"Too Bored To Rock?"

Can Liam and Noel be arsed to leave The Met Bar long enough to deliver the music and live shows that made them the most essential rock band of the 90s?

With Paul McGuigan’s departure from Oasis last week, the band's original line-up have now all left apart from Liam and Noel. The five Burnage boys who came to take on the world are no more.

Of course, the Gallaghers are Oasis. But the real story is not that the others have gone but what they've left behind. Where's the swagger, the arrogance, the fun, even, that made Oasis the most essential rock band of the 90s?

Answer: probably mislaid somewhere between The Water Rats and the Met Bar. Right now, Liam and Noel are more likely to be found sipping cocktails with Hugh and Liz than making great music. The band's extended break from touring and recording was meant to save the outfit, reenergize and make the five-piece hungry once more. It's done just the opposite.

There is an air of resignation about Oasis now. "If Bonehead and Guigsy don't want to do it, there's no point making them," Noel concluded last Wednesday. Great bands are meant to change the world then either split up or die. Yet last year, Noel sensibly stuffed £7 million 1 into his pension, Liam sank £5 million. Now they're looking to add more. Noel said, at the press conference, "The show has to go on, hasn't it? I personally haven't got any money left."

Particularly telling has been Liam and Noel's reaction to these latest walk-outs. When drummer Tony McCarroll was sacked in April 1995, it was after a punch-up in Paris. Guigsy and Bonehead's departures were by phone and fax. Bonehead and Guigsy are, they say, leaving to spend more time with their families. It used to be Tory MPs that quit to spend more time with their families. Now Meg and Patsy are both expecting. As Liam said recently, "I'm bored with going out. I'd rather stay at home. I've got me music, Burt Bacharach, The Beatles. "

So where does that leave the new album?

The only way Noel could get himself and the band psyched up enough to start recording was to bunk off to the palatial comforts of Christian Dior's French chateau. Bonehead even took his Aston Martin with him.

Far from the dance opus that's been rumoured, after a playback of three tracks at Sony last month, Liam described the new album as "our Dark Side Of The Moon." Great.

Noel however perhaps best captured the Gallagher brothers' dwindling enthusiasm when he conceded at their press conference, "We've done the record so we've just got to get on with it really. We've been left holding the shit sandwich here." The Oasis world tour kicks off in March. The album is expected in February.

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c 1999 Andrew Turner

aturner@interalpha.co.uk

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