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THIS WEEK e
MUSIC DVD
OASIS
Definitely Maybe
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1994, the musical landscape was peppered with the rotting carcasses of acid house and baggy, and grunge was beginning its terminal spiral south to Shitsville. Shampoo were legitimate chart contenders and it was still months before the Stone Roses were to unleash the terminal mediocrity that was The Second Coming that killed them completely. Handy then that Oasis came along. Or as Bonehead put it: ‘It needed someone to say “ere y’are, out of the way, we’ll take charge here”.’
This double DVD, out on the tenth anniversary of the original album’s release, is one of the best uses for interactive DVD technology on a music title yet. Each track on the album is accessible in a number of ways. First, as straight stereo audio track, then there is the option to switch between the promo video, a live performance or a documentary sequence talking about that particular track. Further toggling reveals directors‘ commentaries for the promo videos. The option, of course, is to watch the whole album in sequence in its entirety — the promos, live footage or documentary.
Of the rare live footage, their appearance on The Word doing ‘Supersonic’, ‘Shakermaker’ from Naked City, a solo rendition of ‘Sad Song’ — a quiet acoustic track left off the UK edition of the album but present on the vinyl and Japanese CD versions - from Later with Jools Holland, and some rarely seen live footage from the US including scenes from the much bootlegged show from Chicago Metro from the same year. What these perfomances show is not only the quality of the tunes but also the quality of Liam Gallagher’s delivery. Every syllable from Liam is chewed and spat out like a dog with a caramel, despite claims from the album producer Owen Morris that he was a ‘quiet. gentle little singer originally’.
The new documentary footage, however, is what makes this truly worthwhile. Unsurprisingly, many of the gems come from the mouth of ‘ar kid. Among Liam’s classics are his idea for the album cover - ‘a knife and half a pound of butter' - and his explanation of life in a detention cell on board a cross channel ferry.
The album itself took three goes to record, before the band, album engineer Mark Coyle and producer Owen Morris finally captured the energy of the band’s live performances on tape. Morris reveals his most sophisticated of ‘black box production techniques’ which seemed to be to turn it up until the dials were in the red to create a wall of noise.
Then there’s legendary Digsy discussing lasagne and
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61 The Wes Craven Collection
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62 The Grid, High Times
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63 Tenerife
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72 Flaming Lips
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illustrating why he was worthy of his own tribute song, and much is made of Tony McCarrol’s inability to keep time. A bit of a problem for a drummer, that.
The second disc adds more similarly extraneous but highly entertaining nonsense: the band revisit the venue for the album cover shoot and Brian Cannon tries to justify his decision for that truly minging cover. Tales are told of on- stage punch ups, bangers and mash and transporting amplifiers across lochs in boats and moments of general sycophancy, comedy and self-aggrandisement. All of which, when collected, makes a momentarily revealing snapshot of the creative (or not so creative) process behind the making of a truly great record.
Fans might live in hope that the band’s slump into ‘good‘ after formerly being ‘great’ might one day be averted but in the meantime let’s indulge in a something special. And Definitely Maybe is still, ten years on, very special.
(Mark Robertson)
EVERY SYLLABLE FROM LIAM IS CHEWED AND SPAT OUT LIKE A DOG WITH A CARAMEL, DESPITE CLAIMS THAT HE WAS A ‘OUIET, GENTLE SINGER ORIGINALLY'
Rare footage of Oasis live. at Chicago Metro in 1994
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