Following on from ccunning's wu...
...Oasis are something of a relic from the '90s even after their excellent fifth album Heathen Chemistry went some way to re-establishing them as a band that it was okay to think was musically worthwhile in 2002. Liam and Noel are now the only two survivors from the 'original' 1994 lineup, with Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs following Paul 'Guigsy' McGuigan out of the band after Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants was released.
However, their importance as possibly the single defining icon of the 'Cool Britannia' years of the mid-to-late Nineties should never be forgotten. Their zenith was undoubtably the first weekend in the August of 1996, when they played to 360,000 fans in Knebworth Park on two scorching summer days amid the heady air of England's Euro 96 soccer success and the band's complete dominance of British rock music. Those two days were Oasis at their strutting, kick-ass, musically-soaring best - from the opening strains of Rock'n'Roll Star to the oh-so-self-aware playing of Hey Jude over the PA as we trudged home.
It's been a good five years since the Oasis backlash really took hold and they ceased to be able to do no wrong in the eyes of the public. And recently I decided to put together my own Oasis Best Of CD, which took in not only their five studio albums, but a couple of live renditions of songs that were undeniably Oasis (notably their epic cover of I Am The Walrus) and some of the B-sides from their first three albums-worth of singles - not only better than most bands on their best days, but better than some of Oasis' own album tracks.
And that Best Of CD is probably better now than it has ever been - now we're not so collectively jaded by Oasis the all-conquering supergroup. It certainly has, pound for pound, more great songs than any Best Of CD representing the rest of Britpop. And that's saying something.
I just hope Oasis get their due when us wide-eyed kids have grown up and had wide-eyed kids of our own. Because Oasis deserve to be regarded as one of the all-time great rock bands.
Oh, and Tony McCarroll didn't leave the band. He was fired. Fired for being a marginally-worse drummmer than Pete Best....