All roads lead to Cardiff this Friday for the first show of the Oasis reunion tour. But way back in September 1994, the band played their very first Irish show at the Tivoli Theatre in Dublin . . .
We raided the RTÉ archives for this interview Alan Corr conducted with Noel Gallagher and Bonehead which took place just before that gig
"Have you heard the new Suede album? It's bloody Queen, it's pomp rock, it's full of eleven-minute guitar solos. It's rubbish."
It’s either very strange or it makes all the sense in the world. Noel Gallagher, guitarist and lyricist with Oasis, The Best New Band in Britain (1994), has just delivered a damning critique of Suede, The Best New Band In Britain (1992).
Because, as Stakka Bo might say, here we go again. Two years ago, it was Suede and this year it's Oasis. Right? Wrong. Britain hasn't had a band worth frothing about since the demise of The Smiths and, if they did, the media powers that be have either conspired to destroy them (Happy Mondays, Ride) or the bands themselves have self-destructed (The Stone Roses). And, oh yeah, does anyone remember The La's?
True they've only just released their debut album Definitely Maybe (Creation Records), but it sounds so good you can't but agree that Oasis are set to confound everybody by transcending the "scene"-orientated British music industry that's put paid to the careers of countless UK bands.
As Noel's younger brother Liam sings on Cigarettes and Alcohol, "is it my imagination or have I finally found something worth living for?"
"We might play our music to a load of nuns in Cork but we're not sellin' out, we're playing our music to people." - Bonehead of Oasis
Noel, like Liam, has eyebrows resembling two furry caterpillars halted in mid-samba across his forehead. He scowls under a baggy fringe (circa 1990) and joins Bonehead, aka Paul Arthurs, in a brief discussion about their Irish roots. "My grandparents are from Mayo," says Noel, sipping a fresh gin and tonic in Dublin’s Berkeley Court Hotel. "I come over 'ere to indulge my love of Tayto, Silvermints and No. 6 cigarettes."
Oasis' notoriety in the run-up to the release of Definitely Maybe has been based on four hit singles and more importantly, it seemed, their love of rock 'n' roll hi-jinks. They’ve started fights on ferries, they’ve trashed hotel rooms and, most lovable of all, Liam (22) and Noel (27) have turned sibling rivalry into an art form by beating each other up on a regular basis. Usually in front of the music press.
"All that stuff about us fighting all the time was alright," says Noel, his blackeye having receded, "until you get smacked in the face. You get a headache but all the girls give you love and sympathy."
Before Oasis, the last time we could get justifiably excited about British pop music was Madchester at the turn of the decade. Noel and Bonehead dismiss that era, praising only The Stone Roses. "The Stone Roses were good, The Happy Mondays were alright," shrugs Noel. "The rest of it was crap. The Stone Roses could have become a great band, if they'd only got out of the studio, The Happy Mondays were a good band, they were never a great band."
Noel would rather see Oasis' lineage stretching back to the Fab Four and, in particular, to John Lennon's special style of lyrical doggerel. The cover of Oasis’ most recent single, Live Forever, even goes so far as to feature a black and white photo of the house in Liverpool Lennon lived in with his Aunt Mimi.
"John Lennon is probably the biggest single influence on our songwriting," says Noel. "He was part of the greatest band in the world, ever, and he was probably the best single songwriter ever. It was him and McCartney, but Lennon wrote the best songs. I think the girls liked Paul McCartney and the boys liked John Lennon and, being boys, John Lennon is king.
"I don't know if Our Kid is gonna become a raving Kurt Cobain smack head. Anything could happen, I could walk out tonight and get splattered across the road by a bus. And that's the beauty of it, you can't predict what's gonna happen" - Noel Gallagher
"That fantasy of standing on stage playing guitars is part of our make-up and again it goes back to The Beatles," continues Noel. "That was my first vision of a band and it's the same for a lot of people. There is something inspiring about a load of young guys playing music in a band, whereas a lot of young girls doing it doesn’t have a lot of appeal. You get a lot of girl bands but they don't have male groupies."
What would you say if The Rolling Stones asked you to support them? "We'd say bloody hell, yeah!" says Bonehead. "You've gotta be ambitious if you're in a band. If a band like The Rolling Stones, who are gonna play in front of two million people on a tour, offers you a support slot you don't say no.
"You've gotta do the best for yourself. Supporting the Stones wouldn't be selling out, selling out is signing to a big record company who start telling you what to do. We might play our music to a load of nuns in Cork but we're not sellin' out, we're playing our music to people."
Oasis are trying to re-create the idea that rock 'n' roll is fun, that it has little to do with the doom-laden lyrics of Suede's Brett Anderson.
"The Manic Street Preachers are dour intellectuals and nobody knows what the bloody hell they're on about," says Bonehead. "As for Brett Anderson, going on about meeting you under a nuclear sky and all that crap! Our answer to that is all you need is cigarettes and alcohol."
Bonehead and Noel care little about the fate of their fellow British bands - the Suedes, Stone Roses and Primal Screams - who deliver classic albums and then let something go horribly wrong, whether it's a guitarist leaving or winning The Mercury Music Prize.
"I'm sure if you asked those bands who were in our position back then what they thought of that, they'd say . . . well, I don't know what they'd say but I'll say now. I don't know. I don't know if Bonehead's gonna leave, I don't know if Our Kid is gonna become a raving Kurt Cobain smack head.
"Anything could happen, I could walk out tonight and get splattered across the road by a bus. And that's the beauty of it, you can't predict what's gonna happen. People ask us are we gonna be around in five years; are we gonna make a second album. Wait and see, we don't know."
Best new band in Britain? It’s too early to tell but barring ODs, musical differences and errant double-decker buses, there’s something about these Manchester rogues that should see them enjoy a long and brilliant recording career. Déjà vu has never sounded better.
Oasis play Croke Park, Dublin on 16 and 17 of August
