‘Nothing on their mind but beer and sex’
Brash, laddish energy caught the imagination, says Ed Power
On August 29, 1994, rock music changed forever — but few realised it at the time. That was the day a scruffy band from the outskirts of Manchester released their debut album. The reviews were cautiously positive, yet nobody was in a rush to herald Definitely Maybe by Oasis as an instant classic.
“In this day and age, it’s strange to hear a band with nothing on their minds but beer and sex,” said the Guardian. “Plain and sometimes predictable sailing,” said the Times. Hot Press concluded the lyrics had “the intellectual content of a baked bean”.
Not even the band’s songwriter – chatty former Frank and Walters roadie Noel Gallagher – seemed to appreciate how iconic Definitely Maybe would become. Then aged 27, he certainly would have had little inkling that the announcement, 30 years later, of an Oasis reunion tour would send the internet into a frenzy – there essentially was no internet for one thing – and unite music fans of all ages in their eagerness and desperation to a secure a ticket.
“We knew the songs were great,” he said recently. “But at that time it was just a good album – nothing more, nothing less.”
The early 1990s did not lack for good albums. Twelve months before Definitely Maybe, Nirvana put out their bittersweet swan song In Utero. Suede’s Dog Man Star would hit record stores that October. My Bloody Valentine’s masterpiece Loveless was still building an audience three years after its release.
Is Oasis’s debut better than those records? Maybe – maybe not. But it is far more iconic; its avalanche of yearning, almost dreamy lyrics about youthful abandon and excess speaking to audiences across the generations. Three decades on neither it nor its 1995 follow-up (What’s The Story?) Morning Glory feels like a relic or a time capsule.
It’s no mystery why. You sort of had to be there to “get” Dog Man Star – but anyone who has ever been young, wide-eyed and bored of their smalltown existence can immediately connect with Definitely Maybe tracks such as Rock ’n’ Roll Star and Cigarettes and Alcohol. Musical trends come and go but the rush of excitement that fuels Oasis goes beyond mere fads. Which is why their fanbase considers them timeless.
That is why an Oasis reunion has generated such excitement. Noel and Liam are those rare products of 1990s rock and roll who have avoided becoming a nostalgia act. While fans of a certain age have continued to flock to their solo shows, they also attract listeners far too young to have seen them the first time around. That’s a lot of people and they aren’t necessarily all that fresh-faced – it’s 15 years since they broke up, so there are people in their 30s who have grown up dreaming of one day seeing Noel and Liam on stage together.
But if nostalgia isn’t a factor, it is indisputable that Oasis hark back to an older idea of what a rock star should be.
Today’s musical icons are cuddly and feel-good. When Chris Martin goes on stage, his mission is to send his audience away feeling uplifted. Oasis are different and while their songs are largely derivative of The Kinks and The Beatles, their laddish, edgy sensibility brings with it a huge sense of excitement. Remember when rock bands were gangs rather than meditation circles?
“We were ready to take over,” Noel said to Mojo this year. “We were ready to wipe everybody out. I thought Blur, Pulp, The Stone Roses, The La’s, whoever, they were great people and they had one or two great tunes, but we had 12. However loud they were, we were louder. However fast they were, we were faster. However good they were, we would trump it. They were all great bands, but we were better. It was as simple as that.”
Their roguish humour was a crucial part of their early success, too. In the early 1990s, indie bands lived or died by the approval of the music press – and Oasis effortlessly brought them onside with their ready wit and knack for controversy. Noel would have his publicist
Blur had concocted the fake rivalry between the groups
call the NME or Melody Maker each day with a new titbit – and it didn’t much matter whether or not it was true. On one occasion, for instance, he claimed guitarist Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs had swiped golfer Jackie Stewart’s golf cart at Gleneagles – a work of fiction lapped up by the media.
They were also cheerfully uncontrived. Britpop was dawning and every band in Britain was scurrying for a place on the bandwagon. Only Oasis seemed oblivious to the great cultural movement to which they were supposedly integral. It’s hard not to be struck by the contrast between their attitude towards trends and fashion and that of Blur, their great adversaries. Blur, and their labels, had concocted the rivalry between the two groups, which became all too real as the press got on board and caricatured the acts as knuckle draggers from the north of England (Oasis) and sophisticated smoothies from the south (Blur).
“[Noel] insists on respect,” the head of his record label, Alan McGee, said in 1997. “It is a working-class thing. It’s about pride in your achievements and not forgetting where you came from, and not letting anyone they can patronise you or take the piss. That’s what Oasis is about.”
That working-class authenticity remains central to their appeal. In an era in which it is more and more difficult for musicians to earn a living from record sales or even through touring, the industry has become increasingly the preserve of the well-off. Today, it would be harder than ever for a group like Oasis to break out. Can you imagine Noel and Liam posting TikToks or fast-talking their way on to a Spotify playlist?
Not every reunion tour is created equally. Some bands have come back brighter and better; the early 1990s indie band Slowdive, for instance, have released some of their best albums since reuniting. Something similar could be said for Suede – or Blur, whose 2023 LP The Ballad of Darren was an intoxicating chronicling of midlife angst.
Thus far, Oasis have no plans to record new music, and many observers feel Noel and Liam will do well to get through their 2025 dates without another falling out. But none of that will matter when the group takes to the stage at Croke Park. For fans young and old, the opportunity to bask in the redhot glow of these unreconstructed and unapologetic rock and roll stars will be more than enough.