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gallaghercest · 5 years

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REPOST: Evidence #1 - Noel’s Sexuality

Hello! So, I’m reposting this 2017 post because Tumblr deleted it.

Enjoy!

— x — x — x —

Good evening, class! It’s been a long time but I’m back. It took so long because I needed plenty of time to arrange everything correctly, because tonight we’ll have a long post. And I’m back with such a polemic subject to talk about. That’s right: Noel Gallagher’s sexuality. Pretty much a taboo in the whole fandom.

I actually realised this should have been my first post here, since it’s focused much more on the 80s, but, well, it’s all said and done now, so just pretend you read this post first, ok?

Before starting I know that there will probably be someone/some people who will go “but jULIA YOU CAN’T TALK ABOUT THIS, IT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, IT’S TOO PERSONAL, YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT NOEL AND HIS GAYNESS AA A A A A A A”

And I’ll tell you what, kids: I’d rather walk I HAVE the right to talk about this, I’m his fan, I have the evidences, I’ve done researches, essays, everything you can imagine, and my conclusion is: it’s not my fault if he prefers to stay inside the closet LG x

So, take your seats and here we go!

Disclaimer: this is a bunch of evidences I made by myself, based in conversations I had with my friends and months of analysis, suffering, nights of insomnia and tears. Don’t know if everything is veridical, but at least, it’s a way that I found to “light” up our way and try to find some proper fucking answers to this stuff.

Well, I bet lots of you have already wondered (at least once in your lifetimes) about Noel’s sexuality, because, honestly, it’s something really confusing if you stop to think about it. The guy fucking hooked up with his brother, that’s already a good point to start. But I’ll try to list all the evidences on a chronological order.

1-) This Charming Man

This one is more like a deduction but ok. Yes, the famous Smiths’ song always had an important role on Noel’s life. It was the first song he learned to play on guitar. It was his main inspiration to become a musician as soon he saw The Smiths playing it on Top Of The Pops in 1983.

But, a 16 year old Noel who hated school and all type of book obviously didn’t understand the references and the lyrics meaning of any song as a 21 year old Noel could.

There’s a quote from Noel, which I think it’s from the NGHFB era already – but it might be from the late Oasis years, who knows – which I couldn’t find now, but I promise I’ll try my best to find it. If you know it, you can send it to me, too. The point is that, basically, Noel was asked by the interviewer why would he play the same fucking songs in every single gig.

Noel answered that, when he attended his first Smiths’ gig, which I’m sure it was in late 80s, he wanted them to play This Charming Man SO SO SO SO SO MUCH, and they had played it on their last gig, or on the last week’s gig, something like this, so Noel was really hopeful about it. The point is: they didn’t play it on the gig that Noel attended, and he got pretty much traumatised over that. So, he claims he plays the same songs every single gig because of that happening.

But, now, I ask you: As I said, this song was always important to him. But, as he grew old, he might have understood the lyrics more – This Charming Man’s lyrics clearly talks about homosexuality and an affair between a guy from working class and a guy from an upper class, you can read more about it on Genius, I guess. And now that he was older, maybe he identified more with the song in general.

He said once that as soon as he heard This Charming Man, everything made sense, even though he didn’t know any literature references and stuff like that – so he admitted that he didn’t get the lyrics at first. And this is important because I’m not telling you he had homosexual tendencies since he was born, it came after years and years.

2-) “Effeminate Phase” AKA Manchester Mauler

In the Definitely Maybe DVD, when talking about the “Give me gin and tonic” bit from Supersonic with Mark Coyle (11:30), Noel mentions that he must have been going through one of his – ONE OF, IT MEANS HE HAD LOTS OF – ‘effeminate phases’ to be drinking gin and tonic at that time.

He even joked once in an interview with Zane Lowe that when Peggy asked him why did he kept in his room 24/7 playing guitar, he answered, joking, “because I’m gay” :’))))))))))))

And now, the thing that I guess it’s the most iconic thing about Noel’s sexuality: if you search on Google “Is Noel Gallagher gay?” you will find an anonymous answer (that actually was answered by The WikiAnswers Community™), which goes:

“Definitely! He’s known as the Manchester Mauler. A refrerence to his brutal homosexual appetite durring his youth in Manchester, England.”

And in case you’re wondering “what the fuck does Mauler mean?”, Urban Dictionary will help you:

(I censored it because maybe Tumblr would block it again if I didn’t)

Let me tell you: this is my favourite piece of information of the entire Oasis history. It doesn’t come from any reliable source but the point is: I don’t doubt it. It’s the truth to me.

3-) Clint Boon

This is probably the most important evidence – so important that it’s why I’ve chosen it to illustrate the post. Noel’s years as a roadie were, obviously, wild.

Everything started when he auditioned to be the new singer of Inspiral Carpets. As we all know, he wasn’t accepted, but he was asked to be a roadie, in case he was interested. I don’t want to be pretentious but I have lots of friends who think that the job was only offered to him because Clint was already interested, BUT ANYWAY.

It’s common to see lots of photos of Clint and Noel together, we all know. And very suspicious photos, in fact. Some of them are not even with Clint, for example. The one where Noel is almost kissing a guy with a hand on his **** is actually Graham. And you can tell it because Graham’s hair was shorter than Clint’s (it’s the third photo of the collage above)

Noel was already asked by this photo on an interview and he was BOLD ENOUGH to deny the kiss:

“Interviewer: There’s a quite famous photo of you snogging Clint [Boon] from The lnspiral Carpets.

Noel: Oh no, that was Graham [Lambert, Inspirals guitarist]. Yeah. We weren’t actually kissing, though.

I: It looked like you were.

N: Yeah, yeah, it did look like it. But I can assure you.”

Anyway, the point is, we know Noel can assure they weren’t kissing because the only guy he would kiss was Clint. Ok, seriously now: we know that Noel used to take suspicious photos with his friends, while they drank and did drugs.

You can even see Noel shotgunning – the act of blowing weed or simply cigarette’s smoke on another person’s, usually your partner’s, mouth, and maybe even kissing – on the 4th and 5th photo from the beginning of the post. Notice that both photos were taken at the same night (their clothes are the same) and with the same guy.

Ah, and we have the matching haircuts as well. Thing we saw happening to Liam and Noel too (1997, 1999…)

(please don’t ever let this photo die)

Well. My point here is not the photos, not even the haircuts at all. It’s Clint. The amount of photos/footage we have of Noel with Clint is much more significant than the ones we have with the rest of the band. For example, Noel’s not seen in bed with any other member than Clint.

Actually, I have more things to talk of Clint, but I’ll leave it to another post.

And more: on the book “Carpet Burns: Life with Inspiral Carpets”, by Tom Hingley, the lead singer, contains a quote where Clint claims that Noel taught him another use for the airplane tables (thanks, Mat, for the useful info!). Another use. If you know what I mean.

But the most extraordinary thing is that, coincidence or not, there’s a Inspiral’s song, called Dragging me Down, written by Clint, released on 1992 – when Noel was already gone and in Oasis –, that strangely makes references to planes, travels, sky and flying. Behold:

Now, it’s up to you to patch things together.

AND DON’T YOU GET ME TO TALK ABOUT THIS:

4-) Random Noel’s quotes through the years

This one is probably the more common and easy-to-find evidence. I’ll just give the examples I recall now, but if you have more in mind, feel free to share it so I can add it to this post!

I don’t know what happened to Noel in the ‘Russell Brand 6Music show’ on 2006, because somehow he said a lot of things there.

Noel insisted that if he was gay, he’d be the biggest gay in the world, saying “I would be gayer than Freddie Mercury”, and then, Russell suggested that the 3AM girls might be interested in Noel suddenly getting in touch with his gay side, to which Noel replied:

“In a manner of speaking, I may have done already.”

Bingo!

And there’s that one from 1 Leicester Square, also being interviewed by Russell Brand, where they even talk a little about Noel’s years as a roadie, and Noel later says he was “very in touch” with his “effeminate side” (again!) and that Noel was a girl’s name¿? Russell says Liam has a “sexualised arrogance” and I confess I’m really like ?¿?¿where did you get it, son?¿?¿? because I really do think it’s something Noel thinks at the deep heart, not something Russell Brand could say, actually.

And again, there’s another quote, from another Russell Brand BBC2 show from 29th July 2008: “I like a few women but I like men an awful lot more.” He even continues and say “I call myself straight, but I’m GAY!”. “If I went to call myself bisexual, it would be equally, if not more misleaded (?), I’m not undecided or bi-curious either” Then, Noel asks “Matt, can you come up with a new word for people who are mostly straight but a little gay or mostly gay but a little straight?” and Russell comes up with the brilliant answer: “Oasis.”

It actually surprises and triggers me how nearly every time Noel and Russell meet, they end up talking about that subject… really weird, innit? Does Russell know of something? We might never know… *suspense intensifies*

And, now, going out of the Russell Brand show, we have the beautiful quote of Noel for a German TV interview on February 2009, which I’ll give me the luxury to copy down here:

“Q: So tonight you’re on stage with your brother.

N: Unfortunately, yes.

Q: Unfortunately. You don’t like each other very much.

N: No.

Q: Is there anything you like about your brother? Anything?

N. There’s lots of things I like about his personality, but he doesn’t like me.

Q: Do you know why?

N: Uuuhm…

Q: Have you ever talked to him about it?

N: I don’t know. You’d have to speak to him. But I know he doesn’t like me. He insults me all the time.

Q: But you like him.

N: There’s certain aspects of him that I like.

Q: What kind of aspects?

N: He wears crazy shoes.

Q: Ah. Anything else?

N: He has crazy hair.

Q: And what’s that got to do with his personality?

N: They’re just things I find attractive in men.”

Fine.

6-) This.

Ok, now I have two destinations: either people will kill me or support me. I don’t want to, I don’t know, ruin Noel’s perfect-marriage-husband reputation or whatsoever; actually, I don’t want to ruin Noel’s marriage lolololol but the point is: it’s in the internet, so it’s free, right? And my job here is exposing. So, that’s what I’m gonna do.

Well, one day I was doing my daily research with my friends, seeking for evidences of Noel’s bisexuality, and I bumped up into this:

But then I thought, “c'mon, the guy (who I censored the username for legal reasons) could be tripping”, but then me and my big-stalker-KGB-ass did a research on the lad’s profile, and, in the same weekend he tweeted that, he really was at Glasto, in 2014:

And the point is that, Noel wasn’t playing Glastonbury then, but he ATTENDED Glastonbury; he was at backstage, as you can see here:

Maybe the guy is crazy? Yes! Do I think he is actually crazy? No! Simply because, as I said, I don’t doubt anything, I know Noel and his capacity. The only difference between Noel and Liam is that Noel is a perfect secrefreak.

7-) Oasis fans are noticing it

If you think I made up all this bullshit, think again. It’s more and more common you see, not only the more dedicated fan accounts talking about it, but more grown-up fans talking about it too – I mean: it’s common to see not only the fan girls talking of it, but 30 year old blokes talking too. So, something must be quite right in all of this, right?

That’s it, guys, thank you so much for reading, I really consider this post my ultimate masterpiece, so I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to reblog, it helps me a lot, send a message or whatever, I’ll love to read it, see you on the next post!

#noel gallagher #gallaghercest #gcestlavie #evidence #80s

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soul-write · 5 years

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A new way of doing chores #MM6

Kinda Inspired by these lyrics from Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen

“ I’m burnin’ through the sky, yeah

Two hundred degrees

That’s why they call me Mister Fahrenheit

I’m traveling at the speed of light

I wanna make a supersonic man out of you “

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Cleaning up was never Kay's favourite activity , but with time he found a way to enjoy , at least a little bit more , doing all these chores. The solution he found was to put music from his laptop and to dance and sing around the house like no one sees him. And he kept this habit even after he moved with Cian.

In one day of June , Cian went out to do some shopping and they left Kay to clean up their apartment. As soon as Cian left , Kay took out his phone , opened Spotify and put his 'Cleaning duty' playlist on shuffle. He started to dance around the house as he was washing some plates in the kitchen and then dusting the living room. At some point he started to sing like his neighbours couldn't hear him. ( they could )

When Cian came back , Kay was currently singing to 'Don't stop me now' by Queen, using a broom as a mic and dancing around the couch.

"..-That’s why they call me Mister Fahrenheit~! I’m traveling at the speed of light!! I wanna make a supersonic man out of you!!"

"I'll make a supersonic man out of you if you don't finish cleaning up!"

Kay jumped out when he heard Cian speaking. He was breathing hard and his face were a slightly darker shade than normal. He was also sweating from both dancing and surprise. "Ah! Ci-Cian! I.. I have.. I haven't heard you coming in.. I thou-"

"You are quite a good singer.."

"Hm? Wha-what did you..?"

"I said 'You are quite a good singer'. Not as good as GD , but better than Anns."

Kay was now blushing even more as he was watching Cian walk into the kitchen to put down the stuff they bought. His attention was brought back by his phone when the song changed. It was now playing Bohemian Rhapsody. He remembered that this was one of his lover's favourite songs so he decided to take a chance and ask them:

"Wanna join me?"

After a few seconds of silence , Cian answered. "Hell yeah!"

Additional notes: So this is my piece for Musical Monday 6 ( I really missed some ) hosted by @lookslikechill and @livingdeadwriteblr . I firstly wanted to do something else , but I decided to go with something more happy. This isn't perfect , but I love the concept.

Tagging list: @minny-king - @jess---writes - @spellboundinks - @oheoo - @writersloth - @human-nonsense - @writerproject - @theshadowsofthenight - @brennawrites - @focusdumbass - @jaywrites101 - @thepassioncrisis - @connie-fictional - @charvaughn-writes .

#a new way of doing chores #musical monday #6 #queen #oc; cian #oc; kay #two dorks in love #writing #writers #my writing #writeblr #writers on tumblr #mm6

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thesinglesjukebox · 5 years

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youtube

LIAM GALLAGHER - SHOCKWAVE

[3.50]

Yeah, cheers mate...

Katherine St Asaph: After a bumpy career past couple of years, Liam Gallagher sets out to once again make audiences weak and vulnerable. Unfortunately, he does it with this mannered classic-rock slab, half of which might have done it in the '90s, half of which might not have since the '70s. [4]

Ramzi Awn: "Shockwave" resurrects an old and familiar genre: intros to Sandra Dee beach movies or cult horror classics. But as playful as it is, Gallagher fails to revive the word "shockwave" in the same way that Britney Spears did "womanizer" and overall, the single sounds more schlocky than shocking. [3]

Scott Mildenhall: The children gather round the fire for the UK's number one Oasis tribute act, drawn in by his impressive stories of bygone times -- "Liam Gallagher 'more hated than Saddam'" a particular favourite. Their parents have told them of their part in the Battle of Britpop, but now, if they squint through the embers, they can be a part of it themselves. Come daybreak, though, Liam Gallagher is Macromedia in a HTML5 world and his current career is a Brexit for the under 50s. [5]

Will Adams: Back when iTunes used to have free downloads as part of their "Single of the Week" series, I accumulated an assortment of random rock bands' competent breakout songs. They were fine, perfectly serviceable, but not necessarily enough to make me interested to actually check out the band further. "Shockwave" sounds like it could have been one of those downloads: buzzy and slightly cool, clearly deserving of some sort of label push, but nothing inspiring any action beyond listening to it a few times before letting it fester in the darkest recesses of my iTunes library. [5]

Alfred Soto: After reading the six-sentence, judicious career appraisal, I said "fuck it" and erased it. This is a dumb song: not good dumb, dumb dumb. The hook stupefies, the English is worse, and I hate rock and roll. [1]

Jonathan Bradley: I guess a sonic boom is a kind of shockwave, but it isn't supposed to grind its way out so tediously, nor is it meant to arrive 25 years after the vehicle in question has gone, um, "Supersonic." [3]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

#Liam Gallagher #rock #music #music review #writing

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placetobenation · 5 years

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“I need to be myself, I can’t be no one else…”

25 years ago, a band from Manchester took their first steps to taking over the world of music, and the lyrics above were the first words you hear on their first single and it tells you an important message immediately – Oasis were going to do it their way.

At that time, the UK Singles Chart was dominated my cheesy pop and RnB songs, and the previous Christmas No. 1, one of the biggest accomplishments in British music, was won by Mr. Blobby, a TV character.

Mr Blobby to Britpop – quite the transition

Taking inspiration from bands like The Stone Roses, The Jam and most notably The Beatles, Noel Gallagher had a catalogue of songs written before he was even part of the band. The remaining members were touring to little success as The Rain (named after the Beatles song) whilst Noel was touring as a roadie for fellow Manchester band the Inspiral Carpets. When not on roadie duty, Noel would pen what would become masterpiece after masterpiece.

It was only when Noel came back home after a tour that younger brother Liam asked him to be in his band which Noel accepted, albeit only if he would be the main songwriter. Noel would later go on to say he had so many songs written that he had so many songs written that the best 12 went on this album, the next best 12 went on the next album (What’s the Story?) Morning Glory (which is arguably the better album), and so on.

In 1993, Oasis travelled to Glasgow in a minivan and were followed by an army of friends, family and fans looking to see them perform at the locally legendary bar/music venue King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut. However, thanks to some miscommunication, Oasis were not on the set list when they arrived. After speaking to the manager and promoter Oasis were accommodated to a slot to open up the proceedings that night. It was during this set the band were spotted by Alan McGee, owner of Creation Records, and the rest as they say is history. With one minor threat to a promoter, UK music was about to change, and Oasis were about to take on the world.

Oasis at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut

The Singles

The first single off of the album would be Supersonic, released April 11, 1994. This song was not actually part of Noel’s back catalogue but instead it was written during an album recording session. The band were at the studio to record Bring It On Down and were warming up with a jam session. When the outcome of the intended song didn’t come out as well as hoped, it was decided to work on something new based on the warm-up earlier in the day in the hope that it wouldn’t be a wasted journey to the studio.

And so, while the rest of the band were in the middle of their Chinese takeaway, Noel was hard at work trying to turn the jam session into a song worthy of the album and thus Supersonic was born and recorded in the small hours of the morning. Noel would later state that he always finds it unbelievable to hear fans signing back a song that he wrote at 3AM.

Next up was Shakermaker, release on 13th June. There are a million and one great “driving” songs but this must be one of the few great “walking” songs. It’s almost impossible, for me anyway, to not imagine Liam’s trademark swagger when this song comes on, and mimic it straight away.

The inspiration for the song comes from the world around Noel from growing up to the time of writing. Examples of these would be the title, the Shaker Maker was a popular toy when Noel was growing up in the 70s, Mr. Clean is the title to a song by one of Noel’s favourite bands The Jam, and Mr. Benn was a British cartoon character. The melody for the song was also based on I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing which was in a Coca-Cola advert when Noel was growing up. (in some live performances, Noel would even change one of the lines to “I’d like to buy you all a Coke” in a nod to the songs origin)

The ultimate example of using his surrounds happened in the taxi on the way to the studio for another recording session, however. The feeling was the song wasn’t fully complete and needed an extra verse and, to the shock of absolutely no one, Liam and Noel were at odds with each, with Liam pestering Noel to get the song finished.

While stopped at traffic lights, Noel looked out the window and saw Sifters, a record shop in which he used to go to as a teenager and in a light-bulb moment came up with the line “Mr. Sifter sold me songs when I was just sixteen”. All that was left to do was finish the verse and the song was complete.

The next release on August 8th is my one of my favourites song on the album, Live Forever. Originally written in 1991, it was intended to be the counter argument for grunge music which was still huge at the time. Noel has said that he remembered that there was a Nirvana song called I Hate Myself and I Want to Die, and his first reaction was “well, I’m not fucking having that… kids don’t need to hear that nonsense”. This song is more uplifting and optimistic than the last two singles with lyrics like “maybe I will never be; all the things I want to be; now is not the time to cry; now’s the time to find out why” and obviously “you and I are gonna live forever”.

Live Forever is a perennial crowd favourite and always gets the same reaction whenever its played – as soon as you hear the first bar of the song it turns into Oasis karaoke. If it was an internet meme it would be:

No one:……

Me: MAYBEEEEEEE! I DON’T REALLY WANNA KNOWWW…

The live performances were more often than not accompanied by a slideshow of deceased musicians that the band admired, most notably always finishing with John Lennon to universal approval from the crowd every time.

The US video for this song is the better of the two produced and somewhat mimics this theme where the band are in an office surrounded by pictures of people like Sid Vicious (the guitarist, not the master and ruler of the world), Kurt Cobain, John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix amongst others. Surrounded by legends and their heroes, Oasis were on a fast track to becoming revered in the same manner as these artists with this album.

The fourth single off of the album was the rough, punchy and downright loud Cigarettes and Alcohol. This is the song that put the Oasis attitude to the forefront and showed the 451,000 people who bought Do The Bartman 3 years before to put that song to NUMBER 1 in the UK charts for THREE WEEKS that they are not in Kansas anymore.

Cigarettes and Alcohol is how many people viewed life in 1990s Britain set to a riff which was “borrowed” from T-Rex’s Get It On and the band’s boss Alan McGee would claim the song was “one of the greatest social statements of the past 25 years”. Lines like “Is it worth the aggravation to find yourself a job when there’s nothing worth working for?” highlight the apathy and general sentiment of the UK in the mid-1990s, a feeling that is just as relevant in 2019 than it did 25 years ago.

Due to this apathy many peoples escapes were cigarettes, alcohol and drugs (“you might as well do the white line”) highlighted by the first line of the song “Is it my imagination, or have I finally found something worth living for?” – this is the original Trainspotting of songs. And herein lies the one of the secrets to Definitely Maybe’s success – they wrote and performed songs about what people were doing and thinking at the time.

The final single off of the album is the opening track, Rock ‘n’ Roll Star. This immediately became a fan favourite and remains as such to this day. There’s really not much to say about this song that the song itself doesn’t tell you. It’s loud, its brash and it gets across the dream of millions of people worldwide who want to be a rock star.

Noel would later say that everything he wanted say in his songs he put across in this song, Live Forever and Cigarettes & Alcohol and then everything else after that he was just repeating himself in a different way.

This is an excellent, shouty song which is always a favourite and volume raiser when it comes on in my morning karaoke session, eh, I mean morning commute.

One of the things I love the most about Oasis is that the b-sides and album songs are just as good as the singles. There are too many to go through but I want to give a special mention to Slide Away. This is such an epic song that it’s almost unbelievable that it wasn’t a proper single, but what most people don’t know is that it was actually meant to be one. Slide Away was tentatively scheduled to be the sixth single off of the debut album, until Noel that you couldn’t have that many singles coming off of your debut album.

This was a song written by Noel about his girlfriend at the time with whom he was having a troubled relationship. He noted that he sat down with a guitar sent to him by Johnny Marr of The Smiths and it “wrote itself”. This song is a fan favourite but was rarely played live by Oasis, however it has since become a staple of Liam’s solo shows.

The importance of Definitely Maybe cannot be understated. It helped usher in the Britpop era of the mid to late 90s and it put Oasis on the music map. Oasis would go on to inspire countless other bands such as Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, and even Coldplay.

The album is just as popular today as it was when it originally hit shelves, and over the years it has been re-released time and again. Definitely Maybe has been in the Top 50 in the charts in three different decades, reaching No. 1 in 1994 with the original release and again making the charts with the 2004 and 2014 anniversary releases. I wouldn’t put it past it charting again in the 2020’s for the 30 year anniversary in all honesty.

In July of last year I, and 50,000 other people, had the privilege of seeing Liam Gallagher live, and of the 17 songs in his set that night, 8 of them were either from this album or a b-side to one of the singles, and he had every single one of us in the palm of his hand during those songs.

Knebworth, 1996 – 250,000 people over 2 days in the palm of their hands

It’s because of this album that just over a year and another epic album later that 3.5m people applied for 1 of 250,000 tickets to see the band at Knebworth, and that both brothers can still play to festival crowds in 2019, and that you will still see people dressed in parkas, bucket hats and round tinted Lennon-esque sunglasses in most cities across the UK.

It might be cheesy to say, but for me and many many others, this album will indeed Live Forever.

#IFTTT #Place to Be Nation

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andimallouttabubblegum · 7 years

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It was 20 years ago today…

Album: Be Here Now Band: Oasis Release Date: 21st August 1997 Produced by: Owen Morris and Noel Gallagher Label: Creation

Track Listing: 1. D’You Know What I Mean? (7:42) 2. My Big Mouth (5:02) 3. Magic Pie (7:19) 4. Stand By Me (5:56) 5. I Hope, I Think, I Know (4:22) 6. The Girl In The Dirty Shirt (5:49) 7. Fade In-Out (6:52) 8. Don’t Go Away (4:48) 9. Be Here Now (5:13) 10. All Around The World (9:21) 11. It’s Gettin’ Better Man(!!) (7:00) 12. All Around The World (Reprise) (2:08)

What’s the most hyped you’ve ever been for something? Did you binge watch 6 seasons of Game of Thrones for the new episodes? Perhaps you watched The Avengers a dozen times in the cinema because your favourite Marvel heroes were actually on the big screen together? Or maybe you queued up for the midnight release of one of the latter Harry Potters or Call of Dutys. Well, add all of that together and you get some idea of how much a young James was looking forward to Be Here Now in 1997. So, on the twentieth anniversary of its release, I’ve decided to give it another listen, and to give you my thoughts.

First, just a little bit of background first for those who didn’t experience Britpop in the flesh. I’m not going to do the full history of Oasis or 90s British music, but the release of Definitely Maybe in 1994 had marked out Oasis as something very special, becoming the biggest selling debut album in the UK. Anthemic songs like “Supersonic”, “Cigarettes and Alcohol” and “Live Forever” crossed over to capture a bunch of fans who connected with the Gallagher brothers and the motley crew of Mancunians – if that isn’t too patronising to say! Then, a “feud” with Blur caught the imagination of parts of the media, and the release of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? moved them into the mainstream, going to number 1 in the album charts for 10 full weeks. Although the music press didn’t particularly like it, as Paolo Hewitt said in the sleeve notes “In this town the jury is always rigged but the people know. They always know the truth. Believe. Belief. Beyond. Their morning glory.” This was an album of the people.

The Gallagher boys’ rock star antics (Noel quiting the band and Liam missing the start of an American to buy a house with Patsy Kensit) just built Oasis’ popularity, and a couple of concerts at Knebworth saw them play to 250,000 fans over 2 days in August 1996. So when it came to the release of Oasis’ third album, Be Here Now, anticipation was at fever pitch. Songs like “Don’t Look Back In Anger” and “Wonderwall” had become instant classics (still being played by annoying guys at parties to this day), but what could Noel Gallagher produce this time?

The first single from Be Here Now was “D’You Know What I Mean?”, released on 7th July 1997, was a huge number 1, selling 370,000 copies in its first week, one of which was to me. That’s right, this was the first single I ever bought.

“D’You Know What I Mean” is a very good song… that is about three and a half minutes long. It sounds very different from anything that Oasis had done before, yet still had the familiar hallmarks of a big chorus and Beatles references. But mainly, it had an ambition which further fueled my excitement for the upcoming album, which arrived on Thursday 21st August 1997 and was bought by yours truly at about 10am on that day, which for me, in the middle of the school holidays, was a huge achievement.

Obviously, 14 year old me loved the album. I didn’t listen to anything else for weeks. I taped it on cassette to listen to it on my Walkman (look it up in a museum). I learned all words, tried work out which bit of guitar was Johnny Depp (I didn’t know what “slide guitar” was), and bought the follow up singles. I read every review I could find – which were mostly incredibly positive – and couldn’t comprehend why anyone didn’t think it was the best album ever. But…

Over the coming months, I realised there was other music outside Oasis. Actually listening to Blur’s album Blur (released earlier that year) showed that they were never really competing with Oasis, they were on totally different musical levels. I’d originally ignored the Manic Street Preacher’s Everything Must Go even when it won best album at the ’97 Brits, but when I did, it was a revelation. And although I can’t remember for sure, I think it was Urban Hymns, Richard Ashcroft’s masterpiece return with The Verve, that was the first album I listened to after Be Here Now. And although I would argue that each of these contemporary albums are better, the thing that I learned most from listening to them is that an album, even an ambitious one, shouldn’t be 71 minutes long.

It was a strange thing to learn at fourteen that sometimes less is more. Take the second single “Stand By Me”:

Again, it is a very good song. But it is nearly 6 minutes long. And when you are listening to it on the album, you are TWENTY MINUTES into Be Here Now despite it being only the fourth song. There was simply no-one to rein-in the band’s, and specifically Noel Gallagher’s, excesses. There are just loads and loads of guitar laid on top of simple acoustic songs, with no-one in the Oasis camp able (or willing) to tell Noel to ease off. The lyrical content is more meaningless than ever, but that was never really an issue for Oasis, it’s just that the songs collapse with the layers of guitar tracks piled on them. Liam Gallagher does his best on vocals, but it is buried in the mix – although the 2016 remastered version does treat him a bit better. Allegedly “My Big Mouth” has 30 guitar tracks on it. No song should have 30 tracks of anything unless you are making something cosmically groundbreaking. “My Big Mouth” is just a very average rock song.

For a band who had been so Mancunian, so Northern, so British, all of a sudden the tracks are from a different era. While in the past he nicked riffs from bands in the past, it was still in an Oasis style. Now Noel Gallagher’s output sounded like bland, middle of the road soft rock. “Don’t Go Away” is a ballad that owes more to the dreaded American “AoR” radio than their first two, vital-sounding albums. Listening to it now feels very strange, especially when Noel Gallagher’s solo output sounds so different to what he produced on Be Here Now.

And there was just no, for want of a better word, editing. Song after song repeat their choruses and bridges over and over, leading into noodlely guitar outros. “Be Here Now” should be a 2 and half minute punky blast… instead it is over twice that. “The Girl in the Dirty Shirt” should be a brief love song like “Married With Children” from Definitely Maybe or “She Is Love” on Heathen Chemistry. “I Hope, I Think, I Know” is the closest to a normal length song, yet it comes in at 4:22. That first single, “D’You Know What I Mean?” – Noel himself thought that someone would tell him to take two minutes off it. No-one did, so there’s a long intro then a needless backwards bit at the end. It was the first song on the album! It doesn’t need that much of an outro!

And take the second last (proper) song on the album is “All Around The World”, which was the third and final single, is over 9 minutes long. It’s a song that makes “Champagne Supernova” sound restrained and focused.

And then it has a two minute reprise as the last track. For me, “All Around The World” proved that Oasis weren’t The Beatles, they were just a band that sometimes wanted to sound like The Beatles. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s a quote from Noel: “imagine how much better “Hey Jude” would have been with three key changes towards the end.” Oasis genuinely thought they were making an album to put them in with the all-time greats. Instead we got a very long, overblown, overloaded mess of an album. Buried somewhere in there is a 45 minute classic – I think the songs are better than the hungover Standing on the Shoulder of Giants – and if you pick single songs out of it, there are enjoyable to listen to.

But in 2017, as a whole, listening to Be Here Now is a tiring, head battering affair. It’s a testament to excess and… there’s just too much guitar. And coming from me – that is saying something.

(In case anyone thinks for whatever reason I am lying about my love for Oasis and this album on its release, here are my well-worn copies of the album and singles. I genuinely did love it, but it really doesn’t stand up now. It will always have a special meaning for me – like any first love – but the memory is better than reality, like most teenage obsessions!)

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Oasis: Be Here Now Review It was 20 years ago today...

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