’em, everyone has an opinion on Oas But (I, the first time you ever heard the Okay, so it exactly ‘where were you when John Le . .~ was shot’ Or ‘when Kurt Cobain killed himself’, but from J _ moment, whenever it was in the last ten years, it would have clianged the way you felt about British rock music.
My Oasis cherry was popped in Glasgow’s Garage nightclub in 1994. By some complete stroke of drunken bad luck my compadres and I had ended up in this legendary student cop—off joint one Friday night. In a fuzzy alcohol stupor l indulged in a few tentative shuffles on the dancefloor. This was your archetypal indie disco and all the favourites of the hour were being trundled out when an unfamiliar slinking gtiitar line dropped in which exploded into this part Happy Mondays, part Slade, pan Coke ad behemoth.
It was ‘Shakermaker’. Wow. I didn’t remember much detail from the night but that song stuck in my head. That was the trick with Oasis. to sgedgehammer a song into your head until it drove you mental. musical climate which Oasis came out of is very different
' ‘ I from the current one. Those . : I post-baggy comedown hours '4 were a blossoming for dance ‘3 t i music and hailed as the new Stone Roses, Oasis managed . to eclipse Squire and Brown. '” taking gobby arrogance to new highs (and tabloid-friendly lows). Oasis encapsulated celebrating life at its most base level - ‘Cigarettes And Alcohol’ — and there was none of the supposed ambiguity of dance music with its ‘Ebeneezer Goode isn’t about drugs’ nonsense. They had finally found something worth living for and they wanted you to know it.
‘When Oasis first came out they were all about ambition.’ says ex- st staffer Peter Ross, who witnessed the band at their early ‘ stag . ‘Every chord and chorus was about yearning. about wanting J
suc ss, much more so than any of the New Romantic bands who are sed to embody that grasping Thatcherite thing. Maybe Oasis g: ‘_ achieved what they wanted too early.’
King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 1993 Early on, the band developed a real romantic attachment to Scotland. How could they not? Their appearance at King Tut’s in May 1993,. supporting 18 Wheeler — where they played four songs (one a covefij; of ‘I Am The Walrus’) - was enough to convince Alan McGee to sign them to Creation. ‘Noel said to me at that gig: “I’ll get you a“ demo”,’ McGee recalled. ‘I said “nah, I think I’ve heard enough”.’ i
They returned to Scotland eleven times before the close of 1994 touring with The Verve among others. Shows at the Cathouse and at Tramway as part of Glasgow’s Sound C'u‘y cemented the followin that remains to this day.
List freelancer Fiona Shepherd “first saw them play Manchester and again as guests to St Etignne at ,v I Glasgow Pl
in ’93, but it took until their show at the [tho > ‘ %o their efl'ect
[really sink in.