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    Oasis: Definitely Maybe: Here We Are But There We Were
    Oasis: Definitely Maybe: Here We Are But There We Were
    Oasis: Definitely Maybe: Here We Are But There We Were
    Ebook126 pages3 hours

    Oasis: Definitely Maybe: Here We Are But There We Were

    By Andy Reilly

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    In the rush to commemorate anniversaries and the forgotten days of our youth, it seems that everything and anything is worthy of recall and acknowledgement. Twenty years on from 1994, there are a range of moments that people can remember as if they took place yesterday. Roberto Baggio’s penalty kick may still be in orbit while Loaded magazine has long since bitten the dust but one thing stands out bigger and stronger than the rest of the memories of the years combined. 1994 was the year Oasis burst into public view and their debut album ‘Definitely Maybe’ is still lauded as one of the greatest debut albums, and indeed guitar albums, of all time.

    The stories of the battling brothers from Burnage in Manchester may have grabbed the headlines but it was the songs and tunes that grabbed the hearts and minds of the fans who followed on behind the Gallaghers and the rest of the group. Andy Reilly was just one the millions who were swept up in the crescendo of Oasis becoming the biggest band in Britain. This book is the story of where we were at the start of the ride that would take on us further ups and downs either side of the millennium.

    The Oasis story was a long one, and one that may not have reached its natural conclusion, but 1994 was the year that it all started coming together as they grabbed hold of new followers on a daily basis. 1993 saw unemployment figures in the UK crash through the 3 million barrier and many were of the opinion that it wasn’t worth the aggravation to find a job when there was nothing worth working for. The UK chart music scene was as soul-destroying as the job market. The book looks at how Oasis found themselves in the right place at the right time, exactly who they were railing against, and what the band meant to their adoring public. In the story of Oasis, 1994 deserves to be told in its own right.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAndy Reilly
    Release dateMay 12, 2014
    ISBN9781311562111
    Oasis: Definitely Maybe: Here We Are But There We Were
    Author

    Andy Reilly

    Andy Reilly has had a love of music and a love of writing for as long back as he can remember. Sometimes this means the previous week but over the years, he has been to more gigs, listened to more albums and put down more withering reviews of acts that were operating at a higher level than they really should have been than most sane people would think was good for them. Of course, as a Glaswegian, Andy believes that doing what is good for you is an optional extra in life.No matter what else has been going on in his life, music has been a constant companion, usually a friend, sometimes an enemy but never a waste of time. However, within the sometimes cynical front he commonly offers to the world lies the wide-eyed wonder of the child who first heard The Beatles or who went to his first gig. Like anyone dealing with an addiction, there is a desire to experience a song or gig as pure as the first time, which is a large part of the reason why Andy hasn’t given this all up as a bad joke...not yet anyway.With a wide range of online and magazine based music journalism behind him, with time spent dabbling in football writing as well, Andy has published a short story book which combines his love of the Velvet Underground and his hometown, an influence which lays heavy on his mind and work. His second piece looks back at the wonderful year of 1994 and the debut album of Oasis. The group and Andy may have gone their separate ways at times over the years but it’s a relationship you can never truly quit. Andy hopes to release further books in the future and is thankful that “musical differences” is an affliction that rarely imposes itself on writers.

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      Book preview

      Oasis - Andy Reilly

      Oasis

      Definitely Maybe

      Here We Are But There We Were

      Andy Reilly

      Copyright © 2014 Andrew Reilly

      Smashwords Edition

      ISBN-13: 978-1499332247

      Contents

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      NOW HERE WE ARE

      THERE WE WERE

      SONGS

      GIGS

      T IN THE PARK

      BARROWLANDS

      MEDIA

      LADDISM

      BUT BEFORE TOMORROW

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      There we were, now here we are

      Or something like that…The usual thanks and nods of appreciation to family members and friends that keep me going but for this one, particular shout-outs to Chris and Davie for letting me tag along back in ’94.

      NOW HERE WE ARE

      TheSE COULD BE THE BEST DAYS OF OUR LIVES

      Twenty years on from the summer of 1994 and you would be forgiven for thinking the music of the time was all one big laugh or a joke. There is almost a sense embarrassment about bringing up the music of the time, and the term ‘Britpop’ is almost used as an insult. It is easy to see why this is the case. By the end of this era, far too many bands were of a hideous standard, not even good enough to be considered a parody of the bands that created all of the excitement in the first place.

      This book isn’t about the wave of bands that were to follow and it’s not about the period when the principal acts of the era all faced up to their own demons and found that they weren’t as perfect or as powerful as they had been led to believe. The book is about Oasis, it’s about Definitely Maybe, and it’s about why there was a need for this type of band, this type of album and this type of feeling to come to the fore in Britain.

      For me, I was 16 when Definitely Maybe was released, and it came along at exactly the right time in my life. For others who were slightly older, there was a need for a spark to get excited about music again because there had been a number of years where there was not a lot to get carried away with. This is not to say that there wasn’t fantastic music, there was, it just wasn’t the sort that infused people with a style and swagger that would help to make up for all of the rubbish things in life that they couldn’t control. There was a need for popular music to connect with the older and younger audiences, either allowing people to relive their youth in a vibrant manner or to allow people to realise how energising and refreshing music can be.

      Like today, Oasis had their critics in this period, and there will always be people that were never going to take to the band. Not everyone wanted to hear choruses that would make you soar or feel as though were caught up in a whirlwind of excitement that no one knew where it was going to stop. Okay, it’s also fair to say a lot of folk didn’t want to hear music that was pretty much repackaging sounds and styles that had gone before, wrapped up in a slightly aggressive and confident manner. For these people, the summer of 1994 and the ones that followed must have felt like a dark and miserable place. For the rest of us, it was one long party packed with sunshine, moonshine and good times.

      There’s not one reason why Oasis found massive success, and it’s the combination of elements that made the album, and the year, what it was. As much as people will say that it should be all about the songs, that is rarely the case when it comes to music. With Oasis, the songs were in place, but there was so much more. The live performances were powerful and in 1994, they were often, allowing a large number of folk the chance to see them and witness their power on stage. They were also fairly omnipresent across the media. The Gallaghers were never short of a quip or a soundbite, and when you had column inches to fill, what better way to do it than with two brothers who were always looking for the flimsiest excuse to batter lumps out of each other. There was also a collective movement that gave people the chance to feel as though they belonged and that they were part of something.

      By all means look back on 1994 and the years that followed with a touch of cynicism and perhaps even with a twinge of bemusement about how it all became so popular so fast but never forget that at the heart of it all were some fantastic bands with brilliant music that happened to come along at the right time. In 1994, Oasis weren’t part of a movement or a scene, they were causing enough commotion, confusion and joy of their own making.

      The band split up in 2009 and by then, the only real shock was that they had managed to hold it together for so long. Okay, Oasis were down to Liam and Noel from the original line-up but ably assisted by Gem Archer and Andy Bell, the group had settled into a cycle of creating albums and touring that seemed to satisfy a still sizable fan base. Only the most committed (in any sense of the word) fan would have dared to argue that the albums were still as relevant as the initial records, but in the live arena, the group could still be relied on to put on a good show. Some believed that the band were settling down for a Rolling Stones style of existence where albums were pulled together to give the band the excuse to head back out on the road and wow their audience all over again.

      Whether it was something truly outrageous that came to light that August night at the Rock en Seine festival close to Paris or there was just a realisation that this was not the way that people had to live, Noel Gallagher decided he had put up with his brother for long enough and quit the band. It was a poor way to bring the group to a close, it’s the one slight issue that Noel has wished he had handled differently, but for many, it was probably the most apt way for the group to fall apart. Liam went one way, Noel the other and while the rumours about a reformation will never go away, you get the feeling that there isn’t quite the hunger and desire for Oasis to get back together, certainly with respect to Noel. However, there is clearly a sizable fanbase that would love a reunion and Liam has been a lot more vocal about getting the band back together in recent years. Even in mid-April of 2014, weeks away from the re-release of the debut album, Liam Gallagher managed to whip the Oasis fan base into a frenzy by a series of simple tweets. Spelling out the name of the group and then signing off with OASIS LG was all that some people needed to be convinced that the band was reforming. Bookies slashed the odds of the group headlining Glastonbury in the summer and all across the UK and the world, Oasis fans were gearing up for a massive announcement. Maybe there was something that is yet to break at the time of going to press, or maybe Liam just liked the feeling of still knowing he holds an inordinate amount of power over one hell of a lot of people. (By the 1st of May, the OASIS LG tweet had received over 35,000 retweets and there were more than 20,000 instances of the tweet being marked as a favourite.) Those clinging to reunion hopes point out that the Stone Rose eventually got back together, even after all of their arguments and barbed moments, and when it comes to music (and making money), you should know to never say never.

      There will be plenty of people pointing out that the efforts of Beady Eye and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds don’t add up to what Oasis used to deliver. This is true but in the new millennium, you could argue that Oasis didn’t deliver what Oasis what used to deliver. That’s not an insult, it would have been virtually impossible for the group to carry on the trajectory that the first two albums mapped out. It is easy to criticise Oasis for Be Here Now, it’s even easier to criticise them for Standing On The Shoulder of Giants and from there on, some of their albums weren’t even being acknowledged by folk. To dwell on these matters would be to miss the point though and it is beneficial to dwell on, not only the success of Definitely Maybe and What’s The Story Morning Glory, but of the times, the optimism and enthusiasm that was around at the time.

      Whatever Noel and Liam Gallagher decide to do in the future, the legacy of 1994 will live long in the memory and hearts of those who were around to witness it, and plenty of others who weren’t even there. That’s the key thing to take when looking back at the time.

      THERE WE WERE

      BUT I DON’T THINK WE’VE BEEN LIVING VERY WISE

      It’s easy to look at the time of Oasis’ arrival and say that they were the band to kill off grunge. The passing of Kurt Cobain took place less than one week before the release of Supersonic. For the music media who would always look too deeply into what is now what’s coming next, it was all too easy a comparison to make.

      It was also easier for the music media to pit British indie acts against their grunge counterparts. They were in the same general field, potentially competing for people from the same audience. There can be a tendency to view music fans in the tribal nature that football fans are viewed in, but it’s nowhere near as confrontational or as us versus them as is often pointed out. It suits the industry and media to pigeonhole fans into demographic

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