PART I.
Oasis is by far the best band I've ever recorded... or ever will record. A year ago Noel and I were in Orinoco Studios in south London, mixing their second album. As of today it's sold nearly 10 mio. copies worldwide. It's insane. It's changed all our lives. I was giving up working in the music business until oasis came along. Work had become a chore: boring and unfulfilling. they made it exciting again, worthwhile, fun. The first week I recorded all the band was one of the most outrageous weeks of my life, I'll never forget it. I'd recorded Noel and Liam individually when we were finishing Definitely Maybe, but this was something else. We were recording their next single Whatever. I had just come out of five years working for the same person and felt so free, buzzing again. I met the band head on. It was fantastic. The stuff that happened that week should've been filmed. It was the first time I'd seen Bonehead in full flow... what a superstar. And the song we were recording, "I'm free to be whatever..." fuck sake, we also recorded "Listen Up" and I was the happiest man on the planet. Oasis changed my life.
Recording Oasis is easy. You stick some microphones in the room and they perform, not always the same tune, or with the same timing, but they always perform. At the start of the session, my thoughts were something along the lines of: Don't fuck it up! Noel brings all these songs, 90% of the time the arrangements are spot-on, the songs work, the melodys are superb, the words are cool. Liam can sing his arse off. All we have to do is get stuff down on tape that's not wrong and we've won. Don't fuck it up. You're a dickhead if you fuck it up!
The strangest thing happened the night before we started. I live in a village called Crickhowell, in Wales. My wife Penny, and I had lived here about six months and were still settling in, getting to know people. At about six o'clock our next door neighbour, Liz, called round and suggested going up to the pub for a drink and some food, as she had an old friend of hers staying for the weekend. So we went up the pub, and in walks her friend with her boyfriend, who was also staying next door for the weekend. I'd never met this bloke before in my life, although funnily enough I'd heard quite a bit about him. It was Alan McGee. Yep, that one. I took this to be a good omen.
One hangover later, Oasis and myself and Jason Rhodes and Roger Newell turn up at Rockfield studios to start recording. Well most of us show up... Noel's missing - apparently he'd been up all night and was still partying somewhere in London. So we start setting up the drums and backline. Oh yeah, this was Alan White's first day recording with the band - should be interesting. Met him in rehearsals the week before. Seemed like a nice bloke, even if he does blink a lot. Not a bad drummer too, although what an ancient kit he seems to play... something out of the dark ages. He likes it though, and the group were buzzing their tits off from actually playing with someone who knows more than two beats and can string a sentence together.
So we get set up. Alan in one room, Noel, Bonehead and Guigs in different booths (Noel's still not here at this point, so Jason's standing in) and Liam's mic smack in the middle. All the sounds seem to be okay all we're missing is The Chief.
| At about three o'clock he bundles in, Jack Daniels in hand, note up nostril. Shouts the odds for ten minutes and passes out. A star performance. At about five o'clock he comes round. The football's on at six so we decide to have a run through of Roll With It, to sort out headphone levels/sounds etc. The band run through. It's mayhem. Nobody can hear themselves, Liam's effing and blinding, Noel's swaying, Alan's wondering what the fuck he's let himself in for. We do another two or three takes before sacking it. Football's on anyway. By now Noel's sobered up enough to realise where he is, so he corners Alan and they do a few takes without the rest of the band before fucking off. These takes weren't good, but maybe they could be edited together. So I sit there for a while, listening back to these takes. It's not looking good.
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Just for a laugh, before I go and tell them we'll have to go again, I have a quick listen to the first run-through, just the drums and Noel's guitar (whatever we're doing, when Oasis play, we record everything)... "Fuck me, we've got it". Alan is superb. We're rocking. The session has started.
By the end of that night we've recorded Guigs, Bonehead and most of Noel's guitars. Liam sang it the next afternoon, in three takes. He was on fire. Totally charged up by Alan's performance. Most singers will do loads of takes before getting enough good bits to compile a complete vocal, some go into hundreds. Liam wasn't having any of that. Apart from, Champagne Supernova which he tried when his voice was shot, Liam never did more than three takes on the entire album.
He was singing his heart and soul out. Liam Gallagher is by fucking miles the must passionate singer I've ever known. Liam doesn't need to practise: Liam just lives.
After we've finished Roll With It (Tuesday evening), we start Hello. Noel and I discuss how we are going to proceed, and talk about how T-Rex used to record. Basically Marc Bolan would put a guide acoustic guitar part down by himself, to a click track, then the drummer would do his bit, bass on top and so on. After yesterday's experience (and endless tormented hours recording with Tony McCarroll) we decide it sounds like a good technique. So Noel bungs his acoustic down and a guide vocal.
Alan blows us away. He doesn't even listen to the click track, just Noel's guitar and voice. What astounds me even further is that when Noel and I wanted to change a few bits (like the odd fill or whatever) we could drop him in and out (go in and out of record) and the joins were seamless. This may sound boring, but I've never been able to do that with drummers before. Most drummers, on different run-throughs will hit things slightly differently and the end result will sound like crap. Not Alan. We were well chuffed. Hello' was finished by the same time the next day.
Tuesday night, after everyone else had fucked off, Noel played me a new song of his, a song called Wonderwall! We started recording the song the next day. Having got the drums down, Noel decided to play bass on this one, coz it was quicker than teaching Guigs what he had in his head. While he was playing, Liam strolls in from he pub, and kicks off. Something along the lines of "What the fuck do you think you're doing, dickhead? Oasis aren't a funk hand etc..." The session fell apart.
Now I have to be honest and say I kind of agreed with Liam; I thought Noel's bassline was too fussy. The next day I tried with Guigs a simpler line. Noel heard it and said he couldn't hear much difference, so sack Guigs's and keep his.
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As ever the Chief was right. Even Liam thought so. Strange character Noel Gallagher. He's always right. But then, so is Liam. It's probably why they argue so much.
Finishing Wonderwall was fun. Liam's vocal was his best yet. Rasping blues. He sounded like he'd smoked a hundred cigarettes. Noel was blown away. Originally he'd wanted to sing Wonderwall and Liam to sing Don't Look Back In Anger, but when Liam heard Wonderwall he insisted on singing it. O.K said Noel, as long as he realised he then couldn't sing Don't Look Back In Anger. Liam wasn't happy but got used to the idea. What the fuck.
Champagne Supernova was started on Thursday evening. On Friday Liam tried singing it, but the three other vocals had taken their toll. So we left it and took the rest of the night off. Brian Cannon had arrived the night before, so tonight was party night. At midnight it was my twenty-seventh birthday and I was rocking. I've got a tape that was recorded that night of Noel singing us his songs for the next album. Fucking hell. Stand By Me, Don't Go Away and All Around The World. We were buzzing. At about five o'clock, just Brian, Noel and myself were still up. I gave in at about ten o'clock. Noel and Brian didn't go to bed. We did a "fuck all work" on Saturday.
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