“I’ll be you”: The band Noel Gallagher modelled his career on
Britpop was modelled on nostalgia. The genre and movement may have become intrinsically linked to the 1990s, closely associated with the era of New Labour, laddy football culture and anthemic choruses that instantly transport you back to days spent in baggy jeans and bucket hats, but its initial inspiration stemmed from much earlier. Sonically, it called back to the 1960s, to the stylings of the Kinks and the Beatles, the latter of which were particularly influential on Oasis.
The connection between Oasis and the Beatles has been widely publicised (and occasionally criticised). The Gallagher brothers were open about their love for the Fab Four in interviews, but they sometimes got a little too big for their boots, declaring that they would one day become bigger than the band that had inspired them. The comment even prompted Paul McCartney to respond.
The Beatles were certainly the driving inspiration for almost everything Oasis did, but they weren’t the only band who influenced their sound or the direction they chose to take in the industry. Noel Gallagher once even shared the impact of U2 on Oasis, noting that their success as a working-class band inspired the budding Britpoppers.
In a similar vein, Noel once acknowledged the early influence of fellow Mancunians, The Smiths, who stunned him from the moment they released their debut single. But Gallagher wasn’t just amazed by their sound, he was also taken in by the story and personality of the band, something that he would emulate with Oasis.
When Gallagher first stumbled across the Smiths, he was only exposed to their sound rather than their look, meaning he could project himself onto the music. “They weren’t on Top Of The Pops, and I don’t think The Chart Show was going or anything like that,” he explained during an interview with Mojo, “and there was no picture of the band on the sleeve, so for all, I knew Morrissey could have looked like me.”
Gallagher was “all for that,” finding a real love for their witty lyricism and eventually discovering that his background was similar to guitarist Johnny Marr’s. “I would read reviews with pictures of the bands with Sounds and stuff,” he remembered, “and I came from an Irish background and so did this geezer Johnny Marr and it would be like, ‘There’s another thing I can relate to.’”
Gallagher decided that he wanted to be a hybrid of both Morrissey and Marr. “‘Well, I’ll be you, I definitely want to be you,’” he remembered thinking while looking at Marr, “But I’d love to be a little bit of you [Morrissey] as well.’” Gallagher wouldn’t become either of the Smiths, but he would become a comparable figure for kids with backgrounds similar to his own.
When he and his brother rose to fame and acclaim with Oasis, they put their working class roots on show, endearing themselves to the communities that had formed them. Young, budding guitarists in northern towns looked to the success of the Gallagher brothers and felt the same inspiration Oasis had once felt watching the Beatles or the Smiths.
While Gallagher has become a figure to aspire to, in the way he once looked up to Marr, Oasis do seem to have forgotten the fans and communities who gave them their success in recent months. Their reunion tour has priced out working class fans, leaving the next Oasis struggling to pay the entry fee.
