“Shit recordings”: the Oasis album Noel Gallagher will always regret

Posted On May 17, 2025May 17, 2025

From recording demos at Manchester’s Boardwalk to headlining multiple nights at Knebworth, the rise of Oasis to success was rapid and colossal. With that rise to prominence came ample opportunity for the band themselves to live an archetypal rock and roll lifestyle, and they certainly took advantage of that fact. Still, existing on a cocktail of drugs, alcohol, and very little sleep was not a recipe for harmony, and songwriter Noel Gallagher still has some regrets over Oasis’ heyday back in the 1990s. 

It was Gallagher’s songwriting mastery which first put Oasis on the map, with early triumphs like ‘Columbia’ and ‘Supersonic’ elevating Oasis from indie heroes to mainstream giants. Still, the songwriter always seemed slightly more mellow and considered than his anarchic brother, Liam. Noel placed ultimate focus on the quality of the music and the band’s output, rather than the trimmings of rock and roll excess that captivated the rest of the group.

In the run-up to their debut, Oasis were able to balance this rock lifestyle with an unparalleled musical output with effortless grace but, as the years went on and the budgets became bigger, the wheels quickly began to fall off. After all, the group was still relatively unknown by the time Definitely Maybe was written and recorded, and many of the tracks featured in the follow-up, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory, had been written around the same time, too.

So, when the band came to work on their hotly anticipated third record, Be Here Now, they were living completely different lives than they had been during the days of Definitely Maybe. One of the biggest rock bands on the face of the planet, with an endless supply of drugs, booze, and money, Oasis would struggle to go back to writing universally relatable anthems like ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’.

“I was so engrossed in what Oasis had become,” Gallagher later recalled of the album’s recording process. “I found it difficult to think outside of those parameters. Once you start buying fur coats, there’s a tipping point. You can’t still write songs about the man in the street after that.” Couple that change in lifestyle with the unparalleled press attention and fan expectations placed upon the group, and Be Here Now was always destined to fail.

Except, of course, the album wasn’t a failure – at least in a commercial sense. Upon its release, the album became the fastest-selling record in British musical history, topping the UK album chart and reaching number two in the US. In terms of the musical quality of the album, however, Be Here Now was severely lacking in comparison to its predecessors. Seemingly, that feeling was palpable during the recording process.

Co-producer Owen Morris, who had worked on the band’s first two records as well, said of the Be Here Now sessions, “The only reason anyone was there was the money.”

He told Q, “Noel had decided Liam was a shit singer. Liam decided he hated Noel’s songs. So on we went. Massive amounts of drugs. Big fights. Bad vibes. Shit recordings.”

Be Here Now certainly has its supporters, but Noel Gallagher is not one of them. Ever since its initial release, the songwriter has spoken of his disappointment in the album and the idea that Oasis should have instead released The Masterplan as their third record. “That’s the one regret I have as a songwriter,” he once declared. “It would have been a different story completely.”

As far as regrets go, creating one of the biggest albums in the history of British music is not a catastrophic one. However, it speaks to the intense quality of Oasis during their Britpop heyday that an album as successful and lauded as Be Here Now could be considered a failure.

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