“Like a knackered lift”: the Oasis performance Noel Gallagher said destroyed his soul
For any aspiring musician, a lot is riding on the first gig they play. Even though it’s understandable that not everything is going to go off without a hitch, the reception that someone gets on their first step towards being a musician is either what makes them fall in love with music or convinces them never to pick up an instrument as long as they live. And while Oasis didn’t have to worry about much in terms of self-confidence during their salad days, there was also a time when they left people mortified.
Whenever someone is starting out, though, it’s best to work with what you have. No one had experience in the music industry aside from Noel Gallagher’s gig as a roadie, and it wasn’t like any of them were claiming to be the best musicians in the world, but that punky spirit was usually half the reason why they got the approval of their peers.
Before Noel had even come into the picture, his brother Liam and guitarist Bonehead Arthurs already had the beginnings of what would become The Rain. Aside from the insanely bland moniker, a lot of what Liam was writing around this time wasn’t half bad. ‘Take Me’ wasn’t going to earn any awards, but they do provide a nice alternative to Noel’s Beatlesque melodies on their later records.
But Noel wasn’t always completely honest when it came to who wrote what in the group. While it’s common knowledge that he was the main songwriter throughout the first half of the band’s career, ‘Columbia’ was a patchwork job by all members of the band, initially growing out of a jam and Liam adding a handful of words to the tune before his brother took sole songwriting credit after the fact.
Regardless of who wrote it, this was the kind of song that was made for the live stage. After all, England was still in the midst of dance crazes, and having that kind of hypnotic groove pounding away for six minutes on end was a good way of getting kids into the baggy scene out on the dance floor while still having that rock and roll swagger. It’s a shame that no one picked up on that idea at first.
When Noel described playing their originals for the first time, he admitted that it went over about as well as someone breaking wind in a place of worship, saying, “It went down like a fucking knackered lift (laughs). We played this epic, six-minute, stone-grooved song, dow, wow, dow, duh duh, the total crossing of rock music and dance music beyond anything that’s been heard before, and everyone’s like (blank face). Soul destroying. This bowl of silence.”
If someone wasn’t used to Oasis’s sound, though, it’s easy to see why they would get bored. All the tune consists of is three chords repeated for longer than an average pop song, but if you’re willing to get sucked into the groove, a lot of the song’s appeal is about getting lost in the music rather than relying on that one Bob Dylan-style lyric or cool guitar solo.
Even on the recorded version found on Definitely Maybe, Noel and Owen Morris leaned into that style of playing, eventually settling on the layers of guitars to keep the stereo image interesting. It might have hurt getting no response from that first crowd, but what they were witnessing was Oasis giving in to their most psychedelic tendencies.
