Oasis: Supersonic

This film contains very strong language

Does the red light mean it's on, yeah?

-Yeah.

-Pour a few glasses of that, mate.

-LIAM:

-I've had about four fucking coffees today, man,

and they've fucking proper knocked me out.

What the fuck's going on?

Now I'm fucking double tired. It's like, "Come on."

All right, how are we doing in there? Are we good?

Yeah, we're rolling. I'm just going to do a sync pip.

OK, lovely.

So, what do you think, looking back at that time?

Because it was, like, two and a half years, really,

from being signed to playing Knebworth.

What happened to that band?

What happened to you in those three years?

Sorry, that was a big question.

NOEL: It is a big question, and it deserves a big answer.

As Oasis gears up to rock a quarter of a million fans,

we're live from Knebworth.

By Sunday night, Oasis will have played

to more than a third of a million people in just over one week.

Hi. This is Jo Whiley welcoming you to a rather special event,

the live gig of the decade.

In just over three years,

Oasis will have gone from being a new signing

to one of rock's true giants.

CHEERING

CROWD: Oasis! Oasis! Oasis!

CROWD: Three, two, one!

Knebworth's mad for it, yeah?

Oasis was definitely like a fucking Ferrari.

Great to look at, great to drive,

and it would fucking spin out of control every now and again

when you go too fast.

We were just lads from a council estate.

Two brothers, head cases.

Oasis' greatest strength was the relationship between me and Liam.

It's also what drove the band into the ground in the end,

you know what I mean?

# There we were Now here we are

# All this confusion

# Nothing's the same to me

# There we were Now here we are

# All this confusion

# Nothing's the same to me

# I can't tell you the way I feel because

# The way I feel is oh so new to me

# I can't tell you the way I feel because

# The way I feel is oh so new to me... #

For me, music, I wasn't into it until, like,

when I was about 16 or 17 maybe.

Anyone with a guitar or in a band

I thought was a bit suspect, you know what I mean?

And, like, I'd hurl abuse at them.

I used to share a room with Noel.

A bit of a stoner, a bit of a loner.

You know, he had a guitar, so he was copping for it,

you know what I mean?

Always very quiet, Noel.

Always in his room with a piece of paper and a pen

and he'd be writing.

Always strumming the guitar.

Many is the time I went up and I knocked that guitar and said,

"Bloody guitar, you get on my bloody nerves!"

Yeah, I mean, once I'd discovered weed and guitars,

you got into another world.

What would you want to go out for?

Everything I ever wanted in life was coming out of the speakers.

I don't know why me and Liam would be so different.

We both had the same childhood, do you know what I mean?

He was a devil, Liam.

Full of it, yeah.

Total attention seeker.

Robbing your clothes, robbing your records,

robbing your this, robbing your that. Robbing your money.

Definitely a bit of a show-off,

but not to the point where it's, like, fucking,

you know, Bonnie Langford, do you know what I mean?

Or one of them little fucking brats with jazz hands.

Well, Liam was... Allegedly, he was the cock of the school.

No-one messed with him.

I think one day some rival school

turned up and boshed him on the head with a hammer.

We were stood there having a cig

and I remember all these lads coming down.

These kids pulled out this little fucking hammer

and went whack on my head.

Blood everywhere.

Got out of fucking double maths, so that was all right.

I've got a perfect alibi for that, so it's nothing to do with me!

From that day on, and I know it sounds stupid,

but it was like as if something had

fucking clicked, do you know what I mean?

You know, I started hearing music,

it started making sense, you know what I mean?

So, whoever he is, thank you.

Somebody hammered the music into him.

He's got a fucking lot to answer for, hasn't he?

All my life as it existed then was, like, going to sign on,

getting my cash, cashing my dole,

going to the Sifters, getting a record,

buying some weed, going into Greggs,

going back home and fucking blasting it out and getting soaked in it.

I was just obsessed with being in a band.

Just ob-fucking-sessed, man.

Actually, I never thought Liam was interested in music

until he used to sit out there in the kitchen and say,

"I'm going to be famous one day," he said.

"And you're going to be really proud of me." I said, "Am I?"

I said, "Well, I hope it's before I start pushing up daisies."

"Because we need the money now!"

And then, of course, Bonehead started coming round,

and Tony McCarroll and Guigsy.

That's when Liam formed the band.

I knew Bonehead and I knew Guigs,

and they were in a band called The Rain.

They'd heard I was cool,

and I'd had my epiphany, and all that bollocks.

Someone in passing just said,

"You know, Liam wanted to be in a band."

Liam came round my house.

His voice was just like, "Whoa!" You know, it's like, "Yeah!"

# I used to live my life in vain

# Until today it's been the same

# I've gone away... #

It wasn't the Liam we all know.

A bit more softer, a lot more melodic.

And obviously his look. I mean, he

looked like Liam's always looked, you know.

He had a great haircut, great walk.

"I'll have a bit of that."

He went, "Right, look, do you want to be in this band?"

I says, "Yeah, but we'll have to

"change that fucking name, though, cos it's terrible."

There was a poster in our room for the Inspiral Carpets.

It certainly wasn't about Swindon Oasis.

It was like, you know, there was a kebab shop called Oasis.

There was a fucking taxi rank called Oasis.

That fucking name keeps coming up, "Oasis."

We were kind of a little bit out on our own.

I just thought, "Oasis." That was good, man.

I'm not in Oasis at this point.

I'm not in a band. I've no intention of being in a band.

I'm just part of a road crew for Inspiral Carpets,

trying not to get sacked from this job

because I fucking blagged my way into it and I'm an absolute chancer.

The main thing was, like, getting Noel in the band.

-Good morning!

-He was a songwriter.

He's a tight bastard!

I'm OK with me.

In my head, I thought, "He'll come off tour.

"When he sees that we're doing it instead of talking about it,

"he'll want to join our band and he'll do the business."

I've done a couple of tours of America.

I'd been to Argentina.

I'd been to Japan.

So as far as they went, I went with them.

I met Mark Coyle sat at the back of the tour bus

smoking weed and doing the monitors.

That's how I met Noel, pulling this fucking face

because this is his thing.

He's the roadie for that band.

And as soon as we started talking

we were fucking best mates straightaway.

If there's one thing I'd remember about Noel,

it's that he never had a fucking dirty hand.

But he loved that band.

They were all terrified of him.

Yeah, he was just the boss all the way,

from the minute go when I met him.

I thought we were great.

I mean, clearly we weren't because we did get fired,

separately got fired by the band,

for being unprofessional

and somewhat unapproachable by various tour managers.

Lazy cunts!

Yeah!

I'd like to thank the Inspiral Carpets for sacking him. Well done!

We had some great, funny fucking times.

I wasn't sitting at the side of the stage, tuning guitars, thinking,

"One day, this is going to be me."

I thought that I'd arrived at that point and that was it.

I thought, "This'll fucking do me." Do you know what I mean?

I was doing a gig in Munich.

Somebody soundchecking a bass drum. Boom.

One, two. What's sibilance?

I used to phone home on a Sunday, phone me mam.

PHONE RINGS

It's Noel.

On the phone? Just a minute. I'll get it out here. Hello?

How are you, Noel?

-Are you all right?

-Yeah.

Just doing Liam's washing for him.

Doing his dirty washing for him.

But, anyway, we were chatting away about family stuff

and then I said, "How's Liam?"

"Oh, he's out rehearsing."

"What for? He's not joined the Shakespeare fucking group, has he?"

"Oh, no, he's in a band."

"What? Doing what?"

"He's the singer."

"He's the singer? He can't fucking sing."

"Oh, I don't know now. He said he's the singer."

And that was it, and then I kind of got home

and our Paul's going, "Oh, yeah, he's in this band.

"They're pretty fucking good, you know."

And then they were playing at the local band night

on at the Boardwalk. And I went down to see them.

# Take me when I'm young and true

# Was it me or was it you?

# Take me when I'm not so strong

# Why has it taken you so long? #

I was like, "Wow, fucking hell! I'm pretty impressed."

They had their own songs,

and Liam didn't look that out of place.

The first thing they said when they

come up to me was, "What did you think?"

I said, "It was fucking great,"

and they said, "We were thinking, would you fancy being our manager?"

I was like, "What? What the fuck are they talking about? No."

And they were like, "Because you know loads of people and all that."

"Not sure about that. I think you'd get a better manager than me."

And then a couple of weeks later,

Liam said, "Come and fucking jam with us."

You know, so I went and sat in with them

and I was playing their tunes, and it was great.

And then I think the second time I went,

Liam was going, "Play them that fucking song that you played us."

And then once everybody all joined in and you hear this thing

that you've, in inverted commas,

"written", being played back to you in this room

and it's like, "Wow! Fucking hell! That's amazing!"

It just went from there, really.

# It's a bit early in the midnight hour for me

# To go through all the things I want to be

# I don't believe in everything I see

# You know I'm blind so why do you disagree?

# Take me away because I just don't want to stay

# Cos the lies you make me say are getting deeper every day

# These are crazy days but they make me shine

# Time keeps rolling by

# All around the world

# You've got to spread the word

# Tell them what you heard

# Because you know it's going to be OK... #

To hear your own stuff played back, it was really a mega moment.

And then it went nowhere for two years.

So, I mean, there is the myth

that I kicked open the fuckin' rehearsal room door

to the theme tune from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly,

and said, "Everybody, stop what

"you're doing. I am here to make us all millionaires."

You know, it wasn't that at all, you know what I mean?

No, the truth is, he got on his hands and knees and said,

"Listen, I'll do anything,

"just, please, let me be in your band."

I said, "Get up off your hands and

"knees, son. You're all right. You can do it."

I think I've got a picture of it somewhere.

For that 18 months to two years, we never gave up.

If nothing else, we were dedicated.

Yeah, I loved it. I loved it.

That was our home for a bit.

When everyone was in the Hacienda popping pills and that,

and all my mates would be knocking on the door going,

"What are you doing now?"

"I'm going down to the fucking rehearsal room."

The whole fucking city was, like, just immersed in this music

that didn't make sense to me, you know what I mean?

We weren't the best musicians, but we had spirit, man,

and that was lacking massively at that point.

I always thought that we were greater than the sum of our parts,

you know what I mean?

Bonehead?

He was kind of the glue that held it all together.

God bless him.

If anything, I'd say Bonehead was the spirit of Oasis.

He's a top musician and all, Bonehead.

It's like he can play anything,

but he's a mental cunt and I loved his mad side.

So me and him would get up to mad shit together, you know what I mean?

Guigsy? Guigs brought a calmness to it all.

He never got flustered.

Loved cricket and Doctor Who, and weed and Man City.

I'd say fifth after that was being in Oasis.

I'd say that came a lowly fifth.

Guigsy, chilled out motherfucker, man.

Lovely lad, but just a complete and utter fucking stoner.

Tony was a person that I shared a room in the early days, you know,

and I really, really got on with Tony. Really nice person.

Very Irish in his ways, you know. Came from a massive Irish family.

Definitely the quiet one.

The one who was most reserved.

None of them lot had kids, none of them had responsibility.

I had a different outlook on life.

I always had my daughter in the back of my head.

That moulded me.

Oasis was going for about maybe six months, a year,

and I was writing songs just to amuse myself,

and then one night, I went down with a song and everything changed.

# Maybe I don't really want to know

# How your garden grows

# Because I just want to fly

# Lately did you ever feel the pain?

# In the morning rain

# As it soaks you to the bone

# Maybe I just want to fly

# I want to live I don't want to die

# Maybe I just want to breathe

# Maybe I just don't believe

# Maybe you're the same as me

# We see things they'll never see

# You and I, we're gonna live forever... #

And Bonehead, he was saying, "You've not just fucking written that.

"That's no way that's your song."

Well, I wouldn't believe it.

For someone to come in a room and just go,

"Oh, I'll play you one of my songs," and then play you Live Forever.

It's like, "Fuck Off!

"You didn't write that." He said, "Why didn't I?"

I said, "Because listen to it!"

You know, I thought, "Wow! What a song! You didn't write it."

"Yeah, I did." "No, you didn't."

I knew enough about music and about

songs to know that that was a great song,

and then one followed another.

And it's like, "No, this happening now.

"And even if no-one else takes any notice of it, this is happening."

I didn't really get involved with the music, kind of thing.

I was, like, "Look, that's your thing. You do that.

"I'll just be cool as fuck over here."

Once they were in a band,

I knew they weren't going to listen to me about steady jobs.

They were up and down the country, and I would say,

"Oh, you might be lucky tonight."

And I'd say to Noel, "Any luck, Noel?"

"No." Then they'd go off again somewhere else.

I spend my life worrying about them.

We didn't have one single paragraph written about us, ever.

No-one even said we were shit.

Completely and utterly fucking ignored.

I kind of had a feeling it had happened, man.

I don't know what the consequences would have been without it happening

because it was, like, if it didn't happen,

the world would be black, you know what I mean?

We were sharing a rehearsal room

with an all-girl band called Sister Lovers.

Unbeknown to us, one of the girls in the band, Debbie Turner,

God bless Debbie, was an ex-girlfriend of Alan McGee's,

the head of the coolest record label in England.

We were asking her what they're up to

and they were saying, "We're going up to do this gig."

I think I was probably being quite cocky, actually, in saying,

"Oi, Noel, we're playing in Glasgow,"

which, then, for an unsigned band to get a gig outside Manchester,

that was like playing Glastonbury.

And we were like, "Well, how the fuck have you got a gig and not us?"

She said, "Why don't you come with us?

"Be on the bill, kind of thing."

And we were like, "Yeah, Glasgow? Fuck it, let's do it."

For the pure love of it.

"If we all put in £25 each, we can hire a splitter van

"and get up there, kip in the van, do the gig, get back. Yay!"

So we hired a van out,

smoking weed, all that nonsense, drinking.

You know one of them days where you just go,

"It's fucking going to be the day today."

Maybe it was the drugs or something.

We get there really early and we say, "We're Oasis from Manchester.

"We've come here to play tonight."

And the guy said, "There's no band down here."

I said, "Yeah, yeah, it's all right, we're with Debbie"

And he's like, "No, no, no, no, no fucking way."

I think we said, "Well, if they're

"not playing, we're not going to play.

"We'll do a really short set,"

which wasn't hard cos I think we only had five songs anyway.

Then Oasis were allowed to play.

So we went on, we got to do four songs

and we didn't think anything of it.

Debbie didn't even know that I was coming up to that gig.

I'd been an evil, twisted fucker.

I thought that I would show up to put her on edge.

# What was that sound ringing around your brain?

# Today was just a blur

# You've got a head like a ghost train

# You're the outcast

# You're the underclass

# But you don't care

# Because you're living fast... #

At the end, there was just lots of

feedback and a smattering of applause.

I really do believe some things are meant to fucking be.

I was standing there with my kid sister, Susan.

She immediately went, "You should sign these,"

and I'm like, "Let's hear the second song."

And it's like, "I'm signing these!"

And the third song, "I'm definitely signing these!"

And I sort of, like, went up to Noel and I said,

"I'm Alan McGee. Do you want a record deal?"

And I said, "Who with?"

And he went, "Creation Records," and I kind of recognised him.

And that was it!

I don't remember anybody highfiving in the back of the van

thinking, "Hooray, this is it!"

I remember going back to Manchester

and getting into where I was living, you know,

at, what, six o'clock in the morning.

And my then missus, Louise, was getting ready to go to work.

And I said,

"Creation Records have offered us a record deal,"

and she started crying.

She knew then that, you know, that was going to be the end of us.

I remember the day he came back and told me he had the record deal.

And of course I thought, "Oh, this is great."

I never really thought it would go the way it did, though.

Liam says, "All I want, Mam,

"is to earn a bit of money," he says,

"and get myself some new clothes."

And then it went haywire.

Mam was an angel, still is.

Not impressed by all this

rock 'n' roll business, and rightly so.

You know, when I think of those times, do you know what I mean,

she kind of brought us up on her own, really.

And three lads, particularly one of them being Liam,

it was very tricky.

I mean, she gave it all up for us, you know what I mean?

I wanted to make her proud.

I wanted to get her to stop from doing, like, three fucking jobs,

put her feet up, you know what I mean? And have nice things.

I hated it when I came over here first.

It was a big shock, I'm telling you,

to come to a big city like Manchester.

Oh, I must have cried for about six months.

It was after the New Year, I think it was 1963,

I went to the Carousel and met him there.

Tommy Gallagher.

We got married after about nine or ten months.

And that was it!

He was lovely when I met him, like.

Paul arrived ten months after I was married.

Then Noel arrived a year after that again.

We were dressed identical.

She used to knit our clothes.

So you can imagine, you've got no choice.

You couldn't say, "I don't like them, Mum,"

because she's just spent four years knitting you a jumper.

Liam arrived five and a half years after, which was great.

Now, that was the best time with the kids.

I think there was always that bit of jealousy with Liam and Noel.

I idolised Paul and Noel because there were only the two of them,

and Noel was absolutely beautiful when he was a baby,

and then of course Liam comes along, takes the limelight off you.

He probably thought, "Urgh!"

But you could tell the disagreements that was there with them.

I was glad they were together in a band.

I would not have wanted Liam in a band without Noel.

But it all happened too quick,

just too quick altogether.

Good evening, Great Britain!

Hello!

Oasis, are you down there?

-We certainly are.

-Do you fancy having a bit of a chat?

Go on, then.

"Go on, then." There's a story about you lot getting signed to Creation.

Alan McGee saw you in a club in Glasgow. Is that right?

Don't believe the hype.

No, he did, yeah.

There was, like, seven people there,

-I think, and he was two of them.

-Right.

-And he signed us there and then, on the spot.

-Was he drunk?

He actually thinks we're the greatest band in the fucking world.

He's phoned me up, at fucking five o'clock in the morning,

going, "You know, man,

"we're going to annihilate the fucking world, man!"

McGee wanted Bring It On Down to be the first single

and I was fine with that. I love that song.

They're just... It's punk.

"You're the outcast. You're the underclass.

"You don't care, but you're living fast."

I just loved it.

I can't say why Bring It On Down was chosen,

but it wasn't coming together.

I don't know what the fuck was wrong with it, like.

I mean, it would become apparent why that session didn't work.

It's because our drummer at the time wasn't the most consistent

from one fucking bar to the next, never mind one day to the next.

And that's his big moment, that, a fucking riff.

"Just fucking do it in time, son."

Fucking hell, we're up against it here.

We'd not recorded anything.

Why I chose to write a new song

as opposed to record any of the others off of Definitely Maybe

is still a little bit of a mystery.

Noel's got the riff, but that's all he's got,

so they're just kind of knocking this little thing,

which all bands do, you know, a little riff.

Someone had sent out for Chinese, or fish and chips or something.

Or Chinese fish and chips.

I went in the back room

and, as bizarre as it sounds, wrote Supersonic

in about however long it takes

six other guys to eat a Chinese meal.

Then he came back in the room with us.

He said, "Look, I've just written another song."

And we nailed it and mixed it that night.

Rapid, because that's what we'd been

doing every night in the Boardwalk, you know,

and it sounded massive.

Give it up for Oasis, making their TV debut with Supersonic.

# I need to be myself

# I can't be no-one else

# I'm feeling supersonic

# Give me gin and tonic

# You can have it all

# But how much do you want it?

# You make me laugh... #

We'd done gigs before that and there were people coming along

because they'd read about us in the press.

But nobody knew any of the songs.

On the day that Supersonic came out,

bang, the crowd were right there,

and I remember people singing the lyrics to Supersonic.

You know, they're singing your words

back that you've nonsensically wrote down

at fucking three o'clock in the morning.

# You need to find a way for what you want to say

# But before tomorrow

# Cos my friend said he'd take you home

# He sits in a corner all alone

# He lives under a waterfall

# Nobody can see him

# Nobody can ever hear him call... #

We'd play a town, we'd go off and do the next, do the next,

and then come back to that one you

did a few weeks before and do it again.

Trouble seemed to find us at any given point.

We were barred from a full chain of hotels

and honestly, no-one would take us anywhere.

I do remember one hotel, the whole bedroom went out of the window,

mattress, pillows, everything.

If it moves, fling it.

I could never understand it, you know, hotel rooms being smashed up.

That's like hard work.

You'd get a sweat on.

What do you do? Go to bed at ten o'clock every night?

I don't think so, you know what I mean? You only get it once.

You're going to live it to the full.

Have it! And we did!

You can't ask a 21-year-old lad to be professional, it's like...

"I don't even understand that word. What are you on about?"

You're feeling supersonic? Go to bed at half nine!

"Give me gin and tonic"? Get my head down at about half ten.

Fuck off, mate, you know what I mean?

There was something very different about this band.

It just had a devilish, belligerent, filthy little sound to it.

Coyley could really mix sound in little clubs.

He was really good at making it sound fucking epic.

No, I didn't understand what "feeling supersonic" meant,

but I'm with you, whatever it is, I'd die for you right now.

That's how I felt about Oasis.

Thank you very much.

Did you get your friends working for you then,

so you can tour around in a big group?

No, it's just so we can exploit them.

Thing is, if we didn't have them working for us when we're away,

they'd be burgling our houses.

So it's best to have them on the road with us.

You're being hyped as the best band around at the moment.

Is all the hype true?

-Yeah.

-It is? Good.

The best band about today on the planet.

It's a fact.

# Ah, shake along with me... #

We're in a band, we're into football,

we're into taking drugs, and meeting women

and all the rest of it, right?

We won't deny anything that's been written about us.

Why should we? They want to write about it, fine.

Our music will stand the test of time. That is a fact.

Right, all this media hype

and all this thing about us being this, that, and the other, right,

we'll be dead in a year's time.

Everyone will have forgotten about it.

The records that we make will be in the shops forever.

# Shake along with me... #

It was a wild tour.

At one point, we were going to

Amsterdam to support this band from Wigan, The Verve.

Our first international gig.

So this guy picked us up in a van, and he's going to be our roadie.

Jason Rhodes.

Marcus got in touch and said,

"Right, do you want to go to Amsterdam?"

I went, "Yeah!"

Up your burn!

I said to him, "All right, nice to meet you.

"Fucking forget that. Did they give you a float?"

And he said, "No, no, no, that's for petrol."

I said, "Never mind petrol."

And we took the float off him and then spent about an hour

driving around Manchester getting drugs. And then set off.

Get on the ferry.

I don't know how we get on the ferry cos we're pissed,

but we get on this ferry.

As fate would have it, there's a load of West Ham fans

on this overnight ferry. It's got a

casino on it and a fucking night club.

The Thursday night ferry to "The 'Dam."

Who goes to Amsterdam on a ferry for the weekend?

What kind of clientele?

The drink of choice for a few hours

was champagne and Jack Daniels slammers.

The next thing is that sporadic

fighting is breaking out all round us, really.

Liam is very excited by the prospects of a lot of chaos going on

and he goes and joins in.

Yeah, it was fucking mayhem, man, I loved it.

You can see him running through the windows along the deck.

He's having a great time.

He looks like he's in a school playground chasing leaves.

Liam at one point said they'd ran through a casino

and he flung all the roulette shit

off the table as he was running past.

Then there was a fight broke out

and all I remember was it was a bit Benny Hill.

The next time I see him, he's still running,

but he's got policemen running after him.

Someone's punched someone, someone's kicked someone.

Someone's got nicked, then we're handcuffed

and sent down to the bottom of the boat. We get locked up.

Woke up the next day and I spoke to the Customs and I said,

"Look, you know, I'm kind of missing four people.

"Do you know where they are?"

We were heading back. We didn't have any money,

couldn't phone anyone, couldn't do nothing.

I can remember getting to the hotel and having to ring Marcus and Alan

and they're going, "You fucking what?! You what?!"

And he says, "You've fucking blown it, you've blown it."

But that was punk rock, man! I just went, "Fuck them!"

I never listened to a word those

clowns said anyway, you know what I mean?

I called McGee, and I'll never

forget this and this is another reason why I love McGee.

I said, "Are you sitting down? I've got some news.

"Everybody's been arrested."

The only word he said was, "Brilliant."

A hell of a start, that, isn't it?

That's a great first day at work. Love it!

Oasis were deported from Holland last week

after they were involved in a

drunken brawl on a cross-Channel ferry.

The Creation act were forced to cancel...

I thought it was great. That's how I want my rock 'n' roll stars to act.

Stick up for themselves, get in a bit of shenanigans and that's it.

We lived to fight another day.

To me, it felt right.

The thing about getting thrown off ferries,

blah, blah, blah, getting deported is summat that I'm not proud about.

Well, I am.

Right, well, if you're proud about getting thrown off ferries,

why don't you go and support

West Ham and get the fuck out of my band?

These lot think it's rock 'n' roll to get thrown off a ferry.

-No, I don't.

-To get... Shut up!

These lot think it's rock 'n' roll to get...

Shut the fuck up, man!

These lot think...

Am I going to have to say this or are you going to shut up?

-Is this my question?

-This is your question.

No, I ain't a hooligan. I'm not a hooligan. Right?

Obviously once you get that reputation,

there's always someone who's going to go, "Well, I'll show them."

If they'd never been in the paper,

having a ruck, that probably wouldn't have happened.

There was a full section of the tour,

it was just going off every night.

I felt that people were turning up to cause trouble.

It was getting me down, if I'm being honest.

Fucking dick!

CHEERING

We were getting a reputation as these bad boys of rock 'n' roll.

"That's all fucking great,

"but can we talk about the music first?"

I think any band worth their salt, it's not about just the music.

If you haven't got that kind of

behaviour and you've just got great tunes,

then you're fucking pretty boring, as far as I'm concerned.

It's about both.

When both come together, you'll have greatness.

We showed their video a good couple of months ago.

They've wasted no time in releasing a new single Shakermaker.

Noel and Liam from Oasis.

Thanks for interrupting your hectic schedule.

What's it like being brothers in a band?

He's speechless. Look at that.

It's all right. I think it's all right, me.

I think it's very, very funny.

I mean, if you row, what sort of things do you row about?

Everything. Everything. We don't even have to row.

All we got to do is look at each other in a certain kind of way

and we row without even opening our mouth.

We're just going "grrr" inside our heads, you know what I mean?

I hate the term "sibling rivalry," but that's effectively what it is.

I know my brother better than anybody else.

Liam's like a dog and I'm like a cat.

Cats are very independent creatures.

They don't give a fuck. Right bastards.

Dogs are just fucking, "Play with me, play with me.

"Please fucking throw that ball for me."

Because they fucking need some company.

It's as basic as that. Can't change the way that you are.

I'm a cat, OK? That's just what I am.

I've accepted it. I'm a bit of a bastard.

What can I say, you know? I'm a bit of a cunt.

They're two brothers, grew up together,

one's one way, one's the other.

Noel has a lot of buttons.

Liam has a lot of fingers. It's that simple, really.

It's about a power struggle, is what it is.

It's about me being in charge

and everybody directing everything towards me,

and Liam being pissed off about it.

That's basically what starts it all.

I think it all stems down to when he bought a stereo years ago

when we shared a room.

I think one night I've come in pissed,

and I couldn't find the light switch,

so I pissed all over his fucking new stereo.

I think it basically boils down to that. He's held that grudge.

Need to let go of them grudges, brother!

Democracy never works in a band.

It's been proven a million times.

And the trouble you had with Oasis is

you had two people vying for the prime minister job.

That tension, that antagonism, it drove that band,

and it killed that band, is what it did.

No lifting of the arms.

He's got a better stance than me.

He's a dick! Official!

Yeah, but, anyway. Right?

It's all about what's inside

the fucking tin of beans that counts,

not what the fucking wrapper is or how much it costs,

or who you buy it off, or what till you get it from.

Or even whether it's your Spar,

your Kwiksave, or your fucking Sainsbury's.

Man, it's about what's inside the tin of beans, man.

And, like, if it's right, it's right.

If this ever goes on, like, a video, for the kids, right,

I would apologise, but I'm not going to! Because he's a prick!

Check it out!

One-two, one-two, one. One-two.

When people go, "Oh, what's the best thing about Oasis?"

It was just getting that chance to record our album

because we knew we weren't going to fuck it up.

We were ripping, man!

So, we'd been to Monnow Valley.

We recorded what we thought was a great album.

Everybody else surrounding the band kept chanting this mantra,

"Oh, it doesn't sound like they do live,

"it doesn't sound like they do live."

I was like, "Well, who does it fucking sound like, Spandau Ballet?"

# Is it my imagination

# Or have I finally found something worth living for? #

I said to Noel Gallagher, "It's not good enough."

I knew what Oasis should sound like cos I'd seen it live

and I just knew the performances were wrong.

At one point he was so frustrated by the whole thing,

he went, "Look, why don't we just

"put it out and we'll get it right in the second album?"

And I went, "You'll never get to the second album."

# Cos when it comes on top

# You got to make it happen... #

It was not happening. The pressure was definitely on.

I phoned up Marcus one Saturday morning.

I'd be interested to know why they took that risk,

just putting me in charge of that.

No track record whatsoever.

The thinking is, "Who does the live sound?"

"Mark does. So let's go do it live."

Time for plan B on Definitely Maybe.

And thank God for that, you know,

because we all knew that Coyle understood us.

He always made us sound how we should sound.

We hit upon this system in the Sawmills.

Everything was crowded around the drum kit.

We'd just do three takes of each song and then move on.

I would have thought that

that album was recorded in three days, maximum.

But I started mixing and it didn't really sound very good.

I think at that stage I'd took it as far as I could.

I do remember taking a cassette, the final mix that we did with Mark,

to McGee's flat

and sensing that he was completely underwhelmed by it.

And me thinking, "Oh, fuck it, I give up!"

Marcus announces that he's going to get Owen Morris to do a mix on spec.

Marcus got me in because I don't think he knew anybody else.

So I was very lucky to be in the right place.

And I'm thinking, "What has he done? You know, I don't get it."

He did one mix and it was just outrageous.

We did a session. That's where I met Liam.

And I told him he sounded like John Lennon

and he was like, "You got it!"

At, like, one o'clock in the afternoon.

Liam, lead vocal, Rock 'N' Roll Star.

# I live my life in the city and there's no easy way out

# The day's moving just too fast for me... #

Noel was like, "That sounds great. That'll do."

And they let me do exactly what I wanted.

And there was this new box

and you could make things twice as loud

without going into digital distortion on your CD.

It was in every fucking jukebox in the country, twice as loud.

It was funny as fuck, man.

It's just a pity that Definitely Maybe came out

and then we didn't see Alan for a couple of years.

I took too many drugs.

More and more and more, that's what we were all about,

and eventually it was too much.

It's just that's what happens, isn't it? When you play with fire, mate.

Some people can last the pace, some people can't.

Do you know what? I don't regret any of that shit.

That's just life.

We didn't know it then but he was the last of a dying breed.

He's up there with the most

important people in my life, you know what I mean?

That's made a fucking real difference.

12 songs that are about being alive and having a good time.

About being happy. About enjoying yourself.

And then about being sad, you know what I mean?

But knowing that it can get better.

About everything. Just life.

Their debut album is already

being hailed as a classic of our time.

A year ago, they were playing to empty venues.

Last night, they embarked on their first UK sellout tour.

One of the biggest British bands since The Beatles.

There isn't a band like Oasis.

They're trying to get the youth

culture out of raves, taking drugs and stuff,

and back into the gigs, where they belong.

And they're really good, and Liam Gallagher is just gorgeous

and I'll have his children!

Our first single came out in England four months ago.

It went into the charts at number 32.

Everyone said an indie band can't do that.

Well, the album's gone out and it's gone in straight at number one

above Pavarotti, above Prince, even above Elvis.

The fastest-selling debut album of all time in England,

and quite deservedly so.

Here's Rock N' Roll Star. Here they are!

# That to me was just a day in bed

# I'm gonna take my car and drive real far

# You're not concerned about the way we are

# In my mind my dreams are real

# Now you're concerned about the way I feel

# Tonight I'm a rock 'n' roll star

# Tonight I'm a rock 'n' roll star

# It's just rock 'n' roll

# It's just rock 'n' roll

# It's just rock 'n' roll. #

Thank you very much.

CHEERING

So next thing you know, we were going to Japan.

What do you expect?

I've never been to Japan, so you think,

"All right, I'm prepared," you know.

No. Nothing ever on this planet was going to prepare me.

Japan! Japan!

We arrived in Japan and there were,

fucking, like, 1,000 girls at the airport.

People waiting for us and shouting my name!

"Liam, Liam! Noel! Guigs! Tony!"

It was just, like, "Fuck off! This is Japan?

"But they know my name?"

"Yeah, of course they do!" It got me and I loved it.

I loved every last minute of it.

Fucking hell, they followed us everywhere,

outside hotels, in the fucking foyer,

outside your room, in your fucking room, everywhere you went.

It was like mania, you know what I mean?

It was like what we'd always read about.

Yeah.

First time in Japan. First time on a jumbo plane.

It was just mental, you know what I mean? Just mad!

Just, you're all off your heads, and it's mad.

And it's top! I love youse all.

I absolutely loved Japan.

It was fucking mayhem.

Guigs wasn't too keen on it, he was like,

"Oh, I don't know what they're fussing about."

And I'm like, "Me, you fucking lunatic!

"That's what they're fussing about!"

Where's the toilet?

# Is it my imagination

# Or have I finally found something worth living for?

# I was looking for some action

# But all I found was cigarettes and alcohol... #

That might have been the one time in

my life where I thought, "Fucking hell! Wow!

"How has it landed here?

"Why are all these people who don't speak English

"obsessed with it already

"before we even fucking plugged in and played?"

# To spend your days in the sunshine

# You might as well do the white line

# Cos when it comes on top

# You got to make it happen

# You got to make it happen... #

I was writing for a Nancy boys'

magazine as far as they were concerned.

I knew that I was ten years older than them.

I was female, and it was all blokes.

I was a mum, and I just thought,

"Right. I'm going to stay up later than you.

"I'm going to drink more than you,

"I'm going to behave more badly than you,"

because I wasn't going to get this story otherwise.

The first night in Japan, we'd all been out,

and it would have been about three o'clock in the morning.

My head had just hit the pillow, and the phone rang.

"Who's calling me?"

I picked up the phone and it was Liam.

"Get down here now!"

So I walked down the corridor back into their room

and Liam said to me, and honestly, it was like he was shimmering,

he just said to me, "Do you believe in God? Do you think there's a God?"

And, I sort of looked at him and I said,

"How did we get on to this one?"

And he said, "Because I don't believe there's a God,

"because if there was a God, all that wouldn't have happened."

And I said, "What wouldn't have happened?"

I didn't know what he was on about.

There was all this pent-up simmering rage.

I was definitely angry with life and that, I guess, you know.

You know, I mean, shit with my dad and just life in general.

I was an angry young man,

so singing them songs sort of

released all my shit onto other people,

but in a good way, you know what I mean?

My dad, he used to knock my mam about.

There were many times when, like, it got like that.

He never touched me. I don't know why he didn't.

You know, sometimes you'd fucking... You'd want the crack

instead of having to witness it.

He used to kill Noel.

Noel was the one that got it the most.

I remember Noel once saying, "If

"you don't get out of here, Mam, and leave him,"

he says, "I'm going to kill him."

And I thought, "Oh, Jesus. You can't be doing time for the likes of him."

Yeah, my dad used to beat the living daylights out of me.

I've never felt compelled

to either talk about it or write about it.

I know that I think it's no-one else's business.

You can't let that kind of thing affect you in any way

because then you're carrying

that weight all the way through life.

He always thought you'd never

leave him because you had nowhere to go to.

"You'll never leave me." I said, "Won't I? Try it."

One night, we got the courage to get out,

and I left him a knife and a fork and a spoon,

and I think I left him too much.

He never once come after us. Wouldn't dare.

It was a sense of, "See you later. We're free!"

It definitely affected them, because they got very bitter.

I wouldn't say I was scarred,

but everybody's childhood makes them what they are.

You can't think about it too deeply

because it would fucking drive you mad.

I think it benefitted me in the way

that it made me withdraw into my own world

and from that came the learning to play the guitar.

I guess, in some way,

my old fella beat the talent into me.

On Live 105, Oasis.

Supersonic, yeah?

The contrast of getting on a plane and coming from Japan,

where the mania was like, fucking, "Blam!"

Then getting to America, where nobody had heard of us,

that didn't freak me out.

I was ready to start again, you know what I mean?

But I also knew

that you won't get anywhere on attitude in the States.

You've got be able to play.

I went over there with definitely a fucking chip on my shoulder,

but a good chip, you know what I mean?

It was like, "Look, we're going to

"fucking have youse and if you like us, great,

"if you don't, give a shit."

American Customs then asked a question

that would fucking blow Liam's mind, you know what I mean?

Right, who've we got here, then?

He's a singer.

"What's the purpose of your visit?"

"You what?" "Not a fucking visit.

"I'm not visiting, mate. I'm a fucking rock star.

"I'm here to steal your soul."

"OK, you can follow me now, sir. You're coming this way."

There's always pressure that's on the bands to break America, as well,

you know, but breaking America quite often breaks the fucking band

because they're that concerned about it and it's that vast. Fuck me, man.

You have a good time and all that, but I'll tell you what,

when you get home, your carpet don't look the same.

And we've got the two Gallagher brothers

from the band Oasis.

And you're playing at the Whisky tonight.

-Is it sold out, do you know?

-Of course it's sold out.

OK, and what have you been doing?

We've just been doing loads of interviews, and gigs.

Working. Melissa's been making us work dead hard. She's on top.

I think what they said was there were some interviews

and hanging out and doing work and stuff.

-You're right.

-I'll be the translator here.

Diddle, diddle, diddle, diddle.

Anything else?

Someone had discovered the joys of crystal meth,

which is effectively like ninja speed.

It's not even fun, you know what I mean? It's a fucking horrible drug.

I don't know who fucking got it,

but it was there and we all thought it was coke.

And we were doing big fucking lines

of it and it just fucking kept us up for days.

Everybody had a dig at it.

The only problem with that is that you couldn't get to sleep.

You couldn't sleep.

Right, I don't mind having a dig at anything as long as, you know,

about half ten at night, I have a cup of tea and go to bed.

The Whisky a Go Go on Sunset Strip, fucking hell,

it's the most famous club in LA.

We get to the sound check,

everybody's been up all night and looked like it.

All right, LA, Whisky a Go Go. This is the spot.

The best band in Britain.

I say they're the best band in the universe.

None other than Oasis!

All right, Oasis!

And there you have it.

This one's called Rock N' Roll Star.

# I live my life in the city and there's no easy way out... #

Everyone was appalling.

Every member of the crew, every member of the fucking band,

because of crystal meth.

Phil Smith, our roadie,

who was responsible for putting the set lists out,

for some reason, my set list was different to everybody else's.

# You're not concerned about the way we are... #

They were all playing different songs at the same time.

"Whoa! What's going on here?"

# Tonight I'm a rock 'n' roll star... #

It was a shambles, man. It was an absolute fucking shambles.

# Tonight I'm a rock 'n' roll... #

Do it again for you, you know?

The whole thing just fell apart.

I've never seen it with this band before.

All right, Rock N' Roll Star. Again.

I think there were a lot of tension on stage,

a lot of gesturing between Noel and Liam.

Well, more from Liam to Noel.

And then the tambourine came flying.

I think he said summat

and I fucking launched the tambourine at him or summat.

Not like the Bruce Lee throwing star or a fucking lightsabre.

It was a tambourine.

But when it hit me on the shoulder it went, "Tshhh!"

Out of time, I might add.

It was lucky I didn't fucking

launch a monitor at him or summat, or a fucking drummer.

What?

I could see Liam was going behind

one of the amps throughout the gig, man,

and he was just snorting lines of crystal meth on stage.

"That's going to go tits up, isn't it?"

It was a bit of a catastrophe.

Yeah. I was in a fury.

I left a little bit of me on that stage that night.

After that night, it was more "me and them" as opposed to "us."

I remember going back to the hotel

and saying to Maggie, our tour manager...

I think I took the float off her.

Noel was quite upset about it.

He said, "Can you give me money?"

And I said, "Well, what do you want?"

He goes, "Well, enough money to go back home."

So I just gave him, like, 700. That's all I had, I said, you know.

He said, "Can I have my passport?" So I gave him his passport.

But I remember ringing up Marcus, saying, "He's going to leave,"

and he was like, "No, no, no, he'll be fine, be fine.

"He's going to sleep it off, it'll be fine, be fine."

I was like, "Hm, I don't think so!"

I don't know what I was thinking.

Maybe I thought it was the end. I really don't know.

He takes the money and runs.

I remember some fucking soppy note

coming through the door, saying, like,

"How can we go on like brothers?"

It was like, "Fuck right off!"

So that got rolled up

and then another line of crystal

meth went up the old fucking tubular bells.

So, I woke up in the morning

and I found a note underneath my door

and I opened it up, and I knew it.

He said, "I'm leaving." "Bollocks!"

He's gone missing. Nobody knows where he is.

There's our songwriter gone.

"Shit! I think it's really over, isn't it?"

I came up with this idea.

I got his bill and then I traced all the last numbers he rang.

And then I noticed there was one number "415,"

and I thought, "Ah, San Francisco."

We've just been to San Francisco

and I knew that he had some little fling over there.

Marcus said, "I'm going to ring the number."

So he gets her on the phone and he says,

"You know, we're not saying anything,

"but obviously, legally, he's a missing person, you know.

"We're going to have to have to get the police involved."

And the minute he hung up the phone, I said, "He's there."

Let me see if I can get my story straight here.

I'd met this girl at an Oasis gig.

I must have phoned her and said, "It's fucked up here."

And I got on a plane and flew off to San Francisco.

I don't know what the fuck I thought I was doing.

I was just going to, like, disappear, you know.

It was quite a traumatic time.

But Talk Tonight was written about those few days

and out of that came that great song.

So it was meant to be.

It was meant to be.

# Sleeping on a plane

# You know you can't complain

# You took your last chance once again

# I landed stranded

# Hardly even knew your name

# I want to talk tonight

# Until the morning light

# About how you saved my life

# You and me see how we are... #

I kind of sat in this girl's flat,

probably doing too many fucking drugs

and being a bit fucking mad.

Unbeknown to me, they'd found out, "This is where we think he is."

If I close my eyes now, I can't even picture the girl.

I can't remember her name. It's a bit of a blur.

You meet them people in America,

you don't meet them anywhere else in the world.

They take you under their wing, you know.

They're spiritual people is what they are.

She was one of them.

She was saying, "What, you're going to leave?

"And what are you going to do?"

And I guess at that point I'm thinking,

"Actually, that's a fucking good point.

"What am I going to do? I can't sing."

I wasn't a singer then. I'm no front man.

I just needed a bit of time out, I guess.

I may have been trying to teach somebody a lesson.

I failed miserably.

I think we'd heard about a couple of days that, "Yes, he's coming back."

It means the band's staying together

rather than going home and signing on the dole.

And obviously, by the time he's about to turn up,

everyone's fucking shitting it, because, you know,

because he can put on a stern face.

You know, he can unsettle you.

The new era started when he walked back into that hotel

and everything was different after that.

And we all had to be different

because if you're not with him, you're going home.

I'd written these new songs.

Someone had booked a recording session.

Like this was Oasis' fucking cure for everything.

"Let's go in the studio."

Talk Tonight, well, that's one moody fucking song, that.

It shows that delicate side to him

that you just don't really see.

He doesn't show these emotions, Noel. He never did.

Apart from when you stick him

behind the glass with a microphone,

and then he can let this emotion loose that he's got

and suddenly you can see Noel.

You kind of see, almost,

a little boy or summat, you know.

Something very, very innocent and very pure.

They're my favourite moments.

It's like a door opens and a bit of light comes in,

and then the door's shut again, you know, and he's calling you a twat.

# Some might say that sunshine follows thunder... #

In those days, I would write every day because I was fucking so driven.

I recognised that I was in a moment

and everything that I wrote felt great.

There's a strange melancholy to Some Might Say

considering I knew it was going to be number one

before I even sat and wrote it.

I fucking knew it.

What is going on in this room now?

You can walk next door to Boyzone, yeah, go in there.

They'll be like, "Hey, fuck. Oh, Jesus Christ...

"We've got to get this fucking thing together now,

"because it's not in time.

"It's not in time, just fucking me and you going like, 'Huh!'"

You go in there and you hear, "Wa-hey! You all right?"

You come in this room and it's like, you know, it's the funny farm.

And that's what it's all about, it's like,

"Do what you friggin' want."

If you want to go like that, do it,

because it don't mean nothing. If you want to go... Do that.

If you want to go... "Hey, fuck man." Like, "Hey, fuck," right?

You can do that.

But if you want to just do this,

what I'm doing here now, just do it, because it's like...

This is an advert for not taking drugs.

This is an advert? It's an advert?

This is an advert for not getting into chemical abuse, big time.

No, no, hey, hey, hey!

People who know, know that I have not been a fucking...

I've never been an abuser.

I've never been an abuser. I've been a user.

I've never been an abuser, man. Nothing to do with drugs.

It's to do with the air, the air, man, and music.

And that is it, that is it, and I'm ranting now, come on!

You know what I mean? It's right.

That's it. That's it.

Giving a performance of their brand new song,

it's the best song around. It is Some Might Say!

# Some might say that sunshine follows thunder

# Go and tell it to the man who cannot shine... #

Yeah, and that was Tony's last gig.

Yeah, I'd probably made up my mind,

knowing that Champagne Supernova was coming up

and Don't Look Back In Anger, and Wonderwall,

that he wasn't going to be able to play those songs.

It had become apparent recording Definitely Maybe.

We spent a lot of time fucking about trying to get the drums right.

And it was never right.

When we were doing Some Might Say and stuff,

Noel was like, to me,

"That's the fucking last time he's ever in the fucking studio."

I was going to Tony, "Tony, you've got to get your shit together, Tony.

"Or bye, Tony."

Drummers are really smelly, useless, talentless losers, man.

I mean, fancy having a job where you bang things all day.

I thought orangutans do that, don't they?

Gorillas and monkeys and that.

They just bang things, like bang

dustbin lids on their heads and all that.

Well, that's what they do, isn't it?

And drummers just do it and get paid loads of money for it.

Fucking sack them all. Drum machines, I say, man.

I'm telling you, can't wait to say I'm in a dance band.

Press the button. Doesn't answer back, don't have to feed it.

Don't have to pay no money, don't have to buy it any drugs.

Don't have to get it any women, don't have to do nothing.

Put it on a flight, "Fuck it, in the back of the truck,"

and never have to speak to it again.

As it went through that American tour, it got really nasty with Tony,

and you'd have to feel for the boy.

I'd hold my hands up and say I gave him a terrible time as well.

And I shared a room with him.

Tony would just pour it out, you know.

"Fucking hell, Bonehead," do you know?

"People are getting at me, and people are doing this."

It was hard for me to be the guy in the middle.

Maybe I talked to Noel, talked to Liam,

"Look, go easy on the guy, man."

I was quite a reserved guy.

I think people might have looked at that as some kind of weakness,

but, no, I didn't want to be the leader.

I'll sit back here and do my drums.

You know, like, when a pack of feral dogs exclude one puppy,

it became like that, I think.

Our kid, I just think, made his mind up, you know what I mean?

and just didn't fancy him.

"He's not going to be able to do these next songs."

Or "I don't want him to do it," you know what I mean?

Yeah, I mean, I'm gutted for him, but it is what it is, man.

I had an argument with Noel.

He said something, and I finally went, "Fuck you, mate."

You know what I mean? "Fuck off."

I told him in no uncertain words what I thought of him.

I kind of regret that a touch.

We might have had words. It's quite likely. I don't know.

Whatever he says is probably true. I wouldn't deny it at all.

I was at home and Marcus phoned.

He says, "Are you sat down?

"Listen, I've got some bad news for you. The band want you out."

I was shellshocked.

Still, to this day, it's with me.

I think about it every day, believe it or not.

Hard for him, you know, poor old Tony,

but all of a sudden it's like, "Shit! We need another drummer."

Paul Weller's drummer had a brother called Alan.

And I was going, "Right, cool, I'm arsed, what does he look like?"

"Smegly little mod."

"Cool. Let's get him down here".

And I'd never met this guy before.

He starts talking about the drums

and I'm like, "I'm fucking not interested in how you can play.

"As long as you look the part, you'll do.

"By the way, you're doing Top of The Pops on Wednesday."

And that was his first thing.

# Some might say

# We will find a brighter day

# Some might say

# We will find a brighter day

# Yeah, cos I've been standing at the station

# In need of education in the rain

# You made no preparation

# For my reputation once again

# Some might say

# Some might say... #

Morning Glory was incredibly quick and easy.