The Oasis song that makes Bonehead weep: “I’m crying now”
For all the swagger and snarling stardom, you also suspect that there were a lot of snotty tears during the trials of Oasis‘ golden run.
The band achieved the rags-to-riches victory run that every 13-year-old kid with a guitar dreams of, but they did it in a manner that gives every 33-year-old a panic attack by proxy of putting yourself in their shoes, a very stressed-out and sleep-deprived pair of espadrilles.
In some ways, you suspect that Bonehead caught the brunt of that. The guitarist was the glue, the mediator, and the everyman in the ranks of the freewheeling band. The sights he has seen could surely keep a psychologist busy for the next billion years. As he said regarding his first departure from the band, “I just thought ‘This isn’t fun, no one is smiling, they’re not laughing.’ You can forget why you got into this and why you joined a band and why you picked up a guitar in the first place.”
However, along the way, he would also be reminded of exactly what guitar music was capable of for a young kid from Burnage. The reason that the band rose to such rapid success, and now a legion of followers are set to spend an average of £766 attending the reunion shows, is because they hit upon a sense of profound working-class transcendence. They could make young lads weep at a house party where usually only brawling and the odd microwave theft would unfurl.
Bonehead got to witness some of these tear-jerking songs spring to life first-hand, and he jokes that his star sign preconditioned him to be the first one heading towards the Kleenex. Of all the songs and all the moments that stirred him towards such a solemn disposition, one stands out in particular. ”Champagne Supernova. What a song,” he commented on social media.
The first time he ever heard Noel Gallagher perform it was a moment that he will never forget, as he continues, ”Liam sings it live now with just his voice and piano and it’s majestic. Noel first played us this on the back lounge of the tour bus in the USA on acoustic. I cried. Again.”
Even thinking about it can gloss the cheeks once more, as he comically added, ”I’m crying now. Pure stress.” Perhaps the stress part is tied to a form of PTSD flashback that pairs the catharsis of the searing song with a sense of danger thanks to the heady times that spawned it. Either way, at a wedding, birthday party or even the occasional shower, we can all relate to Bonehand’s response.
The final recording of the song would go on to feature Paul Weller on guitar. This fateful addition imbued the track with a sense of rock ‘n’ roll’s history. Even the name itself comes from a misheard Pixies lyric. Somewhere in amongst these mystic ties is the sense that the song perfectly captures guitar music’s capacity to offer transcendence—to lift us from the mire and places us on a lofty cloud, sipping champagne with the stars for company.
So, it’s little wonder that when Noel Gallagher debuted it on the back of a tour bus, it made Bonehead weep. It has since gone on to make the band a few million, too, so that’s another reason why the warring bandmates may well have shed a tear.
