Noel Gallagher on his “favourite recording ever” with Oasis
It won’t take much to convince one of the Gallagher brothers to talk about the wonders of working in Oasis. Even though they may have been able to become one of the biggest British responses to the alternative movement at the time, Noel and Liam Gallagher were determined to become musical gods among mortals, as if they were somehow going to be the second coming of The Beatles, David Bowie, and The Rolling Stones all at the same time. Although Noel has been upfront when the band didn’t miss the mark, his favourite recording went all the way back to ‘Supersonic’.
Throughout the band’s formative years, their sound lived and died on the live stage. Before they even had a proper demo recording to their name, the band’s first performance at King Tut’s Wah-Wah Hut left a huge mark on Creation Records’ Alan McGee, who convinced the band to sign with the legendary indie label shortly afterwards.
Whereas Noel was known for working out most of the material throughout the first half of the band’s career, getting the ideas down in the studio was another conversation. After spending what felt like an age trying to get the right sound, the band decided that the punk-rock rager ‘Bring It On Down’ was slated to be the next single.
Going into The Pink Museum studio to record their debut song, the band ran into trouble right away when drummer Tony McCarroll couldn’t get the proper drum track down. Since the song relies heavily on those signature tom tom hits that start off the song, the band decided to take a break for dinner when Noel stumbled upon the beginnings of a new song.
While everyone in the band got their food, Noel gave birth to ‘Supersonic’ out of nothing, putting together the signature arpeggiated chord progression and using nonsensical lyrics like riding in a BMW and sailing away in a yellow submarine. Without ever showing the sign to his higher-ups, Noel decided to record the new track instead, which would be the version that ultimately appeared on Definitely Maybe.
Even years after it was recorded, Noel still had an affinity for the track, recalling in the interviews for Supersonic, “[It was] a brilliant moment in time and if push comes to shove, it’s probably still my favourite ever recording because of the flash of inspiration; something was going on that night, bang, and it was there”.
Despite getting it so right on their first step up to the plate, the rest of the recording process was absolute hell to put together. Instead of hammering out the songs like they were done live, the band ran into one setback after the next until Owen Morris walked into the studio, eventually finding a way to take their massive live sound and amping it up to goliath proportions using his signature ‘brickwalling’ effect.
That sound of ‘Supersonic’ wouldn’t be around for the rest of the band’s career, though, leading to more technically innovative songs on tracks like ‘Falling Down’ from later in their career. The songs may have sounded more sophisticated, but the group would never sound as raw as they did on their first step up to the plate.
