The Oasis song that took seven years to record
During the 1990s, Noel Gallagher was a one-man hit machine whose songs propelled Oasis from dingy clubs to plush, sold-out arenas. Even before they’d released a note of music, Gallagher was already building up an impressive catalogue of music, which years later would finally be released and soundtrack the youth of a generation.
Following the monumental success of Oasis’ debut album, Definitely Maybe, Gallagher’s life changed in an instant. Suddenly, his band had become a household name. He could afford everything imaginable in his wildest dreams, which years earlier he’d manifested when writing ‘Going Nowhere’.
Although the track appeared on their 1997 compilation, The Masterplan, which consisted of B-sides and previously unheard songs, it was penned by Gallagher many years prior. At the time, he had recently formed Oasis after finishing touring the world as a guitar technician for Inspiral Carpets rather than the person gracing the stage.
Being so close to the action, yet so far, only further fuelled Gallagher’s desire to make it with his songwriting, but it still seemed out of reach. While the Oasis phenomenon seemed somewhat of an overnight success, many years of unseen dedication went beyond the scenes that put the building blocks in place for their mainstream unveiling.
By the time ‘Going Nowhere’ was officially released in 1997, Oasis had played two sold-out dates at Knebworth, with millions more attempting to buy tickets, and had become an era-defining act. However, the track was written before Gallagher had a penny to his name, and it paints a portrait of his pre-fame life.
On the track, he sings his future into existence: “I’m gonna get me a motor car, maybe a Jaguar, maybe a plane or a day of fame, I’m gonna be a millionaire so, can you take me there? Wanna be wild cos my life’s so tame.”
Reflecting on ‘Going Nowhere’ upon release of The Masterplan in 1997, Gallagher said: “That was written before we had a record deal. It’s about what we were going to do when we got all the money. But we didn’t record it until 1997. I don’t know why we never done that one. I like it, I like the fact that we just finished the album and there were million guitar tracks on the album.”
Elaborating on the recording process, which commenced over half a decade after the completion of the lyrics, Gallagher said: “There was only me and Whitey present at the time because everybody was just having a hard day or just had enough really. So I just went in there with Whitey and done it on an afternoon. The song’s really old, probably from 1990. That one was pretty spontaneous, we just got everyone down there and sort of done it.”
There’s a poetic beauty to the story of ‘Going Nowhere’ and how Gallagher had gone on to achieve the ambitions for the future he laid out in the song.
Despite still not having a driver’s license, he couldn’t resist treating himself to buy a vintage Jaguar Mark II in 1997, just like he previously fantasised about. While the lavish purchase didn’t inspire him to learn to drive, Gallagher kept the vehicle for 25 years and notably used it as a prop in the video for the Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds song ‘Flying On The Ground’.
