By Angus White
Earlier on in the year, we had a weekly feature devoted to the best bands of the twentieth century. Now, we turn to the best bands of the 00s. Welcome to what we call ‘Noughty Thursdays’. The 00s gave us some of the greatest bands in indie/rock history, most of them are still together now and are keeping us on our toes as we wait impatiently for new material. There’s nothing better than when a classic from your childhood comes on. It takes you back to the good old days. If you have somehow missed these bands, well now is your moment, get listening.
If there is one band you have all heard of, it is Oasis. Forming back in the 90′, their journey was a quick one. Their rise to fame was almost instantaneous and then it all came tumbling down in the late 00s, when brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher couldn’t put aside their differences and decided Oasis should spilt and go on solo.
Oasis style is simply Mancunian. Britpop with attitude. A group of Manchester lads who originally consisted (until April 1995) of; Noel Gallagher (lead guitar/ vocals), Liam Gallagher (vocals/tambourine), Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan (bass guitar), Paul Arthurs (Guitar) and Tony McCarroll (drums). However, this didn’t last long with the line up of the band changing dramatically throughout its existence.
The question whether an Oasis reunion has been on the minds of fans ever since the split in 2009. Both Noel and Liam have launched solo projects. Noel in Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Liam Gallagher in his solo career, which sees his debut released in October. Recently, Liam was quoted in an interview with Mistajam that there is ‘Unfinished Business’. Many thought the OneLove Manchester benefit concert would see Oasis reconvene but instead, it saw Liam perform Live Forever with Coldplay’s Chris Martin. However, maybe just maybe we are around the corner from a reunion of potentially the greatest rock band of all time.
Oasis have been cited as the influences of The Kooks, Catfish and The Bottlemen, Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian. Some of the greatest bands at the moment.
Signing their first record deal with Creation Records in 1993. Their debut single was ‘Supersonic’, which now is a fans favourite. Followed by ‘Shakermaker’ and ‘Live Forever’, which was the bands first top 10 hit. Definitely ‘Maybe’ was released in August 1994, within a week it was #1 in the charts and became the fastest selling debut album of its time.
A year of extravagant lifestyles took its toll on the band and in 1994, at an LA gig, Liam made offensive remarks about American audiences and hit Noel with a tambourine. Which consequently led to Noel quitting the band temporarily and wrote ‘Talk Tonight’ in response to the incident. In 1995, Oasis had their first #1 single in ‘Some Might Say’ and coincided with the departure of Drummer McCarroll after a personality clash.
During Oasis’ dominance of the UK rock scene, it came with a bitter rival with fellow britpop band Blur. In August 1995, both bands released singles on the same day, which gave way to the media creating ‘The Battle of Britpop’, which Blur won with 274,000 copies to Oasis’ 216,000. Noel told The Observer, he hoped Damon Albarn and Alex James would ‘catch AIDS and die’. ‘What’s The Story) Morning Glory?’ was a worldwide success and is to this day the fourth best selling album in the UK chart history.
1996, saw Oasis play their first headline outdoor concert at Maine Road Stadium, the home of Manchester City FC, the brother boyhood favourites. Oasis then played back to back shows at Knebworth, which both sold out in minutes and 2.5 million applied for tickets, the highest demand for a show ever.
The end of the 90s saw the decline of Britpop and critics started to slate Oasis. Their next two albums ‘Be Here Now’ and ‘The Masterplan’ , found a new style; heavy in sound and long in length. In the early 00s, Oasis hit a crisis, the shock departures of Arthurs and McGuigan mid-recording their 4th studio album left Oasis in an unstable trio. In Barcelona, Noel decided to quit touring abroad all together and he eventually returned for their UK and Ireland shows including huge shows at Wembley Stadium.
In 2002, they released ‘Heathen Chemistry’ and included ‘Songbird’, the first single to be written by Liam and not Noel. Another tour, filled with incidents, ended up with the band in a pub brawl and Liam had his front teeth knocked out and he was subsequently fined £40k. In 2005, the band embarked on their biggest and most successful tour yet and for the first time it had no incidents. 2009, saw their last studio album, Dig out your soul.
The end of Oasis was fallout from a cancelled V Festival headline slot and Liam suing Noel. Things finally ended with a backstage fight at Rock En Seine and Oasis delivered a statement saying ‘the band doesn’t exist anymore’. In 2016, Supersonic was released, a documentary featuring up close and personal footage of the band as well as unseen interviews.
