Give It A Spin

That's Entertainment : Oasis

Sometimes, when I listen to tunes, I feel like I go in to a time vortex. Music, to me, is like my own personal time machine. So I am sat at Moorebank Public Library with the boys in the back, parking the car. We're listening to SWR FM 99.9 and on comes Oasis' Roll With It. I automatically raise the volume and start singing along. You know how it goes...

You got roll with it...you gotta take your time...you gotta say what you say...don't let anybody get in your way...'cause it's all too much for me to take.

Don't ever stand aside...don't ever be denied...you ought to be who you be...if you're coming with me...

It was only when I craned my neck to reverse park, I noticed both Alex and Zach sitting, eyes wide open, with the biggest WTF? looks on their faces. So I started singing to them and then they smiled. So here we are, sat in a car park in the middle of suburbia, with only the blue rinse set shuffling in to the community centre and I'm belting out an Oasis classic AND teaching my boys something very important.

Yes...Oasis are thieving magpies...but geez, they can write a tune and sing a song. Inside, I was on a little personal high, humming along to Roll With It, mentally going through the album (What's The Story) Morning Glory and recalling all the fantastic songs off the album. We borrowed our books, got back in the car, and lo and behold, they're playing another Oasis song and I'm singing along telling myself this is a sign.

Because back in 1995-97, I absolutely adored Oasis. Not really for the brash up yours they gave the press and their detractors. Or the stupid CHAV comments or the snot nose attitudes.

No, for me it was the music.

I fell in love with Whatever and before too long, they were dominating the charts and morning video shows with hit after hit after hit. Whack on (What's The Story) Morning Glory and it's a veritable best of. Work back to their debut effort Definitely Maybe and you'll find exactly the same. And I'm probably one of the very few people in the world who still reckon 1997's third album effort Be Here Now is a true classic. To help you prioritise, I've cut a line between the first two records and the rest.

And a funny anecdote I once saw from Noel Gallagher was that he written all THREE albums before they'd released anything, and just picked the best songs for album 1. Then for album 2, he picked the next best bunch. Come album 3, he used what was left over. He maintains, and scoffs, that the 3rd album is sheeeee...ite in any way...though he does agree that when they recorded the songs they were quaffing champagne and snorting coke like it was going out of style...meeting PM Tony Blair and blazing away the last days of Britpop.

And like my friends, Oasis come in and out of my life.

Come the new millennium, they released their 4th album, but I didn't dig it. Loved Go Let It Out but after that...meh.

I kind of felt sad then because I loved Oasis and here was thinking it was a bit....well...sheeeee...ite. As a sad completist, I still ended up buying import CD singles from HMV for the princely sums of $20 each, but I don't think I ever opened them.

Then in 2002, Lee and I were living in the UK and Oasis were releasing a new album. Every Underground station, every bus stop and every billboard that had been utilised for Abs (of 5ive) first solo album was suddenly plastered with Oasis adverts for Heathen Chemistry. Now the British have a thing for adoring their British bands, so I kind of took it with a grain of salt. But no. Oasis were back. The Hindu Times rocketed to #1 and it was everywhere. MASSIVE. And it was a true belter. Just an abso-fugging-lutely huge riff and gem of a song. They followed it up with Stop Crying Your Heart Out, and suddenly there was the 1-2 punch. They had another #2 hit with Little By Little / She Is Love double A-side and Songbird hit #3.

Anyway...it was my turn to take a break and I didn't really listen to much Oasis until 2008 when The Shock of the Lightning was released. O...M...G... Another blitz... a belter of magnificent proportions. There's a magic when Noel Gallagher riffs and brother Liam bastardises nasally vowels. Listening to the bombast now, my body just wants to move.

And of course, if you know anything about Oasis, the tempestuous fraternal relationship that spoiled a thousand promos, tours, gigs and band appearances finally fractured. In 2009, the Gallagher brothers went their separate ways. Oasis was done. And I reckon Noel will never go back.

It's been said that Oasis, especially Noel, stands accused of plagiarising the best of British music - the Beatles, The Kinks, Pink Floyd, The Jam, T-Rex, Slade, the Sex Pistols, David Bowie, the Small Faces, The Who, The Rolling Stones etc. I reckon he's influenced by them, like I am. And there is nothing wrong with that. He's taken the building blocks of British popular music and moulded them in his own fashion. No one gets in a fizzy tizz that Blur copied the Kinks, basically. And in a couple of decades, Oasis will be heralded as one of the GREATS. And I'm serious. The other thing is, when the other bands listed were at their peak, I wasn't alive to enjoy it. With Oasis, I was. For a brief period there...for many fans, there was this talented, exciting band that wowed the world with a swagger and a pretty song. Forget the gobfuls, the infighting, the petty media crap.

And that's why now, today, I can sit in my car, with my kids and hear the intro guitars, instinctively reach for the volume and whirl it high and sing along. Where ever great rock n roll is played and discussed, Oasis have to be on that list, warts and all. There are great bands, and then there are fooking brilliant bands, aye! That old tingle returns and it's like no time ever passed.

Rock N Roll Star

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aatEBIZHNU

Supersonic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJKpUH2kJQg

Shakermaker

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUoVQ-kB7DQ

Live Forever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qTPl5Do8mQ

Cigarettes & Alochol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJDK8X5K9mw

Slide Away

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ei6YQchGZg