O is for Oasis

Slip inside the eye of your mind. Don't you know you might find. A better place to play.

So begins Don't Look Back in Anger, one of my favorite Oasis songs. This track makes me think about the Nineties and about one of the decade's most profound dramas Our Friends in the North, as our heroes walked slowly away into obscurity under the bridges of the Tyne to the sound track of Oasis, their parts that dated back decades now over, the identities lost in the modern world.

Music appeared to reach its zenith in the Nineties and then it faded away. But we shouldn't look back in anger. It's a good philosophy for life. While I don't generally favor the Biblical turn the other cheek mentality that can be translated as 'bitch slap me until I'm blue in the face,' there's much to be said for just walking away and finding yourself in another place where nobody knows your name.

It's strange that this should be the Oasis song that strikes a cord with me the most because the brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher appeared to look back in anger most of the time. Before turning back in anger and punching somebody in the face.

Oasis styled themselves on the Beatles, even if they were from the rival city of Manchester, rather than Liverpool. And for a while from 1994 to 1997 they were almost as big as the Beatles, before abruptly facing away.

Oasis had a raw and angry sound that seemed to come straight from the mean streets they grew up on. Their first hit Supersonic was taut and edgy. They were discovered by Creation Records co-owner Alan McGee, who invited them to play at King Tut's Wah Hut in Glasgow. Nobody recognized their name on the door but, by all accounts they bullied their way in, and stole the show.

Although Oasis were not originally seen as part of the Brit Pop movement, their epic battle with Blur for the Number One slot - primarily a media creation at the time - has forever associated them with the Brit Pop movement.

Blur's County House edged out Oasis' Roll With It. Oasis claimed there was a problem with the bar code on the single. Noel Gallagher later told a newspaper he hoped Damon Albarn and Alex James of Blur would "catch AIDS and die," later apologizing for the remark.

Noel Gallagher was the oldest and more sensible of the brothers.

His battles with his younger brother Liam, that often spilled over into violence, are the stuff of Oasis legend.

In 1994, for instance,  at a gig in LA, Liam,  under the influence of crystal meth, made offensive remarks about American audiences and assaulted Noel with a tambourine.

Oasis ultimately proved to be bigger than their nemesis Blur with an unprecedented run of 22 top 10 hits in the UK.

But they also went down faster and Blur's legacy remains stronger. The fame, mansions, swimming pools and girls, appeared to dull the edge of the Gallagher brothers and they lost their distinctive street fighting sound.

The Gallaghers did the normal band thing of splitting up and going solo. But they left a hell of a legacy. Let's hope they don't look back in anger.


Curious fact about Oasis - This hard edged northern band were named after a leisure center in southern Swindon of all places.