Alex Taylor
Culture reporter
As Oasis prepare to dominate stadiums next year, it’s worth remembering the typically helter skelter way in which the band were originally signed.
The events are steeped in rock and roll mythology.
On 1 May 1993, Oasis decide, on a whim, to make the 200-mile (320km) trip across the border to Glasgow, to gatecrash onto the bill of a gig their friends (The Sister Lovers) are playing at King Tuts Wah Wah Hut.
After fighting to get themselves onto the bill, they have to settle for an early slot. But the stars align. In the sparse crowd sits Alan McGee, boss of Creation Records, home to Teenage Fanclub, The Boo Radleys and Primal Scream.
He claims a terrible day had seen him miss his train and pop into the bar for a quick drink.
It proved a life-changing pint.
“There was one kid just sitting at a table, and he looked amazing… handsome… like Paul Weller. I had no idea this was Liam [Gallagher],” McGee said.
“Sure enough this band came on with this kid as the front man. He was so confrontational as a front man, that you just thought ‘god, he’s really got attitude’,” McGee reflected, saying that by the third song “I’d already decided I was going to sign them”.
Alan McGee on stage with Oasis at the Brit Awards in 1996
Speaking on the BBC’s Rise and Fall of Oasis podcast, 6 Music DJ Steve Lamacq tempered the story, but added “it all depends on which version you want to believe”.
But, he continues, “they’ve played less than 20 gigs at this stage. How many bands get signed having done less than 20 gigs? There was obviously electricity in the air”.
Three decades on, the story continues, ready to delight, divide (and make) millions.
Seatbelts on.
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