The inevitable has happened, Noel Gallagher has left Oasis because he can no longer work with his brother Liam. He announced the 'split' on the band's website."People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer."
The band are (or were) in the middle of a tour and Noel apologised to fans who have tickets. Earlier the Paris gig was cancelled due to 'an altercation within the band'.
So what's my take on all this? Does this mean the end of the band. Yes it does. Everyone knows that the combination of two brothers is cohesive and inspiring but also volatile and highly strung. Oasis always had problems and we all knew, thanks to Noel's honesty and Liam's wild-lifestyle persona and his reactions to the media. The relationship has always been fractious.
As the moist-eyed nostalgic I am, I will remember listening to Definitely Maybe over and over again, hit after hit from Live Forever to Columbia to Up In The Sky to Slide Away. It's a fantastic guitar-fest brimming with attitude, swagger and wide-eyed optimism. I admit that I fell out of love with the band after Be Here Now and with only The Masterplan to ease my woes, the music and the success-story ran rapidly downhill...for me anyway. The retrospectives (and there have been a few already), playing the 'hits' have been focusing on the early years. And rightfully so. Don't Believe The Truth and Dig Out Your Soul have been brave attempts to get back to the highs of the late nineties but nothing in the last ten years is anything worth talking about.
So I'm sad about this but like Michael Jackson, the best of Oasis has always been in the dim and distant past. Back when the band worked through trials and tribulations, arguments and friction, there was always great music. That ended a long time ago for me.
The media are reporting this not as a split but as Noel quitting. Can Oasis go on without Noel? I think the lyrics to Acquiesce sum things up...
I don't know what it is that makes me feel alive
I don't know how to wake the things that sleep inside
I only wanna see the light that shines behind your eyes
I hope that I can say the things I wish I'd said
To sing my soul to sleep and take me back to bed
You want to be alone when we could be alive instead
Because we need each other
We believe in one another
And I know we're going to uncover what's sleepin' in our soul
Because we need each other
We believe in one another
I know we're going to uncover what's sleepin' in our soul
What's sleepin' in our soul
There are many things that I would like to know
And there are many places that I wish to go
But everything's depending on the way the wind may blow
I don't know what it is that makes me feel alive
I don't know how to wake the things that sleep inside
I only wanna see the light that shines behind your eyes
Because we need each other
We believe in one another
And I know we're going to uncover what's sleepin' in our soul
Because we need each other
We believe in one another
And I know we're going to uncover what's sleepin' in our soul
What's sleepin' in our soul
As for the future, see you all at Glastonbury 2012, the summer of the London Olympics, and the big reformed Oasis headline gig...
What Blur can do, Oasis can always do better.
No comments:
Post a Comment