Oasis (band): Difference between revisions

Oasis are a rock band originally formed in Manchester, England. The band is led by brothers Noel Gallagher (principal songwriting, lead guitar, and occasional vocalist) and the younger Liam Gallagher (lead vocals and songwriting), who are the only remaining original band members. The line-up is completed by Gem Archer (rhythm/lead guitar, keyboards and songwriting), Andy Bell (bass guitar, lead guitar, keyboards and songwriting) and Zak Starkey - the son of Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr - on drums and percussion, whose official membership in the band is yet to be announced.

Musically and lyrically, they cite bands from the British Invasion such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Kinks amongst their influences as well as 1970s glam rock music, such as Slade and T. Rex. They also cite The Sex Pistols, The La's, The Stone Roses, and The Smiths as key influences.

Thanks to the success of their critically acclaimed debut album Definitely Maybe and its 19 million selling follow-up, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?; coupled with a supposed rivalry with contemporary band Blur, Oasis became one of the most successful and prominent British bands of the mid-90s and one of the leaders of the Britpop movement. The Gallagher brothers featured regularly in tabloid newspaper stories, and cultivated a reputation as both bad boys and the band of the people. At the height of their fame, their 1997 third album Be Here Now reached #1 in the UK charts and also became the fastest-selling album in chart history, with almost half a million copies sold on the first day alone.

Having survived the loss of founding members and sustaining support from their loyal fan base, Oasis have managed to outlast many of their Britpop contemporaries. Suede, Pulp and some other peer groups have split up, or record only infrequently (Blur), while Oasis maintain a regular schedule of releases and touring to popular acclaim. Oasis have sold more than 50 million records worldwide (including singles).

Oasis evolved from an earlier band called The Rain, who took their name from a 1966 Beatles B-side. The Rain comprised Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan (bass guitar), Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs (guitar), Tony McCarroll (drums) and Chris Hutton (vocals). When McGuigan invited school friend Liam Gallagher to join the group, Gallagher accepted, and quickly pushed for the band's name to be changed to Oasis. Although there have been many theories on where Liam got the name from, he got it from an Inspiral Carpets tour poster which was in his and Noel's bedroom. One of the venues on it was the Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon.

Oasis first played live in August of 1991, at the Boardwalk club in Manchester. Noel Gallagher, who had recently heard of Liam's involvement when he phoned his mother whilst on tour in Germany as a roadie for the Inspiral Carpets, came to watch his younger brother play. A few months later he was invited to join the band. Although he had been critical of them, he agreed, with the provision that he would become the band's sole songwriter and leader, and that they would commit to an earnest pursuit of commercial success.

After over a year of live shows, rehearsals and even taking the time out to record a proper demo (known as the Live Demonstration tape), the band's big break came in May 1993 when they were spotted by Creation Records co-owner Alan McGee. Oasis were invited to play a gig at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut club in Glasgow, Scotland, by a band, called Sister Lovers, who shared their rehearsal rooms. Oasis, along with a group of friends, found the money to hire a van and make the six-hour journey to Glasgow. When they arrived, they were refused entry to the club as they were not on that night's set list, which reportedly caused the band to bully their way in (although both the band and Alan McGee have given contradicting statements about how they actually managed to get into the club on that night)^[1]. They were given the opening slot and impressed McGee, who was there to see 18 Wheeler, one of his own bands, that night. McGee was so impressed by what he saw, he offered Oasis a recording contract on the spot after the gig.

The first of many notorious incidents came in February 1994 when the band were involved in a high-profile incident on a ferry off the coast of the Netherlands. Liam Gallagher and McGuigan were arrested for fighting, whilst Arthurs and McCarroll were detained for alleged shoplifting. All four were subsequently refused entry to the Netherlands.

Following a limited white label release of the demo of their song "Columbia", their first single "Supersonic" was released in April 1994, reaching #31 in the charts. Their third single "Live Forever," was their first to enter the Top 10 of the UK charts. After troubled recording and mixing sessions, their debut album Definitely Maybe was finally finished and was released in September 1994, entering the charts at #1, and at the time becoming the fastest selling debut album ever in the UK.

Noel Gallagher's penchant for taking the odd riff or lyrics from other artists was now becoming notorious. The track "Cigarettes & Alcohol" had a main riff which Noel Gallagher admitted he'd taken directly from T. Rex's 1972 release "Get it On". "Supersonic" had a guitar solo reminscent of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" and "Shakermaker" was reportedly the subject of legal action by the New Seekers due to the heavy similarity with their song "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing".

The best part of a year of constant live performances and recordings, along with a typically hedonistic lifestyle commonplace in young rock bands, were starting to tire the band out and a breaking point was finally hit during a gig in Los Angeles in September 1994 where some members of the band (but not including Noel) were allegedly under the influence of crystal meth, leading to a shambolic performance. This upset Noel to such an extent that he temporarily quit the band immediately after and flew to San Francisco without telling anyone. Noel was allegedly in such a state at one time, he was talked off a window ledge in a hotel room. He was calmed down in the coming days by friends and work colleagues and recovered enough to rejoin the band in a Texas recording studio in October 1994 to record new songs, most notably "Talk Tonight" which directly related to his recent experiences. Two of these songs were released as b-sides on Oasis' Christmas single EP "Whatever" which peaked at #3 in the UK charts and foreshadowed the band's move toward a mellower sound on the following album. Template:Sound sample box align right

"Live Forever" (1994)

26 second sample of "Live Forever" from Definitely Maybe

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"Champagne Supernova" (1995)

30 second sample of "Champagne Supernova" from (What's the Story) Morning Glory?

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Template:Sample box end Oasis popularity was increasing with every week that passed and they soon had their first UK #1 in April 1995 with "Some Might Say", the first single from their second album. At the same time, drummer Tony McCarroll was ousted from the band. Noel Gallagher has since claimed that his departure was a result of him not being technically good enough to play on more complex songs although McCarroll had not been popular with the rest of the band. There were also reported scuffles between him and the Gallaghers and Bonehead. McCarroll was replaced with quiet Londoner Alan White, formerly of Starclub and younger brother of renowned studio percussionist Steve White, whom Paul Weller himself recommended to Noel. White made his debut for the band at a Top of the Pops performance of Some Might Say.

On June 23 the group headlined the first night of the annual Glastonbury Festival, the UK's foremost music festival. Here they performed a number of new songs including "Roll With It" and "Don't Look Back In Anger" but their performance was given a lukewarm reception by the critics. Wonderwall was given its world public premiere the next day, when Noel performed a solo acoustic version for UK TV's Channel 4.

During this period, the British media seized upon a supposed rivalry between Oasis and fellow Britpop band Blur. Noel Gallagher played along, telling The Observer that he hoped Damon Albarn and Alex James of Blur would "catch AIDS and die".^[2] He subsequently apologised^[3] for this in a formal letter to Melody Maker magazine.

On Monday August 14, 1995, Blur and Oasis released new singles on the same day, setting up "The Battle of Britpop" that dominated the week's music news. Blur's "Country House" outsold Oasis's "Roll With It" 274,000 copies to 216,000 during the week. Oasis' management came up with several excuses, claiming "Country House" sold more because it was more competitively priced (£1.99 vs £3.99) and because there were two different versions of "Country House" with different B-Sides forcing serious fans to buy two copies. An alternative explanation given at the time was that there were problems associated with the barcode on the "Roll With It" single case, which did not record all sales.

Although a softer sound led to mixed reviews, Oasis's second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory? became the second largest selling album of all-time in the UK. The album also went on to sell over 19 million copies worldwide and spawned two further hit singles, "Wonderwall" and "Don't Look Back In Anger", which reached numbers 2 and 1 respectively. The album's opening track "Hello", with its sing-along chant, was a common feature of Oasis's live performances. It features a sample from Gary Glitter's 1973 Top 10 hit "Hello, Hello, I'm Back Again". It also contained their hit, "Champagne Supernova" - featuring guitar playing and backing vocals by Paul Weller - which received widespread critical acclaim and peaked at #20 on the US charts. Despite not being released in the UK, it received significant airplay and remains one of the band's most popular songs to this day.

In September 1995, bassist Paul McGuigan briefly left the band, citing nervous exhaustion. He was replaced by Scott McLeod, formerly of The Ya-Yas, who featured on some of the tour dates as well as in the "Wonderwall" video before leaving abruptly whilst on tour in the USA. McLeod later contacted Noel Gallagher claiming he felt he had made the wrong decision. Gallagher curtly replied "I think you have too. Good luck signing on."[1] In order to complete the tour, McGuigan was successfully convinced to return to the band. "Like our new bassist? He looks a bit like the old one doesn't he?" Noel Gallagher joked when Guigsy returned for the band's shows at Earls Court in November.^[4]

In February 1996, Oasis became only the third band after The Beatles and The Jam to perform two songs on the same edition of British music television programme Top Of The Pops, miming to "Don't Look Back In Anger" and their cover of Slade's "Cum On Feel The Noize". On April 27 and 28 the group played their first headline outdoor concerts, a taste of things to come, at Maine Road Football Ground, Manchester, the then home of their beloved Manchester City. Highlights from the second night featured on the video There And Then, released later the same year.

As their career reached its zenith, Oasis performed back-to-back concerts at Knebworth on August 10 and 11, 1996. The band sold out both shows within minutes; 250,000 people over two nights, at the time a record-breaking number for an outdoor concert held in the UK.

The next month proved to be difficult for the group. On August 23 Oasis were due to play the prestigious MTV Unplugged at the Royal Festival Hall but Liam pulled out, citing a sore throat. He watched the performance from a balcony with cold beer and cigarettes. The group left for a tour of American arenas early the next month but within days Noel flew home without the band, who followed on another flight. It received massive media attention and the group promptly issued a statement assuring fans that Oasis were not splitting up. The next month they met at Abbey Road to begin recording their third album.

Oasis spent the end of 1996 and the first quarter of 1997 recording their third album. Be Here Now was released in August 1997, the band choosing to launch it on a Thursday rather than the traditional Monday. Preceded by the UK #1 single "D'You Know What I Mean?", the album was perhaps their most anticipated effort, and as such became the subject of considerable media attention. Anticipation culminated with the screening of the documentary "Right Here, Right Now" on BBC1 on the eve of the album's release. The attendant press attention and hype helped the album become the fastest-selling album in UK history (a record which still stands), selling 423,000 units on its day of release, and reached number 2 in the US album chart.

Be Here Now ultimately outsold Definitely Maybe worldwide but could not match the sales of (What's the Story) Morning Glory. Although early media reviews were positive, once the hype had died down, the album was criticised for being bloated and derivative with most of the critics focused on the extensive length of several songs, the heavier sound, and overproduction. Noel defined the album as "the sound of a buncha guys... on coke... in the studio... not giving a fuck."

The Britpop movement was over and the band failed to meet expectations with Be Here Now. Consequently, their popularity declined. Critics have made note of the fact that the growing disillusionment with the album co-coincided with the fading of the Britpop era. The toppling of one of the movement's front-runners, along with Blur's changing style, Pulp's growing inactivity and the death of Diana, Princess of Wales changed the "feel-good" mood in Britain at the time and certainly spelt the beginning of the end. It should be noted, though, that bands like The Verve, Radiohead and Supergrass kept the movement running up to the turn of the century.

In early 1998 the band released an Yellow Submarine-inspired video for their fourth UK #1, "All Around The World". After the conclusion of the disasterous Be Here Now tour, amidst huge media criticism the group decided to stay clear of each other and kept a low profile throughout 1998, although a compilation of popular B-sides, The Masterplan, was released in November, the band kept low profile. Noel, who was frequently criticised for firing most of the band's best b-sides on the singles, instead of conceiving them in albums, entered into a period of severe cocaine addiction. Although seemingly inactive, the band were subject to much attention from the tabloid newspapers, frequently present in articles about severe cocaine and alcohol abuse, erratic behaviour and boastful statements.

In early 1999 the band returned to action to begin work on their fourth album. First details were announced in February with Mark "Spike" Stent revealed to be taking a co-producing role. The majority of the album had been written by a now "clean" Noel Gallagher, who had quit taking cocaine in the summer of 1998. This was to have a major influence on the lyrical content of the album. Recording sessions began in the south of France in April, with everything believed to be have been going to plan. Behind the scenes, however, things were not going well and the shock departure of founding member Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs was announced in August. This departure was reported at the time as amicable, with Noel stating that Arthurs wanted to spend more time with his family. Arthurs' statement clarified his leaving as "to concentrate on other things".^[5] However, Noel has since offered a contradicting version: that a series of violations of Noel's "no drink or drugs" policy (imposed by Noel so that Liam could sing properly) for the album's sessions resulted in a confrontation between the two.^[6] Oasis fans were given a further shock days later, as the departure of bassist Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan was announced. McGuigan said later that the departure of his close friend triggered his own.

The now three-piece Oasis chose to continue recording the album, with Noel Gallagher re-recording most of Arthurs' and McGuigan's guitar parts. The hunt was also on for replacements for the two guitarists with such names as Bernard Butler, Johnny Marr, John Squire, David Potts, Gary "Mani" Mounfield and Steve Cradock all rumoured to be contenders to fill the positions. The first new member to be announced was new lead/rhythm guitarist Colin "Gem" Archer formerly of Heavy Stereo, who later claimed to have been approached by Noel Gallagher only a couple of days after Arthurs' departure was publicly announced. One of Archer's first roles was on November 5, 1999, where he took part in filming of the promo video for Oasis' new single, "Go Let It Out", which was the first single to be taken from their new album. David Potts, who was rehearsing at the time with the band backed off, because he thought he would be sacked soon and didn't want to play the bass. The band drafted Andy Bell, former guitarist/songwriter of Ride and Hurricane#1 who was announced as their new bassist, a week later. Bell had never played bass before and he was obliged to learn to play it, along with a handful of Oasis' back catalogue of songs, in preparation for a scheduled tour of America in December 1999.

With the death of Creation Records, Oasis formed their own label, Big Brother, named after Noel, which released all of Oasis' records in the UK and Ireland.

Oasis's fourth album, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, was released in February 2000 to good first-week sales. However, the album was met with lukewarm reviews and seen as a small but noticable departure from their traditional sound, with more experimental, psychedelic influences. To coincide with the general atmosphere of change surrounding the band, the cover of the album featured a new "Oasis"-logo designed by Gem Archer and was also the first Oasis release to include a song written by Liam Gallagher entitled "Little James". As of now, Standing is among the band's lowest-selling albums worldwide, although it did spawn another UK #1 with "Go Let It Out" and "Fuckin' in the Bushes" - often used as an opener for Oasis gigs.

The spring of 2000 saw the new line-up embark on a world tour, although the album had received largely substandard reviews. The tour proved to be initially successful, but again eventful. In May, they were forced to cancel a gig in Barcelona a few hours before the scheduled start because of tendonitis in one of Alan White's hands. As a result, the band spent the whole evening drinking instead, and a drunken fight broke out between the Gallagher brothers after, according to Noel, some derogatory comments from Liam, who questioned the legitimacy of Noel's young daughter, Anais. Feeling he could no longer be around Liam, Noel flew to his holiday home in Ibiza and a press release [2] was issued on his behalf, announcing that he had quit overseas touring, and would therefore not be present at the rest of that years European shows. Despite the absence of Noel, the rest of the band decided to continue with the rest of their tour, with Gem Archer moving across to the other side of the stage to perform Noel's lead guitar parts and ex-Paul Weller and Mother Earth guitarist Matt Deighton being drafted in to take over rhythm guitar duties.

After two months of ongoing rumours about the band's long-term future after every such sibling brawl, Noel returned for the Irish and British legs of the tour, which included two major shows at Wembley Stadium. A live album of the first show, called Familiar to Millions, was released in late 2000 to positive reviews. The second Wembley show, which was being broadcast live in over a dozen countries across the world, including the UK's Sky One, was a chaotic affair. Liam was very clearly drunk, making several rambling statements, which included derogatory remarks aimed at his wife, Patsy Kensit, who had very recently split up with him, and also at brother Noel. He also had trouble singing in tune and at times changed the words to certain lines and at other times not bothering to sing at all.

Along with Liam, Noel and Alan White both ended their marriages during this period. Liam soon started a relationship with former All Saints member Nicole Appleton, who soon became pregnant with their son Gene. Noel started dating publicist Sara MacDonald and their relationship continues to this day, even though the pair broke up for a short time in 2002.

In 2001 the band were kept busy with work on their new album and live shows around the world. They began in January with a short South American festival tour before returning back to England to start work on their 5th studio album. In May, the band went off to North America to take part in a month-long co-headlining tour, entiled the 'Tour Of Brotherly Love', with The Black Crowes. Alan White missed the tour as he was suffering from a condition called Hypermobile Thumb, which causes the thumb to seize up from time to time. His replacement was his older brother Steve. This tour was followed by a handful of shows in Paris (supporting Neil Young), the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan and a show in Bangkok, Thailand, before returning back to Britain to do more work on the album. Whilst in Japan, Noel revealed that a new single would be released in October [3] to coincide with a short UK tour, entiled 'Ten Years Of Noise And Confusion', to celebrate 10 years since the band was formed. Whilst the tour was extrememely successful, the planned single was postponed, Noel later revealing that he personally vetoed the release at the last minute due to him not being totally happy with the song. With Oasis' touring commitments in 2001 completed, the band were free to concentrate with finishing off their new album.

Heathen Chemistry, their first album with new members Andy Bell and Gem Archer, was released in July 2002. The record retained an experimental flavour from the previous one, but also borrowed heavily from British rock music of the 60s and 70s with heavy Lennonesque influence by Liam, who was rapidly growing as a capable songwriter creating the gentle acoustic ballad and subsequent top 3 single "Songbird". Heathen Chemistry was also a much more balanced recording process for the band, with all of the members, apart from White, penning songs. This new working method, along with less fighting and drug and alcohol abuse in the studio, ultimately gave the record a more relaxed feel compared to past efforts. Johnny Marr provided additional guitar as well as backup vocals on a couple of songs, and while critics gave Heathen Chemistry lukewarm reviews, it was commercially successful. Around this time, Liam also provided vocals for the title track of the 2003 album Scorpio Rising of the duo Death in Vegas.

After the album's release, the band embarked on a world tour that was successful but once again flavoured with incidents. In late summer of 2002, whilst the band was on tour in the US, Noel, Bell and touring keyboardist Jay Darlington were involved in a car accident in Indianapolis, IN. While none of the band members sustained any major injuries, some shows were cancelled as a result. Liam also suddenly bolted offstage for no apparent reason during a show in Fukuoka, Japan, leaving Noel to take over vocal duties. It was the second Fukuoka show in three years that Liam failed to complete.

In December 2002, the latter half of the German leg of the bands European tour had to be postponed after Liam Gallagher, Alan White and three other members of the band's entourage were involved in a violent brawl at a Munich nightclub. At the time, Oasis' management alleged that they were subject to "an unprovoked attack by a group of youths". However, German police investigations found that the Oasis party had caused the incident by antagonising other customers of the club, before one of them drunkenly fell onto a table of five local businessmen. A massive fight broke out, in which Liam had his two front teeth knocked out by the fists of a German American football player, nicknamed "The Powderkeg", one of the band's bodyguards was allegedly knocked out by a brass standing ashtray, and Alan sustained minor head injuries - reportedly causing him to have a brain scan. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Liam was alleged to have violently kicked in the groin one of the policemen as he was being led away in handcuffs. All of the Oasis party were arrested and were only released after the band's management reportedly paid out around £170,000 in bail money. Police later said that Liam, White and members of the band's entourage had been drinking "very heavily". Tests also showed Liam had also been taking cocaine. Two years later Liam was fined around £35,000, with part of the money going to the injured police officer.

The band ended the year by embarking on a short UK arena tour. 2003 began with the release of "Songbird", the fourth single taken from Heathen Chemistry. It was the first Oasis single that hadn't been written by Noel Gallagher, and reached number 3 in the official UK charts in February. The band then ended the Heathen Chemistry tour in March by performing two shows in Dublin, before returning to Germany to play four rescheduled dates.

Preliminary work started in December 2003 on new album, with producers Death In Vegas at Sawmills Studios in Cornwall (the same place where Oasis had recorded their debut album), originally slated for a September 2004 release to coincide with the Definitely Maybe 10 year anniversary. However, problems loomed ahead, when in January 2004, longtime drummer Alan White, who had played on most of Oasis' material left the band. At the time, his brother Steve White stated on his own website that "the spirit of being in a band was kicked out of him" and he wanted to be with his current girlfriend. In subsequent interviews, Noel seemed to agree, saying that he has nothing against him, but White's problematic personal life was impeding on his professional commitments with Oasis.

Recording sessions continued with Proud Mary drummer Terry Kirkbride, brought in temporarily, who only performed on the second track "Mucky Fingers" of the new release. Zak Starkey - drummer of The Who and son of The Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr - was asked by the band to join them in the sessions and he performed on all of the subsequent world tour, as well as all of the promo videos for the singles. However, as he isn't introduced yet as an official member of the band, he wasn't featured on the album's sleeve and rarely appeared with the rest of them in promotional activities such as interviews and photo-shoots.

In June 2004, Oasis headlined the Glastonbury Festival for the second time in their career, with their new drummer, and performed a greatest hits set which also included two new songs - Gem Archer's "A Bell Will Ring" and Liam's "The Meaning of Soul". The concert received mixed reviews, mostly because Liam was having problems with his singing, which made him quit while singing "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" and Starkey was still getting to grips with the load of songs which he had only played publicly for the first time a couple of days previously at Poole Lighthouse.

In September 2004, the band released Definitely Maybe: The DVD commemorating the 10th anniversary of their debut album's release. The DVD contains an enhanced audio version of the album, four hours of live footage, and interviews with band members and the production team.

On 30 May, 2005, after three years and three scrapped recording sessions, the band released their sixth studio album, Don't Believe the Truth, fullfulling their contract with Sony BMG. It followed the path of Heathen Chemistry as being a collaborative project again, rather than a Noel-written album. Also it was the band's first album in a decade not to feature the drumming of Alan White, with Zak Starkey taking his place. The record was generally hailed as the band's best effort since (What's The Story) Morning Glory? by fans and critics alike, spawning 2 UK #1 singles with "Lyla" and "The Importance of Being Idle" (the band's 7th and 8th #1 UK singles, respectively), whilst "Let There Be Love" entered at #2. Oasis picked 2 awards at the Q Awards: one - a special People's Choice Award and the second for Don't Believe The Truth as Best Album. Following in the footsteps of the previous five studio albums, Don't Believe The Truth also entered the UK album charts at #1.

In May 2005, Oasis embarked on a huge world tour. Beginning on 10 May, at the London Astoria, and finishing on 31 March, 2006, when the band played a sold out gig in México City to 17,000 people, Oasis played more live shows than at any time since the Definitely Maybe tour of 1994/1995, visiting 26 countries, headlining 110 shows and playing to 1.7 million people. The tour passed without any major incidents and is the most successful one for the band for more than a decade.

The first confirmed Oasis release of 2006 is a greatest hits double album entitled, Stop the Clocks, which will feature what the band consider to be their "definitive" songs. Noel is disapproving this; he had previously ruled out a "Best of" album collection, stating that he didn't want to release one until the band had split. Another 2006 release will come in the form of "Lord Don't Slow Me Down", a rockumentary film looking back at the mammoth 2005-2006 Don't Believe the Truth world tour.

Despite talks of the band splitting after "Stop the Clocks", in September 2006, Noel Gallagher stated that due to promotional work and the after-effects of Stop the Clocks, and the fact that they still haven't signed a new recording contract, no work on their next album is planned until at least the middle of 2007, showing the split allegations are false. Also a factor in this delay is that Zak Starkey, whom Noel wants in the band and on their next album, is on tour with The Who until around June 2007. However Noel said the band has loads of material: "We've got so much left over from the last album, at least another two or three albums worth of material," Gallagher explained. "Our next new record is more important than this one (the Greatest hits), but this had to happen now."

Line-up:

• Liam Gallagher - lead vocals, songwriting;
• Noel Gallagher - lead guitar, back-up vocals, lead songwriting, lead vocals;
• Colin "Gem" Archer - rhythm guitar, keyboards, lead guitar, back-up vocals, songwriting;
• Andy Bell - bass guitar, songwriting, lead guitar, keyboards;
• Zak Starkey (semi-official member) - drums and percussion;

Past members:

• Alan White - drums and percussion;
• Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs - rhythm guitar;
• Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan - bass guitar;
• Tony McCarroll - drums and percussion;

The band have also used various keyboardists, including Mike Rowe, who toured and recorded for the most part of the band's career (1995-2002) and ex-Kula Shaker Jay "Jesus" Darlington, who has been touring with the band since 2002. For Don't Believe the Truth sessions, they used neither keyboardists, with Gem and Andy handling these duties instead.

1994

• Q Award for Best New Act

1995

• Brit Award: Best British Breakthrough Act
• Ivor Novello Award: Songwriters Of The Year to be shared with Blur.
• NME Awards: Best New Band, Album Of The Year - Definitely Maybe and Single Of The Year - "Live Forever"
• Q Award: Best Live Act

1996

• Brit Awards: Best British Album - (What's The Story) Morning Glory?, Best British Group and Best British Video - "Wonderwall"
• NME Awards: Best Band, Best Live Band, Best Album - (What's The Story) Morning Glory?, and Best Single - "Wonderwall"
• Q Award: Best Act In The World Today
• MTV Europe Music Awards: Best Group

1997

• NME Awards: Best Musical Event - Knebworth and Band Of The Year
• Q Award:Best Act In The World Today
• MTV Europe Music Awards: Best Rock

2000

• Q Award: Best Live Act

2001

• NME Award: Hero Of The Year - Liam Gallagher

2003

• NME Awards: Best UK Band, Artist Of The Year and Best Haircut - Liam Gallagher

2005

• NME Award: Best Music DVD - Definitely Maybe
• Q Awards: Best Album - Don't Believe the Truth and People's Choice Award

2006

• NME Awards: Best Video - The Importance Of Being Idle

1. 1997 - Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group - Nominated

1. 1997 - Best Rock Song (Wonderwall) - Nominated

1. 1999 - Best Music Video, Short-Form (All Around The World) - Nominated

• Oasis at Allmusic Guide
• Oasis from Music Strands
• Oasis info at Band Online

• The Real People
• No Way Sis
• Best-selling music artists

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