Liam meanwhile was half-heartedly warding off the attention of groupies, moaning to me about an incident that had taken place at the hotel the night before.
'This girl came up to my room,' he said, 'and she was fucking mad. She started dancing around, then stood on the beds with one leg on each of them and her knickers in my face. And she goes, "So, you write the music, then?" and I go, "Well, no." "So you write the words?" "Not really, no." So she just gets down, walks out of the room and goes and gives him [Noel] a blow-job in the back of a cab. Bastard. I'm going to start lying from now on. "Yeah, I write everything, the words, the music, the lot."'
—Take Me There: Oasis: The Story by Paul Mathur
21 July 1994, Wetlands, New York, NY
OASIS and general-1990s-pop-music books I have read - grouped in a way that makes sense I swear
First, the 1990s and/or music biz overview books:
Pandamonium! How Not to Run a Record Label by Simon Williams
Written by the excellent guy who wrote Those Windows are Saying 'Throw a Chair Through Me!' for NME in 1994. Highly recommended - great overview of the indie times of the '90s in the UK. Oh, and he's the guy who got together with fellow NME journalist John Harris and released Wibbling Rivalry on his label Fierce Panda Records in 1995, soooo he tells that story with entertaining aplomb
I'm Not With the Band: A Writer's Life Lost In Music by Sylvia Patterson
Another excellent writer - she of the NME September 12th 2001 interview with Oasis as the most memorable - but she was around nearly from the beginning [1997] [2002] [2002 fulltext] [2006] Definitely one of the better journalists when it comes to Oasis - she isn't taken in by much (unlike a writer we'll hear about later who had a lot of access to Oasis but not a lot of actual understanding, Paolo Hewitt) She starts out at Smash Hits magazine in the '80s so she was right there for the new music of the '90s when everything started to change and change again. Oh, and for a while she was roommates with an Abbot brother out of Creation Records, although she has too much integrity to spill anything too salacious, sadly.
The Last Party: Britpop, Blair, and the Demise of English Rock by John Harris
John Harris did the interview with Oasis that was later issued as Wibbling Rivalry by Fierce Panda Records: Bruise Brothers NME April 1994. John Harris was also a staff writer on NME during Oasis' glory years. Great overview of the britpop years.
Honarary mention to the books of two '90s bands who interacted with Oasis and a DJ who interviewed Oasis:
Sing Backwards and Weep by Mark Lanegan (of the band Screaming Trees) and In the Jingle Jangle Jungle by Joel Gion (of the band Brian Jonestown Massacre)
Grouped here because both were bands that played with Oasis, and both authors don't care for the Gallagher bros much. I enjoy a hater who plays guitar, what can I say. Mark, way into heroin in those years, enjoys dragging the Brits for being complete lightweights, which, given how much they talked about their beloved cocaine lines, is ironic, and he also talks about interacting with Noel and Liam on tour. Brian Jonestown Massacre, interestingly, opened for Oasis on a night of the doomed USA 1994 tour, taking credit for handing Liam the crystal meth that ultimately caused the Whiskey-a-Go-Go debacle that ended in Noel fleeing the band and LA entirely.
Going Deaf For a Living: A DJ's Story by Steve Lamacq
"Onstage, I just want him." "Bed-friendly?!" "We’re on this really, like, big loved up expedition, right."
Just flip to the chapter [Chapter 22] covering this 1997 joint interview Steve did with, unexpectedly, both Noel and Liam. It's a gem. Jo Whiley, his compatriot DJ at the station, knows Oasis much better (I mean, Steve even mentions the Newcastle Riverside bust-up for which Jo was present - and he mixes up Noel and Liam in the story) but unfortunately she doesn't dish as much in her book, I've heard.
Okay, fine! Let's get to the books specifically about Oasis -
Live Forever: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Oasis by John Robb
Opens with a description of the night before the supposed cricket bat incident. Not to be missed. However, John Robb admitted in an interview that he put this book together quickly - and it shows. There's basically nothing worth reading in this book post-1996, unless you want to read album reviews. Up until that point, though, the book is a banger: well-researched and has a lot of original interviews. John was there then and he's an excellent rock journalist. so this book is still very worth reading. Oh, and he's the guy who did this interview: "If songs were drinks, right, then mine is half a Guinness on a Tuesday. Liam's is ten shots of tequila on a fucking Friday night." with Noel in 2024.
Take Me There: Oasis The Story by Paul Mathur
Published 1997. An excellent romp though Oasis and their history, and their 1994-1997 years. Some stories about the making of Definitely Maybe, and Paul and photogragher Tom Sheehan are there when they record Some Might Say. Highly recommended!
Getting High: The Adventures of Oasis and Forever The People: Six Months On The Road With Oasis by Paolo Hewitt
Paolo Hewitt is absolutely star-struck by Oasis (specifically Noel) in the first book roughly 1995-1996 during the Morning Glory years. He's basically a journalist embedded with the tour so he has a close-up view. Then in the second book, during Sept 1997-March 1998 of the Be Here Now tour, the shine kind of comes off. Entertaining. Some very good anecdotes. Required reading for Oasis fans.
Supersonic: the complete, authorised, and uncut interviews by Mat Whitecross
Published in tandem with the associated documentary, so very very authorized. The interviews are great, but they suffer a little because they were done in 2015 and 2016, when Oasis was nonexistent and Noel and Liam were on the outs. The myth-making happening is obvious. I prefer the earlier-published books because I think there's more truth in them, frankly. Still! It's something to see how they like to mythologize themselves. And sometimes they still let drop an actual personal anecdote. Peggy Gallagher is interviewed in this one, too.
Oasis: what's the story?: Life on tour with Liam and Noel Gallagher
by Iain Robertson
Their former bodyguard/tour manager weighs in. He means well, but he's unfortunately emotionally clueless and summarily punched and then fired by Liam in Paris in September 1995. I think he was hired shortly after the Newcastle Riverside assault in 1994, so he barely lasted a year. Interesting book, but not particularly insightful. He's also prone to very dramatic poetry-esque side missions labeled as chapters.
Oasis: The Illustrated Story by Paul Lester for Melody Maker
A delightful introduction to Oasis, published in early 1995, not too long after Definitely Maybe and even before cricket bat became a story from the Morning Glory sessions.
The Kennedy Chronicles: The Golden Age of MTV Through Rose-Colored Glasses by Kennedy
I loved Kennedy as an MTV VJ in the '90s - but the only chapter in the book worth reading is the one where she recounts putting Noel in a 'friendly' headlock in Aspen, Colorado the night before their performance in Mt MTV Dec 12, 1995. (the offense Oasis committed was showing up at a party and removing The Beastie Boys' album from the stereo and making the partygoers listen to The White Album by the Beatles. oh, and the chapter incidentally is named Rock Stars Who Used Me For Drugs.)
Oasis: The Truth: My Life as Oasis's Drummer by Tony McCarroll
Required reading if you want to hear about the early years and Guigsy! and Bonehead! Oh, and way, way too much hero worship for 'BigUn', Paul Ashbee, who ALSO sued Oasis in 1999, not to be outdone by Tony. He talks about the formation of the band and how he met each member around the neighborhood. Unfortunately due to Noel and his, uh, continual problems with drummers, he hates Noel SO MUCH and isn't over it by the time this book was written. I would actually prefer to hear what Tony has to say about the experience now, but this is all you get, in book terms. Recommended especially for the funny story of Noel getting sold flour at a drug deal instead of cocaine.
Books I haven't finished yet:
Brothers: from childhood to Oasis: the real story by Paul Gallagher
Written by Noel and Liam's big brother, assisted by Terry Christian. Paul's attempt to cash in. I'm struggling to finish this one because his author's voice really betrays what an unpleasant dude he is. No wonder he was literally left behind when Liam and Noel and Oasis left to drive to King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow to perform and then get signed by Alan McGee and Creation Records. And yes, that story of being left behind Paul indeed recounts in his book. Also this book is the source of the photos of the surprisingly intimate photos of Noel with Inspiral Carpets, presumably because Paul really wanted to publish those in 1997. Paul wasn't at all part of Oasis and never was, so this is mostly worth reading if you want to hear about their pre-Oasis lives.
Feeling Supersonic: From Madchester to Britpop by Simon Spence
"I'm the only man in rock who can go on the piss with his mam, so shut it," [Noel] spits sardonically. "We get shitfaced on gin and tonic and sit around crying."
At the party afterwards, Noel is suspiciously friendly to one and all, going up to loads of other bands and telling them how much he likes them. It's not the sort of behavior you'd expect from him at all.
"That was the 'E'", he now admits.
"I'd just like to say in print now that I didn't mean any of the compliments I might have given to any of the groups at that party. I think they're all c—s. Whoever they are."
That's a lot more like it.
—Supersonic Youth feature by Paul Mathur | Melody Maker, 22 April 1995.
'We smashed up hotels because basically it was a laugh and it's something that just kind of happens when you're all running around with this mad energy. And we did end up having to pay for it all. At one point it was getting completely bonkers. I'd be doing interviews with my back to the window and the journalist would be looking over my shoulder open-mouthed when I was saying that it was all just rumours about us trashing hotels. I'd be saying that and she'd be seeing all these things dropping past the window behind me. Beds, wardrobes, everything. I did make sure my room never got trashed, though, if I could help it. I mean, call me old-fashioned, but I like to have a bed to sleep in at the end of the night.'
—Noel Gallagher quoted in Take Me There: Oasis The Story by Paul Mathur published 1996/1997 (pg 65)
Oasis: Four-page Earl's Court special | Melody Maker November 11 1995
Last weekend at London's Earl's court, OASIS played the biggest indoor concerts ever held in this country. In this four-page special, PAUL LESTER reports on a triumphant show, PAUL MATHUR brings us all the backstage gossip and SARRA MANNING talks to the fans. Pics: MELANIE COX, TOM SHEEHAN, PAUL MATHUR and KIM TONELLI
Earl's Court London concert - SATURDAY 4th November 1995
Before the release of their single [Supersonic], the band continued to tour, picking up a curmudgeonly review from NME and ensuring that the writer, Johnny Cigarettes, went straight to the top of the band's hate list. That one hiccup apart, the band's self-confidence was soaring.
The first signs that they intended to bring their scally roots with them came after a low-key gig in Gleneagles when they drank the bar dry and stole a whole load of motorized lawnmowers to make their escape, dementedly mowing their way into the distance. It was the kind of gloriously dumb gesture that was to mark out much of their early existence and guaranteed plenty of column inches, first in the music press and then, as a sign of real success, in the tabloids.
—from Take Me There: Oasis The Story by Paul Mathur; Chapter 4 Live in the Studio (1996)
related: Johnny Sharp (AKA Cigarettes) on THAT Oasis review and the death of the NME, plus Brandon Arend on the road with NGHFB, 2018: (timestamp 9:10)
What am I supposed to write? Ask me some questions.
Who's Liam Gallagher?
Me. The singer in the band. The best-looking one.
What do you want from your life?
I want to do something that fucking means something to me. I already have. In the future it might be being in a band and it might be chilling out and it might be going off to live in the middle of nowhere. If it's good, I'm mad for it. I don't plan out what I'll be doing in twenty years' time.
Do you love Noel?
Yes.
What about the stories of arguments and stuff?
I'm arsed.
Can you write great songs?
I think I will one day. Right, this is something I want to say. Oasis was my band and right now Noel writes all the songs because he can and I'm happy to sing them, but it doesn't mean I just sit back and think, well, he's going to write all the songs I sing for the rest of my life. I wrote songs when we first started and, all right, they might not have been great, but I really believe that one day, maybe tomorrow, maybe next month, maybe in fucking ten years' time, I'll write something really great and it'll be a fuck off to all those people who say I should just stand in the middle and be the singer. I get all these people telling me about how I should be living my life and how they know what I'm thinking. They know nish. I know what goes on in my head and I know that I can write something that will surprise a lot of people. When I'm ready I'll do it.
Do you get scared going on stage in front of loads of people?
Do I fuck. I'm right up for it. If you're going to get scared you shouldn't be doing it. It's not like we've gone from playing to twenty people to playing to loads. At the big gigs I'm buzzing. Yeah, I'm mad for it.
Would you die for anyone?
Me.
Is it good being engaged?
What do you think? Of course it is or I wouldn't have fucking done it, would I?
Do you want to read a book about Oasis?
I'm not bothered. I don't think about what we've done in the past. I'm only interested in what we're doing now. Everyone's going to come along and say 'they did this and they did that' and most of them will be wrong because they weren't even there. They just write about what they read in the papers and that's all written by dickheads.
What about me?
Well, you were there right at the beginning with your glasses on the end of your nose and you haven't stitched us up yet, so I suppose you're all right. I liked that bit you wrote once about how I was like a Tasmanian Devil.
Who do you trust?
Hardly anyone. If someone is honest with me and doesn't fuck me around, then fine, they're OK. The fans who've been into us from the start, they're all right. I know who means anything to me and they know too. That's all that matters.
—Introduction by Liam Gallagher, Take Me There: Oasis The Story by Paul Mathur (1996)
