Out On Blue Six: Oasis

It was twenty five years ago today - the release of Definitely Maybe

That makes me feel old! But the music is of course timeless. Indeed, you could say that it will Live Forever

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Out On Blue Six: Oasis

Come the early '00s, I'd sort of given up on Oasis, It wasn't necessarily them I guess, it was probably me. If I'm honest I felt that Songbird was a pleasant enough ditty but was perhaps a little too on the nose with its Beatles influences. Listening again now, I think it's matured into something a little more in its own right down the years

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Out On Blue Six: Oasis

I love this song and I love this video - mixing Oasis with Lowry was genius...and the animator nailed Liam's Simian stroll!

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Out On Blue Six: Gorillaz

In the heady days of Britpop and the Blur/Oasis rivalry, the odds on Noel Gallagher working with Damon Albarn must have been pretty stratospherically high - wish I'd have had a punt on it anyway, I'd've been quids in now.

It was Paul Simonon's birthday bash in 2015 that finally brought them together and now, Noel performs on the track, We Got The Power, on the latest Gorillaz album, Humanz

However what was easy to predict is Liam's reaction to this unlikely love-in. The younger Gallagher brother took to Twitter to vent spleen;

"Now that dick out of Blur and the creepy 1 out of Oasis need to hang their heads in shame as it's no dancing in the streets as you were LG x"

and,

"That gobshite out of Blur might have turned Noel Gallagher into a massive girl but believe you me next time I see him there's gonna be war"

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Supersonic (2016)

"Noel has a lot of buttons, Liam has a lot of fingers; it’s that simple"

Supersonic might just be the funniest, most feelgood music documentary in recent years. And I mean, laugh out loud on several occasions funny - with one bit in which Liam discusses Scott McLeod's brief tenure with the band being met by gales of laughter  in the screening I was at, and rightly so. Directed by Mat Whitecross, a filmmaker with a rather diverse and under the radar career perhaps best defined with his Ian Dury biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll and his rather sweet Spike Island both of which hint at his musical tastes, this documentary film doesn't set out to be the complete story of Oasis (which makes Peter Bradshaw's criticisms that the film stops in 1996 in his review for The Guardian rather stranger and completely redundant - what's up squinty Pete, didn't get the memo matey? Lazy, ignorant reviewing) instead it focuses simply on their meteoric two and a half year rise to super(sonic) stardom from 1993 to their landmark two-night Knebworth gigs in 1996 - a moment in time that Noel rightly called 'history' right there on the stage and expands upon it further in the film, arguing that such an event would be impossible in this digital, talent show world. Britpop really was the end of an era and Oasis rode high. As such, the film depicts a mostly positive relationship between Liam and Noel, with only a few tumultuous and often wildly hilarious bumps in the road, rather than the acrimonious split that was to come - though Whitecross doesn't shy away from the intense sibling rivalry and rightly shadows the fallout with a portentous scene early on in the film which sees Liam declare to the band that he'd been reading the Bible recently and found much to compare between him and his older brother and "that Abel and....Cable"

With both Liam and Noel participating with voiceover reminiscences (along with Bonehead, Mark Coyle and many other key figures) this truly is a first hand account not just of the band, but also of their lives. The snaps of a grinning, gauche teenage Liam and Noel strumming a guitar in preparation for his duties as the roadie for Inspiral Carpets warm the hearts and amuse the audience as well as reminding us that these acrimonious rock giants are, first and foremost, brothers; ordinary working class siblings from a council estate in Burnage. The archive footage may make much of the Gallagher brothers legendary arrogance, but Whitecross' film delves deeper to capture a candid and heartfelt account of these ordinary lads with extraordinary talent, with both men cannily astute enough to know the part they had to play for the media, with Noel claiming that his role before the cameras was always to be a 'gobshite' whilst Liam shunned all the aspects of music and songwriting to be 'over there, looking cool as fuck' They knew what was required of them, and they delivered in spades. They were, as some might say, mad fer it.

"None of this matters," Noel says at one point, when discussing his abusive father's attempts to inveigle himself into the limelight, and their difficult relationship with him "What will remain is the songs" He could almost be talking about the current impasse between him and Liam. But yes, we have the songs - and oh what songs they are, soundtrack to the lives of so many of my generation - but we sadly do not have Oasis any more, and that's a real shame. Whatever your thoughts on a reunion - will they, won't they, should they, shouldn't they - you can't deny that the world was a better, brighter and more eventful place with them.

Out On Blue Six: Oasis

In preparation for seeing Supersonic, the new documentary film about the brothers Gallagher, I've been pulling out and playing my old Oasis albums somewhat relentlessly.

She's Electric was track 9 on (What's The Story) Morning Glory? the band's second studio album, and it was always a favourite of mine. The cheeky chappieness of the song's narrator, professing his love for his girl but adding the proviso that he needs 'more time' whilst eyeing up everyone from her sister, her cousins and her mother, is pure Max Miller, whilst the lyric shamelessly mines from children's BBC show You and Me, tapping into that dole queue existence of grown men in their twenties and late teens with nothing else to do but watch kids TV. Other influences point back to the Fab Four themselves of course, with cues from While My Guitar Gently Weeps and the rousing, falling 'ahh' finale reminiscent of With a Little Help From My Friends

It's just the perfect slice of Britpop

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Live Forever (2003)

If you haven't been living under a rock this last month you'll doubtless be aware that it is now 20 years since Britpop. I'm acutely aware of this fact and, when coupled with the realisation that you've now spent more time out of school than you have in it, it doesn't half make you feel old I can tell you. 

When Britpop hit the scene in 1994 its fair to say that as a 14/15 year old it struck a chord with me. I'd previously devoured my parents vinyl collection for Beatles records and rode the criticism from my peers for being into 'old fogies' music. Then came Oasis and suddenly the world turned on its head. Six months down the line I well remember the alleged cool kids at school saying 'well if you like Oasis you really wanna check out The Beatles, because they're much better' Hmm, not exactly what you were saying a year ago eh guys? Being at school, GCSE's on the horizon, standing on the precipice of the big wide world it felt revitalising to believe something was genuinely in the air, that the country was on the up, just as much as it felt odd that music, mere music, could give us that sense of optimism.

Of course we quickly discovered that the up meant Blair and a massive big fart in our collectively hopeful faces. 

Live Forever a 2003 music documentary film directed by John Dower covers all of this, walking the line between the music, the politics and the cultural compass of the UK at the time. There's a great feeling for all of this and the period as a whole right across the board as befits the team that brought us the equally conscientious and well edited/compiled One Day In September, as well as some wonderfully candid talking heads; Jarvis Cocker is always good value, Damon Albarn once again shows how savvy he is and how unfairly maligned he was during his heyday whilst Sleeper's Louise Wener proves to be the most intelligent and aware of her alumni. Then there's the brothers - Liam and Noel. The former is his usually funny and infuriating self with one scene regarding his alleged androgynous appeal proving a particularly hilarious highlight, whilst the latter proves to be just as intelligent and articulate as the others but still clearly somewhat bewitched and misguided about that now infamous Number 10 meet and greet. Face it Noel, you were bought.

For the 20th anniversary this film, made just in time for the 10th anniversary, is still a fitting watch but I would argue a few more talking heads would have made it something truly special; Elastica, Garbage, The Manics, Suede, Menswear, Supergrass, Echobelly, Catatonia...surely some of those were available?

Incidentally, the eternal question 'Blur or Oasis?' continues to reverberate to this day - I've seen Damon Albarn asked about the rivalry twice just yesterday on two separate TV shows - for what it's worth whenever I was asked it in the playground I always answered the same; 'Pulp'.

Out On Blue Six : Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

Ah yes, life...

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