Oasis: A British Legend

End Of Britpop

As ‘Britpop’ started to lose momentum towards the end of the nineties, Oasis heading into Abbey Road Studios in London and Ridge Farm Studios in Surrey to record their third album Be Here Now.

Released in August of 1997, it was  preceded by the number 1 single D'You Know What I Mean?, and, by the end of the first day of release, Be Here Now sold over 350,000 units and by the end of business on Saturday of that week sales had reached 696,000, making it the fastest-selling album in British history.

In early 1999, the band began work on their fourth studio album, but their progress was marred by the shock departure of founding member Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs which was followed a few weeks later by Paul McGuigan.

Now as a three-piece, Oasis chose to continue recording the album, with Noel Gallagher re-recording most of Arthurs' guitar and McGuigan's bass parts. It wasn’t until the album was finished that the band begun searching for replacement members, which ultimately secured, new lead/rhythm guitarist Colin "Gem" Archer, formerly of Heavy Stereo, and Andy Bell, former guitarist/songwriter of Ride and Hurricane #1 as their new bassist.

But with that hurdle passed, the band then had to contend with the folding of Creation Records, which caused them to form their own label, Big brother through which they released their fourth album, Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants which was followed up by a fifth, Heathen Chemistry, their first album with new members Andy Bell and Gem Archer, in July 2002.

Back To The Top

After a number of fall out’s between the Gallagher brothers, the band finally completed their sixth album, Don't Believe the Truth, and brought with it two number one singles, Lyla and The Importance of Being Idle, whilst Let There Be Love entered at number 2.

Proving they were still at the top of their game, the band received the BRIT Award for outstanding contribution to music in February 2007, and, in a poll to find the 50 greatest British albums of the last 50 years conducted by Q Magazine and HMV, two Oasis albums were voted first and second (Definitely Maybe and (What's The Story) Morning Glory? Respectively, whilst a further two other Oasis albums appeared in the list - Don't Believe The Truth came in at 14, and Be Here Now, made the list at 22.

In 2008 the band released the highly anticipated album, The Shock of the Lightning written, in full, by Noel Gallagher, on 6 October and went to Number 1 in the UK and number 5 on the Billboard 200.

In support of this, they decided to embark on an 18-month long tour, with support from Kasabian, The Enemy and Twisted Wheel and on 4 June 2009, Oasis played the first of three concerts at Manchester's Heaton Park and, after abandoning the set twice due to generator failure, they came on the third time to declare the gig was now a free concert, much to the delight of the 70,000 ticket holders inside the venue.

So, that’s where we are now, and how the lads have become one of the most epic bands of all time; with over 50 million records sold worldwide, eight UK number-one singles and fifteen NME Awards, five BRIT Awards, nine Q Awards and four MTV Europe Music Awards, the real question is… can they get any better?

FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison

Back to page 1