Aqualung

They are good.



























(Just kidding. I'm writing it now.)

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Here we go. Mushu cereal for breakfast with duck sauce.

 

Aqualung

Oasis is a rock band formed in 1991 in Manchester, England. They are heavily influenced by such bands as The Smiths, The Kinks, and T. Rex. They were one of the most successful bands in England during the mid-1990s, and one of the first Britpop groups.

Genre:
Rock, Britpop

Years Active:
1991-present

Current Line-up:
Liam Gallagher - Lead vocals
Noel Gallagher - Lead guitar, vocals
Gem Archer - Rhythm guitar, backing vocals, keyboards
Andy Bell - Bass guitar, lead guitar, keyboards
Zak Starkey - Drums and other percussion

Former band members:
Alan White - Drums and other percussion
Paul Arthurs - Rhythm guitar
Paul McGuigan - Bass guitar
Tony McCarroll - Drums and other percussion

Discography:
Definitely Maybe - 1994
(What's the Story) Morning Glory? - 1995
Be Here Now - 1997
The Master Plan - 1998 (a B-sides compilation)
Standing on the Sholder of Giants - 2000
Heathen Chemistry - 2002
Don't Believe the Truth - 2005

Early history:
Oasis, originally called The Rain (after a Beatles B-Side), formed with Paul McGuigan, Paul Arthurs, Tony McCarroll, and Chris Hutton. These four invided their school friend Liam Gallagher to join, and Gallagher convinced the guys to change their name to Oasis.

Oasis started playing live in clubs around Manchester in 1991. Liam's older brother Noel, who had returned from touring as a roadie with The Inspiral Carpets, came to some shows, and the band later invited him to join. Noel agreed, even though he was somewhat critical of their music. He joined on the condition that he would be the band's leader and songwriter, because, as he said, that would be the road to commercial success.

Oasis started to develop quite the local fan base through playing in local clubs. In 1992, Noel asked Real People bassist and vocalist Tony Griffiths to help Oasis create a professional quality demo tape, Live Demonstration. This tape would later be the basis for their first album. Thier demo tape was ignored by those to whom it was sent.

In 1993, a band who played at a club in Glasgow invited Oasis invited Oasis to play with them. The club, apparantly, was not informed of this change, and the band had to bully their way in when the bouncers refused to allow them access, since they were not on that night's set list. Oasis played the opening set in the presence of Creation Records owner Andy McGee, who was greatly impressed. In 1994, under Creation Records, Oasis released Colombia (as a white lable release) and the singles Supersonic and Shakermaker, both of which gained Top 40 spots in the UK.

Rise to fame:
Later in 1994, Oasis released the single Live Forever, which reached the UK Top 10. Around the time of the release of this signle, Liam Gallagher and Paul McGuigan was arrested for fighting, and Paul Arthurs and Tony McCarroll were detained in connection with a shop lifting incident, on a ferry trip to the Netherlands. They were refused entry into the Netherlands, and this became the first of many tabloid appearances for the band. This publicity helped propel their debut album, Definitely Maybe, to #1 on the charts.

Their next single, Ciggarettes & Alcohol, reached #7 on the charts. It included a riff very blatantly plagarized from a T. Rex track, Get it On. Their 1994 EP Whatever reached #3 in the UK. It hinted that the band was moving towards a mellower sound.

The band's first US tour cuased tensions to rise between the Gallagher brothers. This, grouped with a disdain for Americans and a bad gig in LA, persuaded Noel to leave the band for a while. He flew to San Fransisco without telling any of the other band members. The band's manager finally found Noel, and persuaded the group to go to Las Vegas for a little down time.

Oasis then released their second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory, and the single from that album (the only song from that album that featured drummer Tony McCarroll) reached #1 in the UK. The album was a huge success, and two more hit singles were released off of the album, Wonderwall (which reached #2) and Don't Look Back In Anger (reaching #1). Shortly after the album's release, Oasis fired McCarroll. Noel Gallagher says it was because McCarroll just wasn't good enough, though it is well-known that McCarroll was not well-liked by any of the band members. McCarroll was replaced by Alan White.

(What's the Story) Morning Glory


That same year (1995), Oasis headlined the UK's most popular music festival, the Glastonbury Festival. Also during this time period, British media started writing a lot of articles about some supposed rivalry between Oasis and Blur, another Britpop band. Noel played along. In August, Blur and Oasis released singles on the same day, which prompted even more media attention. (Blur's single "won", for anybody who was curious, by about 60,000 copies in the first week. Oasis said it was because Blur's single was a lot cheaper, so really Oasis won, since so many people bought a more expensive single.) In September, Paul McGuigan left the band due to nervous exhaustion. Scott Mcleod was the replacement, but he very suddenly left the band during a tour. Oasis convinced McGuigan to return.

In 1996, Oasis became a "record holder", becoming only the third group (behind The Beatles, and The Jam) to preform two songs on the same edition of Top of the Pops. In August of that same year, Oasis played back-to-back concerts at Knebworth House. The shows sold out within minutes. Around 250,000 people came, which was, at least at the time, a record-breaking audience for an outdoor concert.

Be Here Now, Oasis's third album, was released in August of 1997. Teh single D'You Know What I Mean was a #1 UK hit. The album, since it was so looked forward to, received considerable meida attention. This was the fastest selling album in UK history (selling 423,000 on its first day) and reached #2 in the US. After the excitement had died down, however, many people criticized the album for over production and "bloatedness". Coupled with the dissapointment of this album was the decline of the Britpop movement, which effectively ended Oasis's rise.

After the fame:
From 1996 to 1998, the band decided to take a hiatus, and keep clear of each other for a while. They were, however, still popular subjects of the tabloids, and they released a compilation of B-Sides.

In 1999, the band reunited to record their fourth album, Standing on the Sholder of Giants. The songs were written by a crack-free Noel, and the lyrics are evidence of his clean state. Not only had Noel quit taking cocaine, but he also convinced Liam to stop drinking so heavily, since his alcoholism was affecting his singing, and even imposed a no drugs policy on the entire group. Not all was well, however, and Paul Arthurs left the band. At the time, Noel said it was because Arthurs wanted to spend time with his family, and Arthurs said it was so he could focus on other things. Noel later recanted and said it was because Arthurs couldn't deal with the No Drugs policy. Just a couple of days later, Paul McGuigan left the band, possibly due to Arthurs' depature.

The band continued recording the album, and Noel even re-recorded most of Arthurs' and McGuigan's parts. They hired Gem Archer as a rhythm guitarist and Andy Bell on bass. (Interestingly, Bell had never played the bass before, and learned it specifically to be in Oasis.) In 2000, the album was finally released. It had decent sales, but it's reviews were not really all that great. The more experamental sound of this album was not what people wanted. It was also mot a very "tight" album, since a lot of the parts were re-recorded after Arthurs and McGuigan left the band.

Oasis then went on a world tour, but their Barcelona concert was cancelled a couple hours before they were to play, because Alan White was suffering from tendonitis. This prompted the band to spend the entire evening drinking, which ended in a fight between Liam and Noel. Noel skipped town, and the band was forced to continue the tour without him. Noel returned for the UK portion of the tours, however, ending rumours that the band was split up for good.

Heathen Chemistry was released in 2002. This album was experamental, though it was heavily influnced by 60s and 70s british rock. The album also had all the members playing a part in songwriting (it was previously mostly Noel and sometimes Liam who wrote the songs). The album was not critically successful, but it was commercially a success.

In 2005, Oasis released their most recent album, Don't Believe the Truth. It was another well-balanced record, with the other group members participating in the song-writing. For this album, Alan White was replaced by Zak Starkey (son of Ringo Starr). Critically it was said to be their best album since (What's the Story) Morning Glory? and it was commercially very successful as well. Two #1 singles (Lyla, and The Importance of Being Idle) came from this album.

Don't Believe the Truth

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Here we go. Mushu cereal for breakfast with duck sauce.

ChrisP

Is that the same Alan White who played with Yes?

Aqualung

Nope, different guys.

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Here we go. Mushu cereal for breakfast with duck sauce.

ChrisP

Thanks

Enzo

Big fan, Aqualung?

Aqualung

They're decent. I just did them because right before I was trying to pick who to do, my brother came in and asked if I had a certain Oasis song, so I decided to write about them.

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Here we go. Mushu cereal for breakfast with duck sauce.

hermitbadger

A claim to fame in my somewhat meagre existence is that I watched Noel Gallagher set up the drum kit for an Inspiral Carpets gig!
hohum but my friends sister has a letter that was written by Noel, it was a slightly derogatory letter to put it mildly! Apparently he worked in the Inspirals Carpets press doodah officey type thing, and she had written in asking for free press stuff stickers posters etc., so in many words he basically called her a scrounger! She still has the letter and I reckon she'd get a fair penny on the old ebay for it...........Kerrching!

On the subject of Oasis great first album but pants, pants, pants from then on! imo of course...
Another great feature Aqua...WooHooo!

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'life is like getting into a boat thats just about to sail out to sea and sink.....

the-muzic

Greatest band ever IMO

Aqualung

What is it about them that makes you think they're the greatest band ever? I've only listened to them very briefly, so I don't know much about their acutal sound. Do you just like the music? Or is it something more specific?

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Here we go. Mushu cereal for breakfast with duck sauce.

‡Âlãn‡

I like the drunk one.

jnbammer

I saw Oasis live in Providence in the early '90s. I went to the show to write a review for Get With It Magazine while I was at UConn. It was one of the worst shows that I've ever seen, and I was highly disappointed. I really liked their music, but their attitudes toward fans was horrible. One of the brothers was always off stage or complaining or doing something to antagonize the crowd. It was terrible.

Stan

That'd be Mr. Liam Gallagher... he is stroppiness personified!

They were a cracking band in the late nineties, but their later stuff has really disappointed... never regained the brilliance of Definitely Maybe and What's The Story...

ChrisP

Not quite sure what he was talking about really... simple catchy tunes... kinda remind me of Nirvana without the talented Mr Grohl.

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Insanity admitted...

abelincolnish

Amazing

Daniela Petri

great band

radio86

Used to be a great fan, now just a fan... their gigs are better now than in the 90's, but records were better those days!

redkin

Great band.

Love singing to them at the bar kareoke styles

unzestedecitron

I agree. Oasis are capable of coming up with either the best songs ever or rather boring stuff. I love their first two albums and some of their later stuff but I'm a bit disappointed.
I guess I laid my expectations too high and they've fallen flat. Yet, all things considered, they're a good band. It would be unfair to say the opposite.

sohotrightnow

they ARE good

seBENTA

a good rock band with agood rock attitude

Glorfindel

Okay guys, give me your recommendations for Oasis, best album, favorite songs, one of my friends was really into this band a few years back, but that was during my hiatus from the music scene. I was heavily into my mountain biking and everything else kind of slipped past me, even music and new bands weren't a priority so I missed out on Oasis.(From what I have heard though Liam Gallagher is an arrogant P***k!)

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Aqualung

I like mountain biking.


But I don't really care much for Oasis. I would recommend "What's the Story (Morning GLory)" just based on popularity.

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Here we go. Mushu cereal for breakfast with duck sauce.

redspice

Great band. I like their song Don't Look Back in Anger...

tommytommytomtom

oasis rules