by Paolo Hewitt
Noel was starting to feel the pressure. This was an important show for the band whose rule on drink and drugs is simple. If you can handle it and play a gig to the best of your ability, then fine. If you can’t...
Of all the band, Noel not only knew his limits but would never test them when a gig was at stake. The best high in the world was playing your songs and watching an audience go ballistic.
He was also determined that Oasis would be the first British band in years to crack America. That’s why he’d kept schtum that first night in New York when his brother had gone off at the Epic guy. He had seen how things worked in the States when he was with the Inspirals. Like it or not, you needed these people on your side, because that way you could achieve something far greater than simply telling a record company guy to fuck off.
Anyone could do that. But to succeed in the States meant you could actually help change the musical climate of the country. How top would that be. Your songs having such effect. Of course, in doing so you made enough money to last several lifetimes and that little fact wouldn’t have escaped Noel’s attention either.
Like it or not, the Whiskey was a prestigious show. All of the LA music scene would be there, including Epic who, despite their generosity, had yet to be convinced that Oasis weren’t one of these two-bit Brit bands with loads of press and little talent or stamina. This gig was Oasis’s first chance to prove they were a cut above the rest and, of course, they blew it horribly.
Liam came on wired-up to the eyes and spoiling for a fight. Behind the amps he had racked out lines of crystal meth and every now and then he would disappear for a hit.
Noel apart, the rest of the band’s playing was sluggish.
And as it went on, Noel got angrier and angrier. Then he saw Liam go behind the amps and when he reappeared, he shouted at him and Liam turned and hit him with his tambourine.
Standing in the audience, watching the debacle, Marcus flew into a temper. When the gig finished he marched into the dressing-room where Liam and Noel were sitting, locked the door, and went berserk.
Noel, equally as angry, then went to hit Liam, and Marcus had to step in between them. Meanwhile, outside listening to the crazed and angry shouting, Guigsy, McCarroll and Bonehead waited to get in. They stood there with their Epic employers.
The door finally opened after an hour. Noel marched out and found tour manager Maggie. ‘How much money have you got on you?’ he demanded. She handed over about $800 and Noel returned to his hotel.
‘If you are an instigator,’ Marcus points out, ‘and you don’t feel people appreciate what you instigate, you get hurt. Noel was really hurt bad and he didn’t know where to turn to or who to turn to in a country that you feel very alienated in very quickly, in a city, let’s be fair, that isn’t exactly fucking reality. And you add it all together and you very quickly come to the conclusion, as Noel obviously did, that there’s better things to do in life.’
In his hotel room, Noel phoned a girl he knew in San Francisco and asked if he could come and stay with her for a while. Then he found out the time of the next flight, and off he went to the airport, without a word to anyone.
At the girl’s flat he called two people in England. The first, of course, was Peggy.
‘He was going on and on about Liam,’ she recalls, ‘and that he was on his way home. I said, “Noel, you’ll probably work it out, why don’t you talk it through with him?” He said, “No, Liam is this and that,” and then he said, “After all you’ve sacrificed for us.” I said, “Noel, I didn’t sacrifice anything for you because you were mine, it was my duty to bring you up.”
‘He said, “I know, but you put everything aside and you had to do without things.” I said, “That was my job, Noel.” You see, Noel would be thinking, she sacrificed everything, but as I’ve always said to him, “Noel, while I’m here this is your home. It doesn’t matter what you do or what you don’t do, this is your home.”’
His second call was to Tim Abbot who, after putting the phone down, organised his flight to Los Angeles (‘cost three grand, the bastards’) and then flew out to LA to meet up with a band that was now devastated by Noel’s disappearance. None more so, in fact, than his younger brother.
‘Liam,’ Marcus says, ‘was going out of his mind, absolutely. He was sitting and staring at the wall. He just could not contemplate Oasis not being together. It really showed me how together they are. Most bands would have gone crying back home, but I said, “Fuck it, stay here, there’s a chance Noel is going to come back and we’ll carry on with the tour.”
‘But the worst bit for everybody was the first two or three days when he was out of contact. We were really worried for him. We didn’t know if he was in fucking Manchester, Ireland, Canada, Colombia. It was horrible.’
After two days of waiting and worrying, someone suggested getting hold of Noel’s telephone bill for the room. When they looked at it, the only digits that seemed strange was a San Francisco number.
Abbot dialled it.
‘This girl answered,’ he says, ‘and I said, “It’s Timmy Abbot, a friend of Noel’s, I believe you might know of his whereabouts.” She said, “Call me back in a minute.” I went up to my room and called again. She answered and then put me on to Noel. He went, “All right? how are you?” I said, “What the fuck is going on, man? Everybody’s really fucking worried. Where are you?”’
Noel, believing Abbot was still in London, refused to reveal his whereabouts until Abbot told him he was with the band in LA and asked to come and see him. Noel agreed to that. But he still wouldn’t give the address.
‘Call me from the airport tomorrow,’ he told Abbot.
‘I thought, fucking hell, how can someone have a number-one album, have all this at their fucking feet and throw it all away. Everything had been achieved. The album was the biggest, fastest-ever-selling debut album. Number one, Beatlemania in Japan, what else do you want?’
At that precise moment Noel Gallagher wanted out of Oasis. The next day Abbot flew to San Francisco, phoned Noel from the airport, who gave him the directions and an hour later he was being deposited in the Chinatown section of the city.
He rang a bell, and a pretty Asian girl answered and led him into her darkened flat, full of antiques.
‘I was expecting to find this absolute, strung out, wasted, dishevelled fucking kid who I hadn’t seen in weeks and who had lost it Brian-Wilson-style, and there he was in a beautiful ski jumper and we like hugged, and then he held up a big bag of coke and a bottle of Jim Beam and said, “Fancy one?” Fancy two, mate.’
Assured now that Noel wasn’t cracking up, far from it, they spent two days shopping, hanging out and generally relaxing. The bonus was that the girl whose flat they stayed in owned a great record collection, full of the music they dug.
‘Then after about day three,’ Abbot says, ‘I thought, I’ve got to get him away to have a real chat with him because two’s company, three’s a crowd. I said, “Look, I’ve got a credit card, where shall we go? Have you ever been to Las Vegas? Let’s get out, me and you, and have a crack.”’
The idea appealed to Noel and the next day they departed.
Meanwhile, Abbot was making secret phonecalls back to the band. They, especially Liam, had demanded that he keep them informed as to Noel’s state of mind, a request he couldn’t refuse, but which totally divided his loyalties. He knew that if Noel caught him phoning the band the slight chance he had of getting Noel to rejoin would instantly vanish. Oasis really would split up for good, and Abbot wouldn’t only lose a friend but gain a lifelong enemy.
‘I didn’t want to break his trust,’ Abbot points out, ‘but I’d go out and phone the band and Liam would be saying, “I’m not bothered about anything as long as he’s all right.”
‘I said, “I don’t think he’s going to talk to you to be honest but he’s all right.”’
Noel and Abbot booked into a Las Vegas Hotel and shared a room. In the morning, they began talking about America and
Noel kicked off, stating how he found it all so false, so alien.
‘So I told him, it’s part of the plan, part of the masterplan. America was always the thing in my head with Creation. I’d just been through it with Primal Scream, and we nearly made it but we didn’t deliver. Yeah, they ain’t gonna understand you, so don’t let it get to you.
‘”This country is all make-believe and we’re smarter than that. What you’ve got is communication and it will rise above all that.” Anyway then we get in the cab and the driver starts on about UFOs.’
Now that Noel had started to talk about his feelings, Abbot felt free to start pointing out various factors. Like how America and its strange culture was all new to the other members.
‘Me and you,’ he said, ‘we’re old heads, but this is a band who’ve gone halfway around the world and they’ve never been out of the UK. Then they get to Los Angeles and it’s Murder Mile because of the methedrine. I’ve seen it happen before with Primal Scream, I saw the methedrine madness around them. Look, America is bonkers but you can enjoy it.’
Later that night, they talked again, ‘about life, families, parents, school, music, the whole lot’.
Then Noel went for a shower and Abbot reached for the phone to call LA. Then he stopped himself. Enough was enough. He couldn’t keep up the subterfuge.
‘Because if there’s one thing about Noel,’ he points out, ‘it’s his absolute fucking honesty.’
When Noel re-appeared, Abbot told him he was going to call Marcus, tell him how things were. Noel said fine, and even spoke briefly with his manager to tell him he was all right. Then he handed the phone back to Abbot.
‘I said to Marcus, get all the troops on the coach and drive to Austin, Texas, ’cos we’ve got a studio booked and Owen Morris is due to fly in.’
The studio had been booked for the band to record B-sides for the single after ‘Whatever’.
‘That was three days away,’ Abbot continues, ‘and I thought, we might be over the hump here.’
Abbot’s hunch was proved correct the night he and Noel visited a casino, sat with their drinks waiting for a show to commence and then experienced the strangest thing.
‘This American woman,’ Abbot recalls, ‘leant over and said to Noel, “Excuse me, but I must just say you are the spitting image of George Harrison, and my husband here, we’ve just got married, have a pact, it’s written up, that I could be unfaithful with George Harrison, and you look just like him.”
‘I said to her, “Does that mean I’ve got your husband?”
Anyway, they joined us, they were probably in their late forties, and she’d seen every Beatles’ concert in her hometown of Philadelphia and she had every Beatles’ record and knew every song, and she was besotted by Noel. Then she asked him, “What do you do?”
‘He said,’ Abbot states,’ “Funnily enough, I’m in a band,” and then he caught himself, and said, “Well, I’m not sort of in it anymore,” and then he kind of pulled out and started complimenting the other side of America, the people who do appreciate, who do love music and how it affects them. Anyway, we got smashed with these people and swapped addresses, and she said, “When your band comes through Philadelphia why don’t you come round, we’d love to come and see your show.” Noel said, “Yeah, I’ll do that.”
‘And that was the watershed,’ says Abbot, ‘because he’d really been touched by this complete stranger. I think he suddenly realised the power, how he could share his love for The Beatles and for music and that he had a thing he could do.
‘So I said to him, “I’ll tell you what John Lennon would do. He’d go out on top with a final single. What you’ve gotta do is polish off the B-sides. So why don’t we go to Austin?” He said, “I’ll think about it.” Anyway, he slept on it and the next day, he went, “I’ve been thinking, shall we go to Austin?”’
Yes! Abbot quickly booked two flight tickets.
Funnily enough they arrived at Austin airport at exactly the same time as Owen Morris.
‘And that was pretty weird,’ the producer remarks, “’cos I turned up at the airport and Tim was there with Noel. Noel was like, “How are you?” I went, “All right, funny meeting you here, where’s the rest of the band?” Noel said, “Dunno, I’ve left the band. I want to do this session and that’s it.”
‘So we arrived at this hotel and Noel went straight to his room. I went down to the bar and all the band were there. They were like, “Is he all right?” and I said, “It’s all cool,” and started getting drunk with them. Then, about midnight, Noel came down and straight away it’s all love and kisses, and Liam, more than anyone, is like, “Come here brother.” Guigs and Bonehead were made up and it was all hunky dory.’
The next day, Oasis were back doing what they did best, playing music.
The first track they recorded was ‘(It’s Good) To Be Free’, a song that pitted, to great effect, Noel’s insidious guitar riffs against Bonehead’s electric piano. It was then wrapped in that powerful, unremitting and now-familiar Oasis sound.
They started about midday and by ten that night they had a rough mix of it. They put the music down first, so Liam stayed at the hotel. No way was he going to sit around waiting hours to do his vocal.
‘And this session,’ Owen recalls, ‘is when it really started to kick in with Tony McCarroll. Noel was in this booth by himself and he had a microphone shouting instructions to the rest of the band. Tony didn’t play it right the first time, second time, third time.
‘He got it right in about six goes and Noel was really getting annoyed at him, saying things like, “If you don’t get this right I’m gonna come out of here and kick your head in.” Eventually, he got the rhythm down and the rest of the band played their parts with Noel playing some amazing lead guitar. He was on this demented coke trip from the week before.
‘The next day, at about ten in the morning, we did “Talk Tonight”. Noel was still writing it but we did• it in about two hours. He just wrote it and sang it and that’s one of the best recordings. Amazing feel on it, totally brilliant.
‘Then the rest of the band turned up and Noel was like, “Ha ha, we’ve already recorded the track without you wankers.”
‘Then we did “Half The World Away”, which has got that shuffling drumbeat on it and Noel said to Tony, “You aren’t going near the drum kit on this one. Fuck off, right now.” So Noel played the drums on that.
‘Then I flew back to Britain the next day to start on The Verve album. The session was good, but very weird, very strange, that whole Tony vibe was very unpleasant.’
Both ‘Half The World Away’ and ‘Talk Tonight’ are major songs and beautifully realised statements. Noel started the latter in San Francisco and completed it in Austin before then writing ’Half The World Away’. For this song, Noel inverted the chords to Burt Bacharach’s ‘This Guy’s In Love With You’, added an electric piano which echoed that song’s theme, and in doing so produced an affecting ballad that would act as a poignant diary to his then emotional state: ’And when I leave this planet / You know I’d stay but I just can’t stand it / And I can feel the warning signs/ Running around my head.’
The themes of escape, panic and faraway loneliness are present also in the haunting ‘Talk Tonight’. This time Noel is a thousand million miles from home, sitting on his own, although there is still the Burnage boy inside reminding him of his luck:
‘Sleeping on a plane/ You know you can’t complain.’
It’s a fair bet, too, that when he wrote lines such as ‘You take me walking / To where you played when you were young,’ and ‘I landed, stranded / I hardly even knew your name,’ Noel had the woman from the Las Vegas casino in his mind, remembering her vivid teenage Beatle stories and, just as Abbot had noted, reminding himself of his initial impetus and the healing power of music. Now, he was thanking her as best he knew how, that is, in a song.
The American tour started up again on 14 October at the Uptown Bar in Minneapolis, the night Quentin
Tarantino’s film, Pulp Fiction, opened for business. Then it was Chicago on the 15th, Detroit on the 16th and Cleveland on the 18th.
At their Canadian debut, on the 18th at Lee’s Palace in Toronto, Patsy Kensit turned up to see Oasis for the first time. Her friend, Simon Halfon, a British sleeve designer who was living in the US at the time, had urged her to go and she duly attended, although it was some time before her and Liam got together.
Then it was down to the Local 186 in Allston the following night and forward then to Met’ s Cafe in Providence. The next show, the 9.30 club in Washington was, Marcus says, ‘a really rough gig’, and the band moved quickly out to finish the tour with two dates, one at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, the birthplace of Frank Sinatra, the first American pop star to be screamed at, and then concluding at Wetlands in New York, where key Epic employees, who had been informed of the bust-up in Los Angeles, attended the concert with some trepidation.
‘It was an amazing gig,’ Marcus states, ‘one of the very, very few times they’ve ever done an encore which is an indicator of how good they felt for that tour, because they had got through it.
‘By the end of that tour, which was the longest they’d ever done, they really were playing with a packed punch and the record company knew it had gone off the rails, and three weeks later we turn up in New York, and what they got was a mega rock ‘n’ roll band. It just added to the whole thing of who Oasis are.’
In between the furore in Los Angeles and the restart in Minneapolis, the new single, ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’, was released in the UK on 10 October. It came with the live version of ‘I Am The Walrus’ (attributed to the Cathouse in Glasgow), ‘Listen Up’, another real gem, plus the punk-style ‘Fade Away’.
It scooted into the charts at number seven and the accompanying video was easily their best yet. With the band looking both menacing and wasted, and with a bevy of similarly emaciated and trance-like models waiting for them in the dressing-room, this film updated the sex, rock ‘n’ roll and drugs culture, and placed it right in the middle of the 1990s. It was an old story told in new hands, and it brilliantly served its purpose. Now a million young men wanted to be in Oasis and a million young girls dreamt about getting their hands on them.