OASIS Faq

THE OBSERVER

9th January 2000

by Sam Taylor
When I first interviewed Noel Gallagher, in 1994, he was keen to promote the image of Oasis as hedonists nonpareil. With almost every word he uttered, I got the impression he knew exactly what he was doing: he may not have been the most brilliant pop star of his generation, but he was certainly the smartest PR.
The one incongruity was his seemingly sincere belief in the harmlessness of cocaine. Asked what he would do if Liam started taking heroin, he replied: "Anybody in the band who starts doing really hard drugs will be out." So, I said, does that mean he regards cocaine as a soft drug? "Oh yeah," he smiled. "It's recreational, isn't it? It's a way of life."
It was certainly Noel's way of life. But cocaine is not harmless, particularly not if you take it every day for seven years. In a typically frank interview in this month's GQ, he describes how he had to quit the drug last year because it was giving him 5am panic attacks.
But the real harm the drug did was to the band's music. Noel says of their bombastic third album, Be Here Now, that they "lost it down the drug dealers". The trouble with cocaine for creative people is that it makes them believe their every emission is, to use an Oasis catchphrase, "top".
The more cocaine Noel snorted, the fewer great songs he wrote. By the time I talked to him, he had already written most of the songs on Morning Glory. That means the last five years have been almost bereft of inspiration. Noel's sobriety has come too late to save the songs on the band's new album, Standing On The Shoulder of Giants (out on 28 Feb), but it may just revitalise his songwriting in time for the one after that.
So this new leaf is good news for Oasis's music, but what about their image? Noel says he is thinking of quitting touring so he can spend more time with Meg and their new kid in his countryside home. Even Liam has found domestic stability with Patsy Kensit, her son Janies and their new baby Lennon. But can the brothers still be icons when they're changing nappies and living in the Home Counties?
I think so. In fact, growing up and settling down is probably the only thing that can save them from the aura of clichced naffness that has grown around them since their peak in 1996. That was the year they played Maine Road, Loch Lomond and Knebworth, when their popularity levels approached Blair's after Diana's death. Things could only get worse...
Funnily enough, Noel agrees. "We should have split up when we came off stage at Knebworth," he says. He's dead right: splitting up and dying are the only ways to ensure ever lasting coolness.
Oasis will never again be, as their first NME cover pronounced, 'Totally Cool', but they still have several important things going for them: Noel's songwriting talent and public-relations nous, and Liam's fantastic voice, face and fashion sense. If they work hard and keep their noses clean, they can still be the nation's favourite rock band. At least until the next group of coked-up 22-year-olds swagger on to the scene.

"New Oasis Single Set To Be Flop"
by Nick Paton Walsh

They were once the biggest band in Britain, but Oasis's new single, "Go Let It Out", looks set to flop spectacularly on its release next month as retailers place small orders for the single and critics pan the song.
Our Price and HMV have ordered fewer copies than they did of the band's previous single, 'All Around the World', while Virgin Megastores have ordered a 'conservative amount'. And Oasis's record company, Big Brother Records, a British subsidiary of media giant Sony, does not expect the single to be in great demand. It has shipped 250,000 copies to UK shops, half the amount industry insiders would consider usual.
Britney Spears's last single, 'Crazy', merited a shipment of 500,000 copies. The single will probably enter the charts in the top five when it is released on 7 February and then sink dramatically the next week.
Matthew Kreuzer of Our Price said there was a 'general view the band had never moved on musically' while music industry veteran Jonathan King said: "The problem with Oasis is what happens to all bands. When they're young, they sound hungry, poor and enthusiastic. These qualities all go with success. The current single sounds like an old, lazy, fat band trying to be hungry, poor and enthusiastic. Oasis have passed their sell-by date, I'm afraid."
Oasis biographer and confidant Paolo Hewitt said: "They've established themselves as this fast-living rock group and can't maintain that any more - Noel wants to take his songwriting into different areas. It would surprise me if it wasn't a hit as their Wembley concerts later this year sold out in two hours. But I don't think they'll be buying any mansions on the back of this single."
Second-hand record shops admitted last week that their shelves contain more unwanted copies of the band's third lacklustre LP, Be Here Now , than any other record. Noel Gallagher last week told GQ magazine that Oasis had earned a place in the 'UEFA Cup' of rock groups 'eternally', while the Beatles, Who, Stones and Sex Pistols were 'in the Champions League'.
Others are even more critical of the band's achievements. Newspaper columnist Julie Burchill complains: "Oasis's songs are like a Xerox copy of old music, one that just gets fainter each time it is passed through the photocopier."
by Nick Paton Walsh
They were once the biggest band in Britain, but Oasis's new single, "Go Let It Out", looks set to flop spectacularly on its release next month as retailers place small orders for the single and critics pan the song.
Our Price and HMV have ordered fewer copies than they did of the band's previous single, 'All Around the World', while Virgin Megastores have ordered a 'conservative amount'. And Oasis's record company, Big Brother Records, a British subsidiary of media giant Sony, does not expect the single to be in great demand. It has shipped 250,000 copies to UK shops, half the amount industry insiders would consider usual.
Britney Spears's last single, 'Crazy', merited a shipment of 500,000 copies. The single will probably enter the charts in the top five when it is released on 7 February and then sink dramatically the next week.
Matthew Kreuzer of Our Price said there was a 'general view the band had never moved on musically' while music industry veteran Jonathan King said: "The problem with Oasis is what happens to all bands. When they're young, they sound hungry, poor and enthusiastic. These qualities all go with success. The current single sounds like an old, lazy, fat band trying to be hungry, poor and enthusiastic. Oasis have passed their sell-by date, I'm afraid."
Oasis biographer and confidant Paolo Hewitt said: "They've established themselves as this fast-living rock group and can't maintain that any more - Noel wants to take his songwriting into different areas. It would surprise me if it wasn't a hit as their Wembley concerts later this year sold out in two hours. But I don't think they'll be buying any mansions on the back of this single."
Second-hand record shops admitted last week that their shelves contain more unwanted copies of the band's third lacklustre LP, Be Here Now , than any other record. Noel Gallagher last week told GQ magazine that Oasis had earned a place in the 'UEFA Cup' of rock groups 'eternally', while the Beatles, Who, Stones and Sex Pistols were 'in the Champions League'.
Others are even more critical of the band's achievements. Newspaper columnist Julie Burchill complains: "Oasis's songs are like a Xerox copy of old music, one that just gets fainter each time it is passed through the photocopier."

The Guardian News Articles - index

c 2000 Andrew Turner

aturner@interalpha.co.uk

This page hosted byGet your ownFree Home Page