Here are five best-loved classics from the bad boys of 1990s Britpop, Oasis, who make their long-awaited comeback with a reunion tour kicking off in Cardiff on Friday - and coming to Dublin on 16 and 17 August.
'We're here for Silvermints and No 6 cigarettes': Oasis hit Dublin in 1994
Supersonic (1994)
The first Oasis single released was from their inaugural album Definitely Maybe and penned, as with most of their songs, by Noel Gallagher.
It features brother Liam's distinctive singing style: holding and drawing out a syllable, with a touch of his Manchester accent coming through.
In a Vogue interview in 2019, Liam Gallagher named Supersonic as the song he liked best from the band's repertoire, and it contained his all-time favourite lyrics: "I need to be myself/I can't be no one else/I'm feeling supersonic, give me gin and tonic."
Live Forever (1994)
The Manchester band's breakthrough hit came with their third single, which was their first to reach the top 10 in the UK charts.
The single cover was a photo of Beatles legend John Lennon's childhood home - the band Oasis often compared themselves to and would be compared to by press and fans alike.
"It was the tune that changed everything," Noel Gallagher recalled in an interview in 2009.
The upbeat track, with lyrics such as "I just wanna fly" and "I don't wanna die", was written partly in reaction to the negative message of grunge. In particular, Nirvana's song I Hate Myself and I Want to Die irked the young songwriter Noel.
"Kids don't need to hear that nonsense," he later said.
Cigarettes & Alcohol (1994)
Back in 1994, with 'Cigarettes & Alcohol' set for release, the @BBC sent @ZoeTheBall to interview a shy seeming duo named Liam & Noel for The O-Zone.
— BBC Radio 6 Music (@BBC6Music) August 29, 2019
This is apparently Oasis’ first ever TV interview for the BBC. Found via @BBCArchive. #DefMaybe25 pic.twitter.com/8aN5raYUwh
But life-affirming optimism was not exactly a running Oasis theme, already clear from their next single and now one of their all-time classics.
In their concerts, it is the most performed of all their songs, featuring 645 times according to the programmes of 837 concerts published by setlist.fm, analysed by AFP.
The track captured the band's image as bad boys, a reputation that would solidify over the next decade until their break-up in 2009.
It included lines such as: "You could wait for a lifetime/To spend your days in the sunshine/You might as well do the white line."
Questioned about the example the song might be setting for young fans, the brothers said it was not about glorifying bad behaviour.
"It's a feeling you get when you are on the dole and you've got no money, maybe to escape from your surroundings, that all you have is cigarettes and alcohol," said Noel Gallagher to Zoe Ball on The O Zone in 1994.
Wonderwall (1995 - seen here on The Late Late Show in March 1996)
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
"And after all/You're my wonderwall" - the refrain is so familiar even non-fans are likely able to belt out.
The song was taken from their second of seven studio albums, and by far the band's most successful: (What's the Story) Morning Glory? shifted over 20 million copies globally.
A 1960s film with the same title, and featuring music by Beatles member George Harrison, had been an inspiration for the contemplative song, which includes prominent mellotron that sounds like a cello.
Looking back, the Gallaghers struggled to understand the huge success of the track - or, it seems, to like it.
"Every time I have to sing it, I want to gag," Liam Gallagher told MTV in 2008, according to The Guardian.
But, in 2012, he did reprise it for the Olympics closing ceremony in London, performing without Noel.
Don't Look Back in Anger (1996)
One of the rare tracks with Noel on lead vocals, this pensive song is the second most featured in 837 concerts.
It came out towards the end of Oasis's heady mid-1990s when they were at the peak of their fame.
As a mark of their status in British culture extending well beyond the music scene, when recently elected Prime Minister Tony Blair entered Downing Street in 1997 the fresh-faced leader invited the band for celebratory drinks. Noel Gallagher was captured in a now-famous image with Blair, both sipping a glass of wine.
"I was 30, off me head on drugs, and everyone telling me we were the greatest band since who knows," Noel Gallagher said to Spin magazine in 2008 about that time.
The place of Don't Look Back in Anger in the public consciousness was clear in 2017 following the bomb attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester that killed 22 people.
A grieving crowd spontaneously sang the song's now-poignant lyrics after a minute's silence in the city centre for the victims, days after the tragedy.
Source: AFP
