PART II.
On Sunday we recorded Don't Look Back In Anger. As Liam wasn't singing on this one, he headed straight for the pub. He came back at closing time with some people from Monmouth and into an argument (too mild a word - more war) with Noel about inviting them back. The next morning Noel had left. The band was over. The album dead. We all went home. Rockfield was booked for another five weeks, but there was no point in hanging around. Noel had spoken to Marcus and was going away for a while. No-one knew if he was coming back. We were all gutted. After a week I returned to Rockfield and started mixing what we had already, but there was no vibe. The mixes were shit. It was pointless.
Then we got the call; Noel was back, everbody got their shit together. All of the band turned up at the weekend, but we were still waiting for Noel; again he was late. This time though, he'd been stuck on the train under the River Severn for two hours. Just him and his acoustic. While waiting he wrote Cast No Shadow.
When he strolled in at dinner time Liam got up and hugged him. Everybody laughed. It was good to be back. That night we recorded Cast No Shadow. Liam recorded his vocal in one take, Noel stood beside him in the studio, stopping him and changing; the lyric as he went along. This was another great vocal from Liam (possibly my favourite on the album). Brian engineered part of the session. It was legendary stuff.
| Over the next few days we recorded Hey Now!, Morning Glory, Rocking Chair, Step Out and She's Electric. At the end of the week we put down Bonehead's Bank Holiday it was the funniest night of the whole session. Noel wanted Bonehead to sing it, and, obviously Bonehead was mad for it. But he needed a little Dutch courage so his mate Liam took him to the pub while we were recording the backing track. Poor old Bonehead was such a drunken bastard, he couldn't see the words let alone sing them.
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Liam (also plastered) insisted on staying in the studio to help his friend out. It was a total mess, twenty takes of drunken slobbering and joke telling. It was no surprise when Noel decided to sing it!
Recording Noel's guitars is far easier than I should probably admit to, considering I'm trying to get a reputation as a top international producer. After Guigs and Bonehead had put their rhythm parts down (Guigs doing a Fender Telecasler bass, usually after a couple of strong spliffs to calm his nerves, and Bonehead on his Epiphone through either his Marshall Bluesbreaker. (I rise the word "his" loosely, as from what I can tell, Bonehead doesn't own anything it all belongs to Noel), Noel would also put a basic rhythm part down (Noel playing open chords - he's a lazy bastard and can't be bothered moving his hand - and Bonehead only being allowed play bar chords). And then the fun would start. Noel worries constantly that he's not a "great" guitarist, that he can't play all the fiddley lines like John Squire. But he doesn't need to. You see, Noel plays parts that make a record, that make music. Like on Hello, before he got his hands on it, the track was fairly boring, but with two guitar overdubs he transformed it. The storming wah-wah part that brought the track to life, then the single Glam parts that added harmony and depth. This sort of inspiration happened throughout the recording. The freakiest thing was that unlike most guitarists who rely on "capturing the moment" and getting "in the vibe", Noel can just turn it on, stone-cold sober in the middle of the afternoon. He doesn't need to get off his head and wait for the magic to happen, he just does it. He can turn it on. It comes seemingly without him trying too hard. I'm reminded of something Neil Tenant said - the hardest thing to do is make it appear effortless, but That's Noel!
For most part of the recording, Noel would play most of his parts sat in the back of the control room, with leads going to various amps in the studio. Just sat there. Bothered. On stuff like Hey Now!, we'd be saying, let's just run the tape, see what happens, Noel would start fiddling about, and all these lines would start coming out. Most of my job involved getting him to play less, or organisie what he was doing. Most guitarists would kill to be able to do what he does. If Noel didn't write Oasis' songs and was just the lead guitarist, everybody would be saying how fucking amazing he is, because there's so much else about the man to take in, his playing gets overlooked.
Champagne Supernova was a good one to do. First we put the acoustics down, then a basic electric on all the big bits. Then Noel did two tracks of the bluesy picking stuff throughout the song. That stuff was beautiful. Then he got bored of sitting in the control room and went and sat next to his amps. That's when all the feedback started happening. We must have put down half a dozen tracks of him in there. If someone had said he was E'ing his tits off, you'd have believed them. Then he got his E-bow out and did all those beautiful harmonised lines. It was fucking amazing. What was even more incredible was that he took only about two hours for the whole lot.
During the fifth week, all we did was put a version of The Swamp Song down. But everybody wanted to fuck off and get home. It ended up about five times too fast. We ended up using the drums from the Glastonbury concert and overdubbing on them while we were mixing. This in itself was wild, because it was only Alan Whites second gig with Oasis (the first being a warm-up in Bath the night before) and it was the first song of the set. Alan's playing was immaculate.
In the sixth week, just Noel, Liam, Brian and myself were there. We did the odd guitar, Liam sang Champagne Supernova and we went down to the pub. Brian, funnily enough, was in the studio on Morning Glory for more days than anyone apart from me and Noel. Apparently he was doing "research" for the album cover. Sticking his head in the speakers and dancing on the mixing desk is closer to the mark. He saw the album out to the bitter end, in his pursuit for inspiration, and on the very last morning of mastering was still to be seen refusing to go home until he'd had the album on one last time.
The final bit of recording at Rockfield was Liam and Noel's backing vocals on Champagne Supernova. Liam had been itching to do some backing vocals now he'd finished all his lead stuff. We got totally Beatled up. And that was the end of Rockfield. So Oasis did Glastonbury and I had a week off. Then we went to Orinoco to finish off and mix. When we got there Paul Weller turned up to do his solo on Champagne Supernova and his bits on The Swamp Song. I just remember being in a mess when he and Noel were playing on that tune, as I'd been up all night with Brian. I think we'd been scaring Swedish tourists with our versions of Cigarettes and Alcohol and stuff like that, on a hotel piano. Weller didn't seem to care though- he just did a Cannon and stuck his head in the speakers. He was a wild man. Totally into what he was doing. I remember when he was doing backing vocals on Champagne Supernova, in a little vocal booth, freaking out playing air guitar while he was singing. What's it called? ...Soul? ...Passion? And then his harmonica playing on The Swamp Song he was outrageous.
| When they were both playing on The Swamp Song, Weller was one side of me, Noel the other, and Weller's giving it some, most of the time Noel was just looking at him, grinning his tits off, not bothering to play. Mixing with Oasis is pretty straightforward. I start at about midday, and get the track happening by early evening. Noel turns up. Makes some suggestions. We go for some food and drink. Put the fucker down by about midnight.
The greatest thing about Oasis records (apart from the songs and the singing, obviously) is that they sound like everybody's having a proper good time. I hate records that are so polished that all the life is taken out. Of course some of the greatest records ever made are produced to fuck. But these days so many producers seem to think that having the fanciest-sounding reverb, the most earwanking effects, anything really to cover up the fact they've got nothing to say and nothing to feel, means they're making top records. These people are missing the point. They can all fuck off. People know when something is real and they can smell bullshit a mile off. Oasis make real music, for real people to enjoy. And that's all it comes down to at the end of the day. I can't be arsed explaining the ins and outs of our mixing. I think I've said enough. So there we have it. We finished mixing by the end of July. Noel and I worked out the running order and (What's The Story) Morning Glory? was done. It was released on 2 October and my son, Robbie, was born on the third. It's a hell of a life.
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