Far Out Facts: Everything you need to know about Oasis
Oasis are the band who simply won’t go away—not that we’d ever want them to. In 15 frantic years, Oasis sold 70million records, caused the rapid onset of baldness for several beleaguered tour managers, and just about achieved the rarefied feat of defining an era. Love them or loath them, you can’t f**king ignore them — that much was true when they landed a helicopter at Knebworth, and it’s still true now.
Trapped in some sort of bicker chasm that not even Mary Poppins could patch up, Noel and Liam Gallagher’s ongoing feud is trapped in a cyclical loop of being tiresome bar the odd “a man with a fork in a world of soup” remark and then suddenly coming hopefully close to a reunion again: repeat ad infinitum. Aside from that, they seem steadfast in generating Radio X content and keeping the legacy of the swaggering outfit just about swinging.
Recently, they’ve drawn comments from Matty Healy, who urged them to reform, kept the bickering going thanks to Liam continually calling his brother a “potato” and, worse still, a “U2 fan”, and then out of nowhere came Noel’s “call me” comment prompting an upsurge in reunion rumours. In short, they have never escaped public consciousness since they broke in the 1990s.
And the myriad of Google searches about them proves that. So, with that in mind, we’ve curated the data and found out what you – the mad general public – want to know about the band. Below, we’ll be answering the most searched questions regarding Oasis; from the pertinent big topics to the utterly tedious headscratchers asked by people who really ought to pop on their Gazelles and get out more, this is everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Oasis.
Everything you need to know about Oasis:
When did Oasis form?
Oasis formed in 1991 after Liam auditioned as a singer for a band called Rain featuring Paul McGuigan on bass, Paul Arthurs on guitar, and Tony McCarroll on drums. The swaggering singer successfully usurped Chris Hutton as the vocalist, and he quickly suggested the name change.
At the time, Noel had been working as a roadie for Inspiral Carpets. Surprised and baffled at the news that his non-musical brother had joined a band, Noel went to see them play at the Broadwalk club in Manchester. He thought they were pretty shit, but he had been sitting on a few songs for years that were going nowhere, so he decided they might be a plausible outfit for his songwriting. He joined, and the rest is history.
Who was in Oasis?
As mentioned above, Oasis originally consisted of Paul McGuigan on bass, Paul Arthurs on guitar and Tony McCarroll on drums, Liam Gallagher on lead vocals and Noel as the chief songwriter. However, things weren’t as simple as that. When things got moving for the band, the tours got so frantic that members were scared off left, right and centre. In the end, you wound up with the following roster of musicians…
Final members:
- Liam Gallagher (1991-2009)
- Noel Gallagher (1991-2009)
- Gem Archer (1999-2009)
- Andy Bell (1999-2009)
Former members:
- Tony McCarroll (1991-1995)
- Paul Arthurs (1991-1999)
- Paul McGuigan (1991-1995, 1995-1999)
- Alan White (1995-2004)
Touring musicians:
- Scott McLeod (1995)
- Mike Rowe (1997-2000, 2001)
- Matt Deighton (2000)
- Steve White (2001)
- Zeb Jameson (2000-2001)
- Zak Starkey (2004-2008)
- Jay Darlington (2002-2009)
- Chris Sharrock (2008-2009)
Where are Oasis from?
Surely a question searched only by our American friends? Oasis are so Manchester that they’re almost crippled by it. The rainy city in the northwest of England has soaked into their pores, inducing a profound limping swagger, pronounced twang, feathered sideburns, and a penchant for pigeon-headed nodding.
Influenced heavily by the city’s Hacienda music scene, the band took inspiration from the likes of The Smiths, Joy Division, The Stone Roses, The Happy Mondays, and all the other greats on the Madchester scene that came before them.
What genre is Oasis?
“It’s just rock ‘n’ roll,” they slur repeatedly. But musicologists would say that their style is more specifically the quintessential sound of the Britpop subgenre. The genre came about as a reaction to the US-led grunge scene and essentially brought a lighter, more celebratory and rhythmic twist to alternative rock.
In essence, it paired The Beatles with hip-hop swagger and punk’s acerbic wit to craft music to toast the weekend. However, it was pretty much a blanket term that came from an article and an image of Suede draped in a Union Jack flag. As Noel once said: “We’re not Britpop, we’re universal rock. The media can take the Britpop and stick it as far up the back entry of the country houses as they can take it.”
When did Oasis break up?
After a lifetime of barely holding it together, Oasis split in August 2009. The band were due to perform at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris, but instead, Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke emerged and told the crowd that the brothers grim would not be playing.
Two hours later, Noel released a statement on the band’s website, reading: “It is with some sadness and great relief… I quit Oasis tonight. People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.”
Why did Oasis break up?
Well, as the above suggests, the brothers had their differences. They were like the Schrödinger’s cat paradox of bands: can a group that is constantly in a state of breaking up ever be said to be definitively together or apart? In the end, brotherly anti-love was paired with a revolving cast of band members adding to the instability, the waning of the music industry’s previously freewheeling ways, a decline in the Britpop style that they defined, and diminishing critical credit with each new album, it becomes more of a question of how on earth did they make it to 2009!
There were about 30 incidents that would’ve broken up most bands, including no-shows at gigs, Noel repeatedly braying Liam on the head with a cricket bat for bringing a party back to the studio while he was trying to work, a string of personal matters, other brawls. Ultimately, as Liam told Radio X, Noel was not able to “handle the vibes any more. He couldn’t handle the rock ’n’ roll. He was too scared of it. So now he’s gone all cosmic pop and Leo Sayer.”
Will Oasis get back together?
Speculation is rife that the band will get back together with – for a slew of quite boring industry reasons relating to contracts – 2024 being touted as the date. With Noel recently hinting to Liam that if he is serious about a reunion, then he should ring him seeming to add fuel to this fire; it is possible that we will see a reunion 15 years on from the split.
However, there are fans who will rightly point out that we’ve seen it all before. They split acrimoniously, and things have only gotten more bitter between the two since, with several unresolved personal issues in their private lives also extending the riff. The brothers have barely even spoken directly in that time.
Liam also put the speculation on ice when he responded with a tweet stating: “Here’s how I see it the little fella aka potato has done a lot of damage to Oasis as a band/brand he’s got a lot of making up to do not just to me but to you the fans the people that put us where we are today as you were LG x”
Who wrote Oasis’ songs?
Of all the original songs written by Oasis, 105 songs were credited as written by Noel Gallagher (with some sample credits attributed to other artists), 13 were credited as written by Liam Gallagher, one (‘Love Like a Bomb’) was credited as written by Liam Gallagher and Gem Archer, five were credited as written by Gem Archer, and five were credited as written by Andy Bell. The rest are cited as covers.
Nearly every hit single was written by Noel, along with the exception of Liam’s Heathen Chemistry ditty, ‘Songbird’.
Who was the lead singer of Oasis?
A question you should never ask Liam, or you might swiftly find a mic stand rammed up your arse. In fact, when Liam mused on his brother’s singing ahead of his new album release in 2023, he commented: “Let’s hope he’s hired a proper singer to sing his songs, can’t be doing with his whimpering.”
Nevertheless, Noel did take the mic for some of Oasis’ biggest hits, including ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’, ‘Half the World Away’, ‘Talk Tonight’, ‘The Masterplan’ and ‘The Importance of Being Idle’. However, as Liam would put it, his most fitting contribution came with taking the lead on ‘Where Did It All Go Wrong?’.
Did Oasis do drugs?
The fact that this is Googled frequently actually instils me with the hope that there is still some innocence left in this world. Did Oasis do drugs? I mean, does Dolly Parton sleep on her back? They were even stockpiling Calpol ahead of their tours back in the day, but, to their credit, they did manage to stay clear of heroin.
Nevertheless, Noel has admitted that he took cocaine every night for four years but quit because of brutal panic attacks. After spending a million on drugs, he decided to quit in 1998 and slowly weaned himself off the habit with his brother trying to follow suit. Now, it would seem that they are drug-free and simply quaffing pints.
Who owns the rights to Oasis’ songs?
Alongside management’s share, Noel Gallagher still holds the rights to Oasis’ catalogue, as Liam found out to his own cost when he wanted to use the songs in his documentary As You Were. Noel and his management prevented the free usage prompting Liam to tell Sky News: “Him and his little people saw it and took the Oasis music out of it because that’s all he’s got left, d’ya know what I mean. It doesn’t make me sad, it makes me f***ing mad. I’m not a p***y, I’m not sad about it, I want to break his f***ing jaw and his daft f***ing manager, but that’s what happens. I’m not sad about it, I didn’t go home and cry, I just wanted to go and f***ing put their windows through.”
Also, what might peeve him even more is that thanks to Performing Rights Society licensing royalties, he will have to pay a small cut of concert fees to Sony/ATV Music to cover songs to which Noel holds the rights. As Noel told MOJO in 2018: “When he’s headlining Finsbury Park, I’m sitting here watching Match of the Day getting a PRS cheque for him playing my songs.”
Currently, Noel is considering selling the rights to the catalogue. “Well, I get mine [the rights to his catalogue] back, all of it, in 2025, because I’ve been knocking years off the deal as opposed to taking money advances,” Noel told Apple Music. When he fully owns them in 2025, he is considering selling the rights to a licensing company.
How many albums did Oasis sell?
As of 2022, Oasis have managed to flog 70million albums worldwide. They were Britain’s most successful act between 1995 and 2005, which was a pretty good time to be a successful band given that the music industry was absolutely booming then during an economic windfall before the bastard bankers ruined things.
However, when you breakdown the sales figures per album, it also proves revealing regarding why they broke up besides the feud:
- Definitely Maybe – 15,000,000
- (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? – 22,000,000
- Be Here Now – 8,000,000
- Standing on the Shoulder of Giants – 3,000,000
- Heathen Chemistry – 4,500,000
- Don’t Believe the Truth – 7,000,000
- Dig Out Your Soul – 2,500,000
