Crusader

Issue date: 4/23/04 Section: Features

Some day you will find me
Caught beneath the landslide
In a champagne supernova in the sky
Be there.

Oasis was formed in Manchester in 1991 as the Rain by Liam Gallagher (vocals), Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs (guitar), Paul "Guigs" McGuigan (bass) and Tony McCaroll (drums). The group soon fell under the leadership of Liam's older brother Noel 'being me is the best gig in the world" Gallagher (vocals/songwriting). Upon joining the band, he had this to say (he's quite humble): "I told Our Kid the band was sh*te, but he definitely had something as a frontman. Then I said, 'You either let me write the songs and we go for superstardom or else you stay here in Manchester for the rest of your sad lives...' " To put it mildly, the band is comprised of some interesting individuals.

Was forming the band now known as Oasis hard to do? Well, not really if you were to consult the loquacious Noel Gallagher: "Here's what you do: you pick up your guitar, you rip a few people's songs off, get your brother in the band, punch his head in every now and then, and it sells." (Particularly when, in the laddish climate of the mid-1990s, the songs are about "shagging, taking drugs and being in a band.") Yeah, knocking his brother's head in, shagging and taking drugs is awesome, but after joining the band, Oasis broke up quite a few times. Noel loved the 90's.

But enough about Noel. Remember that awesome album Whats the Story Morning Glory? The CD is black, it's the one that you still have in your CD case and occasionally play (and love). "Here is a record brimming with that special blend of confidence and creativity, energy and personality, which characterizes such past pop masterworks as the Rolling Stones' Between The Buttons, the Small Faces' Ogden's Nut Gone Flake, and the Beatles' Hard Day's Night." Oasis released a new album in 2003. "They haven't made a reggae album. What they've made is Heathen Chemistry: explosive, yes; experimental, no. It's another, great, Oasis album; their fifth" (www.oasisnet.com). Take a listen; we could go on and tell you the best songs on this one...but let's be honest, when you hear Oasis, you're thinking "where were you while we were getting high?" (straight off the timeless Morning Glory album).

Why bother with the new when the old one never stops giving? What's the Story Morning Glory (1995) sold by the crate. In 1996 alone they sold 18 million albums, and that year, when the band played two gigs at Knebworth, two million people applied for tickets. Many people which were hesitant about and still into the grunge/Nirvana scene when British groups started making their way into the States in the mid-90's. But why did one band in particular make its way into the hearts of so many flannel-wearing, angst ridden teenagers' hearts? It could've been the shagging and the punching of brothers and stuff, but, honestly, we think the answer's more simple than that: Because, Oasis, you're our "Wonderwall." Forever.

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