INTERVIEWER: Does the red light mean it's on, yeah?
- MAN: Yeah. - LIAM GALLAGHER: Pour a few glasses at me.
[NOEL GALLAGHER YAWNS]
I've had about four fucking coffees today, man,
and they've fucking proper knocked me out.
What the fuck's going on?
Now I'm fucking double tired, it's like, come on.
INTERVIEWER: All right, how are we doing in there, are we good?
MAN: Yeah, we're rolling, I'm just going to do a sync pip.
- [BEEP] - INTERVIEWER: Okay, lovely.
So, what do you think looking back at that time
because it was, like, two-and-a-half years really,
from being signed to playing Knebworth.
What happened to that band? What happened to you in those three years?
Sorry, that was a big question.
LIAM: It is a big question, and it deserves a big answer.
REPORTER 1: As Oasis gears up to rock a quarter of a million fans,
we're live from Knebworth.
REPORTER 2: By Sunday night, Oasis will have played
to more than a third of a million people in just over one week.
Hi, this is Jo Whiley welcoming you to a rather special event,
the live gig of the decade.
REPORTER 1: In just over three years, Oasis will have gone from being a new signing
to one of rock's true giants.
[CHEERING]
[HELICOPTER ROTORS WHIRRING]
CROWD: [CHANTING] Oasis! Oasis! Oasis!
CROWD: [CHANTING] Three, two, one!
[CHEERING]
[CHEERING INTENSIFIES]
Are we not playing a game?
Oasis was definitely like a fucking Ferrari.
Great to look at, great to drive,
and it would fucking spin out of control every now and again when you go too fast.
We were just lads from a council estate.
Two brothers, head cases.
Oasis' greatest strength was the relationship between me and Liam.
It's also what drove the band into the ground in the end,
you know what I mean?
[SINGING: There we were, now here we are]
[All this confusion]
[Nothing's the same to me]
[There we were, now here we are]
[All this confusion]
[Nothing's the same to me]
[I can't tell you the way I feel because]
[The way I feel is oh so new to me]
[I can't tell you the way I feel because]
[The way I feel is oh so new to me]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[LIAM SPEAKING]
[LAUGHTER]
[LIAM SPEAKING]
[LAUGHTER]
For me, music, I wasn't into it until, like,
when I was about 16 or 17 maybe.
Anyone with a guitar, or in a band
I thought was a bit suspect, you know what I mean?
And like, I'd hurl abuse at them.
I used to share a room with Noel.
A bit of a stoner, a bit of a loner.
You know, he had a guitar, so he was copping for it,
you know what I mean?
Always very quiet, Noel.
Always in his room with a piece of paper and a pen
and he'd be writing.
Always strumming the guitar.
Many is the time I went up and I knocked that guitar and said,
"Bloody guitar, you get on my bloody nerves!"
Yeah, I mean, once I'd discovered weed and guitars,
you got into another world.
What would you want to go out for?
Everything I ever wanted in life was coming out of the speakers.
I don't know why me and Liam would be so different.
We both had the same childhood, do you know what I mean?
PEGGIE: He was a devil, Liam.
Full of it, yeah.
Total attention seeker.
Robbing your clothes, robbing your records, robbing your this, robbing your that.
Robbing your money.
NOEL: Definitely a bit of a show-off,
but not to the point where it's, like, fucking,
you know, Bonnie Langford, do you know what I mean?
Or one of them little fucking brats with jazz hands.
Well, Liam was, allegedly, he was the cock of the school.
No one messed with him.
I think one day some rival school turned up and boshed him on the head with a hammer.
We were stood there having a cig
and I remember all these lads coming down.
These kids pulled out this little fucking hammer and went whack on my head.
Blood everywhere.
Got out of fucking double Maths, so that was all right.
I've got a perfect alibi for that, so it's nothing to do with me!
From that day on, and I know it sounds stupid,
but it was like as if something had fucking clicked, do you know what I mean?
You know, I started hearing music,
it started making sense, you know what I mean?
So, whoever he is, thank you.
Somebody hammered the music into him.
He's got a fucking lot to answer for, hasn't he?
All my life as it existed then was, like going to sign on,
getting my cash, cashing my dole,
going to the Sifters, getting a record,
buying some weed, going into Greggs,
going back home and fucking blasting it out and getting soaked in it.
I was just obsessed with being in a band.
Just ob-fucking-sessed, man.
Actually, I never thought Liam was interested in music
until he used to sit out there in the kitchen and say,
"I'm going to be famous one day," he said.
"And you're going to be really proud of me." I said, "Am I?"
I said, "Well, I hope it's before I start pushing up daisies." [LAUGHS]
"Because we need the money now!"
And then of course, Bonehead started coming round,
and Tony McCarroll and Guigsy.
That's when Liam formed the band.
I knew Bonehead and I knew Guigs,
and they were in a band called The Rain.
They'd heard I was cool,
and I'd had my epiphany, and all that bollocks.
Someone in passing just said, "You know, Liam wanted to be in a band."
Liam came round my house.
His voice was just like, "Whoa!" You know, it's like, "Yeah!"
[LIAM: I used to live my life in vain]
[Until today it's been the same]
[I've gone away...]
BONEHEAD: It wasn't the Liam we all know.
A bit more softer, a lot more melodic.
And obviously his look. I mean, he looked like Liam's always looked, you know.
He had a great haircut, great walk.
"I'll have a bit of that."
He went, "Right, look, do you want to be in this band?"
I says, "Yeah, but we'll have to change that fucking name though 'cause it's terrible."
There was a poster in our room for the Inspiral Carpets.
It certainly wasn't about Swindon Oasis.
It was like, you know, there was a kebab shop called Oasis.
There was a fucking taxi rank called Oasis.
That fucking name keeps coming up, "Oasis".
We were, kind of, a little bit out on our own.
I just thought, "Oasis", that was good, man.
NOEL: I'm not in Oasis at this point.
I'm not in a band, I've no intention of being in a band.
I'm just part of a road crew for Inspiral Carpets
trying not to get sacked from this job
because I fucking blagged my way into it and I'm an absolute chancer.
The main thing was, like, getting Noel in the band.
Good morning!
He was a songwriter.
He's a tight bastard!
[LAUGHTER]
I'm okay with me.
LIAM: In my head, I thought, "He'll come off tour
"when he sees that we're doing it instead of talking about it,
"he'll want to join our band and he'll do the business."
[LIAM SPEAKING]
I've done a couple of tours of America.
I'd been to Argentina.
I'd been to Japan.
So as far as they went, I went with them.
I met Mark Coyle, sat at the back of the tour bus
smoking weed and doing the monitors.
That's how I met Noel, pulling this fucking face
because this is his thing.
He's the roadie for that band.
And as soon as we started talking we were, fucking, best mates straightaway.
If there's one thing I'd remember about Noel,
is that he never had a fucking dirty hand.
But he loved that band.
They were all terrified of him.
Yeah, he was just the boss all the way, from the minute go when I met him.
I thought we were great.
I mean, clearly we weren't because we did get fired,
separately got fired by the band,
for being unprofessional
and somewhat unapproachable by various tour managers.
[CHUCKLES] Lazy cunts!
[LAUGHING] Yeah!
I'd like to thank the Inspiral Carpets for sacking him. Well done!
We had some great, funny fucking times.
I wasn't sitting at the side of the stage, tuning guitars, thinking,
"One day, this is going to be me."
I thought that I'd arrived at that point and that was it.
I thought, "This will fucking do me," do you know what I mean?
I was doing a gig in Munich.
I was somebody sound-checking a bass drum. Boom.
One, two. What's sibilance?
I used to phone home on a Sunday, phone my mum.
[PHONE RINGING]
It's Noel.
PEGGIE: On the phone? Just a minute. I'll get it out here. Hello?
How are you, Noel?
- Are you all right? - Yeah.
Just doing Liam's washing for him.
Doing his dirty washing for him.
NOEL: But, anyway, we were chatting away about family stuff
and then I said, "How's Liam?"
"Oh, he's out rehearsing."
"What for? He's not joined the Shakespeare fucking group, has he?"
"Oh, no, he's in a band."
"What? Doing what?"
"He's the singer." "He's the singer? He can't fucking sing."
"Oh, I don't know now. He said he's the singer."
And that was it, and then I, kind of, got home
and our Paul's going, "Oh, yeah, he's in this band.
"They're pretty fucking good, you know."
And then they were playing at the local band night
on at the Boardwalk.
And I went down to see them.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGING: Take me, when I'm young and true]
[Was it me or was it you?]
[Take me, when I'm not so strong]
[Why has it taken you so long?]
NOEL: I was like, "Wow, fucking hell! I'm pretty impressed."
They had their own songs, and Liam didn't look that out of place.
[LAUGHTER]
NOEL: The first thing they said when they come up to me was, "What did you think?"
I said, "It was fucking great,"
and they said, "We were thinking, would you fancy being our manager?"
I was like, "What? What the fuck are they talking about? No."
And they were, like, "Because you know loads of people, and all that."
"Not sure about that. I think you'd get a better manager than me."
And then a couple of weeks later Liam said, "Come and fucking jam with us."
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You know, so I went and sat in with them
and I was playing their tunes, and it was great.
And then I think the second time I went,
Liam was going, "Play them that fucking song that you played us."
[PLAYING GUITAR]
And then once everybody all joined in and you hear this thing
that you've, in inverted commas, "written," being played back to you in this room
and it's like, "Wow! Fucking hell! That's amazing!"
It just went from there, really.
[SINGING: It's a bit early in the midnight hour for me]
[To think of all the things I want to be]
[I don't believe in everything I see]
[You know I'm blind, so why do you disagree?]
[Take me away because I just don't want to stay]
[And the lies you make me say are getting deeper every day]
[These are crazy days but they make me shine]
[Time keeps rolling by]
[All around the world]
[You've got to spread the word]
[Tell them what you heard]
[Because you know it's going to be okay]
NOEL: To hear your own stuff played back, it was really a mega moment.
And then it went nowhere for two years. [LAUGHS]
So, I mean, there is the myth that I kicked open the fuckin' rehearsal room door
to the theme tune from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,
and said, "Everybody, stop what you're doing. I am here to make us all millionaires."
You know, It wasn't that at all, you know what I mean?
No, the truth is, he got on his hands and knees and said,
"Listen, I'll do anything, just, please, let me be in your band."
I said, "Get up off your hands and knees, son. You're all right, you can do it."
I think I've got a picture of it somewhere.
For that 18 months to two years, we never gave up.
If nothing else, we were dedicated.
Yeah, I loved it. I loved it.
That was when we were on our own for a bit,
when everyone was in the hacienda popping pills and that,
and all my mates would be knocking on the door going,
"What are you doing now?"
"I'm going down to the fucking rehearsal room."
The whole fucking city was like just immersed in this music
that didn't make sense to me, you know what I mean?
[TECHNO MUSIC PLAYING]
We weren't the best musicians, but we had spirit, man,
and that was lacking massively at that point.
I always thought that we were greater than the sum of our parts,
you know what I mean?
Bonehead? [LAUGHS]
He was kind of the glue that held it all together.
God bless him.
If anything, I'd say Bonehead was the spirit of Oasis.
He's a top musician and all, Bonehead. He's like, he can play anything,
but he's a mental cunt and I loved his mad side.
So me and him would get up to mad shit together, you know what I mean?
Guigsy? Guigs brought a calmness to it all.
He never got flustered.
He loved cricket and Doctor Who, and weed and Man City.
I'd say fifth after that was being in Oasis.
I'd say that came a lowly fifth.
Guigsy, chilled out motherfucker, man.
Lovely lad, but just a complete and utter fucking stoner.
Tony was a person that I shared a room in the early days, you know,
and I really, really got on with Tony. Really nice person.
Very Irish in his ways, you know, came from a massive Irish family.
Definitely the quiet one.
The one who was most reserved.
TONY MCCARROLL: None of them lot had kids, none of them had responsibility.
I had a different outlook on life.
I always had my daughter in the back of my head.
That moulded me.
Oasis was going for about maybe six months, a year,
and I was writing songs just to amuse myself,
and then one night, I went down with a song and everything changed
[GUITAR PLAYING]
[SINGING: Maybe I don't really want to know]
[How your garden grows]
[Because I just want to fly]
[Lately, did you ever feel the pain?]
[In the morning rain]
[As it soaks you to the bone]
[Maybe I just want to fly]
[I want to live, I don't want to die]
[Maybe I just want to breathe]
[Maybe I just don't believe]
[Maybe you're the same as me]
[We see things they'll never see]
[You and I, we're gonna live forever]
NOEL: Bonehead, he was saying, "You've not just fucking written that.
"That's no way that's your song."
Well, I wouldn't believe it.
For someone to come in a room and just go,
"Oh, I'll play you one of my songs," and then play you Live Forever,
it's like, "Fuck off!
"You didn't write that." He said, "Why didn't I?"
I said, "Because listen to it!"
You know, I thought, "Wow! What a song! You didn't write it."
"Yeah, I did." "No, you didn't."
I knew enough about music and about songs to know that that was a great song,
and then one followed another.
And it's like, "No, this happening now.
"And even if no one else takes any notice of it, this is happening."
I didn't really get involved with the music kind of thing.
I was, like, "Look, that's your thing, you do that.
"I'll just be cool as fuck over there."
Once they were in a band
I knew they weren't going to listen to me about steady jobs.
They were up and down the country, and I would say,
"Oh, you might be lucky tonight."
And I'd say to Noel, "Any luck, Noel?"
"No." Then they'd go off again somewhere else.
I spend my life worrying about them.
We didn't have one single paragraph written about us, ever.
No one even said we were shit.
Completely and utterly fucking ignored.
I kind of had a feeling it'd happened, man.
I don't know what the consequences would have been without it happening
because it was, like, if it didn't happen,
the world would be black, do you know what I mean?
We were sharing a rehearsal room with an all-girl band called Sister Lovers.
Unbeknown to us, one of the girls in the band, Debbie Turner,
God bless Debbie, was an ex-girlfriend of Alan McGee's,
the head of the coolest record label in England.
We were asking her what they're up to
and they were saying, "We're going up to do this gig."
I think I was probably being quite cocky actually in saying,
"Oi, Noel, we're playing in Glasgow,"
which, then, for an unsigned band to get a gig outside Manchester,
that was like playing Glastonbury.
And we were like, "Well, how the fuck have you got a gig and not us?"
She said, "Why don't you come with us?
"Be on the bill, kind of thing."
And we were like, "Yeah, Glasgow? Fuck it, let's do it."
For the pure love of it.
"If we all put in £25 each, we can hire a splitter van
"and get up there, kip in the van, do the gig, get back. Yay!"
So we hired a van out,
smoking weed, all that nonsense, drinking.
You know one of them days where you just go,
"It's fucking going to be the day today."
Maybe it was the drugs or something.
We get there really early and we say, "We're Oasis from Manchester.
"We've come here to play tonight."
And the guy says, "There's no band down here."
I said, "Yeah, yeah, it's all right, we're with Debbie."
And he's like, "No, no, no, no, no fucking way."
I think we said, "Well, if they're not playing, we're not going to play.
"We'll do a really short set,"
which wasn't hard 'cause I think we only had five songs anyway.
Then Oasis were allowed to play.
NOEL: So we went on, we got to do four songs
and we didn't think anything of it.
Debbie didn't even know that I was coming up to that gig.
I'd been an evil, twisted fucker.
I thought that I would show up to put her on edge.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGING: What was that sound ringing around your brain?]
[Today was just a blur]
[You've got a head like a ghost train]
[You're the outcast]
[You're the underclass]
[But you don't care]
[Because you're living fast]
At the end, there was just loads of feedback and a smattering of applause.
[APPLAUSE]
I really do believe some things are meant to fucking be.
I was standing there with my kid sister, Susan.
She immediately went, "You should sign these,"
and I'm like, "Let's see the second song."
And it's like, "I'm signing these!"
And the third song, "I'm definitely signing these!"
And I, sort of like, went up to Noel and I said,
"I'm Alan McGee. Do you want a record deal?"
And I said, "Who with?"
And he went, "Creation Records," and I kind of recognised him.
And that was it!
[LIAM SPEAKING]
I don't remember anybody high-fiving in the back of the van
thinking, "Hurray, this is it!"
I remember going back to Manchester
and getting in to where I was living, you know,
at, what, 6:00 in the morning.
And my then missus, Louise, was getting ready to go to work.
And I said,
"Creation Records have offered us a record deal,"
and she started crying.
She knew then that, you know, that was going to be the end of us.
I remember the day he came back and told me he had the record deal.
And of course I thought, "Oh, this is great."
I never really thought it would go the way it did though.
Liam says, "All I want, Mum, is to earn a bit of money," he says,
"and get myself some new clothes." [LAUGHS]
And then it went haywire.
Mum was an angel, still is.
Not impressed by all this rock 'n roll business, and rightly so.
You know, when I think of those times, do you know what I mean,
she kind of brought us up on her own, really.
And three lads, particularly one of them being Liam,
it was very tricky.
I mean, she gave it all up for us, you know what I mean?
I wanted to make her proud.
I wanted to get her to stop from doing, like, three fucking jobs
and put her feet up, you know what I mean, and have nice things.
I hated it when I came over here first.
It was a big shock, I'm telling you, to come to a big city like Manchester.
Oh, I must have cried for about six months.
It was after the New Year, I think it was 1963.
I went to the carousel and met him there.
Tommy Gallagher.
We got married after about nine or ten months.
And that was it!
He was lovely when I met him, like.
Paul arrived ten months after I was married.
Then Noel arrived a year after that again.
We were dressed identical.
She used to knit our clothes.
So you can imagine, you've got no choice. You couldn't say, "I don't like them, Mum,"
because she's just spent four years knitting you a jumper.
Liam arrived five-and-a-half years after, which was great.
Well, that was the best time with the kids.
[SIGHS] I think there was always that bit of jealousy with Liam and Noel.
I idolised Paul and Noel because there were only the two of them,
and Noel was absolutely beautiful when he was a baby,
and then, of course, Liam comes along, takes the limelight off you.
He probably thought, "Urgh!"
But you could tell the disagreements that were there with them.
I was glad they were together in a band.
I would not have wanted Liam in a band without Noel.
But it all happened too quick,
just too quick altogether.
[CHEERING]
LIAM: Good evening, Great Britain!
Hello!
MAN: Oasis, are you down there?
- LIAM: We certainly are. - Do you fancy having a bit of a chat?
LIAM: Go on then.
MAN: "Go on then." There's a story about you lot getting signed to Creation.
Alan McGee saw you in a club in Glasgow. Is that right?
LIAM: Don't believe the hype.
NOEL: No, he did, yeah.
There was like seven people there, I think, and he was two of them.
MAN: Right.
NOEL: And he signed us there and then, on the spot.
MAN: Was he drunk?
NOEL: He actually thinks we're the greatest band in the fucking world.
He's phoned me up, about fucking 5:00 in the morning,
going, "You know, man,
"we're going to annihilate the fucking world, man!"
McGee wanted Bring It On Down to be the first single
and I was fine with that, I love that song.
They're just... It's punk.
"You're the outcast, you're the underclass.
"You don't care, but you're living fast."
I just loved it.
I can't say why Bring It On Down was chosen,
but it wasn't coming together.
I don't know what the fuck was wrong with it, like.
I mean, it would become apparent why that session didn't work.
It's because our drummer at the time wasn't the most consistent
from one fucking bar to the next, never mind one day to the next.
And that's his big moment, that, a fucking riff.
"Just fucking do it in time, son."
Fucking hell, we're up against it here.
We'd not recorded anything.
Why I chose to write a new song
as opposed to record any of the others off of Definitely Maybe
is still a little bit of a mystery.
Noel's got the riff, but that's all he's got,
so they're just kind of knocking this little thing,
which all bands do, you know, a little riff.
Someone had sent out for Chinese, or fish and chips or something.
Or Chinese fish and chips?
I went in the back room
and, as bizarre as it sounds, wrote Supersonic
in about however long it takes six other guys to eat a Chinese meal.
Then he came back in the room with us.
He said, "Look, I've just written another song."
And we nailed it and mixed it that night.
Rapid, because that's what we'd been doing every night in the Boardwalk, you know,
and it sounded massive.
ANNOUNCER: Give it up for Oasis, making their TV debut with Supersonic.
[CHEERING]
[SINGING: I need to be myself]
[I can't be no one else]
[I'm feeling supersonic]
[Give me gin and tonic]
[You can have it all]
[But how much do you want it?]
[ You make me laugh...]
We'd done gigs before that and there were people coming along
because they'd read about us in the press.
But nobody knew any of the songs.
On the day that Supersonic came out,
bang, the crowd were right there,
and I remember people singing the lyrics to Supersonic.
You know, they're singing your words back that you've nonsensically wrote down
at fucking 3:00 in the morning.
[SINGING: ...for what you want to say]
[But before tomorrow]
['Cause my friend said he'd take you home]
[He sits in a corner all alone]
[He lives under a waterfall]
[Nobody can see him]
[Nobody can ever hear him call...]
We'd play a town, we'd go off and do the next, do the next,
and then come back to that one you did a few weeks before and do it again.
Trouble seemed to find us at any given point.
We're barred from a full chain of hotels
and honestly, no one would take us anywhere.
I do remember one hotel, the whole bedroom went out of the window,
mattress, pillows, everything.
If it moves, fling it.
Poof.
I could never understand it, you know, hotel rooms being smashed up.
That's like hard work.
You'd get a sweat on.
What do you do? Go to bed at 10:00 every night?
I don't think so, you know what I mean? You only get it once.
You're going to live it to the full.
Have it! And we did!
You can't ask a 21-year-old lad to be professional, it's like...
It's like, "I don't even understand that word, what are you on about?"
You're feeling Supersonic? Go to bed at 9:30!
"Give me gin and tonic"? Get my head down at about 10:30.
Fuck off, mate, you know what I mean?
[NOEL SPEAKING]
There was something very different about this band.
It just had a devilish, belligerent, filthy little sound to it.
Coyle could really mix sound in little clubs.
He was really good at making it sound fucking epic.
Noel, I didn't understand what "Feeling Supersonic" meant,
but I'm with you, whatever it is, I'd die for you right now.
That's how I felt about Oasis.
LIAM: Thank you very much.
INTERVIEWER: Did you get your friends working for you then,
so you can tour around in a big group?
No, it's just so we can exploit them.
[LAUGHS]
Thing is, if we didn't have them working for us when we're away,
they'd be burgling our houses.
So it's best to have them on the road with us.
You're being hyped as the best band around at the moment.
Is all the hype true?
- Yeah. - It is? Good.
The best band about today on the planet.
It's a fact.
[SINGING: I'd shake along with me...]
We're in a band, we're into football, we're into taking drugs, and meeting women
and all the rest of it, right?
We won't deny anything that's been written about us.
Why should we? They want to write about it, fine.
We're happy with that.
Our music will stand the test of time. That is a fact.
Right, all this media hype
and all this thing about us being this, that, and the other, right,
will be dead in a year's time.
Everyone will have forgotten about it.
The records that we make will be in the shops forever.
[SINGING: Shake along with me]
It was a wild tour.
At one point, we were going to Amsterdam to support this band from Wigan, The Verve.
Our first international gig.
So this guy picked us up in a van, and he's going to be our roadie.
Jason Rhodes.
Marcus got in touch and said, "Right, do you want to go to Amsterdam?"
I went, "Yeah!" [LAUGHS]
Up your bum!
I said to him, "All right, nice to meet you.
"Fucking forget that. Did they give you a float?"
And he said, "No, no, no, that's for petrol."
I said, "Never mind petrol."
And we took the float off him and then spent about an hour
driving around Manchester getting drugs.
And then set off.
Get on the ferry.
I don't know how we get on the ferry because we're pissed, but we get on this ferry.
As fate would have it, there's a load of West Ham fans
on this overnight ferry, it's got a casino on it and a fucking night club.
The Thursday night ferry to "The 'Dam."
Who goes to Amsterdam on a ferry for the weekend?
What kind of clientele?
The drink of choice for a few hours was champagne and Jack Daniels slammers.
The next thing is that sporadic fighting is breaking out all round us really.
Liam is very excited by the prospects of a lot of chaos going on
and he goes and joins in.
Yeah, it was fucking mayhem, man, I loved it.
You can see him running through the windows along the deck.
He's having a great time.
He looks like he's in a school playground chasing leaves.
Liam at one point said they'd ran through a casino
and he flung all the roulette shit off the table as he was running past.
Then there was a fight broke out
and all I remember was it was a bit "Benny Hill."
The next time I see him, he's still running, but he's got policemen running after him.
Someone's punched someone, someone's kicked someone.
Someone's got nicked, then we're handcuffed
and sent down to the bottom of the boat, we get locked up.
Woke up the next day and I spoke to the Customs and I said,
"Look, you know, I'm kind of missing four people.
"Do you know where they are?"
We were heading back, we didn't have any money,
couldn't phone anyone, couldn't do nothing.
I can remember getting to the hotel and having to ring Marcus and Alan
and they're going, "You fucking what? You what?"
And he says, "You've fucking blown it, you've blown it."
But that was punk rock, man! I just went, "Fuck them!"
I never listened to a word those clowns said anyway, you know what I mean?
I called McGee, and I'll never forget this and this is another reason why I love McGee,
I said, "Are you sitting down? I've got some news.
"Everybody's been arrested."
The only word he said was, "Brilliant."
A hell of a start that, isn't it? That's a great first day at work. Love it!
[CHUCKLING]
REPORTER: Oasis were deported from Holland last week
after they were involved in a drunken brawl on a cross-Channel ferry.
The Creation act were forced to cancel...
I thought it was game. That's how I want my rock 'n roll stars to act.
Stick up for themselves, get in a bit of shenanigans and that's it.
We lived to fight another day.
To me, it felt right.
NOEL: The thing about getting thrown off ferries,
blah, blah, blah, getting deported is summat that I'm not proud about.
LIAM: Well, I am.
NOEL: Right, well, if you're proud about getting thrown off ferries,
then why don't you go and support West Ham and get the fuck out of my band?
These lot think it's rock 'n roll to get thrown off a ferry.
- LIAM: No I don't - NOEL: To get... Shut up!
These lot think it's rock 'n roll to get...
Shut the fuck up, man!
- These lot think... - [LAUGHTER AND CLAPPING]
Am I going to have to say this part or are you going to shut up?
[INTERVIEWER SPEAKING]
- Is this my question? - This is your question.
No, I ain't a hooligan. I'm not a hooligan. Right?
[LAUGHING]
Obviously, once you get that reputation,
there's always someone who's going to go, "Well, I'll show him."
If it'd never been in the paper, having a ruck, that probably wouldn't have happened.
[CHEERING]
There was a full section of the tour, it was just going off every night.
I felt that people were turning up to cause trouble.
It was getting me down, if I'm being honest.
MAN: Fucking dick!
[CHEERING]
NOEL: We were getting a reputation as these bad boys of rock 'n roll.
"That's all fucking great, but can we talk about the music first?"
I think any band worth their salt, it's not about just the music.
If you haven't got that kind of behaviour and you've just got great tunes,
then you're fucking pretty boring, as far as I'm concerned.
It's about both.
When both come together, you'll have greatness.
We showed their video a good couple of months ago.
They've wasted no time in releasing a new single, Shakermaker,
Noel and Liam from Oasis.
Thanks for interrupting your hectic schedule.
What's it like being brothers in a band?
He's speechless. Look at that.
It's all right. I think it's all right, me. I think it's very, very funny.
I mean, if you row, what sort of things do you row about?
Everything. Everything. We don't even have to row.
All we got to do is look at each other in a certain kind of way
and we row without even opening our mouth.
We're just going, "Grrr" inside our heads, you know what I mean?
I hate the term "sibling rivalry," but that's effectively what it is.
I know my brother better than anybody else.
Liam's like a dog, and I'm like a cat.
Cats are very independent creatures.
They don't give a fuck, right bastards.
Dogs are just fucking, "Play with me, play with me.
"Please fucking throw that ball for me."
[CHUCKLING] Because they fucking need some company.
It's as basic as that, can't change the way that you are.
[INTERVIEWER SPEAKING]
NOEL: I'm a cat, okay? That's just what I am.
I've accepted it. I'm a bit of a bastard.
What can I say, you know? I'm a bit of a cunt.
They are two brothers, grew up together,
one's one way, one's the other.
Noel has a lot of buttons.
Liam has a lot of fingers. It's that simple, really.
It's about a power struggle, is what it is.
It's about me being in charge
and everybody directing everything towards me,
and Liam being pissed off about it.
That's basically what starts it all.
I think it all stems down to when he bought a stereo years ago
when we shared a room. [CHUCKLES]
I think one night I've come in pissed,
and I couldn't find the light switch, so I pissed all over his fucking new stereo.
I think it basically boils down to that. He's held that grudge.
You let go of them grudges, brother!
Democracy never works in a band.
It's been proven a million times.
And the trouble you had with Oasis is
you had two people vying for the Prime Minister job.
That tension, that antagonism, it drove that band,
and it killed that band, is what it did.
No lifting of the arms.
He got a better stance than me.
[LAUGHTER]
He's a dick! Official!
Yeah, but, anyway. Right?
It's all about what's inside the fucking tin of beans that counts,
not what the fucking wrapper is, or how much it costs,
or who you buy it off, or what till you get it from.
Or even whether it's your Spar, your Kwiksave, or your fucking Sainsbury's.
Man, it's about what's inside the tin of beans, man.
And, like, if it's right, it's right.
If this ever goes on, like, a video, for the kids, right,
I would apologise, but I'm not going to! Because he's a prick!
- [LAUGHTER] - Check it out!
- LIAM: One-two, one-two, one. One... Two? - [MIC FEEDBACK]
When people go, "Oh, what's the best thing about Oasis?"
It's just getting that chance to record our album
because we knew we weren't going to fuck it up.
We were ripping, man!
[TAPPING DRUMSTICKS]
So, we'd been to Monnow Valley.
We recorded what we thought was a great album.
Everybody else surrounding the band kept chanting this mantra,
"Oh, it doesn't sound like they do live, it doesn't sound like they do live."
I was like, "Well, who does it fucking sound like, Spandau Ballet?"
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGING: Is it my imagination]
[Or have I finally found something worth living for?]
I said to Noel Gallagher, "It's not good enough."
I knew what Oasis should sound like 'cause I'd seen it live
and I just knew the performances were wrong.
At one point, he was so frustrated by the whole thing,
he went, "Look, why don't we just put it out and we'll get it right in the second album?"
And I went, "You'll never get to the second album."
['Cause when it comes on top]
[You got to make it happen]
It was not happening. The pressure was definitely on.
I phoned up Marcus one Saturday morning.
I'd be interested to know why they took that risk,
just putting me in charge of that.
No track record whatsoever.
The thinking is, "Who does the live sound?"
"Mark does. So let's go do it live."
MARK: Time for plan B on Definitely Maybe.
And thank God for that, you know, because we all knew that Coyle understood us.
He always made us sound how we should sound.
We hit upon this system in the Sawmills, everything was crowded around the drum kit.
We'd just do three takes of each song and then move on.
I would have thought that
that album was recorded in three days, maximum.
But, I started mixing and it didn't really sound very good.
I think at that stage, I'd took it as far as I could.
I do remember taking a cassette, the final mix we did with Mark,
to McGee's flat
and sensing that he was completely underwhelmed by it.
And me thinking, "Oh, fuck it, I give up!"
Marcus announces that he's going to get Owen Morris to do a mix on spec.
Marcus got me in because I don't think he knew anybody else.
So I was very lucky to be in the right place.
And I'm thinking, "What has he done? You know, I don't get it."
He did one mix and it was just outrageous.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We did a session. That's where I met Liam.
And I told him he sounded like John Lennon
and he was like, "You got it!" at, like, 1:00 in the afternoon.
Liam, lead vocal, rock 'n roll star.
[SINGING: I live my life in the city and there's no easy way out]
[The day's moving just too fast for me...]
Noel was like, "That sounds great. That'll do."
And they let me do exactly what I wanted.
And there was this new box and you could make things twice as loud
without going into digital distortion on your CD.
It was in every fucking jukebox in the country, twice as loud. It was funny as fuck, man.
It's just a pity that Definitely Maybe came out
and then we didn't see Alan for a couple of years.
I took too many drugs.
More and more and more, that's what we were all about,
and eventually it was too much.
It's just that's what happens, isn't it? When you play with fire, mate.
Some people can last the pace, some people can't.
Do you know what? I don't regret any of that shit.
That's just life.
We didn't know it then, but he was the last of a dying breed.
He's up there with the most important people In my life, you know what I mean,
that's made a fucking real difference.
[INTERVIEWER SPEAKING]
Twelve songs that are about being alive and having a good time.
About being happy. About enjoying yourself.
And then about being sad, you know what I mean?
But knowing that it can get better.
About everything. Just life.
[NOEL SPEAKING]
REPORTER: Their debut album is already being hailed as a classic of our time.
A year ago, they were playing to empty venues.
Last night, they embarked on their first UK sell-out tour.
One of the biggest British bands since the Beatles.
WOMAN: There isn't a band like Oasis.
They're trying to get the youth culture out of raves, taking drugs and stuff,
and back into the gigs, where they belong.
And they're really good, and Liam Gallagher is just gorgeous
and I'll have his children! [LAUGHING]
Our first single came out in England four months ago.
It went into the charts at number 32.
Everyone said an indie band can't do that.
Well, the album's gone out and it's gone in straight at number one
above Pavarotti, above Prince, even above Elvis.
The fastest-selling debut album of all time in England,
and quite deservedly so.
- Here's Rock 'n Roll Star. Here they are! - [CHEERING]
[SINGING: I'm gonna take my car and drive real far]
[You're not concerned about the way we are]
[In my mind my dreams are real]
[Now you're concerned about the way I feel]
[Tonight I'm a rock 'n roll star]
[It's just rock 'n roll]
- Thank you very much. - [CHEERING]
[NOEL SPEAKING]
So next thing you know, we were going to Japan.
What do you expect?
I've never been to Japan, so you think, "All right, I'm prepared," you know.
No. Nothing ever on this planet was going to prepare me.
Japan! Japan!
We arrived in Japan and there were, fucking, like, 1,000 girls at the airport.
People waiting for us and shouting my name!
"Liam, Liam! Noel! Guigs! Tony!"
It was just, like, "Fuck off! This is Japan?
"But they know my name?"
"Yeah, of course they do!" It got me and I loved it.
I loved every last minute of it.
Fucking hell, they followed us everywhere,
outside hotels, in the fucking foyer,
outside your room, in your fucking room, everywhere you went.
It was like mania, you know what I mean?
It was like what we'd always read about.
[INTERVIEWER SPEAKING]
Yeah.
First time in Japan. First time on a jumbo plane.
It was just mental, you know what I mean? Just mad!
[INTERVIEWER SPEAKING]
Just, you're all off your heads, and it's mad.
And it's top! I love youse all.
I absolutely loved Japan.
It was fucking mayhem.
Guigs wasn't too keen on it, he was like,
"Oh, I don't know what they're fussing about."
And I'm like, "Me, you fucking lunatic! That's what they're fussing about!"
Where's the toilet?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGING: Is it my imagination]
[Or have I finally found something worth living for?]
[I was looking for some action]
[But all I found was cigarettes and alcohol...]
That might have been the one time in my life where I thought, "Fucking hell! Wow!
"How has it landed here?
"Why are all these people who don't speak English
"obsessed with it already
"before we even fucking plugged in and played?"
[SINGING: To spend your days in the sunshine]
[You might as well do the white line]
['Cause when it comes on top]
[You got to make it happen]
I was writing for a "Nancy Boys" magazine as far as they were concerned.
I knew that I was ten years older than them.
I was female, and it was all blokes.
I was a mum, and I just thought,
"Right. I'm going to stay up later than you, I'm going to drink more than you,
"I'm going to behave more badly than you,"
because I wasn't going to get this story otherwise.
The first night in Japan, we'd all been out
and it had been about 3:00 in the morning.
[CHUCKLING] My head had just hit the pillow, and the phone rang.
"Who's calling me?"
I picked up the phone and it was Liam.
"Get down here now!"
So I walked down the corridor back into their room
and Liam said to me, and honestly, it was like he was shimmering,
he just said to me, "Do you believe in God? Do you think there's a God?"
And, I sort of looked at him and I said,
"How did we get on to this one?"
And he said, "Because I don't believe there's a God,
"because if there was a God, all that wouldn't have happened."
And I said, "What wouldn't have happened?"
I didn't know what he was on about.
There was all this pent-up simmering rage.
I was definitely angry with life and that, I guess, you know.
You know, I mean, shit with my dad and just life in general.
I was an angry young man,
so singing them songs sort of released all my shit onto other people,
but in a good way, you know what I mean?
My dad, he used to knock my mum about.
There were many times when, like, it got like that.
He never touched me, I don't know why he didn't.
You know, sometimes he'd fucking, he'd want the craic
instead of having to witness it.
He used to kill Noel.
Noel was the one that got it the most.
I remember Noel once saying, "If you don't get out of here, Mum, and leave him,"
he says, "I'm going to kill him."
And I thought, "Oh, Jesus. You can't be doing time for the likes of him."
Yeah, my dad used to beat the living daylights out of me.
I've never felt compelled to either talk about it or write about it.
I know that I think it's no one else's business.
You can't let that kind of thing affect you in any way
because then you're carrying that weight all the way through life.
He always thought, "You'd never leave him because you had nowhere to go to."
"You'll never leave me." I said, "Won't I? Try it."
One night, we got the courage to get out
and I left him a knife and a fork and a spoon,
and I think I left him too much.
PETE GALLAGHER: He never once come after us, wouldn't dare.
It was a sense of "See you later, we're free!"
It definitely affected them, because they got very bitter.
I wouldn't say I was scarred,
but everybody's childhood makes them what they are.
You can't think about it too deeply because it would fucking drive you mad.
I think it benefitted me in the way that it made me withdraw into my own world
and from that came the learning to play the guitar.
I guess, in some way, my old fella beat the talent into me.
RADIO JOCKEY: On Live 105, Oasis.
LIAM: Supersonic, yeah?
NOEL: The contrast of getting on a plane and coming from Japan,
where the mania was like, fucking, "Blam!"
Then getting to America, where nobody had heard of us,
that didn't freak me out.
I was ready to start again, you know what I mean?
But I also knew
that you won't get anywhere on attitude in the States.
You've got be able to play.
I went over there with definitely a fucking chip on my shoulder,
but a good chip, you know what I mean?
It was like, "Look, we're going to fucking have youse and if you like us, great,
"if you don't, I don't give a shit."
American Customs then asked a question
that would fucking blow Liam's mind, you know what I mean?
Right, who've we got here then?
- He's a singer. - [LAUGHING]
NOEL: "What's the purpose of your visit?"
"You what?" [LAUGHING] "Not a fucking visit.
"I'm not visiting, mate, I'm a fucking rock star.
"I'm here to steal your soul."
"Okay, you can follow me now, sir. You're coming this way."
[LAUGHING]
There's always pressure that's on the bands to break America as well,
you know, but breaking America quite often breaks the fucking band
because they're that concerned about it and it's that vast. Fuck me, man.
You have a good time and all that, but I'll tell you what,
when you get home, your carpet don't look the same.
RADIO JOCKEY: And we've got the two Gallagher brothers from the band Oasis.
And you're playing at the Whisky tonight. Is it sold out, do you know?
LIAM: Of course it's sold out.
RADIO JOCKEY: Okay, and what have you been doing?
NOEL: We've just been doing loads of interviews, and gigs.
LIAM: Working. Melissa's been making us work dead hard.
She's on top.
RADIO JOCKEY: I think what they said was there were some interviews
and hanging out and doing work and stuff.
- NOEL: You're right. - RADIO JOCKEY: I'll be the translator here.
- LIAM: Diddle-diddle-diddle-diddle - [NOEL LAUGHING]
RADIO JOCKEY: [LAUGHING] Anything else?
Someone had discovered the joys of crystal meth,
which is effectively like ninja speed.
It's not even fun, you know what I mean? It's a fucking horrible drug.
I don't know who fucking got it,
but it was there and we all thought it was coke.
And we were doing big fucking lines of it and it just fucking kept us up for days.
Everybody had a dig at it.
The only problem with that is that you couldn't get to sleep.
You couldn't sleep.
Right, I don't mind having a dig at anything as long as, you know,
about 10:30 at night, I have a cup of tea and go to bed.
The Whisky a Go Go on Sunset Strip, fucking hell,
it's the most famous club in LA.
We get to the sound check,
everybody's been up all night and looked like it.
All right, LA, Whisky a Go Go. This is the spot.
The best band in Britain.
I say they're the best band in the universe.
[CHEERING]
None other than Oasis!
All right, Oasis!
LIAM: And there you have it.
This one's called Rock 'n Roll Star.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGING: I live my life in the city and there's no easy way out...]
Everyone was appalling.
Every member of the crew, every member of the fucking band
because of crystal meth.
Phil Smith, our roadie,
who was responsible for putting the set lists out,
for some reason, my set list was different to everybody else's.
[You're not concerned about the way we are...]
They were all playing different songs at the same time.
"Whoa! What's going on here?" [LAUGHING]
[Tonight I'm a rock 'n roll star...]
It was a shambles, man. It was an absolute fucking shambles.
[Tonight I'm a rock 'n roll...]
Do it again for you, you know?
The whole thing just fell apart.
I've never seen it with this band before.
All right, Rock 'n Roll Star.
Again.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I think there were a lot of tension on stage,
a lot of gesturing between Noel and Liam.
Well, more from Liam to Noel.
And then the tambourine came flying.
I think he said summat
and I fucking launched the tambourine at him or summat.
Not like the Bruce Lee throwing-star or a fucking lightsabre,
it was a tambourine.
But when it hit me on the shoulder it went, "Tshhh!"
Out of time, I might add.
It was lucky I didn't fucking launch a monitor at him or summat, or a fucking drummer.
What?
[CROWD HECKLING]
I could see Liam was going behind one of the amps throughout the gig, man,
and he was just snorting lines of crystal meth on stage.
"That's going to go tits up, isn't it?"
[CHUCKLING] It was a bit of a catastrophe.
Yeah. I was in a fury.
I left a little bit of me on that stage that night.
After that night, it was more "me and them" as opposed to "us".
I remember going back to the hotel and saying to Maggie, our tour manager,
I think I took the float off her.
Noel was quite upset about it.
He said, "Can you give me money?" And I said, "Well, what do you want?"
He goes, "Well, enough money to go back home."
So I just gave him, like, $700. That's all I had, I said, you know.
He said, "Can I have my passport?" So I gave him his passport.
But I remember ringing up Marcus saying, "He's going to leave,"
and he was like, "No, no, no, he'll be fine, be fine.
"He's going to sleep it off, it'll be fine, be fine."
I was like, "Oh, no, I don't think so!" [LAUGHING]
I don't know what I was thinking.
Maybe I thought it was the end, I really don't know.
He takes the money and runs.
I remember some fucking soppy note coming through the door, saying, like,
"How can we go on like brothers?"
It was like, "Fuck right off!"
So that got rolled up
and then another line of crystal meth went up the old fucking tubular bells.
[LAUGHS]
So, I woke up in the morning and I found a note underneath my door
and I opened it up, and I knew it.
He said, "I'm leaving." "Bollocks!"
He's gone missing. Nobody knows where he is.
There's our songwriter gone.
"Shit! I think it's really over, isn't it?"
I came up with this idea.
I got his bill and then I traced all the last numbers he rang. [LAUGHS]
And then I noticed there was one number "415,"
and I thought, "Ah, San Francisco."
[LAUGHING] We've just been to San Francisco
and I knew that he had some little fling over there.
Marcus said, "I'm going to ring the number."
So he gets her on the phone and he says, "You know, we're not saying anything,
"but obviously, legally, he's a missing person, you know.
"We're going to have to have to get the police involved."
And the minute he hung up the phone, I said, "He's there."
Let me see if I can get my story straight here.
I met this girl at an Oasis gig.
I must have phoned her and said, "It's fucked up here."
And I got on a plane and flew off to San Francisco.
I don't know what the fuck I thought I was doing.
I was just going to, like, disappear, you know.
It was quite a traumatic time.
But Talk Tonight was written about those few days
and out of that came that great song.
So it was meant to be.
It was meant to be.
[SINGING: Sleeping on a plane]
[You know you can't complain]
[You took your last chance once again]
[I landed, stranded]
[Hardly even knew your name]
[I want to talk tonight]
[Until the morning light]
[About how you saved my life]
[You and me see how we are]
I kind of sat in this girl's flat, probably doing too many fucking drugs
and being a bit fucking mad.
Unbeknown to me, they'd found out, "This is where we think he is."
If I close my eyes now, I can't even picture the girl.
I can't remember her name, it's a bit of a blur.
You meet them people in America,
you don't meet them anywhere else in the world.
They take you under their wing, you know.
They're spiritual people is what they are.
She was one of them.
She was saying, "What, you're going to leave?
"And what are you going to do?"
And I guess at that point I'm thinking, "Actually, that's a very good point.
"What am I going to do?" I can't sing. I wasn't a singer then.
I'm not a front man.
I just needed a bit of time out, I guess.
I may have been trying to teach somebody a lesson.
I failed miserably. [CHUCKLES]
I think we'd heard about a couple of days that, "Yes, he's coming back."
It means the band is staying together
rather than going home and signing on the dole.
And obviously, by the time he's about to turn up,
everyone's fucking shitting it, because, you know,
because he can put on a stern face.
You know, he can unsettle you.
The new era started when he walked back into that hotel
and everything was different after that.
And we all had to be different
because if you're not with him, you're going home.
I'd written these new songs.
Someone had booked a recording session.
Like this was Oasis' fucking cure for everything.
"Let's go in the studio."
Talk Tonight, well, that's one moody fucking song, that.
It shows that delicate side to him... [LAUGHS]
...that you just don't really see.
He doesn't show these emotions, Noel. He never did.
Apart from when you stick him behind the glass with a microphone,
and then he can let this emotion loose that he's got
and suddenly you can see "Noel."
You kind of see, almost, a little boy or summat, you know.
Something very, very innocent and very pure.
They're my favourite moments.
It's like a door opens and a bit of light comes in,
and then the door's shut again, you know, and he's calling you a twat.
[SINGING: Some might say that sunshine follows thunder...]
In those days, I would write every day because I was fucking so driven.
I recognised that I was in a moment and everything that I wrote felt great.
[INDISTINCT]
There's a strange melancholy to Some Might Say
considering I knew it was going to be number one
before I even sat and wrote it.
I fucking knew it.
What is going on in this room now?
You can walk next door to Boyzone, yeah, go in there.
They'll be like, "Hey, fuck, oh, Jesus...
"We've got to get this fucking thing together now, because it's not in time.
"It's not in time, just fucking me and you going like, 'Huh!"'
You go in there and you hear, "Hey, do that, hey!"
You come in this room and it's like, you know, it's the funny farm.
- [LAUGHTER] - And that's what it's all about, it's like,
"Do what you friggin' want."
If you want to go like that, do it,
because it don't mean nothing. If you want to go... Do that.
If you want to go... [IN AMERICAN ACCENT] "Hey, fuck man." Like, "Hey, fuck," right?
You can do that.
- But if you want to just do this... - [LAUGHTER]
...what I'm doing here now, just do it, because it's like...
This is an advert for not taking drugs.
This is an advert? It's an advert?
This is an advert for not getting into chemical abuse, big time.
No, no, hey, hey, hey!
People who know, know that I have not been a fucking...
I've never been an abuser.
I've never been an abuser, I've been a user.
[LAUGHTER]
I've never been an abuser, man. Nothing to do with drugs.
It's to do with the air, the air, man, and music.
And that is it, that is it, and I'm ranting now, come on!
You know what I mean? It's right.
That's it. That's it.
Giving a performance of their brand-new song.
It's the best song around. It is Some Might Say!
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGING: Some might say that sunshine follows thunder]
[Go and tell it to the man who cannot shine]
Yeah, and that was Tony's last gig.
Yeah, I'd probably made up my mind
knowing that Champagne Supernova was coming up
and Don't Look Back In Anger, and Wonderwall,
that he wasn't going to be able to play those songs.
It had become apparent recording Definitely Maybe.
We spent a lot of time fucking about trying to get the drums right.
And it was never right.
When we were doing Some Might Say and stuff,
Noel was like, to me,
"That's the fucking last time he's ever in the fucking studio."
I was going to Tony, "Tony, you've got to get your shit together, Tony.
"Or bye, Tony."
NOEL: Drummers are really smelly, useless, talentless losers, man.
I mean, fancy having a job where you bang things all day.
I thought orangutans do that, don't they?
Gorillas and monkeys and that.
They just bang things, like bang dustbin lids on their heads and all that.
[LAUGHTER]
Well, that's what they do, isn't it?
And drummers just do it and get paid loads of money for it.
Fucking sack them all. Drum machines, I say, man.
I'm telling you, can't wait to say I'm in a dance band.
Press the button, "Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk."
Doesn't answer back, don't have to feed it.
Don't have to pay no money, don't have to buy it any drugs.
Don't have to get it any women, don't have to do nothing.
Put it on a flight, "Fuck it, in the back of the truck,"
and never have to speak to it again.
As it went through that American tour, it got really nasty with Tony,
and you'd have to feel for the boy.
I'd hold my hands up and say, I gave him a terrible time as well.
[INDISTINCT]
And I shared a room with him.
Tony would just pour it out, you know.
"Fucking hell, Bonehead, do you know?
"People are getting at me, and people are doing this?"
It was hard for me to be the guy in the middle.
Maybe I talked to Noel, talked to Liam, "Look, go easy on the guy, man."
I was quite a reserved guy.
I think people might have looked at that as some kind of weakness,
but no, I didn't want to be the leader.
I'll sit back here and do my drums.
You know, like, when a pack of feral dogs exclude one puppy,
it became like that, I think.
Our Kid, I just think, made his mind up, you know what I mean,
and just didn't fancy him.
"He's not going to be able to do these next songs."
Or "I don't want him to do it," you know what I mean?
Yeah, I mean, I'm gutted for him, but it is what it is, man.
I had an argument with Noel.
He said something, and I finally went, "Fuck you, mate."
You know what I mean, "Fuck off."
I told him in no uncertain words what I thought of him.
I kind of regret that a touch.
We might have had words. It's quite likely, I don't know.
Whatever he says is probably true. I wouldn't deny it at all.
I was at home and Marcus phoned.
He says, "Are you sat down?
"Listen, I've got some bad news for you. The band want you out."
I was shell-shocked.
Still, to this day, it's with me.
I think about it every day, believe it or not.
Hard for him, you know, poor old Tony,
but all of a sudden it's like, "Shit! We need another drummer."
Paul Weller's drummer had a brother called Alan.
And I was going, "Right, cool, I'm arsed, what does he look like?"
"Smegly little mod."
"Cool. Let's get him down here."
And I'd never met this guy before.
He starts talking about the drums
and I'm like, "I'm fucking not interested in how you can play.
"As long as you look the part, you'll do.
"By the way, you're doing Top of The Pops on Wednesday."
And that was his first thing.
[SINGING: Some might say]
[We will find a brighter day]
[Some might say]
[We will find a brighter day]
[Yeah, 'cause I've been standing at the station]
[In need of education in the rain]
[You made no preparation]
[For my reputation once again]
[Some might say]
Morning Glory was incredibly quick and easy.
Rockfield, the posh studio, fucking Queen and all that.
Fucking Bohemian Rhapsody and all that.
Don't film me, Tim. Seriously.
Film him, Tim, film him.
TIM: He's giving birth?
I'm fucking knackered.
NOEL: Right, play this track, man.
This is the nerve centre, the bridge as we call this.
Full steam ahead!
Oh, I don't know where a fucking light is. I don't know where anything is at the moment.
But you know where the top is, don't you?
Because that's where we're going, Morris.
- The topmost of the most popper most. - That's us.
TIM: Noel had the songs and the arrangements
and he was totally in control of the band,
so that first week of Morning Glory, we were doing a song a day.
Finished. Extraordinary.
He is like God, isn't he?
I knew the songs were a lot more richer than Definitely Maybe.
I knew they had, like, definitely gone up a notch.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I loved Owen, mental Welshman.
He was always setting fire to shit
and things were always blowing up because he had it too loud.
No rule book, with his big, mad laugh, going, "Yeah, let's fucking have it!"
They were the best times I ever had recording.
It's gorgeous and sexy, and...
[LAUGHS]
Have your priorities right.
[OWEN SPEAKING]
Liam was extraordinary.
And they had this freaky thing where Noel would play the song once
on an acoustic guitar in the control room, to Liam,
give him the words and he'd fucking sing it.
Noel would listen to it once
to check Liam's got the phrasing for the entire song
that he's only just heard the once.
Noel would go, "Nice one, Liam,"
and there was always football on when Oasis were recording.
Noel would fuck off,
Liam would just bang another four tracks down.
This would be, like, 1:00 in the afternoon.
Cup of tea, lead vocal, done.
I was like, "What the fuck?"
You know, he's only heard the song once. [LAUGHS]
Five songs, five days, man. Fucking amazing!
[SINGING: Slowly walking down the hall]
[Faster than a cannonball]
[Where were you while we were getting high?]
[Someday you will find me]
[Caught beneath the landslide]
[In a champagne supernova in the sky]
[Someday you will find me]
[Caught beneath the landslide]
[In a champagne supernova]
[A champagne supernova]
[Because people believe]
[That they're going to get away for the summer]
[But you and I, we live and die]
[The world's still spinning round]
[We don't know why]
[Why, why, why, why]
OWEN: No, we don't need that last one.
OWEN: Yeah!
[FOOTBALL ON TV]
TIM: This is soaking the boats here.
The boats are the Blues.
Come on, the Blues!
- Come on, the Pool! - [LAUGHTER]
It's the fucking curse of United!
- Come on! - [ALL CHEERING]
[TIM LAUGHING]
[INDISTINCT SHOUTING]
[LAUGHTER]
- Come on, you baldy twat! - [OWEN LAUGHING]
Fucking, hey!
Come on!
Dalglish! [CLAPPING]
Dalglish!
Come on then!
Good times, man. I loved it in that place,
but it's not fucking prison, is it, you know what I mean?
If I'm not needed today,
I'm hardly going to sit and fucking watch you play guitar, you know what I mean, like?
I'm fucking going to the pub.
But it did cause arguments.
Nearly. That's that then, lad.
So it'd always be like that.
"Right, he's doing his guitars, he'll be in there all fucking day, won't he?
"We can go to the fucking pub."
And he'd come out, and he'd be like,
"All right, guys, what does everyone think... Where is everyone?"
NOEL: Where is everyone gone?
LIAM: Yeah, I was a sucker for the pub, man.
You go in there one day, and you meet the local fucking drug dealer.
Yeah, I probably did bring a few people back one night.
Probably a bad move, because Noel was still working in the studio.
No, I shouldn't have brought them back,
but I thought we were a rock 'n roll band, you know what I mean?
I thought anything goes in Oasis, you know what I mean?
Obviously, the other people had rules, you know what I mean?
Fuck the rules, man.
[SINGING: Sing a sad song in a lonely place]
[Try to put a word in for me...]
As I recall, Liam was going pretty fucking mad.
Somebody let a fire extinguisher off in the farmhouse.
I think maybe one of my guitars got damaged, and I blamed him.
It just exploded into a big fucking bunch of chaos
like you've never seen, man.
I ended up having a proper fight with Liam.
I mean, it might have been the biggest fight we ever had.
I remember smashing his head in with a cricket bat, yeah.
[SINGING: What we don't touch we cannot feel...]
The whole studio got smashed to pieces.
There's like loads of little bits in the corner went, "Bzzt."
Everything just got fucking blitzed.
I'm not generally an obnoxious person, dude,
but somebody must've got on my tits, you know what I mean?
Probably me not giving a fuck
and him trying to write fucking Bohemian Rhapsody.
And me sort of just going, "Bollocks! Let's have it!"
I do remember jumping out of a window, driving off with Whitey.
Liam appeared out of nowhere and threw a dustbin at the car,
and we'd only known Alan about two weeks and he was saying,
"It can't be over, I've only just joined."
We were like, "No, no, no, no. This is going to happen all the time."
And he was going, "Fucking hell, mate. What kind of fucking band is this?"
Go and fucking join The Troggs!
[SINGING: We're throwing it all away]
Yeah, it was terrible.
It happened, man, but there was no need for the cricket fucking bat around my head,
you know what I mean?
Every time there was ever a scene in Oasis,
when we'd all got back together it was like nothing had ever happened.
We had a tour booked
and we were rehearsing in Brixton Academy.
It was all fine. Me and Guigs got a taxi home.
The next day, Guigs just doesn't show up.
Marcus arrives and says, "Guigs wants to leave the band."
What's happened to Guigs is he's had a bit of a fucking breakdown.
That's when you kick yourself, you know.
When you're that blinkered that you couldn't stop
and notice that your mate wasn't feeling right.
Any kind of chaos going on around,
he would have shot down, do you know what I mean?
Bass players are like that.
Guigs is a gentle soul, you know what I mean?
He wasn't like me and Noel, or like Bonehead.
You know, we were fucking pretty mental.
He was suffering from nervous exhaustion... [LAUGHS]
...as rock stars always are.
"My nerves are exhausted."
Or "My exhaustion is fucking getting me nervous," I don't know.
I never had it myself. It's a funny thing.
Maybe he smoked too much weed.
Maybe he just needed a breather, you know what I mean?
We weren't the kind of band that was like, "Oh, poor Guigs," or "Poor Liam."
It was like, "Fuck that cunt! We've got shit to do, man."
We went for Scott MacLeod
from a little band that we'd played with in the past called The Ya Ya's.
What a great job he got, didn't he?
"Do you fancy being bass player in Oasis?" "Fucking yes!"
I don't know how long it was before we got on the plane to go to the States,
but even that was chaos.
[CHEERING]
NOEL: We were on the way to New York to do David Letterman.
Maggie, our tour manager, God bless that woman,
we put her through absolute fucking hell,
she came in kind of half-laughing, going,
"You're not going to guess what's just happened.
"Scott's just told me he wants to, like, quit."
And I remember going to the back lounge and saying to him,
"Mate, what? What? What?"
And he said these words, "I'm just missing my bird."
You know, there's people who are cut out for it and there's people that ain't.
He might have just gone "You know what, this is not for me."
It's either that or his bird must have been fit as fuck, you know what I mean?
I always take things like that.
I would always laugh my way through it and think, even you know,
as you're driving into America to do David Letterman,
and the bass player that's standing in
for the bass player who's got nervous exhaustion, is saying,
"I can't handle it any more." [LAUGHING]
You're laughing, going,
"We must be the biggest bunch of cunts in the world,
"because our mate is fucking sat at home watching the cricket,
"he don't want to be in a band with us.
"This fucking clown here, who's on the dole in England,
"he don't want to be either! What?
"I mean, are we like the biggest three cunts in the world?"
It didn't deter us.
We got to New York. Bonehead got up.
"You're playing bass and we do it as a four-piece."
Our next guests are the most popular rock 'n roll band in Britain today.
Can you guys prove it, seriously? How would we know? Are you really?
[LIAM SPEAKING]
Okay, I'll take your word for it, all right, okay, I believe you.
I'm going to believe you this time, but if there's trouble later
with the equipment missing...
All right, just relax.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGING: Need a little time to wake up]
[Need a little time to wake up, wake up]
[Need a little time to wake up]
[Need a little time to rest your mind]
[You know you should so I guess that you might as well]
[What's the story, morning glory?]
[Well?]
Being in the best band
and the most important band of your generation
shouldn't be a walk in the park, you know what I mean?
We come back to England,
we got these gigs coming up, they're sold out.
They're going to be monumental. We didn't have a bass player.
RADIO JOCKEY: Radio One...
The biggest ever indoor gig in Britain
will rock the capital tomorrow night as Oasis roll into London.
They'll play two blistering sets over the weekend at Earls Court
in front of nearly 40,000 fans.
- Hey, Noel? - Hello.
Rumours of a split, or what?
A banana split, yeah.
Yeah, where's the rest of the band tonight then?
Who cares?
NOEL: Marcus was saying "We'll just cancel everything,"
to a chorus of, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! What the fuck?
"That's not how we run shit."
If my fucking mum has got to play bass, that gig is happening.
I think we gave Guigs first refusal, and said, "Are you going to do this gig, or what?"
I remember just getting a message like,
"Guigsy is going to come back and do the gig."
Hallelujah!
But then there was a part of me thinking,
"Oh, God, is he going to come on and just collapse?"
It was pretty hairy.
We were never fussed about it, it was like,
"Have a nice fucking rest, did you, you lazy fucker?
"I didn't even know you'd fucking gone!
"What, you had a fucking breakdown? Fuck, when did that happen?"
Look, Oasis wasn't for wimps, so I was glad Guigs came back.
You know what I mean, he was part of the band,
but the show must go on.
[CHEERING]
Are we going to have it away in here tonight, or what? Come on!
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGING: I don't know what it is that makes me feel alive]
[I don't know how to wake the things that sleep inside]
[I only want to see the light that shines behind your eyes]
[There are many things that I would like to know]
[And there are many places that I wish to go]
[But everything's depending on the way the wind may blow]
[Because we need each other]
[We believe in one another]
[And I know we're going to uncover]
[What's sleeping in our soul...]
There were days when you were in the zone, you know what I mean,
where you could just stand perfectly fucking still
while there's all this chaos going on around you
and all these kids are just fucking leaping about
and the sound's like pumping, roaring.
I'd just be stood completely fucking still like a boxer just thinking,
"This is the best feeling in the world."
Pure control.
Not feeling the need to join the madness.
Just absolute fucking still.
[SINGING: Because we need]
[Because we believe]
Cheers.
MAN: Liam Gallagher, Sunday, pre-fucking the Liquid Room.
One word?
[NOEL SPEAKING]
Sausages. What?
[NOEL SPEAKING]
NOEL: Liam was always cooler than me, I think.
He had a better walk and clothes looked better on him
and he was taller, and he had a better haircut.
And he was funnier.
[INAUDIBLE]
Liam clearly would have liked to have had my talent as a songwriter.
And there's not a day goes by when I don't wish
I could rock a parka like that man.
I know Noel thinks I'm doing okay.
We didn't need to pat each other on the back and go, "Oh, you're great."
Me and him are like telepathic, you know what I mean?
MAN: Kiss for the camera.
There was a period where he was the greatest singer in the world,
added to that, the greatest front man,
added to that he was a fucking good-looking boy as well.
They were the magic years, you know.
The trick is keeping that shit going.
[LAUGHTER]
INTERVIEWER: What's all that about Liam walking off the stage or something?
What happened there?
He does it all the time, now. He does it...
It's part of the show?
CROWD: [CHANTING] Liam, Liam!
NOEL: It never dawned on me to be a singer
until he started walking off stage in the middle of gigs
and it's kind of like, "Oh, fucking hell," you know.
"We've got another 40 minutes left here, someone had better do something."
I had problems, man, with my throat. Just probably caning it too much.
Fucking screaming, shouting, I don't know.
Singing them songs the way I sing them is like being in a boxing match.
It takes its wear and tear.
And, of course, what happened, nine times out of ten,
was I'd take over.
But the more you'd finish the gigs,
the more it enabled him to do it,
and then he'd just do it at the drop of a hat.
NOEL: Just give us a minute, right?
I'm going to have to sing for you, right, sorry.
I never ever could not be arsed getting on that stage.
I fucking take massive offence to that.
That's one of the reasons why I had to start doing vocals,
you know what I mean?
And then I thought, "Oh, hang on a minute. This is all right.
"That girl's staring at me, that's even better." [LAUGHING]
Wonderwall, actually you guys have been doing for a while.
- Noel's been doing it acoustically. - Yeah.
How did that come about?
He just decided he wanted to do an acoustic song, which is cool.
But now when we get back to England we're going to spread it out,
we're going to do it as a band.
- Are you still having a good time? - Yeah, I'm rocking, yeah.
When I'm allowed to do the job,
that thing's good, yeah, I'm happy.
When I'm not allowed to do the job, I'm not happy.
He's a great fucking songwriter and always will be,
but singing's my gig.
If you're going to start singing the fucking songs
as well as writing them, what am I doing, making the fucking tea?
All the coming off, and the "I'm doing this tune."
I was walking on stage like a fucking yo-yo, you know what I mean, half the time.
"Here he comes, here he goes, here he comes.
"Leave it out! You're taking the piss, mate!"
So therefore there will be a bit of frustration and the wheels might come off tonight.
NOEL: I've left once.
INTERVIEWER: For a long period?
A couple of weeks. Shouldn't have come back.
Biggest mistake I ever made was coming back.
Because Morning Glory would have been my first solo album
and I'd have had a load of fucking money.
Yeah, I mean, you know, Our Kid has left on a couple of occasions,
and been sacked on a couple of occasions actually. But, yeah, I suppose...
How does that work? Four-fifths of vote sort of thing?
Oh, no, I just sack him. "You? Out!"
Noel said in the music papers the other day about
- "Only a couple more records." - About him leaving the band?
I think he's got loads and loads of albums left inside him
and us as a band have got loads and loads of gigs to do
and things to do, and can make them, you know what I mean?
I don't feel no way we're splitting up, right. I'm not into that at all.
But if he feels it, then he feels it, you know what I mean?
A good slap around the jaw, man, will change his mind.
This is yet another song with shit lyrics... Wonderwall.
[CROWD CHEERING]
[SINGING: Today was going to be the day they were going to throw it back to you]
[By now, you should have somehow realised what you've got to do]
[I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now...]
Morning Glory took on a life of its own after Wonderwall
and then Don't Look Back In Anger came consecutively as singles.
Then, it just blew up all over the world.
[SINGING: And all the lights that lead the way are blinding]
[There are many things that I would like to say to you]
[But I don't know how]
[I don't know how]
[I said maybe]
[You're going to be the one that saves me]
NOEL: The songs on that record, they're extraordinary songs,
and they're not extraordinary songs because of anything that I did.
I only wrote them, and we only played them.
It's the millions of people since who fucking sing them back to you to this day
that have made them extraordinary.
[SINGING: Today was going to be the day but they'll never throw it all back to you]
[By now, you should have somehow realised what you're not to do]
[I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now]
There's nothing better than singing them songs, man, to the people.
Fucking blast their souls.
And them just going fucking apeshit.
[And all the roads we have to walk are winding]
[And all the lights that light the way are blinding]
[CROWD SINGING ALONG]
[There are many things that I would like to say to you]
[But I don't know how]
[I don't know how]
[Because maybe]
[You're going to be the one that saves me]
[And after all, you're my Wonderwall]
[I said maybe]
[You're going to be the one that saves me]
Maine Road, and the streets surrounding it
really are a stone's throw from where I was born.
That really was a homecoming gig, you know, it was, for all of us.
[SONG ENDS]
- [CHEERING INTENSIFIES] - Cheers, thank you very much.
I'm a Man City supporter and have been all my life.
To be offered to play at a gig like that, it was unbelievable.
We still felt like a cult band selling out two nights at a stadium.
From the greatest band in the world to the greatest fans in the world. Good night!
NOEL: I remember sitting in a box on my own
watching the stadium emptying, with the floodlights on,
trying to appreciate it,
thinking, "Where does it go from here?"
But then almost immediately, bang, you're into a party.
TV PRESENTER 1: Still to come, it's gone thirteen times platinum,
it charted a year ago today, is it the greatest album ever written?
TV PRESENTER 2: I think it's fair to say that [What's The Story] Morning Glory
is probably one of the biggest-selling albums of all time.
TV PRESENTER 3: Without doubt, the biggest band around in Britain at the moment is Oasis.
The fastest-selling album of the decade.
What? Are you asking me if I'm happy?
Listen, I've got £87 million in the bank.
I've got a Rolls Royce, I've got three stalkers,
I'm about to go on the board at Manchester City.
I'm part of the greatest band in the world.
Am I happy with that? No I'm not! I want more!
MAN: Well, we've got the Oasis brothers here.
- What do you think about it tonight? - Boring.
- I thought we should have won more. - Really?
Yeah. We should have been voted the Best Rap Artist.
I thought he should have been voted Best Band
because he's got seven personalities.
Oasis.
- Oasis. - Oasis, Wonderwall.
What does a Brit Award mean? Fuck all.
In the grand scheme of things, all that shit was irrelevant.
Has-beens shouldn't present fucking awards to gonna-bes.
NOEL: One of the heads of the Brits said, "This will ruin your career."
You fucking bell-end!
If anyone's going to ruin my career, it's going to be me, not you.
[REPORTER SPEAKING]
The one voted for by the fans means a lot.
Anything that's voted for by fans is special.
Anything that's voted for by idiots, corporate pigs, means nothing to us.
NOEL: You know, because really the music, fuck all that.
Writing songs is difficult. Talking shit is easy.
When I do an interview, I'm there to be a fucking gob-shite
and to cause as much fucking trouble as possible.
As soon as people realise that the majority of people in this country take drugs,
then, I mean, the better off we'll all be.
Everybody does it. You do it, you do it, you do it.
You do it, you do it, you do it and you do it.
He doesn't do it... Because he's a Buddhist.
You know, it's like getting up and having a cup of tea in the morning.
...is as common as having a cup of tea.
It was immediately condemned by politicians
with one minister calling him a "spoiled brat".
The press lapped that shit up
because no one had ever come along that was even remotely like us.
We were the biggest band in the country
and we didn't give a fuck.
I was asked a question, I gave my opinions
and there's nothing that them or anyone else can do about it.
NOEL: We don't really care what they write about us in the press
as long as we're on the cover.
They can write anything they want about us inside,
but as long as we are on the cover, then it don't matter.
It'd do your head in sometimes when they were writing shit about you and that
and fucking outside your house and stuff,
but that's what I signed up for, you know what I mean?
PAPARAZZI MAN: Liam? Can we have a quick picture? Liam?
[CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING]
You know the story, it's in the papers, that's what's going on.
LIAM: Second to the singing was being the ultimate,
number-one fucking rock star in this fucking country and that's what I was.
I remember going in a pub some days at like 11:00.
By 12:30, people would be dancing on the tables
and snorting cocaine, you know what I mean?
You're like, "Fucking hell, I only went in for a fucking pint and a read of the paper,
"now fucking all hell's broke loose," you know what I mean?
It did make life quite difficult, though.
The day that it steps over into the tabloids and then stays there for years,
then you've gone to the dark side and then the clock is ticking then.
REPORTER: It had been billed as one of the most sensational trials in pop music history.
Tony McCarroll, the drummer sacked by Oasis,
going to court in search of a multi-million-pound slice
of the band's annual earnings.
NOEL: When shit like that starts out,
you do start thinking all the fun is taken out of it.
You start a band with the best intentions
of just trying to get a big telly and a fit bird...
And the next thing is is everybody's hovering around you
with leather man-bags full of shit for you to sign.
"How did it get to this?"
And that was the change.
Your mates are being slowly discarded to the side.
It's a business now you're in.
The people behind the scenes were determined to make it a brand.
It was even hard to get on the guest list some days.
At this point, the dynamic has changed that much.
It's now in the hands of the industry.
And I think the spirit of any band rapidly disappears
and it's all about the money.
Here we have Mr Mark Coyle sat looking rather subdued in the corner.
Fuck off!
Can you say that a little more graphically?
Fuck off!
Thank you, and here we have Liam...
Always chipper in the morning, this young man.
Can't get the bastard down.
We tried several times.
We've put monkeys on his back,
a cement mixer once and we still couldn't get the bastard down.
Look at that kipper!
When you're in a bubble,
sometimes you need a bit of guidance, don't you?
I felt like all the people that were with us at the beginning
were kind of getting pushed out a bit.
I think the best times are when everybody's together
and that gang is out on the road.
They're the best of times, doing them little gigs.
It does lose something when, you know, the industry grabs a hold.
I do recall Mark coming up to me and saying, "I don't think I can do it any more."
People were regularly coming into the dressing room and going,
"Fucking hell, that was loud."
I went to see a doctor with my ears, got ringing ears.
The doctor says to me, "Stop doing this, because you will go deaf."
So I left, and that was the end of my live life.
I'd had enough as well, I think.
I think he said to me in the past that he thought it had got a bit too big for him.
I really admire him for that.
I think it was a bit more than that, I think.
It was just getting a bit too corporate for him.
You know, one minute you're fucking hanging with your mates, having a craic,
but when management come into it, it changes, doesn't it?
If anybody was a fifth member of that band, it was Mark.
Yeah, and it made me a little bit sad that he wasn't going to be on tour any more.
Soon after, Phil Smith quit.
I still can't work out what was going through his fucking head at the time.
In the early days, it was the five band, Coyle and Phil, that was it.
Yeah, it's a shame that he wasn't around, but it's not the end of the fucking world.
Beginning of a new world, you know what I mean?
The machine goes on, and the band goes on.
I am not getting in the way of that.
Walking away from that, I'll never get over that.
But it was the right thing to do.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[CHEERING IN THE DISTANCE]
[CHEERING INTENSIFIES]
[INTERVIEWER SPEAKING]
[NOEL SPEAKING OVER PHONE]
[INTERVIEWER SPEAKING]
[NOEL SPEAKING]
[INTERVIEWER SPEAKING]
[NOEL SPEAKING]
[INTERVIEWER CHUCKLING]
You can listen to their albums, but when you go to a gig
and there's thousands and thousands of people,
that's when it brings it home.
That's really when I feel most proud of them.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGING: Slip inside the eye of your mind]
[Don't you know you might find a better place to play]
[You said that you'd never been]
[But all the things that you've seen are going to fade away]
[Going to start a revolution from my bed]
['Cause you said the brains I had went to my head]
[Step outside, summertime's in bloom]
[Stand up beside the fireplace Take that look from off your face]
['Cause you ain't ever going to burn my heart out]
[And so Sally can wait]
[She knows it's too late as we're walking on by]
[Her soul slides away]
[But don't look back in anger I heard you say]
I remember those gigs at The Point being, like, wildly emotional.
It was breathtaking, the kind of energy and the vibe in the room.
[My soul slides away]
[But don't look back in anger]
[Don't look back in anger]
CROWD SINGING: I heard you say
[Least not today]
It's that immigrant thing, isn't it? It's that sense of identity.
Ireland saw them as their own, and everybody was in such a good mood.
So we got back to the hotel, right, so there was loads of us in this bar.
That hotel was fairly public
because Ireland didn't really have security around rock bands them days.
Anyone could walk in off the street.
My dad, we'd seen him skulking around and I thought,
"What the fuck is this going on?"
Someone turned round and said, "Your old fella's over there,
"with a journalist, trying to get summat going."
And I was about to kill him.
Oh, that was awful, that. I couldn't believe that that happened
because it really spoiled their night.
There was a scene.
I was trying to take the dignified approach.
Fuck him, do you know what I mean? He doesn't mean anything to me any more.
We were better than that.
Noel was saying to Liam, "Do not react."
He's at one end, and Noel and Liam are at the other
and Liam's going, "I'm going to fucking kill him."
And that's when they locked horns.
"Don't fucking react. You're not going to react." You know.
I was fucking steadfastly not going to get involved.
I did think Liam was a little bit upset.
To give Noel his due credit, he contained Liam
because Liam would have gone for him and Noel protected his brother.
Got him out of there
because they were obviously looking for, you know, the big fight.
I probably got calmed down by Our Kid, I think.
It's just pathetic, you know what I mean?
In front of the press with your son, you know what I mean?
It's like, "See you later, mate."
Round about that time, there was a story every couple of fucking months.
"Poor old fucking Dad's trying to get in touch with his famous sons,
"but they don't want anything to do with him," and all that bollocks.
He had no intentions of making up with them.
That was his last thought,
but of course he got paid from the News Of The World.
And then, of course, it was all over the papers the next day.
[SIGHS]
[MAN SPEAKING OVER PHONE]
- [TOM GALLAGHER SPEAKING] - [LIAM SPEAKING]
[TOM GALLAGHER SPEAKING]
[LIAM SPEAKING]
[PHONE HANGING UP]
He's always said it was me and the three kids that ruined his life.
But I would just like him to know that it wasn't us that ruined his life.
He ruined his own life.
You know, it was kind of long since over, whatever was going on with my old fella.
All I care about is the music, you know.
In the end, none of this will matter.
When it's all said and done, what will remain is the songs.
I remember Marcus Russell saying to me,
"Do we book these big gigs just while we can?"
Fucking Knebworth, bigger, bigger.
I imagine a fucking load of money involved.
"See Owen, it's like a fucking truck going down a hill.
"It's burning and the wheels are fucking falling off.
"But everyone's going, 'It's fucking brilliant. '
"So I don't know when it's going to end, Owen."
Somebody suggested that the next thing we should do
should be these things at Knebworth.
They didn't really have much significance to me.
But, you know, somebody's only got to whisper in my ear,
[WHISPERING] "Oh, these are the biggest gigs of all time,"
and I guess, well, that's me, yeah.
"You've just sold it to me, thank you very much."
REPORTER: The giant stage lies dark and silent.
Tomorrow, that'll be the focus for 250,000 people.
Do you know, over 4% of the population applied for tickets for Oasis?
4% of the population!
REPORTER: In just over three years,
Oasis will have gone from being a new signing to one of rock's true giants.
You know, everyone was taking a big leap of faith,
that we were going to sell these shows out.
And the first one went on sale and it sold out in, like, minutes.
As if by magic, the sun's got his hat on.
Ha, hey, hey.
The idea was put to us, we should put another two nights on sale immediately,
and I think, for the first time ever, we kind of backed away.
I don't know, maybe we got the sense that it had become too big.
Then you find out afterwards that we could have done seven nights.
Can't believe that we only done two nights. Whose fucking great idea was that?
We should still be there playing right now.
And finally, it's been called the rock concert of the decade.
A quarter of a million rock fans at Knebworth in Hertfordshire.
In a few hours, the hype becomes reality when Oasis take to the stage...
John, describe the scene for us.
I do often think, "What was it all about?"
When we got to Knebworth, we'd only just become rock stars.
And I said to Coyle and Phil, "You're getting on that helicopter,"
because they were our two oldest mates.
"Really, you should be there to see it with us.
"This thing that we're all part of."
It did feel like the end of something as opposed to the beginning of something.
I had a sense of that, even at Knebworth, do you know what I mean?
That it was never going to happen again.
That it happened in such a short space of time.
Two-and-a-half years from signing off to walking out on that stage.
It's just magic.
We were a band who had the tunes, who were grafters,
who came from nothing and wanted it all.
We were the last. We were the greatest.
Nothing anybody does could be as big as Oasis.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[CROWD CHEERING]
Never. It would never get repeated.
Not because we were greater or better than anyone else,
but just because we didn't actually give a flying fuck.
We've definitely got a table upstairs with the big boys, whether they like it or not.
It was the pre-digital age. It was the pre-talent show, reality TV age.
Things meant more.
It was just a great time to be alive, never mind a great time to be in Oasis.
We were about to enter into a celebrity-driven culture
and I've always thought that it was the last, great gathering
of the people before the birth of the Internet.
It's no coincidence that things like that don't happen any more.
Twenty years ago,
the biggest musical phenomenon was a band that came from a council estate.
I just think in the times in which we live, it would be unrepeatable.
We should be worried about that
because where's it going to be 20 years from now?
[LOUD CHEERING]
I just wanted it all, fucking there and then, you know what I mean?
I just wanted it all to happen in one big "fuck-off" explosion of madness.
I loved every minute of it.
It meant the be-all and end-all, man. Life or death.
And I wouldn't change anything.
I'd do it all again in a fucking heartbeat.
[CHEERING INTENSIFIES]
This is history!
Right here, right now, this is history!
I thought this was Knebworth, what are you on about?
That was my life. That band was my life.
So it went above and beyond anything I ever imagined.
That was the pinnacle for me.
It was like, "What the fuck do you do from there?"
[MUSIC STARTS]
Champagne Supernova.
[SINGING: How many special people change?]
[How many lives are living strange?]
[Where were you while we were getting high?]
[Slowly walking down the hall]
[Faster than a cannonball]
[Where were you while we were getting high?]
[Someday you will find me]
[Caught beneath the landslide]
[In a champagne supernova in the sky]
[Someday you will find me]
[Caught beneath the landslide]
[In a champagne supernova]
[A champagne supernova in the sky]
[Wake up the dawn and ask her why]
[A dreamer dreams she never dies]
[Wipe that tear away now from your eye]
[Slowly walking down the hall]
[Faster than a cannonball]
[Where were you while we were getting high?]
[Someday you will find me caught beneath the landslide]
[In a champagne supernova in the sky]
[Someday you will find me caught beneath the landslide]
[In a champagne supernova]
[A champagne supernova]
['Cause people believe that they're going to get away for the summer]
[But you and I, we live and die]
[The world's still spinning round]
[We don't know why]
[Why, why, why, why...]
It felt fucking Biblical, man.
It was a miracle that we even got there.
It was everything and more than I asked for.
Yeah, we felt untouchable, man.
Supersonic even.
People make the mistake of thinking
that the people on the stage here are defining something.
What if no one turns up?
We can all sit here and suck each other's ball bags
about 2. 6 million people applying for tickets,
but you know what's great about that... [CHUCKLING] Is the 2. 6 million people
not anything that we did. And the people were with us.
[MUSIC CONTINUES]
[SINGING: How many special people change?]
[How many lives are living strange?]
[Where were you while we were getting high?]
[We were getting high]
My attitude then was, "More, give me more, give me more."
Now, looking back, I honestly think we should have just went,
"Thank you, every one of youse, for getting us here.
"We were Oasis, and good night," and walked off.
We should have...
We should have disappeared into a puff of smoke.
But, you know, it was my idea to keep going
because I keep on fishing for it, do you know what I mean?
I'm an addict!
That's what shit kickers do, they ride it until the wheels come off.
Just because you can't get any bigger or any higher
doesn't mean to say you can't keep doing it, you know what I mean?
Just because you kissed the sky, give it a fucking love-bite.
INTERVIEWER: When you're on stage, who are you playing to?
NOEL: On stage, when he turns to me, and I turn to him
and, like, we just both look at each other,
everything just clicks, and, it just like, transcends music.
And it's only me and him that will ever get this...
And that's what it's about for us.
Sometimes, I do look back and I think, "Well,
"I wish it had gone a different way," but it hasn't.
It's caused a lot of problems with them two,
but it's their life, so you have to just let them get on with it.
I get where she's coming from
because obviously me and Our Kid ain't got a relationship any more,
but who's to say if we'd have been a pair of fishmongers,
we'd have still slapped at each other with a bit of trout every now and again.
I guess it's like a fight.
We were kind of like a fucking Mike Tyson band, you know what I mean?
We just come in fucking blazing, knocking everyone out.
We were never going to do ten rounds and it was never going to get to that point.
At the end of the day, I weigh it up and I go,
"Right, did the good times outweigh the bad times? Fucking 100%!"
I'm happy with that.
You couldn't say that anybody that was ever in Oasis,
me included, was the best in the world at anything.
But when it all came together,
we made people feel something that was indefinable.
We're still the same band that was playing at the Boardwalk.
We virtually are wearing the same clothes.
All that's happened is that it's caught fire and all these people have got on board.
But people will never, ever, ever forget the way that you made them feel.
There's a chemistry between the band and the audience.
There's something magnetic drawing the two to each other.
The love, and the vibe, and the passion and the rage
and the joy that come in from the crowd.
If anything, that's what Oasis was.
[SINGING: And then dance if you want to dance]
[Please, brother, take a chance]
[You know they're going to go]
[Which way they want to go]
[All we know is that we don't]
[Know how it's going to be]
[Please, brother, let it be]
[Life on the other hand]
[Won't make you understand]
[We're all part of a master plan]
[VOCALISING]