Liam with round glasses and beard in black and white picture is on the front cover; inside are pictures of Liam; Noel and Liam; Noel playing guitar standing over a set list; Liam leaning against the chrome and red front of the tour bus; the Kansas city skyline; Liam signing autographs in St Louis; Noel on stage playing guitar; a fan with a signed P**** J** shirt; fan wearing said signed shirt; Liam necking a bottle of Becks; the band on stage; tour passes; and the front entrance to The Point.

pictures by Hayley Madden

Four Brats, three Brits, Number One Singles, Number One albums, jukebox heroes, feted by politicians, the people's choice...Oasis are 'the' Brit band of the '90s.

Vox salutes five Manc lads who took on the world...and won! Strap on your seatbelt and join Oasis as they invade the USA. Then put your feet up and luxuriate in Part One of our exhaustive investigation into the history of the band. This is their story, told by those in the know. Finally, feast your eyes on this month's Exposed! - an exclusive, access-all-areas photo journal of those mad, early years. All you ever wanted to know about Oasis, but were too smashed to ask. Roll with it...

OUR KID'S IN AMERICA

Welcome aboard the most exciting tour of the year, as Vox flies Stateside to watch Oasis take the US by storm. We witness Beatles-esque reverence, check out Noel's new songs and see Pearl Jam pilloried by Liam while the state of Missouri goes utterly mad for it. This, then, is how the Mid-West was won...

This is a story about success. It is a story about arrogance, sexuality, confidence and swagger. I t is the story of Oasis in the spring of 1996; an exhilarating time when they are poised to become the biggest band of the '90s and, quite possibly, one of the most successful groups of all time. It is a time of highlights, not hang-ups, of good vibes, not bad attitudes. Oasis have a sense of immaculate destiny and they are rolling with it, worldwide.

They are playing the first show of a sell-out American tour. Their single, DLBIA, has just gone straight to number one in the UK, and their second album (What's The Story) Morning Glory? will have notched up five million sales by the end of March. Their debut, Definitely Maybe, is back in the British album charts at number nine, and every single they have ever released is in the Top 75. Oasis are forging their own elegant imprint on rock history, and this particular chapter - Oasismania Stateside - starts in Kansas City, Missouri on February 22 1996. Oasis touch down on a flight from Heathrow and drive to the plush business world of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, at (cue incredible coincidence) 2345 McGee Street. It has been three days since Noel and Liam Gallagher scooped up a hat-trick of trophies at The Brit Awards in London.

Liam spent some of the intervening time recovering, while Noel took a day to come down. Then they took a day to record Don't Look Back In Anger and Cum On Feel The Noise, for Top Of The Pops, and a day travelling to this, the start of the band's sixth American visit. This tour is of critical importance. WTSMG has spent three weeks at number five on the Billboard chart, and Wonderwall has become a heavy rotation anthem for MTV and the normally soft-rock fixated VH-1. British journalists have drawn semi-flippant parallels with The Beatles in 1964, believing this tour equates to a time 32 years and 15 days ago when the Fab Four arrived at New York's Idlewild airport on Flight 101 and created a phenomenon. Such comparisons though, may be somewhat premature. Oasis are indeed heading for stratospheric success, and could one day equal the acheivements of The Beatles. DM and WTSMG are pristine counterparts to Please Please Me and With The Beatles, and the band are currently selling out 3000- and 4000-seater stadiums every night in the hard to crack Middle America. But while there is hysteria - fans are camping out at hotels, people are driving twelve hours to concerts, frat boys are climbing up the side of the tour bus to peek through the windows, and the band need round the clock security - it is not The Beatles and their Hard Day's Night tour of 1964. Not yet, anyway.

This is not a full-scale cultural invasion. Oasis are not yet wall-to-wall on every TV and radio station. What has happened is that five years on from Tony Wilson's jibe - "Wake Up America, you're dead" - the youth of USA has finally opened its eyes to our greatest export. And they have taken them to their hearts.

The Memorial Hall is a 15-minute drive from the hotel, across the Missisippi River and beyond the state line of Missouri. It is an imposing building with tall, erect coloumns which support a magnificent porch. Next door is a proud, square-shaped court house, and beyond that is a modern hexagonal jail with small windows. It is February 23, and the Memorial Hall will tonight host the tour's first gig. The local paper, The Kansas City Star reports: "Pop in the group's platinum-selling album WTSMG and yoiu'll hear alluring hooks, shimmering melodies and a playful, imposing lyrical sensibility that points to The Beatles of the mid-1960s." Wonderwall is described as "exquisite."

At 2.30pm, security guards position themselves at the entrances to the venue: some stand in the foyer, others at a gate which leads backstage, and more keep duty at the stage door. The security guard at the main gate is pissed because someone stole his hubcaps. But the barrel-necked bouncer inside the foyer is looking forward to the gig because there will be dozens of body-surfers and he is working the pit. "Rap gigs are boring," he muses, "but I like bands like this, they keep me busy." Noel, Guigsy, Bonehead and Alan White arrive shortly before 3pm and begin a sprawling, three hour soundcheck. The security guards let us stand inside the venue as a Liam-less Oasis run through a psychedelic 15-minute instrumental, a soaring version of Hey Now and two new songs, both magnificent Noel anthems. The first is a four-minute epic with an infectious chorus that captures the mood of Morning Glory, while the second is a strong, thumping rock'n'roll song. If DLBIA can go straight in at number one, then either of these songs could follow.

Liam appears for the last half-hour of the soundcheck, then slopes out of the venue to board the most beautiful tour bus ever invented. Liam looks immaculate, dressed in a purple flower-print shirt, circular shades of a similar hue, blue jeans and sandy-coloured suede boots. He is also sporting his new Lennon-style beard. Liam remains on board for ten minutes, but seconds before disembarking he sees me and the photographer standing opposite. He sizes us up, picks up a cigarette from beside the steering wheel, lights it up, then descends from the coach. No prior arrangements have been made for either photographs or an interview, so I approach Liam and ask if he will talk. He chats briefly, says he is fine and adds that it ook several days to recover from the Brits. He sticks his head in his hands and shakes it from side to side in mock grief: "It was like that."

Was it a mad night?

"Fuckin' right."

He doesn't talk for very long, explaining he will not be interviewed without the prior approval of his publicist. "Maybe later," he says and begins to walk back to the venue. I ask if we can take a few shots. Liam turns around and stares hard, as if by 'shots' I mean trade punches. "What?" he swaggers, his shoulders rolling from left to right. "What?" Can we do a few photographs? "Right. OK. Not against the truck though," he says pointing to a black and chrome juggernaut. "Do them against the bus." This is the man whose charisma and sex appeal are unmatched by any frontman, a star who can get away with growing a mad beard and still look cool. Iconographers will point to John Lennon circa 1970, the reality is perhaps that he can't be arsed to shave. He smokes his cigarette and pulls poses for the camera. He perches on the bumper, stands tall and proud, then leans into the lens. In the space of a few minutes he is polite, self-assured, deferential, angry, animated, gracious and funny. His character off-stage is the same as it is on. He stares to the left for the camera. These will be the first portraits of Liam in his Lennon-esque glory.

The camera clicks. "Has this been sorted with Johnny?"he asks, referring to his publicist. The publicist knows we are here, but nothing has been authorised, and I tell him precisely that. The camera shoots its final frame and Liam walks over to offer a goodbye handshake. He turns on his heels and under his breath mutters: "Cheeky pair."

There are seven reasons for Oasis' success in America. They are: The Beatles factor (attitude, looks, voices and now even haircuts and beard) Liam's sex appeal the growing support from MTV and alternative radio self-confidence the death of grunge the band's unstinting work ethic, and most importantly Noel Gallagher's songs. Gallagher is the finest songwriter of our generation. He is an outstanding, exciting and prolific talent. His songs are the opposite of the dirty, dirgy, lyrically introspective grunge that has dominated white America for five years. Kevin Harman, a fan from Independence, Missouri, is seeing Oasis for the first time. "It's a cleaner sound," he explains, "Americans have had grunge rammed down their throats for a long time and this is different. It's rock'n'roll. It amazwes me that they can throw away so many classic songs on the flipsides."

Harman is an autograph collector who talks excitedly of the time he met Bono and The Edge on their War tour in 1983. His wife and young child are waiting on the other side of town, When Noel emerges at 6pm in a cool, black sheepskin-lined jacket and smart red, white and blue check shirt, Harman approaches and gets an autograph which fills the entire seven inch cover of Wonderwall. He asks if Noel will be playing any of the B-sides.

"Nah, mate. the gigs would take four hours if we started doing that."

Harman is thrilled. "I won't be able to do this again," he says. "The next time they play here it will be stadiums. You won't be able to get close to them again."

Tonight's gig attracts fans from a 500-mile radius. Most of them are aged between 16 and 19, and the majority are female. Andy Kelly, 18, and Chris Page, 19, drove nine hours from Conway, near Little Rock, Arkansas. "We couldn't miss them," they say. "We haven't got tickets, but that's not going to stop us." By 6.30pm there's a queue of 300 people. Scalpers are selling tickets for $40 ($25 above the box-office price) and the security guards are busily protecting the Oasis tour bus from prying eyes of inquisitive fans. Bonehead and Alan White stare out of the smoked-glass windows and watch the crowd. "I think we'd better go inside now," says Bonehead, as he shuts the half-open window. By 8.45pm the Memorial Hall is filled with popcorn, hot dogs, pretzels, watery beer and an overwhelming relief that support band Suede Chain have finished. the pre-gig soundtrack is The Beatles 'White Album' and The Rolling Stones' 'Let It Bleed'. At 9.20pm Oasis appear. Noel leads his band on stage and begins the instrumental from Morning Glory. The cherubic Liam appears after a minute, marches around the stage rattling the tambourine, then ignites a triumphant version of Acquiesce. The set includes Supersonic, a ludicrously fast Hello, Some Might Say, Roll With It, Shakermaker and an adrenalised Morning Glory. There's also Cigarettes and Alcohol, an epic Champagne Supernova and Noel Gallagher's vastly improved acoustic spot, including Talk Tonight, Wonderwall, Cast No Shadow and a strutting Don't Look Back In Anger. Liam returns for a rousing Live Forever and I Am The Walrus, a song which now virtually belongs to Oasis.

Outside spirits run high. There are radio station vans from Rock 98.9FM and Kiss 107.5FM and a public square outside Memorial Hall is filled with 500 fans.

Cali Selig, a breathless 16-year old from Kansas City, says "He's got a great voice and a great beard. He's so cool."

Julie Claire, 15, adds: " They were better than I expected. With a lotof bands, you don't understand what they're saying, but with Oasis you do."

Other fans talk about the clean, uncomplicated sound, the power of the show, and the band's casual charm. Back at the hotel, four fans have blagged their way past security and are waiting for the band, having found out they were staying here by eavesdropping on a promoter. Two of them, Anne and Aaron, are 16-year old friends from Iowa. They are wearing Beatles T-shirts depicting the sleeves of Abbey Road and Revolver. Aaron's father has driven them 400 miles from Iowa and they've skipped school to be here. They wait for two hours and melt into their chairs when they think what it will be like to meet the band. Anne says: "If I only get one question, I'll ask why the press always picks up on the arguments between Noel and Liam. I mean, hey, they're brothers, right? It's only natural."

At 1.30am the patience of Aaron's father expires and they leave. Oasis have failed to return. Instead, they drive overnight to St Louis. It is an even-tempered, uneventful journey which takes six hours instead of the usual four. The only person who drinks excessively is a journalist!

February 24, St Louis, USA, an imposing city of 3.5 million people, dominated by a huge steel archway built in 1965 on the banks of the Missisippi. There are 90,000 women in town for a working women convention and the streets are bustling with cabs and well-dressed delegates. St Louis loves music, specifically The Beatles; there are needless shops selling T-shirts and posters and one stall, 'Beatles For Sale', deals exclusively in Fabs paraphernalia. Matt Costello is a DJ on an alternative rock station. He says: "Oasis are playing rock'n'roll. It's not the dirty, distorted-vocal grunge we're used to. We play Wonderwall once every three days. Even AOR stations play it. I can't say if they'll be as big as The Beatles, but they could be one of the biggest bands of all time. They can be as big as they wanna be."

Today, Oasis play the celebrated American Theatre on 9th Street. It's an ornate building with two lavish tiers and around 3,500 seats. By mid-afternoon there are a dozen fans slouched outside the venue in P J Harvey T-shirts, checked shirts and faded denims. They're aged 15 and 16 and got into Oasis when they heard Wonderwall because they thought it sounded like an old Lennon/McCartney number.

At 4pm, Oasis arrive in a blue spacecruiser van. Noel Gallagher is sitting in the passenger seat and waves from behind dark shades as he passes by. The van stops and Oasis climb out. They are mobbed by a group of 18 fans who have been waiting throughout the day. The walk to the stage door is about 12 paces. Liam dances around the fans, like a showman boxer on his way to the ring, dodging left and right as he strolls into the venue. But the others begin to sign autographs and offer snippets of conversation before being shepherded past a row of bottle-green flight cases.

Inside the hall, Noel walks straight to his guitar, his best friend in the world. He launches into a version of Hey Now, then plays his two new songs. The first via the four minute track, a remarkable, tumbling love song with strong vocals from Noel and direct lyrics. The melody is astoundingly catchy and Gallagher's songwriting prowess has risen yet further. It ends with the refrain 'I'll never forget her name', repeated three times. The second track is a rock'n'roll road song with a pumping Stranglers-like bass line and more direct lyrics. It is apparently titled 'My Big Mouth'. Midway through the first song, Liam Gallagher disappears from the stage and re-emerges with three striped jester-style felt hats. He jigs across the stage and places one on Bonehead's balding crown. Then he walks to his microphone and stands staring at the imaginary audience while his brother sings.

Liam leaves the soundcheck after 30 minutes. A gaggle of fans approach him and one thrusts an orange Pearl Jam T-shirt towards his denim-clad chest.

"Sign this Liam?"

Liam looks at it and sees the logo.

"Fuck you, man. I'm not signing that piece of shit."

"Awww. Please?"

"I'm not putting my name on anyfuckingthing by them."

Liam is polite with the rest of the crowd and signs autographs before running into the adjacent Doubletree Hotel, where Oasis are staying. When Noel emerges 45 minutes later, he is immediately mobbed by autograph hunters. But he also breaks off to talk. What did you think of last night, Noel?

"I thought it was a bit shaky at first because we haven't played for a month, so it was a bit ropy. But the crowd were a bit, a bit like that[he pulls a glum face]. But as it wore on, it got better. I think we've been here enough now to know that in the bigger cities you get more of a reaction, like you do in England with the crowds going mad and all that. Whereas in, like, the small towns, like tonight and last night, probably because they've never seen us before and probably because they've only read about us in the press or have got the record, again they're just checking us out."

The solo slot seemed to work a lot better.

"Yeah, yeah. The solo thing is always going to work a lot better in a small place anyway as opposed to a fucking great big football stadium which is what we're doing in England. But I though it was alright. Plus, the Americans have never seen that part of the show before."

I heard the two new songs in the soundcheck.

"The two new songs? Erm, there's one called 'My Big Mouth' - some of the people in the press will love that. Some of the lyrics go: 'In my big mouth you can fly a plane'. There's another one, but I'm not sure what the title is because I haven't finished the lyrics. We rehearsed on Monday, the day of The Brits, because we had fuck all better to do and all the band was in London. We weren't rehearsing for anything in particular, so we just got in there. I've got loads of songs written and I just wanted to see what they sounded like with the band, so we done 'em. They're probably going to be singles, actually."

Are you happy with the way the tour is going?

"Yeah," he nods. "Oh yeah. I mean, last night was the first night of a three-week tour, so, you know, we could all split up tommorrow. It's just one night. I hope it will get better than last night and it will keep getting better as it goes on."

There are loads of people hanging around outside the gigs...

"It's good, like it was about a year ago in England. It's good because people only know what they read about us in the press. They think we're just like fucking hooligans, and things like that, so I suppose it just comes down to what kind of people we are really."

A crowd of fans and autograph hunters swamp Noel. There are brokers from Wall Street, executives from Dallas and regular fans from other far-flung states. And an average-looking chubby couple in their fifties. The pair are obviously not your standard Oasis fans. Incredibly, it turns out to that they are Dennis and Lois, the couple immortalised in the track of the same name on Happy Mondays' 'Pills Thrills And Bellyaches'. Shaun Ryder pointed them in the direction of Oasis, and ever since they have been serious fans, flying regularly from their home in New York to wherever Oasis are playing.

"Shaun told us they were a band to watch," says Dennis. "Oasis are totally conceived without being totally conceived. To me, they're more like the Stones than The Beatles, but I do think they could be the biggest band in the world."

Brian Mcdowell, 20, can't afford to see the gig, but wants to meet the band. He's met Eddie Vedder, Trent Reznor and Courtney Love, but meeting Noel and Liam is right up there. Travis Gravell and Carl Anderson are Smiths fans who have driven 500 miles to get here from Atlanta. they are banking on buying a ticket from a tout.

Anderson says: "Oasis are not as British as most other British bands. And the lyrics are not as British. I saw Blur twice, but they down-sized on the last tour. Last time they played, it was at The Cotton Club, a 600-seater place, just like a bar. The time before it was about 1,500 at the Masquerade. Damon was joking that they'd become a bar band. But with Oasis, hey, they can be as big as they want to be."

Brian O'Malley, a Dubliner living in Dallas, has flown 550 miles to be here. He met Liam in the hotel this morning while the singer was trying to change some money into dollars. He bumped into Noel a few hours later when he went to but food. An executive with a telecommunications firm, O'Malley is more used to swish trips around Europe - but he is stunned by the band. "I feel like a groupie," he says. "I can't believe I'm doing this." Noel signs more autographs and the boy with the orange Pearl Jam T-shirt - Nick Schuman, 16, from Illinois - pushes his way to the front. He doesn't tell Noel that his younger sibling had earlier refused to sign it. Noel signs and Schuman energes triumphant with his trophy.

The gig starts at 9.15pm. It is a lot better than last night and the audience responds accordingly. There are fans dancing on the balconies, and on the upper balcony is a pretty girl in a white T-shirt and mini skirt. She dances like this gig is the most important thing in her life; sashaying her hips, swinging her body forward and back, and jagging her arms out to the side. Liam notices her and watches her dance. He stands on the stage impassive, heels touching, sneakers pointing out, knees slightly bent, wrists overlapping behind his back, tambourine in left hand, chest pushed out, neck turned high and eyes staring hard. He leaves the stage for Noel's solo slot, then returns and again sees the girl. "This one's for the girl in the white top who's dancing," he says, and they play Live Forever. During Champagne Supernova, Liam sees Nick, the kid with the orange Pearl Jam T-shirt. He waves the shirt, like a red rag to a bull, and Liam flashes a wanker sign. Schuman is thrilled and waves the shirt even more furiously. Liam walks to the front of the stage, but then sees that his brother has signed it. He turns to Noel, smiles, then looks back at the offensive garment and laughs. His face becomes triumphant. He spies a cigarette butt, kicks it across the stage and scores an imaginary goal.

The final track is, as ever, I Am The Walrus. Liam finishes his vocal and walks to the speaker stack stage right. He puts his head against the speaker and listens, his hair reverberating with the drums and bass. Then he walks stage left and repeats the action. He ends standing centre stage, people throwing silver chains, stetsons and T-shirts at him. Liam replies by throwing pretend bunches of roses into the crowd. Then he lies down, propped up on his elbows. There are screams and cheers. More gifts are thrown. Liam lies motionless. The epitome of cool.

The road back to the hotel has been blocked by security. A guard with a red coat, wraparound shades, baseball hat and a huge belly stands at the backstage door. Oasis stay in their dressing room, it's safer to wait until the crowds have died down. Oasis know they are conquering Middle America, in the same way another Northern group did 32 years ago. And though they are far from their peak, they are fast-tracking their way into the platinum league. They are in the process of making history and they currently outshine every other band in the world.

Three weeks before the release of WTSMG, their producer Owen Morris described the record as being the most important since Nirvana's Nevermind. He was spot on. No other group has the wit, style, arrogance, inspiration and raw, unadulterated talent of this band. Oasis are the most exciting British band ever to happen in America since you-know-who. This time round, there were no hysterical teenage mobs waiting to greet them at the airport, no fans chasing them down the streets, ripping their shirts to shreds, no invitations from the President. That'll be next time.

• Vox Interview Articles - index

c 1998 Andrew Turner

aturner@interalpha.co.uk

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