a listen even today. For instance “Gas Panic” on “Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants” is a very rich track that gets no credit at all. If the band had split after the 2nd album I feel they’d be widely held in high regard – but then again – Britain does hate its winners…
Thanks to all the comments on Drowned In Sound. Allow me to add this near proof the band have great material post the 1st 2 albums. Merry Christmas.
