Don’t Look Back Candidly: How Oasis Conquered the World

While the technique of having the opening scene of a movie come back at the end (with the story told in the middle) isn’t new, it works perfectly for Oasis’ compelling documentary ‘Supersonic’.

Beginning with the group boarding a helicopter that took them to Knebworth, where they were to play to 250,000 people over two nights in August 1996, it ends with them taking the Knebworth stage as the most popular band in the world. The flight may have been just a short hop, but the journey that brought the group’s key members, brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher to their pre-eminent position in the world of rock, had been turbulent, chaotic, and in the past two years unnervingly. hectic. By August 1996, Oasis had reached a stratosphere of popularity that very few could reach, and the fact that they had gotten there at such an early stage in their career made it all the more amazing.

But if his speed to the top of the mountain had come in a blur (if Noel and Liam will forgive the analogy), maintaining that level of focus from then on was always going to be a daunting task. They were the biggest band of the era and Knebworth was the highest height they had ever reached, but it was to prove their crowning glory, Noel Gallagher admitted at the end of the ‘Supersonic’ documentary: “After coming from where we had at the two and a half years before I had the feeling at Knebworth that this was the end and not the beginning.

They came from a rough neighborhood in Manchester and a childhood in which their abusive father was often violent towards his wife and older children, Paul and Noel. The youngest of the three, Liam, was also roughed up and although mother Peggy eventually gained legal custody of the children and for the most part raised the family alone, their troubled early lives forged no unifying bond between Noel and Noel. Liam, that the documentary makes it quite clear; Noel is described as withdrawn and Liam antagonistic. Their contentious, often threatening (and worse) relationship is the focus of Oasis’ backstory, and even in the group’s early home movies, long before their mutual animosity became the subject of headlines. From the tabloids, contempt and petulance often appear. he is only a heartbeat away from punches.

At this point it’s impossible not to start drawing comparisons to Kinks mainstays Ray and Dave Davies. Not only does Noel take over Liam’s gang, as Ray did with the gang Dave had formed, but an often horrible sibling rivalry drives other members of the group to the exit, with jealousy and taunts a prelude to outbreaks of physical violence. What Noel is saying about Liam could easily be Ray’s comment about Dave: “He was always cooler than me, funnier, had a better haircut, and clothes fit better. But he was jealous of my songwriting talent.” “.

If Ray and Dave become the Brothers Grimm of rock, then Noel and Liam are the Peaky Blinders embroiled in civil war.

After Noel joins the group in 1991, two years follow when he recalls that “not a single paragraph was written about us.” But their developing talent as a songwriter and their dynamic live shows in which Liam is becoming the quintessential rock front man and singer, catches the eye of Alan McGee, head of Creation Records, who signs them to his label in May. 1993. But if anything, the road gets even rockier (and not purely in the musical sense). They make a string of excellent singles, including ‘Supersonic’, while their debut album ‘Definitely Maybe’ exceeds all expectations in terms of sales and critical acclaim. It will go on to become the biggest-selling debut album in UK music history, but along with the music it quickly develops a (justified) reputation for rebellious behavior that brings deportation from Holland and a disastrous appearance at the Whiskey-A- Go-Go Club in Los Angeles, where pre-show drug binge confuses heads to the point that different songs are played at the same time, culminating in a furious on-stage exchange between Liam and Noel, causing that Noel leaves the tour and for a short time. , the band (they eventually find him hiding in San Francisco and persuade him to return; the episode prompted Noel to write the melancholy ‘Talk Tonight’, one of several lyrical ballads he would write around this time).

What Happens Next is less of a follow-up album and more of a ’90s cultural phenomenon: (“What’s the Story”) “Morning Glory” (1995) is one of those rare records like “Tapestry” or “Dark Side of the Moon” who are an essential embodiment of their time. If much of ‘Morning Glory’ is exceptional, then the stats are mind-boggling: 347,000 sold in its first week of release, 13x platinum in the UK, 4x in the US and officially the best-selling album of the decade. Even if you’re wary of equating big sales with musical achievement (football teams, sitcom actors, and stooges have all had number one singles, while The Clash and Neil Young haven’t), there’s no question Oasis produced an album. very good, with at least three tracks ‘Wonderwall’, ‘Don’t Look in Anger’ and ‘Champagne Supernova’) becoming defining songs of the era.

Lyrically hard-hitting but also melodic, it was a welcome antidote to prevailing grunge rock trends and stands as the undisputed high point of the Britpop movement whose origins go back to The Beatles and The Kinks, two bands whose influence was heavily outlined in the oasis structure. songs. Contemporary critics have come to regard ‘Morning Glory’ a little less favourably, calling the Beatles-tinged material derivative and they may have a case, but only up to a point: let’s face it, sometimes the Beatles themselves weren’t averse to borrowing an idea or two, drawing inspiration from the likes of The Byrds, Dylan and The Who.

Towards the end of the documentary ‘Supersonic’, Noel Gallagher reflects on the moment when Oasis arrived on the Knebworth stage: “Nothing that anyone does in the future will be as big as Oasis, in the times we live in it is unrepeatable”. Before playing a note, he announces to the crowd, “This is history, here and now.”

An evaluation even more relevant today than then.