1 Early years and breakthrough ( Definitely Maybe)

Oasis line-up 1991-1995 - left to right McCaroll, Noel, Guigsey, Liam, Bonehead

The band "The Rain" was originally formed by friends Chris Hutton (vocals), Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs (guitar) Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan (bass) and Tony McCaroll (drums). When Hutton left the band he was replced by Guigsy's school friend Liam Gallagher, who changed the bands name to "Oasis", having seen it on an Inspiral Carpets poster. The band played their first gig on Saturday 18 August, 1991, at the Boardwalk club in Manchester. Noel Gallagher, who had recently returned from touring America as a guitar technicion for the Inspiral Carpets, came to watch his younger brother play, but he wasn't impressed by their songs. The following Sunday, Noel joined the band under the condition that he would provide all of the band's material.

After a couple of years of playing to small club gigs Oasis was signed up to Creation Records by producer Alan McGee in 1993. Following a limited white label release of the song "Columbia", the band released its first proper singles, "Supersonic" and "Shakermaker," in the spring of 1994. Both became top 40 hits in the United Kingdom and attracted much attention.

Later that year the breakthrough came with the single "Live Forever," which was a major hit in Britain. It reached the top 10 and spent a year on the chart. Soon after, Oasis released its first album, Definitely Maybe, which became the biggest selling debut album in British history, entering the charts at number one. It later became a major hit throughout the world, with Oasis gaining recognition in the United States.

2 Britpop and the height of fame

Oasis' base: Brothers Liam and NoelIn 1995 Oasis released its second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory, which became a worldwide success. In Britain, it became the fastest selling-album since Michael Jackson's Bad. Prior to the recording of the album, original drummer Tony McCaroll had left the band, and was replaced by Alan White (McCaroll only drums on one song on the album, Some Might Say). The album also made the members of Oasis international stars. However, the stormy relationship between the Gallagher brothers became the subject of newspaper gossip columns and tabloids.

The media also steadily built up a rivalry between Oasis and fellow " Britpop" luminaries Blur. Though the rivalry was mostly fictional (although Noel took exception), it did no harm in raising the profile of both bands. In August 1995, Blur and Oasis released the first single from each of their new albums on the same day. Perhaps because it was more aggressively priced (99p vs £1.99), Blur's Country House won the day over Roll with It 274,000 copies to 216,000. In the long run, however, What's the Story (Morning Glory) hugely outsold Blur's album ( The Great Escape) and has come to epitomise the Britpop era. The album spawned three other hit singles "Some Might Say," "Wonderwall," and "Don't Look Back in Anger," all of which reached either #1 or #2 in the British charts.

Now at the zenith of their popularity, Oasis performed back-to-back concerts at Knebworth Park on the 10th and 11th August 1996. Sell-out crowds on both days, totalling 250,000 people, ensured that the concert was the largest in British history at that time ( Robbie Williams sold out three consecutive nights at the same venue in 2003 to break the record). The concert, supported by The Prodigy, the Chemical Brothers and the Manic Street Preachers amongst others, was voted the third "greatest gig" of all time by readers of Q magazine in 2004, behind Radiohead's appearance at Glastonbury in 1997 and Nirvana's visit to the Reading Festival in 1992.

Oasis released its third album Be Here Now, launched by the hit single "D'You Know What I Mean". It shattered sales records in U.K. and nearly topped in U.S. charts, making the band one of the biggest of their time.

However, a backlash set in, with some critics and record byers labelling the music "bloated", "derivative" and "samey." In fact the druggy feel about it is well-grounded - the band used a lot of cocaine while recording it. The record sold quite well, but not as remarkably as their previous efforts. Not long after their album was released, typical row dissolved the band's tour and the group kept a low profile for a couple of years, though a compilation of B-sides, The Masterplan, was released in autumn 1998. The album was voted for by fans on the internet, choosing from an extencive range of B-sides.

3 Later years

Oasis' line-up from 1999 to 2004 (left to right) Whitey, Liam, Andy, Archer and Noel. Since the begining of 2004, Alan White is sacked.After the tour, Oasis again dropped out of the limelight for a couple of years. The only way the band gived evidence of itself was through the on-going rows, fistfights, cocaine abuse and constant attendance at the gossip columns. In 1999 Tony McCaroll returned briefly to spotlight. He sued the band, claiming rights on some of the songs he drummed during Definitely Maybe-era. McCaroll received half a million pounds of the sales from The Masterplan.

While Oasis was recording its fourth album in 1999, guitarist Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs, and bass player Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan left the band. They were replaced by two new members, respectively Andy Bell (formerly of Ride) and Gem Archer (formerly of Heavy Stereo ). With the demise of Creation as an independent entity, Oasis formed their own label, Big Brother, within the Sony group, to release their records in the UK. Oasis's fourth album, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, was released in 2000 to poor reviews. After that the band embarked on a tour. In Barcelona they were forced to cancel a gig, because the hand of their drummer Alan White seized up. Instead, the band spent the whole night drinking. While being heavily drunk, Liam made a comment about Noel's then-wife Meg Mathews. This caused a row, which resultied in Noel announcing he was quitting overseas touring. For two months the band was forced to count on the solo-guitarist Matt Deighton to complete the tour. Noel returned for the British leg of the tour, which culminated in a massive Wembley show. They released an album of songs performed throughout these gigs, called Familiar to Millions. Meanwhile a series of three broken marriages followed for Noel, Alan White and Liam.

Their fifth album Heathen Chemistry, was released in 2002. It was more positively receieved and showed bigger democracy in the band. Not only Liam Gallagher had developed himself as a songwriter with three songs, but also Gem and Andy assisted the brothers with a couple of songs. After the album was released the band embarked on a tour during which Liam and Alan White were arrested in Munich involved in a row with the police in a local club. Apparently, Liam was high on cocaine.

In January of 2004, Alan White left the band on request from the other members, the reasons for this still unclear. In June, Oasis headlined Glastonbury for the second time in their career. In September of 2004, the band released a DVD, titled Definitely Maybe - The DVD to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Oasis' debut album, Definitely Maybe. The DVD contains the original album, 4 hours of band-footage and a documentary about the band.

The recording process for their sixth album was much endured. It was supposed to be released September 2004. The band started recording on December last year, but with the departure of Alan White, these sessions were scrapped. Then they worked with the famous duo Death in Vegas, but because of Richard Fearless and Tim Holmes other commitements, that was also abandoned. After their unsatisfactory performing at Glastonbury 2004, (first where their new drummer Zak Starkey took part), the band had scrapped everything and stated that they are begining from "the scratch". Currently, they are at Los Angeles and Noel stated that the deadline for Oasis' new album is May 2005 and added also that that there are about 60 tunes, most of which are written by Liam, a few of Andy and Gem, and only 13 by himself. However the album will consist of "only" 10 tracks. It was also planned that the band would release two seperate records for 2004 and 2005.

4 Discography

4.1 Albums

• Definitely Maybe - ( August 30 1994, #1 UK, #58 US)
• (What's the Story) Morning Glory - ( October 2 1995, #1 UK, #4 US)
• Be Here Now - ( August 21 1997 [UK], August 28 1997 [Worldwide], #1 UK, #2 US)
• The Masterplan - (b-sides collection)( November 2 1998, #2 UK, #51 US)
• Standing on the Shoulder of Giants - ( February 28 2000, #1 UK, #24 US)
• Familiar to Millions - ( November 13 2000, #5 UK, #182 US)
• Heathen Chemistry - ( July 1 2002, #1 UK, #23 US)

4.2 Singles

• "Supersonic" - ( April 11 1994, #31 UK)
• "Shakermaker" - ( June 13 1994, #11 UK)
• "Live Forever" - ( August 8 1994, #10 UK)
• "Cigarettes & Alcohol" - ( October 10 1994, #7 UK)
• "Whatever" - ( December 8 1994, #3 UK)
• "Some Might Say" - ( April 24 1995, #1 UK)
• "Roll With It" - ( August 14 1995, #2 UK)
• " Wonderwall" ( October 30 1995, #2 UK, #8 US)
• "Don't Look Back in Anger" - ( February 19 1996, #1 UK, #55 US)
• "D'You Know What I Mean" - ( July 7 1997, #1 UK)
• "Stand By Me" - ( September 22 1997, #2 UK)
• "All Around the World" - ( January 12 1998, #1 UK)
• Don't Go Away ( Japan only) - ( February 19 1998)
• "Go Let it Out" - ( February 7 2000, #1 UK)
• "Who Feels Love?" - ( April 17 2000, #4 UK)
• "Sunday Morning Call" - ( July 3 2000, #4 UK)
• "The Hindu Times" - ( April 15 2002, #1 UK)
• "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" - ( June 17 2002, #2 UK)
• "Little by Little" / "She is Love" - ( September 23 2002, #2 UK)
• "Songbird" - ( February 3 2003, #3 UK)

4.3 Videos

• Live By The Sea - ( August 31 1995)
• ...There And Then - ( October 14 1996)
• Familiar To Millions - ( November 13 2000)
• Definitely Maybe - The DVD - ( September 7 2004)

5 Band Members Over the Years

Early years and breakthrough ( 1991- 1994) / Definitely Maybe:

• Liam Gallagher - Vocals
• Noel Gallagher - Lead Guitar
• Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs - Rhythm Guitar
• Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan - Bass
• Tony McCaroll - Drums

Britpop and the height of fame ( 1995- 1998) / (What's the Story) Morning Glory - the Masterplan:

• Liam Gallagher - Vocals
• Noel Gallagher - Lead Guitar
• Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs - Rhythm Guitar
• Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan - Bass (replaced briefly by Scott McLeod during 1995)
• Alan White - replaced Tony McCaroll, 1994

Later years ( 1999 - present) / Standing on the Shoulder of Giants - Heathen Chemistry:

• Liam Gallagher - Vocals
• Noel Gallagher - Lead Guitar
• Gem Archer - replaced Arthurs on Rhythm Guitar, 1999
• Andy Bell - replaced McGuigan on Bass, 1999
• Alan White - Drums

As of 2004, recording their next album:

• Liam Gallagher - Vocals
• Noel Gallagher - Lead Guitar
• Gem Archer - Rhythm Guitar
• Andy Bell - Bass
• Zak Starkey - replaced White, 2004 (Starkey has not been confirmed as a permanent drummer)

6 External Links

• Oasis - official website.
• Oasis - oasis fansite.
• Oasis - oasis fansite.
• Live4ever- fansite
• Madferit - oasis fansite

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