Supersonic

Does the red light mean it's on, yeah?

- Yeah. - Pour a few glasses at me.

I've had about four fucking coffees today, man,

and they've fucking proper knocked me out.

What the fuck's going on?

Now I'm fucking double tired, it's like, come on.

All right, how are we doing in there, are we good?

Yeah, we're rolling, I'm just going to do a sync pip.

Okay, lovely.

So, what do you think looking back at that time

because it was, like, two-and-a-half years really,

from being signed to playing Knebworth.

What happened to that band? What happened to you in those three years?

Sorry, that was a big question.

It is a big question, and it deserves a big answer.

RAs Oasis gears up to rock a quarter of a million fans,

we're live from Knebworth.

By Sunday night, Oasis will have played

to more than a third of a million people in just over one week.

Hi, this is Jo Whiley welcoming you to a rather special event,

the live gig of the decade.

In just over three years, Oasis will have gone from being a new signing

to one of rock's true giants.

Oasis! Oasis! Oasis!

Three, two, one!

Are we not playing a game?

Oasis was definitely like a fucking Ferrari.

Great to look at, great to drive,

and it would fucking spin out of control every now and again when you go too fast.

We were just lads from a council estate.

Two brothers, head cases.

Oasis' greatest strength was the relationship between me and Liam.

It's also what drove the band into the ground in the end,

you know what I mean?

# There we were, now here we are

# All this confusion

# Nothing's the same to me

# There we were, now here we are

# All this confusion

# Nothing's the same to me

# I can't tell you the way I feel because

# The way I feel is oh so new to me

# I can't tell you the way I feel because

# The way I feel is oh so new to me #

For me, music, I wasn't into it until, like,

when I was about 16 or 17 maybe.

Anyone with a guitar, or in a band

I thought was a bit suspect, you know what I mean?

And like, I'd hurl abuse at them.

I used to share a room with Noel.

A bit of a stoner, a bit of a loner.

You know, he had a guitar, so he was copping for it,

you know what I mean?

Always very quiet, Noel.

Always in his room with a piece of paper and a pen

and he'd be writing.

Always strumming the guitar.

Many is the time I went up and I knocked that guitar and said,

"Bloody guitar, you get on my bloody nerves!"

Yeah, I mean, once I'd discovered weed and guitars,

you got into another world.

What would you want to go out for?

Everything I ever wanted in life was coming out of the speakers.

I don't know why me and Liam would be so different.

We both had the same childhood, do you know what I mean?

He was a devil, Liam.

Full of it, yeah.

Total attention seeker.

Robbing your clothes, robbing your records, robbing your this, robbing your that.

Robbing your money.

Definitely a bit of a show-off,

but not to the point where it's, like, fucking,

you know, Bonnie Langford, do you know what I mean?

Or one of them little fucking brats with jazz hands.

Well, Liam was, allegedly, he was the cock of the school.

No one messed with him.

I think one day some rival school turned up and boshed him on the head with a hammer.

We were stood there having a cig

and I remember all these lads coming down.

These kids pulled out this little fucking hammer and went whack on my head.

Blood everywhere.

Got out of fucking double Maths, so that was all right.

I've got a perfect alibi for that, so it's nothing to do with me!

From that day on, and I know it sounds stupid,

but it was like as if something had fucking clicked, do you know what I mean?

You know, I started hearing music,

it started making sense, you know what I mean?

So, whoever he is, thank you.

Somebody hammered the music into him.

He's got a fucking lot to answer for, hasn't he?

All my life as it existed then was, like going to sign on,

getting my cash, cashing my dole,

going to the Sifters, getting a record,

buying some weed, going into Greggs,

going back home and fucking blasting it out and getting soaked in it.

I was just obsessed with being in a band.

Just ob-fucking-sessed, man.

Actually, I never thought Liam was interested in music

until he used to sit out there in the kitchen and say,

"I'm going to be famous one day," he said.

"And you're going to be really proud of me." I said, "Am I?"

I said, "Well, I hope it's before I start pushing up daisies."

"Because we need the money now!"

And then of course, Bonehead started coming round,

and Tony McCarroll and Guigsy.

That's when Liam formed the band.

I knew Bonehead and I knew Guigs,

and they were in a band called The Rain.

They'd heard I was cool,

and I'd had my epiphany, and all that bollocks.

Someone in passing just said, "You know, Liam wanted to be in a band."

Liam came round my house.

His voice was just like, "Whoa!" You know, it's like, "Yeah!"

# I used to live my life in vain

# Until today it's been the same

# I've gone away... #

It wasn't the Liam we all know.

A bit more softer, a lot more melodic.

And obviously his look. I mean, he looked like Liam's always looked, you know.

He had a great haircut, great walk.

"I'll have a bit of that."

He went, "Right, look, do you want to be in this band?"

I says, "Yeah, but we'll have to change that fucking name though 'cause it's terrible."

There was a poster in our room for the Inspiral Carpets.

It certainly wasn't about Swindon Oasis.

It was like, you know, there was a kebab shop called Oasis.

There was a fucking taxi rank called Oasis.

That fucking name keeps coming up, "Oasis".

We were, kind of, a little bit out on our own.

I just thought, "Oasis", that was good, man.

I'm not in Oasis at this point.

I'm not in a band, I've no intention of being in a band.

I'm just part of a road crew for Inspiral Carpets

trying not to get sacked from this job

because I fucking blagged my way into it and I'm an absolute chancer.

The main thing was, like, getting Noel in the band.

Good morning!

He was a songwriter.

He's a tight bastard!

I'm okay with me.

In my head, I thought, "He'll come off tour

"when he sees that we're doing it instead of talking about it,

"he'll want to join our band and he'll do the business."

I've done a couple of tours of America.

I'd been to Argentina.

I'd been to Japan.

So as far as they went, I went with them.

I met Mark Coyle, sat at the back of the tour bus

smoking weed and doing the monitors.

That's how I met Noel, pulling this fucking face

because this is his thing.

He's the roadie for that band.

And as soon as we started talking we were, fucking, best mates straightaway.

If there's one thing I'd remember about Noel,

is that he never had a fucking dirty hand.

But he loved that band.

They were all terrified of him.

Yeah, he was just the boss all the way, from the minute go when I met him.

I thought we were great.

I mean, clearly we weren't because we did get fired,

separately got fired by the band,

for being unprofessional

and somewhat unapproachable by various tour managers.

Lazy cunts!

Yeah!

I'd like to thank the Inspiral Carpets for sacking him. Well done!

We had some great, funny fucking times.

I wasn't sitting at the side of the stage, tuning guitars, thinking,

"One day, this is going to be me."

I thought that I'd arrived at that point and that was it.

I thought, "This will fucking do me," do you know what I mean?

I was doing a gig in Munich.

I was somebody sound-checking a bass drum. Boom.

One, two. What's sibilance?

I used to phone home on a Sunday, phone my mum.

It's Noel.

On the phone? Just a minute. I'll get it out here. Hello?

How are you, Noel?

- Are you all right? - Yeah.

Just doing Liam's washing for him.

Doing his dirty washing for him.

But, anyway, we were chatting away about family stuff

and then I said, "How's Liam?"

"Oh, he's out rehearsing."

"What for? He's not joined the Shakespeare fucking group, has he?"

"Oh, no, he's in a band."

"What? Doing what?"

"He's the singer." "He's the singer? He can't fucking sing."

"Oh, I don't know now. He said he's the singer."

And that was it, and then I, kind of, got home

and our Paul's going, "Oh, yeah, he's in this band.

"They're pretty fucking good, you know."

And then they were playing at the local band night

on at the Boardwalk.

And I went down to see them.

# Take me, when I'm young and true

# Was it me or was it you?

# Take me, when I'm not so strong

# Why has it taken you so long? #

I was like, "Wow, fucking hell! I'm pretty impressed."