Tom Dunne: Oasis reunion gives us another reason to celebrate Definitely Maybe anniversary
It's 30 years since the release of the debut album by Oasis.
They say that when Oasis was about to release ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’ as a single in late 1994 the Creation boss Alan McGee sent a copy to the other bands on the label. “This is what a single sounds like,” he is reputed to have written on it. It isn’t a true story, but, it really should have been.
It, and the other singles from debut album Definitely Maybe, like ‘Supersonic’ and ‘Live Forever’ are exactly what singles should sound like. They are abrasive, brimming with attitude, immediate, in your face and have more hooks than a fisherman’s hat. The kind of tracks radio playlists will bend over to accommodate.
With the countdown already underway to the reunion gigs, you’ll be hearing a lot of the Brothers Gallagher over the next 12 months.
A 30th anniversary edition of Definitely Maybe goes on release on August 30. It’s an important occasion to mark. Most of what we associate with 1990’s Britain – Britpop for a start – happens in its wake. The album may not have lit the fuse, but it soundtracked it like a Tarantino movie.
The late ’90s would still have gone off without Oasis, but like Reservoir Dogs or Kill Bill without the music, it just wouldn’t have been the same. It wasn’t just the stonking guitar riffs and lines like “Give me gin and tonic”; it was the danger, the wit, and the chaos of Liam and Noel.
Like two mad uncles walking unexpectedly into an otherwise sedate family gathering, you look up at them when they arrive and think, “Well! All bets are off now. Hide the cat, put away the good cups, and get ready to party.”
The new 30th anniversary release is a fascinating document in its own right. It comes with new sleeve notes from Alan McGee. He is the man who, when told the entire band had been arrested before even arriving in Amsterdam on the Ferry, simply relied “Brilliant!” It comes with eight tracks originally recorded at Monnow Studio in Wales in late 1993. These were controversially abandoned as being “too polished” and then entirely re-recorded in Cornwall with a different producer in early 1994. It fascinating to play them back-to-back with the later versions.
But are they really so different? The answer is more nuanced than you’d expect. Liam has found his mojo between the recordings. The swagger is there on the Monnow sessions, but it is there in spades on the later ones.
Listening at this juncture it is remarkable how often Liam gets the word “shine” into a song and how long he can the make the word last. ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Star’, ‘Supersonic’ and ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’ would all be lesser songs if Liam didn’t sing “shine” the way, well, the way Liam sings “shine.” It is quite simply brilliant. It is everything you need to know about Oasis in one five-letter word. It is why Noel needs Liam. It is why we need Oasis back together.
But the other changes owe more to Owen Morris, brought in late in the day to rescue the Cornwall recordings. Yes, they were in danger of being scrapped too, as Noel even then, just wasn’t happy. In fact, before Morris was brought in, panic was in the air.
He firstly made sense of Noel’s out of control guitar overdubs. There were just too many. He used some devious technology to make the bass sound more “professional” and he addressed the “drum issue”. Ah yes, the drum issue.
Drummer Tony Carroll was fired in 1995. Owen Morris later expressed surprise that he had survived as long as he did. He was, says Morris, simply “out of his depth”. Listening to the Monnow recordings, you can really hear this. Even on tracks like ‘Live Forever’, the drums are plodding at best.
Morris fixed this by adding an eighth note tape delay and tambourine. It suddenly gives the tracks a new grove. Think the post-Pete Best Beatles. Yes, it’s that dramatic.
The big difference between the Monnow version of the album and the later one is the addition of ‘Supersonic’. It comes in as track six just after ‘Colombia’. On the Monnow version it’s ‘Bring It Down’ at that point. ‘Supersonic’ is infinitely better.
What happened after ‘Definitely Maybe’ got released might be the subject for another column. In Britain a confluence of things was about to occur: Britpop, the Young British Artists (YBAs), Cool Britannia, Lad’s mags, the Premier League, men’s fashion, High Fidelity, The Bends, Trainspotting, New Labour.
There would be much laddish behaviour, and central too it all would be Oasis. Get the vinyl, play it loud, and count down the days to when we can hear it live again.
