Liam and Noel Gallagher have missed being in the “Oasis circus” since the Manchester band’s acrimonious break-up in 2009 and their reunion, while hugely lucrative, isn’t just about money, according to two of their leading biographers.
Music journalists Ted Kessler and Hamish MacBain first met the brothers in 1994 when they were playing tiny venues, and have since interviewed them dozens of times – tracking their astonishing rise as Oasis became one of the world’s biggest bands. Now their new book, A Sound So Very Loud, gives the inside story of every Oasis song, a veritable treasure-trove of fascinating facts about the 70 million-album selling band, whose world tour sold out overnight when it was announced last August.
Live Forever, August 1994, third single:
TED: The one that, by Noel’s admission, changed everything. Before this came along, Oasis were seen as maybe more mouth than trousers. This silenced all the doubters instantly.
Champagne Supernova: October 1995, final song on What’s The Story (Morning Glory)?
HAMISH: just the title, so unbelievably, beautifully over the top. Encapsulates the hedonistic mood of the nineties better than any other song.
Supersonic, April 1994, debut single:
TED: The first Oasis single is still Noel’s favourite Oasis song. And mine too. It came out of absolutely nowhere. The rest of the band went for a Chinese takeaway, came back and Noel had written it. They recorded it immediately, once, and that’s version that is still famous today. Spontaneous genius.
Acquiesce, April 1995, B-side to Some Might Say single:
HAMISH: Noel will probably deny until his dying day that the chorus – “We need each other, We believe in one another” – is about him and Liam. But it had to be. It perfectly encapsulates the dynamic between the two of them.
Don’t Look Back In Anger, Feb 1996, fifth single from What’s The Story (Morning Glory)?:
HAMISH: I was at the show when Noel Gallagher first played this, in Sheffield at the Arena in 1995. He introduced it by saying “I only wrote this one on Tuesday”. It was Friday. Even after hearing it once, I went home humming “And so, Sally can wait”. But I’d be lying if I said I thought it would become anything like what it has become: basically a second national anthem.
- A Sound So Very Loud: The Inside Story of Every Oasis Song, by Ted Kessler and Hamish MacBain (Macmillan, £22) is out now