“It’s the definitive Oasis album. It has the spirit, the arrogance of youth.” Thirty years on, Noel Gallagher looks back at Oasis’ era-defining debut album Definitely Maybe
Oasis‘ hugely successful debut album Definitely Maybe turns 30 on August 29, and in a new interview Noel Gallagher admits that it’s the record that best defines his former band.
The Manchester quintet’s debut has sold 6.9 million copies globally, and sits behind (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? as the second most streamed album of the 90’s. The band’s former frontman, Liam Gallagher, performed the album in full on his recent sold-out UK arena tour, to great acclaim, and declared it “the most important album of the ‘90s bar none.
Speaking with The Times, ahead of the upcoming expanded reissue of the album, Noel Gallagher says, “We knew the songs were great because we played them every night and all the shows were outrageous. But at that time it was just a good album – nothing more, nothing less. It’s only through time that it has become what it is now.”
Last year, in an interview with Mojo magazine, the guitarist, who wrote every song on the record, described it as “the last great punk album.”
“We were a punk band with Beatles melodies,” he said. “We had no effects, barely any equipment, just loads of attitude, 12 cans of Red Stripe and ambition. If you listen to that and Never Mind The Bollocks, they’re quite similar. That album was about the angst of being a teenager in 1977. Fast forward to 1994 and Definitely Maybe is about the glory of being a teenager. It’s being down the park with a ghetto blaster distilled. It’s no coincidence that it’s lasted this long.
“Maybe there have been technically better or bigger records since, but that album is the real fucking deal. There’s no bullshit on it. It’s an honest snapshot of working-class lads trying to make it. It’s about shagging birds, taking drugs, drinking and the glory of all of that.”
In The Times, Gallagher admits that, with hindsight, the band “didn’t really know what we were doing” when recording with producer Owen Morris in 1993, adding, “we just set the gear up and got into character and pressed record. The rest, as they say, is mystery.”
The expanded 30th anniversary reissue of the album includes the 2014 remastered album plus previously unreleased recordings from Monnow Valley along with outtakes from the group’s session at Sawmills Studios, plus a demo of B-side Sad Song featuring Liam Gallagher on vocals.