Oasis’ ‘Be Here Now’: What Happens When You Run Out Of Dreams?
Spent the last few days living with the three disc ‘Be Here Now’ reissue – Oasis, credit to them, they always knew how to cram a single with worthwhile B-sides (always the maximum number of fresh originals every time) and that gives them the depth to sustain a substantial reissue too where most bands can barely fish out a live show to fill up a supposedly ‘deluxe’ edition.
Doesn’t mean I love ‘Be Here Now’ of course. But it’s a moment I recall, that time when Oasis really did feel like something everyone of any age could love. Speaking to so many musicians and journalists these past couple of years, quite a few have spoken of feeling the need for change after 1994 – things had become too pressured, too precious, something lighter was needed to refresh the palette. Oasis provided that to the popular mainstream in the U.K. and for a few years they felt untouchable.
Nirvana Legacy 
Hello, great job with the new Cobain in Cobain book. I really enjoyed reading it. If you don’t mind answering, what specific interviews did not end up making it in the book?
Delighted to hear it. I tended to leave interviews out if they were massively over-exposed (i.e., re-published a lot and well known) because, with only a limited word count available, I’d rather print something lesser known. I preferred full interview transcripts to articles (words of the band versus words of the journalist), some companies/rights holders asked for ridiculous quantities of money (which I simply didn’t have), many others already had plans for their interviews and/or refused permission. Plus, one factor was ensuring proper coverage of the arc of Nirvana’s time in the spotlight – reprinting two dozen articles all from November 1991 would have been very boring – so being sensible about spacing made sense.
Good article. One thing you don’t really mention though was ‘Be Here Now’ at the time got highly suspicious good reviews initially. Which people forget. I think some music journalists of the time must have been on the take or doing as much coke as Noel at the time -)
http://thequietus.com/articles/21162-oasis-be-here-now-review-anniversary This article intrigued me: some really great stuff in there – but I still disagree with them about what was happening with those reviews. I just covered it off in the ‘things not under the control of Oasis’ paragraph and left it because I felt it would be spoken of over and over again (boring!)
Interesting article. Dont agree with it in general either; -ie- Be Here Now was and is still a bad album. Bit about Noel’s dad and Do Y’Know What I Mean tho is interesting. He was a bastard by most accounts.
I’ve seen them talk shit about indie music and all that “sad fucking Sheit u know what I mean m9. So fuck them for that
Aw, don’t take them too seriously – they’ll say anything about anything. Plenty of evidence of them having respect for Cobain/Nirvana. They overtly said they liked his work.