225 lines
8.2 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
225 lines
8.2 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
culture
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music
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rockandpopfeatures
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6128065
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# Oasis v the Beatles: we won't look back in wonder
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## Oasis modelled themselves on the Beatles - but their legacy won't come
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close.
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![Oasis band members Noel Gallagher and Liam Gallagher][1]
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O brother: to Noel, Liam was 'a man with a fork in a world of soup'
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By Neil McCormick 6:46PM BST 02 Sep 2009
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[Comments][2]
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This has been a week of the Beatles and Oasis, two bands linked across the
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decades. They were the most popular British bands of their respective eras and
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generations, the Swinging Sixties and Britpop Nineties, putting Britain at the
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centre of the global airwaves. But while the music business gears up for the
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last hurrah of the Beatles, with the release of their entire re-mastered back
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catalogue and a computer game (The Beatles: Rock Band), which aims to extend
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their appeal to another generation, Oasis came to a bitter end, bowing out not
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with a bang, but a wearyingly familiar apology. While tens of thousands of
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fans waited for their heroes to appear on stage as headliners at the Rock En
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Seine festival in Paris, a message flashed up on the screens: "As a result of
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an altercation within the band, the Oasis gig has been cancelled."
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"Altercation" barely does justice to the history of attrition, insult,
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argument and abuse that has characterised the relationship between the two key
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members of Oasis, brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher. After a 15-year recording
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career marked by constant internal conflict, during their recent 13- month
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tour, the brothers have travelled separately, only communicating through
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insulting interviews, blogs and tweets. With only three more dates to play,
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they fatally met up in the backstage dressing room half an hour before they
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were due on stage. Liam was allegedly drunk and not untypically belligerent.
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Provocative words were exchanged, it quickly got physical, Liam smashed one of
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Noel's guitars and Noel decided that he had had enough. He released the
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following statement: "It's with some sadness and great relief to tell you that
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I quit Oasis tonight. People will write and say what they like, but I simply
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could not go on working with Liam a day longer."
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Liam can be an unpredictable character but that's part of what makes him such
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a compelling frontman. The brothers are chalk and cheese, as is often the case
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with siblings, who grow up occupying different family roles. Noel is the older
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brother, the sensible, steady one. But for a smart, thoughtful, loyal,
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surprisingly humble and generally very considerate man, he has never
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understood or empathised with his younger brother.
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He recently characterised Liam as "rude, arrogant, intimidating and lazy. He's
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the angriest man you'll ever meet. He's like a man with a fork in a world of
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soup." Which is very funny. But then you meet Liam, and he's completely
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charming and friendly.
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I have heard enough stories to know that he can be a handful, that his
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behaviour can be confrontational and obnoxious around Noel in particular, but
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it has always seemed to me that what he really wants is his older brother's
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love and approval. When that is not forthcoming, he acts up, often
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outrageously. You can see the same dynamic in many families. But then, most of
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us don't have to go on tour with our siblings.
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## Related Articles
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* [The Beatles remastered][3]
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03 Sep 2009
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* [The Beatles: Rock Band ad revives Lennon and Harrison][4]
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02 Sep 2009
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The truth is that the end of Oasis is really no great loss for music. They
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have been one of the greatest ever British groups, but their moment came and
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went in the Nineties Britpop boom, and musically they have been treading water
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ever since. When they exploded on to a moribund scene with their debut album,
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Definitely Maybe, in 1994, they were a breath of fresh air. They had the
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insouciant streetwise swagger of a young, working-class gang, oozing self-
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confidence and entrepreneurial bravado. They arrived in a fractured musical
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landscape of acid house, techno, hip hop, trip hop and American grunge, and
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put loud guitars and big, singalong songs right back at the heart of the pop
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agenda. They inspired a whole generation of bands.
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There were elements of Led Zeppelin (the bone-crushing hard rock rhythm
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section), the Stone Roses (the clubby swagger) and the Sex Pistols (the
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sneering, power chord attack) in the Oasis formula, but most of all there was
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the Beatles, the group both the Gallagher brothers revere. It was in the mop-
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top look of the band, the classic structure of the songs, the flowing melodies
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and elegant chord sequences. And it was a constant reference in their banter.
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"If you don't want to be as big as the Beatles, then its just a hobby," said
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Noel. Liam once claimed to be the reincarnation of John Lennon ("I think I was
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him. He's me now"), despite being born eight years before Lennon's death
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(logic has never been Liam's strong suit).
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Yet, while the musical debt was obvious, a connection emphasised by the kind
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of hysterical surge in popularity that accompanied both their rises, actually
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it would be hard to imagine two more different bands. The Beatles were musical
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revolutionaries, constantly driven to explore new horizons. Oasis were
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nostalgic reactionaries, their music a throwback to a very narrow and specific
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template, and they resisted change with Luddite belligerence.
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Oasis essentially took the ingredients of Revolver, which was arguably the
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Beatles at their leanest, sharpest, most succinct and cohesive, and reworked
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them over and over again, managing just seven albums of diminishing returns in
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15 years. They lasted twice as long as the Beatles, made half as much music,
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and never showed the least interest in progress.
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Still, unlike the Beatles, Oasis built a long-lasting live career. I was
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privileged to see one of their last British gigs, at Wembley Stadium in July.
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And it was fantastic. Fifteen years of the same old chords and swagger never
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really affected the public's love for them. Maybe it was a formula, but it was
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one that worked, because it was based on the primacy of the song, and the
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emotion of its delivery. During an encore, Noel came out to perform a solo
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Don't Look Back in Anger, but he didn't even have to sing a word, he just
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strummed his acoustic guitar while the crowd of 70,000 carried the whole
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thing, bellowing out every nuance of lyric and melody. It was the biggest
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choral karaoke session in the world, a moment of community that was
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astonishing to behold.
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It is hard to imagine the world poring over every recorded utterance of Oasis
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40 years after the break up, as we continue to do with the Beatles. But we
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might still be singing their songs.
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* The Beatles Remastered series is released next Wednesday
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[X][5] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][6]
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* Share: [Share][5] [ ][7] [ ][8]
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[Tweet][9]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/6128065/Oasis-v
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-the-Beatles-we-wont-look-back-in-wonder.html
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Telegraph
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## [Rock and Pop Features][10]
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* ### [Culture »][11]
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* ### [Neil McCormick »][12]
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* ### [Music »][13]
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* ### [The Beatles »][14]
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[![Buy Take That tickets][15]][16]
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### [Buy Take That Tickets][16]
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In culture
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[![George Martin][17] ][18]
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### [Auteurs make pop a matter of record][18]
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[![Mother of four and singer Stacey Jackson, dubbed Soccer Mom Rocker Mom, is
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an inspiration to yummy mummies everywhere.][19] ][20]
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### [The Cut Podcast: 11 March 2011][20]
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[![Justin Vernon of Bon Ivo][21] ][22]
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### [Top 10 songs named after real places][22]
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[![Bob Dylan turns 70 in May 2011][23] ][24]
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### [Bob Dylan's action-packed 2011][24]
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[![Marques Toliver: 'Whenever I perform, wherever it is, I imagine I?m on the
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Grammys?
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][25] ][26]
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### [Marques Toliver: Rise of the singing violinist][26]
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[X][5] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][6]
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Share:
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* [ ][5]
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* [ ][7]
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* [ ][8]
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* [Tweet][9]
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* Advertisement
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![][27]
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telegraphuk
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Please enable JavaScript to view the [comments powered by Disqus.][28] [blog
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comments powered by Disqus][29]
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Advertisement
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Book Now
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* [Festivals][30]
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* [Rock][31]
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* [Pop][32]
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