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Oasis eviscerated

Joe Hutch said:
ISTR Martin Carr of The Boo Radleys being miffed at being lumped in as part of Britpop. Sadly, the group went into auto-destruct mode, possibly partly as a result. Here's an ancient BBC report shortly after the split:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4134418.stm

"I tried to have nothing to do with what was being called Britpop. Our whole career was spent trying not to 'fit in'. We just carried on doing what we had been doing.

"I didn't like most of the new bands or the flag-waving. I didn't like New Labour or idolise Paul Weller and I hated media-generated movements within music."
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"It was a bunch of songs that I had written that we recorded; it only seems inaccessible because everyone had given up and started listening to dreary pub rock records. Some things haven't changed."

Rather apt
 
The whole period running up to Oasis in Manchester was appalling to me - living there in central Manchester as I did. The gun totting and shootings in the North were getting serious and the crime (robbing and drugs) was obvious, even in the Factory owned bar next to Aflecks Palace, I can't remember what they called it. Also the knifings at Maine Road, the nurses were very fearful of home games. It was seriously intimidating, violent and not to be glorified in any way, which is what the Gallagher brothers did. It was a kind of white supremacy but wasn't expressed in those terms then. Scummers.
 
Joe Hutch said:
ISTR Martin Carr of The Boo Radleys being miffed at being lumped in as part of Britpop. Sadly, the group went into auto-destruct mode, possibly partly as a result.
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The mistake he made was putting a ridiculously radio-friendly album out at exactly that time (Wake Up!)! IMHO it’s their weakest, but it catapulted them right into the midst of it. They were always in a different league IMO (I knew Martin quite well early on in their career and the Boos really didn’t fit in that whole Brit Pop/lads mag scene at all).
 
Bit of a Slade tribute band, I preferred Blur, Suede and The Verve to be honest.

I do have a couple of original Oasis albums on Vinyl though that are worth a pretty penny, so I won't slag them off too hard as they may make me some money one day.
 
Def team Blur not team Oasis; I love me a bit of Blur, bit of a fanboi back in the day, still have a listen although some is a bit cringy today. Loved the tunes and lyrics even if the mockney got a bit wearing.

Oasis did have some great singalong tunes, Wonderwall stands well as do a few others but sooooooo derivative , all about the swagger and attitude which captured a moment in time. Not my style mate... (nicked from "that" Audi advert).
 
gavreid said:
The gun totting and shootings in the North were getting serious and the crime (robbing and drugs) was obvious, even in the Factory owned bar next to Aflecks Palace, I can't remember what they called it.
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The bar was called Dry. I went there a fair few times. There was a similar rise in gang culture in Liverpool too, and I’m sure everywhere else. This crap has always existed, it is always there, but I suspect the E and cocaine thing of that timeframe was just so huge it spilled right over into public view in ways it usually doesn’t. Many very dodgy people were making simply insane amounts of money fuelling the club drug culture and it all went over to Brit Pop etc too. I was close enough to it (I knew some folk who ran club nights etc) to overhear some of the stories of threats and intimidation. It was basically a protection racket in clubs and late-night bars, one the owners were powerless to resist as, well… guns.

PS This is a key reason I believe in legalisation of drugs. It would just remove the whole gang culture, violence and intimidation, and move a multi-£bn industry into taxation where it could pay for the damage it causes. Drug use is absolutely rife in the UK. It absolutely stinks of skunk etc everywhere around here, you can’t walk down the street without smelling it, and pill & smack use is widespread too. Anyone who wants it can clearly buy it right now, so that is no counter argument to legalisation IMO. We likely can’t change the basic demand, that is just human nature, but we can control the supply and defund the violence.
 
Joe Hutch said:
ISTR Martin Carr of The Boo Radleys being miffed at being lumped in as part of Britpop. Sadly, the group went into auto-destruct mode, possibly partly as a result. Here's an ancient BBC report shortly after the split:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4134418.stm

"I tried to have nothing to do with what was being called Britpop. Our whole career was spent trying not to 'fit in'. We just carried on doing what we had been doing.

"I didn't like most of the new bands or the flag-waving. I didn't like New Labour or idolise Paul Weller and I hated media-generated movements within music."
Click to expand...

I love Martin. Proper musician. The Boos were by some distance the best thing about 90s guitar pop.
 
I was at The Hac on the helicopter night:
https://books.google.com/books/about/Gang_War.html?id=mUflCwAAQBAJ
It was a great shame as it was ruined by the gangs, but for a short while it was THE club. We moved on to Space Funk but that was quickly attacked as well.
Fortunately by the time the Electric Chair took off things had moved on and the scene was back underground...for us dancing in Manchester clubs did not begin nor end at the Hacienda.
 
I was obsessed with Giant Steps for a couple of years after it came out - the minidisc I taped it onto rarely left my rucksack.

I don't think I've heard it in 20 years but this thread had made me curious to hear it again.
 
Seeker_UK said:
"Barney and Me" was a top single but never found anything else by them to my liking.
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I view Everything’s Alright Forever and Giant Steps as superb whole albums. I’m actually amazed/shocked/in awe by Giant Steps as I’d all but given up on guitar/rock music by the time it came out so only really discovered it a lot later. I’d lost all contact with them by then as they were playing huge festivals all over the place, touring America etc. Giant Steps really is a monumental piece of work, a remarkably ‘whole’ album that needs every part, has everything in exactly the right place, and most significantly it stands up now and still sounds fresh and innovative. I did see them once around that time and it was great, but it wasn’t until many years later I really got to understand what they had made (I was at pretty much all of the early Ichabod & I-era and before gigs, we were on each other’s guest lists etc).
 
I gave away at least 4 copies of Giant Steps to friends when it came out. None of us were much into white boy guitar indie by that time, but it was such a special record it needed proselytising for. It worked too, it's still a favourite record for all of those people. Wake Up and C'mon Kids likewise.
 
Must admit I like Oasis, at least the first two albums. The music is good. The personalities of the musicians are not really relevant when I listen to music.
 
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