That first Oasis summer, 30 years ago, was a rush, a high, a hit. Three singles landed in four months, with giddy titles: “Supersonic” in April, “Shakermaker” in June and “Live Forever” in early August, just after school was out for summer. The album Definitely Maybe followed, its title a little more tentative, just before school started back. I was 16, and I wore their T-shirt for my first day of tertiary college, their logo my armour.
Oasis were very different to other working-class bands in 1994. While the Manic Street Preachers delved into poetry and philosophy and Suede into darkness and danger, Oasis sang about self-actualisation (“I need to be myself/I can’t be no one else”), manifesting success (“Tonight I’m a rock ’n’ roll star”), and a desperate desire for reinvention (“The way I feel is oh so new to me”). They were on their uppers and looking up, all class-A cockiness.
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