oasis morning glory tour

Liam Gallagher at the O2 review: a heartfelt celebration of Oasis' enduring power

A nniversary tours have become big business. But they don’t come much bigger than Liam Gallagher playing Oasis ’ generation-defining debut album Definitely Maybe in full.

At the first of four sold-out shows at London’s O2 Arena, it was clear just how much care Gallagher had put into these gigs. As well as recreating the album cover onstage with inflatable flamingos and a flickering television set, a six-piece band performed alongside a trio of backing vocalists to add new flair to those rumbling rock ‘n’ roll classics.

As well as the album in full, fans were treated to era-specific deep cuts, demos and b-sides. There was nothing from Gallagher’s celebrated solo career, and no easy crowd pleasers like Wonderwall either.

Leaning into the warmth of the occasion, Gallagher even put aside a decade of squabbling and seemingly dedicated the dreamy Half The World Away to his brother Noel, “one of the greatest songwriters ever”.

There was a heavy sense of nostalgia to the evening with a majority of the crowd eager to relive their youth. There were plenty of people who weren’t even alive when Definitely Maybe was released as well though.

Fathers and sons giddily screamed the lyrics to Rock & Roll Star to each other, while Liam’s son Gene opened the show with his band Villanelle. The whole gig was a multi-generational celebration of Oasis’ enduring legacy, with Gallagher due to take the same show to the Gen-Z playground of Reading and Leeds Festival in August.

When Oasis wrote Definitely Maybe, they had everything to prove and their music was a youthful blend of swaggering confidence, wide-eyed hope and determined escapism. That gritty optimism felt just as important on Thursday night, especially with the world outside the venue feeling increasingly heavy.

However, it seemed like not everyone was ready to go as deep down memory lane as Gallagher. ”You’re a f***ing strange bunch,” he told the crowd after the riotous Cigarettes & Alcohol saw the room explode in a flurry of flung pints after a somewhat muted response to folksy b-side (It’s Good) To Be Free and rare demo Lock All The Doors. “I’m not arsed about these old tracks,” he added, not fooling anyone.

The evening ended with a trio of Oasis’ biggest hits – Supersonic, Slide Away, Live Forever – before a second encore saw Liam Gallagher take on The Beatles’ I Am The Walrus, just like the good old days.

It's hard to tell if this tour was a trial run ahead of a proper Oasis reunion, or what remains of a failed reconciliation. Either way, this heartfelt celebration of one of the greatest debut albums of all time was as beautifully rowdy as you’d hope. Same again next year for (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?

The O2, 7, 10 and 11 June; theo2.co.uk

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The Complex Legacy of Oasis’ Classic ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory’

Twenty years since its release, the band's sophomore lp has aged spectacularly.

At a glance, it might seem as if Oasis is utterly indifferent to its legacy.

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During a recent Dallas tour stop, Noel Gallagher, one half of the band’s famously combustible fraternity who found life after Britpop superstardom with his High Flying Birds , treated Oasis songs with all the respect afforded back issues of NME tossed to the curb. He performed the songs—”Fade Away” or “Champagne Supernova”—not as tributes, but as obligations, grimly acknowledging the roars greeting the familiar chords with more of a wince than a grin. Yet, when the encore rolled around, the final song of the night threw Noel Gallagher’s true feelings about his past into stark relief.

There’s a casual brilliance to so much of Glory that its stature as one of the landmark albums of the 1990s seems a given.

As he struck up “Don’t Look Back in Anger”, in all of its John Lennon-aping glory , the 48-year-old singer-songwriter seemed to strike a truce with nostalgia, lending a line like “Please don’t put your life in the hands of a rock and roll band/Throw it all away” as much warmth as bitterness. It was this moment I remembered as I spent some time sifting through the three-disc reissue of the album that spawned “Anger”, Oasis’ seminal 1995 masterpiece (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (In keeping with the idea Oasis doesn’t feel any particular affinity for its past glories, the 20th   anniversary edition of Glory was actually released a year early, in late 2014.)

Like many of its contemporaries, the 11-track Glory , which has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, has aged spectacularly well, especially in light of bands formed in its wake—the Killers, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys and so on—trying (and often failing) to recreate the record’s specific blend of ego, vanity, skill and attitude. That the album was also the band’s sophomore effort, following the 1994 breakthrough Definitely Maybe , only enhances Oasis’ already formidable reputation.

Granted, at the time of its release, critics almost uniformly dismissed Glory , writing it off as nothing more than a rehash of other, better British rock bands: “Throughout, it’s Gallagher’s way with a tune, any tune, that remains their trump card, as in the way ‘Some Might Say’ piles hook upon hook, shamelessly buttressing its assault on the memory: well, if that bit doesn’t get you humming, it suggests, how about this bit? Or this?” wrote the Independent ’s Andy Gill upon Glory ’s initial release .

Derivative, sure—glam pioneer Gary Glitter earned a co-writing credit on “Hello”, owing to the striking similarities between the Oasis song and his own 1974 tune “ Hello, Hello, I’m Back Again “—but in that sense, Oasis prefigured pop music’s eventual infatuation with hip-hop, sampling and mash-ups. What was sacrilegious in the mid-1990s is now utterly commonplace among the 21st century’s reigning pop stars—just consider Sam Smith’s brief kerfuffle over just how much Tom Petty influenced the sound of his smash hit “Stay With Me”.

But strip-mining your record collection for inspiration doesn’t mean much if you don’t have the chops to back it up. And in that sense, Oasis stands alone.

Much like the albums crafted by the Gallagher brothers’ beloved Beatles, there’s a casual brilliance to so much of Glory that its stature as one of the landmark albums of the 1990s, despite the critical establishment’s initial revulsion and dismissal of Oasis, seems a given. The album spawned six hit singles, including “Wonderwall”, “Some Might Say”, “Champagne Supernova”, “Roll With It” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger”, yet Glory is remarkably cohesive. The record, produced by Noel Gallagher with Owen Morris, unfolds with unhurried ease, fading in with the youthful bravado of “Hello” and slipping away with the languorous, liquid fade-out of “Supernova”.

Strip-mining your record collection for inspiration doesn’t mean much if you don’t have the chops to back it up. In that sense, Oasis stands alone.

It’s easy to get lost in the almost taffy-like give and take of lengthier tracks like “Some Might Say” or “Champagne Supernova”—listening to these songs 20 years later is to be reminded that British rock bands still stand alone when it comes to cultivating an almost tangible atmosphere on their albums. Delving into the second and third discs of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? ’s special edition puts the accomplishment in greater context.

The second disc, full of period B-sides taken from the UK singles, finds Oasis toggling between acoustic sensitivity (“Talk Tonight”; “Rockin’ Chair”) and snarling bombast (“Acquiesce” and “The Masterplan”), but with less finesse than is found on Glory proper. (Still, “Round Are Way”, a B-side from the Wonderwall single , might be the greatest Oasis track to ever miss out landing on a record.)

That Oasis, at that moment in its career, was able to demonstrate restraint and ruthlessly cull its absolute best speaks to the savvy of the Gallagher brothers and their band mates. The axiom about having your whole life to make your first record, but hardly any time to make your second certainly applies: 14 months elapsed between Oasis’ first and second LPs. Perhaps it was the Beatles influence again—just dive in and do your best, and let the work dictate the direction of things.

Another weapon in the band’s arsenal was its justly acclaimed live performances, which comprises the third disc. Culled from appearances at Earls Court, Roskilde, Knebworth and Tokyo’s Club Quattro, these 14 tracks, featuring nearly all of Glory , showcases a band at full force, attacking its songs with the gusto of a band eager to silence every last naysayer—the Roskilde version of “Roll With It” feels like standing inside of a jet engine.

Although it sounds like a backhanded compliment, it’s true: Oasis was very much the sum of its parts. The Gallaghers’ acrimonious chemistry notwithstanding, the sextet would not have achieved all that it did without those indelible songs, as well as its damn-the-torpedoes attitude. (The mind boggles to think of the Britpop wars unfolding in the age of Twitter.) Even if Oasis never caves to the desires of a generation that never saw them live— Oasis reunion rumors are a fixture of the British music press —they should, and hopefully do, look back not with anger or indifference, but justifiable pride.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsV74Es0DYw&w=420&h=315]

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(What's the Story) Morning Glory?

Best New Reissue

By Stuart Berman

Big Brother

September 29, 2014

It’s hard to remember now, but when (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? was released in the fall of 1995, Oasis were losers. Sure, their 1994 debut album  Definitely Maybe had gone straight to No. 1 on the UK albums chart, and sold several million copies worldwide. But in their first true test of post-success fortitude, Oasis could no longer claim the title of biggest rock band in the land. “Roll With It,” the teaser from Morning Glory , was released August 14, 1995—not coincidentally, the very same day as “Country House”, the jaunty new single from their bitter rivals in Blur (aka the London art-school yin to Oasis’ Mancunian street-tough yang). A year’s worth of tabloid sniping between the two groups—which hit its peak/nadir when Oasis architect Noel Gallagher declared that Blur’s Damon Albarn and Alex James should “catch AIDS and die” —had effectively come down to the UK chart equivalent of an after-school fistfight. And in this case, it was Oasis who walked away licking their wounds—that week, “Country House” outsold “Roll With It” by more than 50,000 copies to take the No. 1 spot.

As it should’ve: “Roll With It” is nobody’s favorite Oasis song and would be hard-pressed to crack a Top 20 list of the band’s all-time best. It's a catchy enough tune, sure, but its shoulder-shrugged message of “you gotta roll with it” felt atypically blasé coming from a band that had previously endorsed self-deification , immortality , and shagging well-heeled medical professionals in helicopters . However, for a band never encumbered by humility, the decision to go with Morning Glory ’s weakest song was, in retrospect, Oasis’ cockiest gesture yet: They were willing to take the first strike in the so-called Battle of Britpop because they knew it was only a matter time before they’d be delivering the knockout blow.

(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? would go on to sell more than twice as many copies in the UK as Blur’s contemporaneous  The Great Escape , and, over the following two years, it served as the unofficial soundtrack to  England's imminent changing of the guard . But, just as significantly, it achieved a metric of popularity that had proven so elusive to Oasis' Britpop peers: bonafide American success, with the album reaching number 4 on the Billboard charts and selling 3.5 million copies Stateside. ( The Great Escape , meanwhile, languished in the lower reaches of the Top 200.) For all their unibrowed laddism and two-fingered paparazzi salutes , Oasis projected a glamorous image of Englishness that was potent enough to stoke the Cool Britannia fancies of those North American Anglophiles who make trips to specialty shoppes to load up on Dairy Milk bars, but (unlike Blur) not so colloquial as to alienate the heartland. It’s the stuff upon which Austin Powers franchises and Brit-themed pub-chains would later be built.

Fortuitously arriving at the mid-point of the '90s—and representing the peak of a Britpop narrative that took root with the retro-rock renaissance of the Stone Roses and the La’s five years previous— (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? is Oasis' absolute pinnacle. If Definitely Maybe presented Oasis' raw materials—’60s psychedelia, ’70s glam and punk, Madchester groove— Morning Glory melted down and remoulded them into a towering sound that was unmistakably their own, with those omnipresent (but never ostentatious) string-section sweeps classily dressing up the songs like ribbons on a trophy. And yet the real triumph of Morning Glory is measured not by the tracks that have since become karaoke classics, first-dance wedding standards, and go-to bathtub sing-alongs , but the exceptional album tracks that never got a shot at certain chart supremacy—like the jet-roar jangle of “Hey Now” (for my money, the best Oasis song never to be issued as a single) and the crestfallen “Cast No Shadow”, dedicated to a then-mostly-unknown Richard Ashcroft of the Verve ,  a band that would soon reap the benefits  of Oasis’ American incursion.

Ironically, the Oasis-whetted appetite for all things English was arguably also crucial to the impending Stateside success of the Spice Girls, who would usher in a wave of preteen-targeted pop that would eventually push guitar-oriented rock acts down the charts by decade's end. And what’s most striking about listening to (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? today is how, at the height of their powers, Oasis seemed to be bracing for their own eventual downfall. The tone of the album is decidedly darker and more reflective than the working-class escapism of Definitely Maybe , be it the foreboding “it’s never gonna be the same” prophecy of opening salvo “Hello”, the title track’s white-lined dispatches from the after-party circuit, or the cigarette-lighter-illuminated comedown of “Champagne Supernova”, wherein Oasis already sound nostalgic for the idealism of their debut album. And while Noel still deals in absurdist metaphor here (how exactly does one slowly walk down the hall faster than a cannonball?), he also emerges as a more personable, sobering foil to brother Liam’s bratty swagger—not just on his showstopping star turn on “Don’t Look Back in Anger”, but also in the way his backing vocals imbue “Cast No Shadow” with a deeper sense of despair.

This expanded three-disc edition of Morning Glory? —which outfits the original album with 28  bonus tracks—shows just how much Noel was on a roll in ’95. Conventional wisdom suggests Oasis released two near-perfect rock ‘n’ roll albums before a grueling, prolonged process of diminishing returns set in. That’s not entirely true—the truth is, Oasis produced at least three albums worth of spectacular songs, it’s just the one of them was spread out over various B-sides. Fourteen of these were collected on the 1998 compilation The Masterplan (a.k.a. Oasis’ Hatful of Hollow ), half of which is culled from the Morning Glory era and reappears here. And as any long-time fan can tell you, these castaways rank among some of the band’s finest moments: perennial encore standard “Acquiesce” is a perfect sonic manifestation of Liam and Noel’s notoriously embattled but co-dependent relationship, contrasting the former’s sneering verses with the latter’s heartfelt chorus; “Rockin’ Chair”, along with the Noel-sung ballads “Talk Tonight” and “The Masterplan”, evince a subtlety and sensitivity rarely heard on Oasis’ albums proper. And for those who prefer to savor Oasis’ easy-going melodicism minus the Wembley-toppling bombast, the cache of Noel-strummed acoustic demos included here offer lovely, low-key showcases of his songwriting savvy.

Such unwavering consistency was no doubt the cornerstone of Oasis’ early success, but, in hindsight, it also factored into their subsequent stagnation. As this box set makes abundantly clear, Noel Gallagher is a master craftsman, able to construct totemic tunes with even the most modest of means. But he’s never really been one for artistry. No matter how much he professed his desire to be as big as the Beatles , Oasis were never concerned with the Fabs’ creative process—i.e., how they pulled from contemporary influences ranging from Dylan to Motown to Stockhausen to create truly modernist pop music—so much as their cultural omnipotence. And for a while, Oasis convinced us you could achieve the latter without bothering too much with the former: just write a stadium-sized chorus and the rest will take care of itself. (The relationship between Oasis and their idols can ultimately be measured as such: In 1968, George Harrison released the most freewheeling musical experiment of his career, Wonderwall Music ; 27 years later, Oasis would appropriate the title and apply it to their simplest, most universal anthem .) What's the Story (Morning Glory) thrust Oasis to the top of the mountain, but left them with heads full of snow and clouded vision (while a revitalized Blur would later emerge as the band more in tune with The Beatles' adventurous spirit). In the dying moments of “Champagne Supernova”, Liam lets the song’s central question—“Where were you while we were getting high?”—hang in the air, as if to suggest the good times are already gone. And as Oasis would eventually learn,  getting even higher  won't bring them back.

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The Amazing Story Of Oasis’ ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?’ – In Numbers

(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, the follow-up to debut album ‘Definitely Maybe’, was released 20 years ago today (October 2). To celebrate the band’s biggest-selling album, read all about its meteoric rise, in numbers.

First up is 347,000 . That’s the number of copies it sold in its first week on sale in the UK, making it (at the time) the second fastest selling album in British history behind Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’.

And if you think that’s impressive, it’s shifted a huge 22,000,000 copies worldwide. Noel certainly enjoyed the spoils of commercial success: he bought fancy cars and a swimming pool, despite not being able to drive or swim.

‘…Morning Glory’ had staying power a-plenty, too: it managed to stick around in the top three of the charts for 7 months throughout 1996. It’s a feat that’s nigh-on unimaginable now.

1 stands for a numerical double-whammy: ‘Some Might Say’ was the first single taken from ‘…Morning Glory’, and it was also the first Oasis track to go to Number One. It set a 10-year precedent for the lead single from each Oasis album topping the charts.

The Battle Of Britpop saw Oasis and Blur go to war in the charts. In the end, Damon and co triumphed: their track ‘Country House’ sold 274,000 copies. Oasis, sadly, could ‘only’ manage 216,000 for ‘Roll With It’.

Noel and Liam may not be shy with a curse word or two, but there’s only 1 swear word on ‘…Morning Glory’. It’s in the opening track ‘Hello’, in the following lyric: “I’ve got a feeling you still owe me, so wipe the shit from your shoes.”

3 is the number of tracks that Noel’s mate Paul Weller plays on: he contributed lead guitar and backing vocals on ‘Champagne Supernova’, harmonica on ‘Untitled 1’ and ‘Untitled 2’, which are both excerpts from ‘The Swamp Song’.

The number of times Paul Weller has played ‘Champagne Supernova’ live with Oasis, though? 0 . The Stone Roses’ John Squire has done it twice, at Knebworth on August 10 and 11 1996. And ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr also has, at Glasgow Barrowlands on October 13 and 14 2001.

1 is the number of tracks Tony McCarroll drums for on ‘…Morning Glory’. McCarroll was replaced by Alan White shortly after the recording of ‘Some Might Say’. White asked Noel if the band could re-record the song with him playing on it but, he says, “Noel wasn’t having any of it”.

Oasis have played ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ live on 549 occasions throughout their career, according to Setlist.fm. That’s more than any other song on ‘…Morning Glory?’ (‘Wonderwall’ is second with 485), but not as many as their most played song of all time: ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’, which was given the live treatment a preposterous 589 times.

During the recording of ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, Liam wasn’t required so went to the pub. He proceeded to invite around 30 pissed Monmouth locals back to the studio from local boozers The Old Nag’s Head and The Bull. Noel was so furious he kicked everyone out, chased Liam out with a cricket bat and quit the recording sessions. He didn’t come back for two weeks.

The video for ‘Wonderwall’ is the only Oasis single to have over 100,000,000 views on YouTube.

Producer Owen Morris, on Liam’s vocal performance on ‘Wonderwall’: “His best yet, rasping blues, like he’s smoked 100 cigarettes.”

‘Wonderwall’ was the 10 th best-selling song of 1995, shifting 665,000 units. ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ was then the 10th best-selling single of 1996, shifting 660,000. Unlike ‘Wonderwall’, ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ went to Number One.

‘Wonderwall’ had sold 1,260,000 copies as of November 2012.

How many other songs does ‘She’s Electric’ sound like? By our reckoning, it’s 3 . The ending has the same chord progression as The Beatles’ ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’. The middle eight resembles the same band’s ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’. It shares the same chords as Nirvana’s ‘Lithium’.

There were 300,000,000 people watching the MTV Video Music Awards at New York’s Radio City Music Hall when Liam swears at the crowd (“I hope you’re having a good time, but I know you’re having a shit time”), spits on the stage, throws a beer can and knocks over the microphone.

In the December 23 1995 of Melody Maker, a news report claimed that copies of ‘…Morning Glory’ with the song ‘Step Out’ on it were being sold for £ 200 . ‘Step Out’ was going to be on the album until Stevie Wonder decided he was unamused by how much it sounded like ‘Uptight’.

According to producer Owen Morris, Oasis did 20 takes of Bonehead’s Bank Holiday with Bonehead on vocals until Noel stepped it and sang it instead. Bonehead was so pissed after a drinking session with Liam that “he couldn’t see the words, let alone sing them”, says Morris. The finished version featured on the vinyl edition of the album

The only remix Oasis allowed of a ‘…Morning Glory’ track was a Brendan Lynch (aka the Lynch Mob) take on ‘Champagne Supernova’, which appeared as a promo-only release in 1996 and sold for £ 40 .

21 Andy White of Oasis performing New York

Oasis played 103 gigs on the ‘…Morning Glory’ tour, starting on June 22, 1995 at the Bath Pavilion (Alan White’s first show with the band), and ending at the Mayo Civic Centre in Rochester on December 4, 1996 (the last show before Noel quit the tour). In-between they headlined Glastonbury, Maine Road, Loch Lomond, Earls Court, Slane Castle and Knebworth.

Need more Oasis? Our newest Collector’s Edition magazine called Oasis: The Glory Years 1993-1996 is out now in print and digital editions. Live forever.

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Oasis’ ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?’ at 20: Classic Track-by-Track Album Review

Oasis, the loutish Manchester crew led by brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher, released '(What's the Story) Morning Glory?' 20 years ago today.

By Kenneth Partridge

Kenneth Partridge

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Want to Annoy Noel Gallagher? Ask Him What’s Up With Oasis (We Did)

If fans (even the American ones) were on board, critics (especially the English ones) weren’t as keen. Many dismissed the album as a trite, unimaginative amalgam of obvious influences, among them the Beatles (of course) but also ‘70s glamsters and punks and ‘80s janglers and shoegazers. The naysayers weren’t wrong, but lack of inventiveness doesn’t make the music any less invigorating.

Morning Glory  is a visceral rock n’ roll album whose finest bits are plundered wholesale from history and smashed together for maximum effect. Due to a mastering technique known as “brickwalling,” it’s an incredibly loud record that presents every instrument way up front and hits like a cricket bat between the eyes. Even the smash ballads “Wonderwall” and “Champagne Supernova” have a heaviness that makes guitarist and songwriter Noel’s dubious lyrics seem almost coherent and meaningful.

Circa ’95, those looking for sonic experimentation and savvy social commentary were better off getting into Blur, Oasis’ chief rival during the Britpop era. Competition between the two bands reached its peak in August 1995, when both released singles on the same day. Blur’s “Country House” outsold the Gallaghers’ “Roll With It,” but both sides benefited from the publicity, and in the end,  Morning Glory  outperformed Blur’s  The Great Escape .

Oasis’ ‘Definitely Maybe’ at 20: Classic Track-by-Track Album Review

Insofar as Oasis were working-class dudes from Northern England with none of Blur’s fancy London university credentials, the success of  Morning Glory  can be seen as a victory for real rock music — the kind not concerned with politics or class issues or even making a scrap of sense. But that’s reductive; Noel isn’t some buffoon who got lucky. He’s a student of rock music who writes melodies strong enough to compensate for his shortcomings, and after two decades,  Morning Glory  — his most accessible set of songs — stands as a genuine classic.

Read on for our track-by-track on the record that broke Britpop in America and made kids reared on Soundgarden and Nirvana consider a world beyond the Atlantic, and a time before grunge.

“Hello”: Back for album No. 2, the Gallaghers greet the world not with a warm smile, but with glam-stomp drums, savagely psychedelic guitars, and a rather unfriendly opening line: “I don’t feel as if I know you / you take up all my time.” “Hello” is about waving goodbye to life as you’ve lived it, and when Liam gets to the “we live in the shadows” part, the shift into Slade-like sing-along pop suggests he’s cool with how things turned out.

“Roll With It”: Some in the U.K. music press dismissed this single, calling it derivative, mindless, and insubstantial. Had they listened to  Definitely Maybe ? This is a big, hooky rock tune about ignoring critics and doing whatever you bloody well please. It’s the Oasis ethos in exactly four minutes, and it’s held up better than “Country House,” which topped the U.K. chart and signaled victory for Blur in the great Britpop chart battle of August ’95.

“Wonderwall”: Featuring one of the most memorable guitar intros of the ‘90s, “Wonderwall” is vague enough to mean lots of things to lots of people and sincere enough to make every meaning stick. As Mellotron rubs up under the music like a mournful cello, Liam lets himself sound uncharacteristically vulnerable: “Maybe you’re gonna be the one that saves me.”

Noel Gallagher Is Still Not Interested In an Oasis Reunion

“Don’t Look Back In Anger”: With a piano intro lovingly lifted from John Lennon’s “Imagine” and lyrics partially inspired by that Beatle’s revolutionary exploits, Oasis’ second U.K. chart-topper is a nostalgic, redemptive sing-along perfect for pubs and stadiums alike. Poor Sally’s soul is sliding away, sings Noel (who insisted on taking lead vocals), but you get the feeling she’ll be right as rain.

“Untitled”: This fuzzy glam-blues inferno burns for 47 seconds, no longer than it needs to.

“Some Might Say” : The leadoff  Morning Glory  single gave Oasis its first No. 1 hit in the U.K. and marked the end for drummer Tony McCarroll, who was sacked after the recording and replaced by Alan White. It’s more faux-profundity from Noel and more sneering from Liam, who doesn’t really care about heaven and hell or brighter days or whatever spiritual nonsense Noel is writing about. As a wash of swirly guitar pushes the track forward, Liam is a passive observer, a bloke with a tick-infested dog and a sink full of dirty dishes.

“Cast No Shadow”: Noel wrote this sparkling blues-tinged ballad for buddy Richard Ashcroft of the Verve, and the specificity might account for why the lyrics and overall presentation ring so true. Noel isn’t really equipped to handle the big cosmic questions, but when he’s writing about a musician who has trouble saying what’s on his mind, he’s spot on.

“She’s Electric”: Comic relief after “Cast No Shadow,” this jaunty slice-of-life trifle about a guy who digs his girlfriend’s mum and sister but definitely (maybe) didn’t impregnate the cousin could’ve been a single for lots of other bands. It’s nice to hear some of the humor that Noel shows in interviews but seldom puts forth with his songwriting.

“Untitled”: More fuzzy glam-blues burning, this time with ocean noises extinguishing the blaze. We’re splashing down in a sea of bubbly, bracing for the grand finale…

“Champagne Supernova”: How does one go “slowly walking down the hall / faster than a cannonball?” Best to answer that question with another question: “Where were you when we were getting high?” As Liam poses that query, former Jam leader Paul Weller adds sweet psychedelic guitar tones, pushing this dreamy ballad into “Hey Jude”/”Let It Be” territory. 

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(What’s the Story) Morning Glory ? by Oasis

Album Reviews 1995 Albums , 2016 Reviews , Album Reviews by Ric Albano , British Artists , Oasis 0

Buy (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?

Oasis released their debut album, Definitely Maybe , in September 1994 and it became the fastest selling debut album ever (to that point) in the UK. This sudden rush of fame did have some negative consequences, as lead vocalist Liam Gallagher (Noel’s brother) exhibited some bizarre behavior on stage and original drummer Tony McCarroll departed from the band. McCarroll was replaced by Alan White , who came with an impressive studio resume.

Recording sessions for (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? were in a Welsh studio during the Spring of 1995 with producer Owen Morris . The album was recorded quickly, especially early on when the group claimed they averaged almost a song per day. However, tensions broke out between the Gallagher brothers when Noel suggested he provide lead vocals for a few tracks, a move that Liam viewed as a leading indicator of his potential ouster as front man. This led to an altercation that ultimately suspended recording for three weeks. However, Morris has since stated that the sessions overall were “the best, easiest, least fraught, most happily creative time (he has) ever had in a recording studio” and that the resulting album is “dripping with love and happiness.”

The opening track “Hello” is the only composition not credited solely to Noel Gallagher, as Gary Glitter and Mike Leander are given co-writing credits. After a false start of strummed acoustic, the song abruptly gives way to a heavier rock arrangement with a thick, opaque sound and heavy use of guitar processing with White’s rolling drums buried deep in the mix. “Roll with It” has a solid structure of straight-forward rock with a heavy emphasis on the hook and an interesting, echoed guitar lead. The song was released ahead of the album and climbed to #2 on the UK pop charts. The worldwide hit song “Wonderwall” starts as a simple acoustic, strummed folk track. However, it quickly evolves into a much more complex and original arrangement musically, which strikes the perfect vibe which finds the seam between romance and desperation matches its rich and philosophical lyric;

And all the roads we have to walk are winding, and all the lights that lead us there are blinding – there are many things that I would like to say to you but I don’t know how…”

“Don’t Look Back in Anger” is the best song overall song by Oasis and is fittingly delivered by its author, Noel Gallagher who proves he is every bit the lead vocalist as his younger brother. The song features complex passages that soar at times with underlying riffing and fine piano riffing by Paul Arthurs as well as potent bass by Paul McGuigan . The song’s title, lyric and sound pays homage to classic artists like David Bowie, The Beatles and John Lennon in particular (with the line “Gonna start a ‘Revolution’ from my bed….”) in an approach that legitimately feels like it was spawned in a bygone era. Released as a single in early 1996, “Don’t Look Back in Anger” became Oasis’s second song to top the British charts.

The album’s momentum continues with “Hey Now!”, a strong rocker with heavy seventies pop/rock elements and consistent slide guitar throughout. Through is five minute duration, this track employs differing rhythms (which sometimes seem clunky but never quite off-putting) as well as a fine melody by Liam Gallagher during the verses and a terrific, double tracked guitar lead later. The long, repetitive final chorus drives home the entertaining elements as the song concludes. The first of two short, untitled link tracks which feature a heavy blues, ZZ-Top style rock with alternating guitar and harmonica by guest Paul Weller , leads to the blues heavy “Some Might Say”. Featuring another cool lead section with some wild synth sounds tossed in for effect, “Some Might Say” was Oasis’s first UK chart-topper and it sold nearly a half million copies as a single upon its release. The final song written for the album, “Cast No Shadow” throws in the kitchen sink of sweet effects – strummed acoustic, slight electric overlays, slide guitar, mellow synths, steady yet strong rhythms, weepy lead vocals, rich background harmonies and deep lyrical lines;

As they took his soul they stole his pride…As he faced the sun he cast no shadow…”

Coming down the stretch, the album’s quality never relents. “She’s Electric” is a happy-go-lucky pop track with bright, hard rock music, chanting, lyrical rhymes and slightly Southern layered guitars. The title track, “Morning Glory”, closely resembles a popular R.E.M. song with its metallic, textured guitars pumping out a strong riff to complement the shouted and repeated vocal hook. “Champagne Supernova” is the perfect album ending, as it comes in subtly with strummed guitar, accordion and electric textures before White’s drum beat crashes in with the glue for the thick arrangement of the track’s body. This is a nice lead up to the guitar lead section, which is slight but potent, before the song goes through the initial verse again much more quickly and intensely and with a less organized outro riff section. After one final verse, the track fades out slowly, maintaining the overall feel of the song and album and sealing this record as a classic.

(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? sold 350,000 copies in its first week and spent 10 weeks atop the UK Albums Chart. Following its release, Oasis went on an extensive world tour, which included shows in front of hundreds of thousands in their home country.

Part of Classic Rock Review’s celebration of 1995 albums.

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(What's the Story) Morning Glory?

100 Best Albums Noel Gallagher had a novel way of overcoming Difficult Second Album Syndrome when it came to making (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?—he had it written already. When the Oasis guitarist and chief songwriter began telling journalists around the release of debut Definitely Maybe in 1994 that he’d already penned the songs for its follow-up, a few must have imagined it was idle boasting from a new artist experiencing their first flush of success. Not in this case. But even Noel, underneath all the bragging, couldn’t have had any idea just how profoundly these songs would connect. Definitely Maybe had established Oasis as the most exciting British guitar band of the decade. (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? made the Manchester quintet massive on a global scale. Definitely Maybe was an astounding introduction but its strength lay in its fury, rock ’n’ roll as a means to wriggle out of humdrum life and make a break for something better. Here, the anger had subsided. These were supersized anthems made for mass sing-alongs and communal euphoria. The songs may have been burning a hole in Noel’s back pocket but everything else about …Morning Glory was of the moment. Recording, mainly done at Rockfield Studios in Wales, was quick—done like they were in a hurry, in a handful of weeks across May and June 1995. And they were in a hurry—there was a world out there to conquer. Band members were only handed a demo of the songs they were about to record days before and backing tracks were nailed in a matter of takes. Everything aligned in perfect alchemy, the sheer promise of these choruses making the band play better, new drummer Alan White bringing a more rhythmic dynamism to the group and Liam Gallagher responding to his elder brother upping the ante by delivering the vocal performance of a lifetime. No one else could conjure that mix of yearning and swagger that makes “Wonderwall” so powerful. It’s a good job, then, that he chose correctly: Noel had said he wanted to sing one of the record’s surefire big hitters. It was either that or “Don’t Look Back In Anger” and he made his younger sibling pick. The barbed aggression might have been toned down in the music but it was still an ever-present elsewhere. Sessions were halted for two weeks when a giant brawl between the Gallaghers concluded with Noel being driven home to London by White. But that tension is what made Oasis tick, especially at the point in their career when there were still things to prove. It was released in October 1995 and it soon became clear it was more than just your regular successful second album from an excellent rock band. This was a landmark in British culture. It’s hard to remember now what it was like to first listen to …Morning Glory as a mortal collection of songs. Most of the tracks here have become bigger than that, music that has seeped into the consciousness, culture-shaping songs that just are. How could it be allowed for so many classics to be sat next to each other on the same album? As well as “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back In Anger”, there’s the melancholy uplift of “Cast No Shadow”, the cosmic opus of “Champagne Supernova”, the thrilling crackle of the title track. Shifting well over 20 million copies, it went on to become one of the best-selling records of all time. It’s about more than just Oasis, too, an album full of hope and longing released in time to soundtrack a period when everything felt like it was on the up in the UK. Emerging from recession, the country entered economic prosperity, experienced a change of government and—through the achievements of the likes of Alexander McQueen, Lennox Lewis, Kate Moss, Danny Boyle, Tracey Emin, the Spice Girls, and Oasis and all of their Britpop peers—suddenly felt like one of the world’s cultural centres. Here, in 50 minutes, is the story of a decade. There was no stopping Oasis at that point. That was something that could only be done by the band themselves and …Morning Glory was when they could still harness the chaos and turn it into something magical. It’s the sound of a once-in-a-generation band operating at their dazzling best.

2 October 1995 12 Songs, 50 minutes ℗ 1995 Big Brother Recordings Ltd

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Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? Speaks to the Downtrodden and Offers Hope

Robert Daniels shares how the album was his "Wonderwall" growing up in Chicago

Oasis ’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? means the world to me. For much of my early life, during the 1990s, I bordered upon homelessness — at one point, living with my family in a van. Without television or toys, my siblings and I mostly relied on books and a battery-powered radio for entertainment. On days when we tired of those, usually during the hot malaise of a Chicago summer, my brother, sister, and I dreamed of escaping the barren yet gang-riddled West Side to some safer place. We were Black, but worse yet we were poor. I didn’t find a semblance of financial stability until my early teens. That’s also when I found Oasis.

Just before my freshman year of high school, in 2005, I began watching a channel called The Tube. They aired British Alternative and Brit Pop acts from the ’90s, and within the first hour, the blaring sound of a jet launching roared from my television screen. The song, “Supersonic”, was from Oasis’ debut record, Definitely Maybe , and it perfectly distilled the oft-quoted maxim of the band’s sound: “The melody of The Beatles and the power of the Sex Pistols.” I immediately went in search of the album, only to find their sophomore effort, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? , in my local record store. I brought it home and played the CD to the point of skipping.

There’s nothing inherently relevant in Oasis’ second album that should speak to a Black kid living on the West Side of Chicago. At least not from a stereotypical standpoint. It’s a pure pop record, which on a superficial level concerns finding the person who might save you, the travails of rock ‘n’ roll stardom, and cannonballs slowly rolling down the hall. But in my tiny room, I heard a record that spoke directly, even if unconsciously, to the urban Black experience. I listened to songs about defiance, distrust of an apathetic authority, and the kind of melancholy that so often mixes with joy. That album, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, still speaks as loudly today to that Black kid as it did to a Brit living through the post-Thatcher era.

Much like myself, rhythm guitarist Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs, bassist Paul McGuigan, and the swaggering, tempestuous Gallagher brothers — Noel and Liam — grew up disadvantaged. Lead singer Liam and songwriter-guitarist Noel were raised Irish Catholic during the 1970s and ’80s. They were poor and mirrored many of their generation by living on the dole (unemployment benefits). They dreamt of fast cars, women, and drugs while living on council estates of Manchester. And while the term “council estate” might sound prissy, in America they’d be known as the projects. Rather than despair, the band proudly proclaimed themselves the next big British act. You can see why a Black kid might easily gravitate toward a group whose upbringing and swagger wasn’t too dissimilar to hip-hop artists.

Because Oasis originated from Northern England, they were adversely affected by Thatcherism, which called for free markets and a small state. The policies led to union busting and a steep decline in the economy’s industrial sector, which economically paralyzed Northern England. Many in the Oasis generation felt left behind: financially, educationally, and politically. For instance, census data reports the unemployment rate in Manchester during the early ’90s registering at over 24%, far exceeding Britain’s overall unemployment rate, which tracked at just over 12%. In response, bands like The Smiths became defiant forces during the 1980’s and influenced later ’90s alternative acts like Oasis. The conversations that The Queen Is Dead began continued on Oasis’ raw debut, Definitely Maybe , a record translating everyday class toil into a plea for rock ‘n’ roll superstardom. As Alex Niven explains in the Definitely Maybe 33 ⅓, “Movingly and articulately, Noel Gallagher provides an evocative stream of metaphors that rack up to demolish Britpop cliché and reveal the sheer macabre nightmare of the psychological wasteland of the Thatcher years.” Such strengths translated to their next release.

Their second album, recorded at Rockfield Studios — where rock music royalty like Queen made “Bohemian Rhapsody” — would, for the briefest of moments, vault Oasis into being the biggest band in the world. While (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? might sound less punk, with regards to Noel’s unconscious commentary on Northern life during the post-Thatcher recovery, it instead matched a still-present discontent with an unbridled euphoria for the future.

Consider the album’s second track, “Roll with It”. Beneath the bouncy, shimmering guitars lurks lyrics not just about individuality — and the punch-the-air optimism that everything will be alright — but a call of defiance. “Don’t ever stand aside/ Don’t ever be denied/ Don’t let anybody get in your way, ’cause it’s all too much for me to take,” Liam snarls. Other songs like the piercingly psychedelic “Hey Now”, which diagrammed the band’s struggle with stardom, and the melancholy acoustic ballad “Cast No Shadow”, a tune emblematic of the warring brothers’ symbiotic vocal harmonies, also drip with the disaffection caused by Thatcherism. Tellingly, and brilliantly, Liam often changed the lyrics to “Cast No Shadow” during gigs from “As they took his soul, they stole his pride” to “You can take my soul, don’t take my pride.” While the former recounts a man whittled down to nothing, not uncommon for those living under oppressive circumstances, the alteration hints at not just defiance, but survival.

Yet, it’s Oasis’ signature tune (not “Wonderwall” … we’ll talk about that later), “Some Might Say”, which fully demonstrates how Noel’s keen ear for melody and Liam’s provocative vocals combined to explain the ways their generation remembered the harsh past but still clung to an undiminished hope for the future. Noel accomplishes this first through the causal verses — “sunshine” follows “thunder,” and if “heaven” exists, then so might “hell” — then following them with a chorus teeming with critiques regarding education and the cyclical failure of safety nets: “You’ve made no preparation for my reputation once again.” The dirty, swaggering guitars and forcefulness of Liam’s patented John Lydon-inspired snarl emphasize the assuredness of the phrase “brighter day” over the uncertainty of “some might say.” That was the magic of Oasis. Their music could comment upon white male angst, yet universally speak to a poor African-American kid.

That mixture of melancholy and euphoria is why the band’s music resonates 25 years later with a new generation. For example, following years as a stadium sing-along during football matches, the Noel-sung “Don’t Look Back in Anger” became an anthem of perseverance after the Manchester Arena bombing, an event leading to the deaths of 22 Ariana Grande concert-goers. Consider the prototypical, older male Oasis fan in comparison to Grande’s teenage female fanbase. Or how about the guitar-driven indie tenants of the Britpop outfit’s music in relation to Grande’s contemporary dance-infused tracks. The two generations should share zero commonalities, and yet the wispy melody, and Noel’s nonsensical lyrics, echoed to both during tragedy. Noel’s penchant for nestling beauty in the mundane through evocative wordplay elicits such camaraderie. And through his mysterious heroine, “Sally,” a personification for the innocence that departs with age and heartbreak, he further imbues, as the strings swoon beneath the restful bass run, the track’s bittersweet quality.

While the sprawling “Champagne Supernova”, a superior song in many respects, also warned of aging into the oblivion of the uncool, it’s “Wonderwall” that still garners the most spins. A perfectly written acoustic ballad that’s the favorite of every beginner guitarist, part-time karaoke aficionado, busker, and anyone who can sing half-in-key, the pop song’s hold remains so strong it’s approaching one billion streams on Spotify. A distinction not associated with other ’90s British hits, such as Radiohead’s “Creep” or The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony”. It might not be their best song, and yet, for a kid coming from homelessness in an at-risk neighborhood, the concept of someone finding me and saving me still feels powerful. I can remember how I longed for escape from that van. And whenever I hear the track’s strong back beat, almost-reggae-inspired rhythm, and Liam’s voice oxymoronically vacillating into soaring-flatness, I’m healed from those days.

And as the world has seemingly grown bleaker, unraveling with each Presidential debate or day without a COVID-19 vaccine, the belief that it’ll somehow be okay holds me warmly even as we enter an uncertain autumn. I think back on the incoherent music video to “Wonderwall”, which ends with five giddy men knowing in the span of a pop song that the ideas of their generation had conquered the world, and how powerful such an assurance would feel today. “Wonderwall”, like much of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? , resonates because of how it articulates the pain of different eras. The economic despair during Thatcher’s rule and the distrust of her rules isn’t too dissimilar to the way portions of America feel under Trump. I identified with the same hardship even as a Black teen during the latter stages of the Bush presidency.

The cruel irony of Oasis’ ability to connect across experiences and decades is the present disconnected relationship of the two estranged brothers and the ways they separately changed. When the Leader of the Opposition, Labor Leader John Smith, passed in 1994, the band fell hard for his replacement Tony Blair. As Niven explains, “For someone like Noel Gallagher, Blair was merely another man like John Smith, a man poised to finally unleash the anger and yearning of the ’80s by seizing power and doing it for us.” But Noel would be duped by New Labour, which was merely Thatcher Conservatism in sheep’s clothing. The band and Noel would never truly recover their working-class bonafides afterwards, especially as their music began to veer from the shared community euphoria of their earlier records into the extravagant coke-fueled Be Here Now  and their later entrenchment into self-aggrandizing their wealth.

But to my ears, before their unforgivable stumbles, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? remains large and sweeping, yet an intimate failsafe. I still have the now-worn-down CD (signed by Noel Gallagher at a concert a few years back) in my collection, and with each Spotify play, not only am I reminded of how much comfort the words and melodies bring forth, today and yesterday, but I’m filled with the same hope for tomorrow that Brits in 1995 felt. And right now, we could do with a little hope.

Pick up a copy of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? here …

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25 Years Later, ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?’ Is Still Oasis’ Finest Hour

Reissuing their seminal 1995 vinyl for its anniversary, oasis have reminded fans why their second album remains their most vital., tyler jenke, tyler jenke's most recent stories.

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A 25th anniversary reissue of Oasis' seminal '(What's the Story) Morning Glory?' proves that it's impossible to improve on perfection.

Stefan De Batselier*

When it comes to Oasis’  (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? , what can you say that hasn’t already been said? It remains one of the greatest albums ever recorded, one of the most important albums to come from the ’90s, and it defines the Britpop era with its incredible run of hits.

For those who weren’t around at the time, it almost feels impossible to gauge the importance of an album such as this. It was a breath of Britpop-tinged fresh air in an era when grunge was still dominating the rock scene, and helped to bring Oasis onto the well-deserved world stage.

That’s not to say that Oasis wasn’t already a globally-recognised outfit. After all, their 1994 debut,  Definitely Maybe , was an instant smash, becoming the fastest-selling debut album in the United Kingdom at the time. With such hype behind them, the average music fan would’ve been forgiven for thinking the group might fall into the dreaded sophomore slump, especially given the massive publicity given to the Battle of Britpop behind Manchester’s working-class Oasis, and London’s seemingly-bourgeois Blur.

However, when “Some Might Say” rolled onto the airwaves not even eight months on from the release of  Definitely Maybe , there was no maybe about the group’s momentum. Eventually, October of 1995 saw the release of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? , and the story that adorned the pages of the musical press was one of amazement and praise.

The stories surrounding its release are well-known, of course. It broke sales records at the time, it won countless awards, it topped charts globally, and it transformed Oasis from a bunch of musicians who’d made a strong debut into an outfit whose place in the history books was cemented. Even their famous Knebworth House performance remain almost mythical events, with 125,000 people attending each date of their two-night residency – a minuscule portion of the 2.5 million that reportedly applied for tickets.

But does the album still hold up a quarter of a century later? Sadly, the Oasis that brought the album into the world all those years ago no longer exists. Ultimately, the group would split just one week on from the 15th anniversary of  Definitely Maybe , with the ubiquitous Gallagher brothers – that is, Liam and Noel – continuously at loggerheads in regards to whether a reunion could, would, or will ever take place.

What does remain though, is the music, and in honour of their iconic album’s anniversary , a special vinyl reissue was unveiled earlier this month to coincide with the record’s original release. Packaged on a two-disc silver vinyl package (silver being the traditional 25-year gift, of course), the release is a faithful recreation of the original issue, albeit through the Big Brother label rather than the sadly-defunct Creation.

From the moment that needle meets disc, there’s an almost nostalgic feeling at play; almost as if the listener has been transported back to that moment 25 years ago when the record first graced turntables. As the opening notes of “Hello” slowly seep out of the speaker, and Liam Gallagher’s inimitable nasal vocals welcome the listener back thanks to the familiar lyrics of Gary Glitter, it’s clear that everyone listening will agree, it is indeed “ good to be back ” once again.

Truth be told, it’s nearly impossible for a reissue of a classic album to feature any faults outside of any potential packaging or pressing issues. Truly, the record is helped along by the inclusion of its iconic tracks, as “Wonderwall”, “Don’t Look Back in Anger”, “Some Might Say”, “Morning Glory”, and “Champagne Supernova” showcasing exactly why it is that Oasis’ work deserves such a reissue years down the line.

Of course, a vinyl version of this record plays directly into the hearts of the diehard Oasis fan, with “Bonehead’s Bank Holiday” – a vinyl-only track that was intended to be guitarist Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs’ Ringo Starr moment – making its well-deserved return to the tracklist.

In fact, the only potential detriment that the package has towards the album’s stunning quality or legacy lies within the quality of the press. Though reports of some surface noise across the discs has seen some music-lovers dock a few points off the reissue, it seems as though such claims are few and far between, leading to the 25th anniversary of the album to be one of the most vital in the band’s back catalogue.

Could the silver anniversary of the record’s release have been improved? Undoubtedly fanatics would call for unheard material, B-sides, rarities, or live cuts to help round out the product (as the accompanying deluxe CD edition has done), but the old adage of “if it’s ain’t broke, don’t fix it” comes to mind. How exactly do you improve on one of the greatest albums ever released? Truly, it’s impossible, and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? – in its original, unaltered form – will forever stand tall as Oasis’ finest hour.

The 25th anniversary edition of Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?   is out now in a variety of different formats.

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