'I'm a City fan so it broke barriers': Kevin Cummins on photographing Oasis in the early days
A detail from Kevin Cummins' picture of the members of Oasis at Maine Road in the early 1990s, one of the images in his book. Picture: Kevin CumminsÂ
When news broke of Oasis reforming last August for their first concerts in 15 years, one of the main images used to illustrate the story was a photo taken by Kevin Cummins for the weekly music paper .
The photograph featured Noel and Liam Gallagher in the home and away Manchester City kit of the era with sponsorship by the Japanese electronics firm Brother.
It should have been the image on the band's first cover in June 1994. Now, more than 30 years on, it's become one of the most definitive images of Oasis. It also features in the photographer's new book , which tells the visual story of the five council estate lads from Irish backgrounds dreaming of rockân'roll stardom.
By then Cummins had already played a role in capturing Manchester's definitive bands in their home city. His impressive CV had included images of the likes of Joy Division, The Smiths and the Stone Roses.
The snapper was confident he'd secured the shot for Oasis and their first cover. However, a football-aware editor decided to use a different picture instead.
âThe editor decided he didn't want an association with football or City because they were 'losers'. He was a Southampton fan," explains Cummins wryly. "That didn't age well!"
One of the most striking images that appears in the forthcoming book is of the original five-piece band sitting in Manchester City's former ground. In the background, diggers dismantle the Kippax stand where the Gallagher brothers previously stood on match days.
"I suggested we go down to Maine Road," explains Cummins. "The gates were open, it was the end of the season so we just wandered in and took some pictures.â
 As well as a Manc band on the rise, Cumminsâ pictures were also capturing the end of an era for football in England. All standing areas in grounds were being demolished in the wake of the Taylor Report into the Hillsborough disaster.
âI'd take my daughter to games and it wasn't a place to go at times,â recalls the photographer. âIn places like Chelsea or Millwall, it would be a fairly dodgy afternoon out. Now it's like Formula 1 there is so much money and glamour in football worldwide."
While the NME didn't care for Noel and Liam's association with Manchester City, the band would amplify their support of the club at any given opportunity, and more widely they would make it known they were football fans at a time when it was still seen in some quarters as a thuggish pursuit.
Cumminsâ own love of the game helped him in his dealings with Oasis. "I'm a City fan so it broke barriers," he explains. "They weren't suspicious of me and my motives."
The Irish roots of the Gallaghers and co also helped. "It's my background as well," says Cummins. "It's kind of why we all got on. My family is from Cappamore in Co Tipperary. They moved to Manchester when there was a lot of migration".
Cumminsâ representations of Oasis helped a generation of music fans buy into a band's image and way of life. "A lot of younger groups don't have many ideas, so my priority is to try and give them that image,â he says. âIf you have that trust the band are prepared to accept that maybe you know a little bit more and will go with what I was trying to do.
âIt's like with Joy Division, they didn't have a clue what they wanted. They were wearing their office clothes or stuff from their last year at school."
Aside from some of his iconic pictures of the band, the new book also contains previously unseen images. These portraits present a more innocent time for the emerging group in advance of the frenzy that was to come as Britpop exploded. "They are not styled,â explains Cummins. "They wore the clothes they had. There wasn't a lot of money and there's no cohesion between different members of the band. If a stylist had got hold of them, they would have done something different."
The sense of camaraderie shines through with the band at a time when they have been untouched by the industry. Cummins captured them drinking tea or having a pint, and playing football in the street. He also portrays that special bond with fans at early gigs.
Despite the sense of a bunch of mates making their way up the music ladder, Cummins spotted an obvious dynamic in the early days.
"It was obvious right from the start, as it is always with bands, that Noel and Liam were always going to be the focal point; Liam loved having his picture taken," he recalls.
Noel Gallagher had seen many of Cummins previous pictures and NME covers. "He always says he doesn't like getting his picture taken but he's very good at posing for a photo.â As Cummins alludes to it was an image of not having an image that summoned a natural street attitude in those early shots. "It wasn't a priority and in a way that became a style of its own. There's nothing worse than seeing a band that has been over-styled where all the members are wearing C.P. Company or Stone Island. It doesn't look comfortable; it looks contrived and Oasis never looked contrived."
Noel Gallagher suggests as much in the book: "I never thought Oasis had a look. I'll put tunes over trainers every day. Trainers last six months, the melodies live forever."
While grunge enjoyed its moment during the early 1990s there also began the roots of a resurgence in British music with hopes firmly pinned to Suede. It was perhaps a time when guitar music was taking itself too seriously.
Whether it's Liam fooling around in a shower cap or the band posing like The Beatles on a Number 73 bus, there's a spontaneous energy throughout. "You wouldn't get a picture of Liam on a London bus five years later," says Cummins. "We tried to get that Soho feel with those early images with bands like The Stones, The Animals and The Who when they have that innocence."
Focus began to shift away from the last-gang-in-town mentality after the success of . A steady run of hits, including and had already entered the zeitgeist before the album was released in August 1994.Â
"Their songs have a familiarity which is a very clever way of writing music,â says Cummins. âWhen you heard that Oasis album for the first time, you felt that you had lived with it all your life but it was original and that's a great balance to have. I admired them for what they were doing. When the tabloids got hold of them of them that destroys everything and there are very few bands that come out of the other side of it well."
As original drummer Tony McCarroll pointed out: "Change the drummer and you change the band."
This version of Oasis was short-lived but their image from 1994 still resonates most with fans. "A lot of people think this all happens organically but it doesn't," reflects Cummins. "At the time they were a group of mates like all bands are in the beginning, they all got on and took the piss out of each other. I think it's very difficult when bands change. The Smiths would never been the same if they got rid of [drummer] Mike Joyce and got Phil Collins in."
Both Cummins and Noel Gallagher move in the same circles at Manchester City games. The photographer was unaware of Oasis reforming when the book went into production. "Noel would ask how the book was going but never mentioned anything," says Cummins. "It's caught the public imagination, if you have a back catalogue like that why shouldn't you do it? Music is meant to be entertaining and the fact you can go with your kids and have a great day is a very unusual thing in itself at the moment!"
- , photographs by Kevin Cummins featuring Noel Gallagher, is published by Cassell. Available now
