By Cameron Stuart | Radio Director
Every music fan has that one band — the one band that changes everything for them. They make everything right and can pull you through any mood or adversity you hit. They transcend significant others, schoolwork, career stress and all the other matters that seem trivial when the opening riffs of their songs play. Like a character fastened firmly in a Shakespearean tragedy, my band is Oasis.
Oasis is, with little doubt, the greatest rock band to pick up guitars since The Beatles broke up, yet the Manchester outfit has about as good a chance of releasing new music as John Lennon does. I, like millions of other crazed fans worldwide, need this to change. Brothers and co-founders of the band, Liam and Noel Gallagher, haven’t spoken to each other in nearly a decade since the band split up in June 2009. In an industry filled with scandals and oddball characters, the row between the two brothers keeping some of the greatest living rockstars on the planet from making music is truly one of the most bizarre.
What makes Oasis so great and what made them such an epidemic in the ’90s was their throwback style, which was so different from the overdubbed and over-directed pop music of the ’80s. The band went back to the basics: epic guitar riffs, a poignant message and a gritty attitude. Essentially the boys of Oasis cared about three things: football, drugs and making really good music. They were relatable because they were kids from the council estates of Manchester who didn’t let the fame change them. They might have been brats who became tabloid fodder during the peak of their careers, but they were always that way. To this day, a quarter century after they thrust themselves onto the music scene, they wear the same clothes, play the same music, though not together, and cuss the same amount.
In many ways, Oasis was just like you and me. They were a couple of kids who grew up together and were misunderstood until they stood next to each other as the biggest band on the planet. They played some of the most epic live shows in British history, smashed record sale records and never lost themselves along the way. They were like us, but had the edge we want and say the things we wish we could all say. How many of us would like to go to our ex and say, “Where you gonna swim with the riches that you found? You’re lost at sea well I hope that you drown,” or get existential and ask, “is it worth the aggravation to find ourselves a job when there’s nothing worth working for?” They gave a voice to the disillusioned youth that made a serious comeback in the ’90s, putting their voices right next to bands like Nirvana as the most influential of the decade.
Their music was simple, endearing and had nothing synthetic about it. It was guitars and basic, relatable stories of real human emotion with some of the best song writing of an entire generation. Songs like “Supersonic,” “Wonderwall,” and “Don’t Look Back In Anger” became anthemic and is the type of music we desperately need today. Evidence of the impact of Oasis’ music came in the spring of 2017, following the Manchester Arena bombing, when “Don’t Look Back In Anger” not only became a rallying cry for grieving Mancunians, but also returned to the singles chart in the U.K., some 21 years after its release.
Liam Gallagher has even gone on to a new venture as of 2017 — a successful solo career. When the brothers Gallagher both released new albums in 2017, each of them hit No. 1 in the U.K. It was Liam’s “As You Were,” however, which battered Noel’s much more established band’s “Who Built The Moon?” by outselling his big brother by some 25,000 copies in its first week.
In an era where popular music has lost touch with its roots and reality, instead opting for autotuning and elaborate music videos, we need Oasis in 2019 just as much as we needed them in 1994. All we need is for two brothers, who have endured regular physical abuse from their own father, failed messages, health scares and international superstardom to swallow their pride and get back together. For me personally, it is a pipe dream. This band means more to me than almost anything else in my life. They have pulled me through my toughest times more than any friend, relative or therapist ever could. Their impact not just on me, but on millions of people worldwide, is immeasurable and it is being wasted on their own side projects that will never reach the fame of Oasis. They made some of the greatest rock anthems ever and they’re both still alive. While The Beatles, The Doors, Nirvana and Queen can never be complete again, Oasis can. They can take the world back by storm at the drop of a hat, but their own pride has gotten in the way and has now caused an entire generation to lose touch not only with Oasis, but with genuine rock music. I implore Liam and Noel to stop crying their hearts out, because some of us have put our lives in the hands of a rock ’n’ roll band. Don’t throw it all away.
