Alongside pictures of Liam flicking the V's backstage, and of him on stage in his Sex Pitols shirt, and of Noel onstage playing guitar;

WEENIE BOPPERS
Even in a summer jam-packed with choice festival line-ups, Los Angeles radio station KROQ's annual June Weenie Roast was really something to write home about. Oasis broke their nine-month live siesta with a 30-minut set rammed with golden oldies, before debuting "DYKWIM?" and album title track "Be Here Now" the next week as support to U2 in San Francisco. Liam wore a Sex Pistols "Anarchy" Tshirt and gobbed onstage, before mock-apologising to MTV-land.

OASIS - D'YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN? (Creation)
by Mark Beaumont
and guest reviewers Gruff and Daf from Super Furry Animals

MB: Another month, another batch of no-hopers stagger into the Singles Bar touting their...hang on! Oasis! A new single! We thought they just got married for a living these days! But here it comes, seven minutes of anthemic guitar mayhem in a "Slide away" stylee, sent from the lager riot in Heaven to stamp on Kula Shaker's faces forever. "Just the same old pub rock", my arse.

Gruff: That's probably the most powerful thing they've done yet, sonically. And I like the title because it's one of those titles that should always have been a title for a song, but it never has been, at least I haven't heard it before. It's a good Oasis title.

Daf: It sounds a lot more fucked up than what they usuallly do. It's not so straighforward and ROCK! We're into that, like.

Gruff: It sounds like they've had a laugh, like. It's great because its Oasis, and it sounds like they've progressed a bit, made an effort instead of just churning it out. It's got a better groove than usual.

Daf: It's gonna be massive anyway, isn't it?

Gruff: Anything they release is gonna be massive, but it sounds like they've gone to more effort this time. I think the little bits at the end will help it, those squiggly bits.

...they have been called "the best band in the world" by reation labelmate Liam Gallagher.

"Aye, well," squirms Gerry, "he was off his head at the time."

Producing their LP at Air studios in London last winter, they were endlessly besieged by the spectre of the world's greatest grinsome yodeler, wandering away from his own "work" in the studio above.

"He was in there doing vocals," nods Norman, " and he'd come down for a listen. He's a good guy, we had a good laugh with him. They had a playback of the album. Liam got us in there and they had this massive PA set up, amazing sounding, I mean fuckin' enormous proper full-on PA. That's how they mix their records, really fuckin' LOUD."

The world's debut review of oasis' new album, "Be Here Now", by the Fannies runs as follows: "really good", "fuckin' loud", "a couple of 'Live Forever's'", "really strong", "sounded brilliant to me...", "I think it's gonna be big...".

"We only heard about nine songs," confesses Gerry, finding a clearing in the relentless vocal chime, "and they were more raucous, more like the first album again. Sounded great...and they still put strings on it. Liam was going: 'D'you think anyone'll like it?' guffaws Raymond. 'D'you think it'll get into the charts?' He likes what he is, y'know, he's not hung up about it."

"And he's really funny," nods Norman, "a really nice guy...a brilliant pop star."

If 'Be Here Now' was a cake?
"It'd be..." muses Raymond, "a Black Forest Gateau".
"I was just thinkin' that, actually," beams Norman.
"Yeah," concludes Raymond, "a big one".

"The one major thing about Oasis being successful," notes Norman ominously, "and therefore Creation being successful, is McGee gets the cakes in. You go out for a cup of tea, he walks up to get the tea, comes back, and says: 'Eh, d'you want a cake as well?'"

No where in their appraisal of Oasis does the word "thick" appear, a word which, in most interviews conducted since The Great War of '95/96, Damon Albarn has made much sport of in connection with the Gallaghers.

"Liam's not thick," snorts Raymond, ruefully. "He's not bookish, but he never seemed thick to me. We did this IQ test for something to do and we did a competition and he won, didn't he? Got 164."