#378 - Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)

MUSIC HISTORY WRITTEN BY HEAD WRITER DJ MORTY COYLE:

Released on October 2nd of 1995 on Creation Records and produced by Owen Morris and Noel Gallagher this is the second album by the Manchester, England Britpop, Rock band.

In Manchester, England in the late ‘80s Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan started a band called The Rain with Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs on guitar, Tony McCarroll on drums and a vocalist they soon fired and replaced with Guigsy’s school friend Liam Gallagher who suggested their name change to Oasis.

Liam's older brother Noel, who was a roadie for popular local band Inspiral Carpets, came with that band to see Oasis perform at their first gig in 1991. They weren’t great but Noel had a bunch of songs he’d written and found a band he could take over as the main songwriter and guitarist.

After playing and building a following for a couple years they signed to Alan McGee’s Creation Records label in 1993. They put out several popular singles and then their debut album “Definitely Maybe” which went to #1 a week after its release and at the time became the fastest selling debut album in the U.K.

A year of constant touring, lots of drugs and partying, and many band fights and temporary break ups, mostly between the Gallagher brothers and Oasis was back in the studio to make their second album.

After recording one single they fired drummer Tony McCarroll and replaced him with Alan White for the rest of the album.

This time Noel wanted arena anthems that had some darker and more meaningful subject matter.

According to producer Owen Morris the album was recorded in just 15 days - the first 5 consecutive days they recorded “Roll With It”, “Hello”, “Wonderwall”, “Don't Look Back In Anger”, and “Champagne Supernova” and then after a two-day break, they did the rest.

At about the same time a huge music and cultural scene in England called Britpop was exploding and though Oasis didn’t really feel a part of it their popularity soon saw them pitted against the equally popular band Blur.
But we’ll get into that later.

Despite getting some lukewarm reactions from critics who thought it was a let down after their debut this album sold a record-breaking 347,000 copies in its first week, didn’t leave the Top 3 for seven months, and had the highest number of platinum certifications for a single record with 14 until Adele’s “21” beat it with 16.

Noel’s anthemic aspirations paid off and Oasis instantly became a stadium and arena band although not without their share of near-constant controversy, plagiarism lawsuits, quarrels, and flagrant substance abuse.

They went on to put out another five studio albums with corresponding tours with a few different line up changes.

Then in 2009 Liam had claimed to have laryngitis and had to cancel a festival show and Noel told the press that he was actually hungover. Liam sued him and it was settled with a public apology but the damage was done. Noel left the band for good, effectively ending Oasis although Liam and the rest of the band carried on for a while as Beady Eye.

Both Gallaghers and the band have pursued solo and group projects but have not played together since the break up.

But the demand for new music from them has not died down as evidenced by a rediscovered soundcheck demo that surfaced in April of 2020. It was their first song released in 10 years and a few days later passed a million views on YouTube.

They’ve remained hugely influential and have sold over 75 million records, with this album alone selling over 22 million copies.