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Noel Gallagher Discusses ‘Be Here Now,’ Oasis’ ‘Missed Opportunity’

By Dustin Wicksell
Published on: 03:46 PST, Oct 15, 2016

Noel Gallagher has recently opened up about Be Here Now, the highly anticipated third album by his former band which the singer-songwriter now calls Oasis’ “missed opportunity.”

Much maligned by its author over the years, Be Here Now was released in 1997, hot on the heels of the band’s epochal sophomore effort, What’s The Story Morning Glory? According to Gallagher, the relentless march of time has given him enough perspective to see that Be Here Now was a record born at the wrong moment, as NME reports.

“I only say this now, looking back on it after 20 years…. we should never have made that record then. ‘Cause we came off the back of that American tour which was, again, the third tour in a row that we never completed. And I came back to the airport and the f***ing world’s press was there and instead of going, ‘Right, we should just go our separate ways for a year or two,’ we decided like idiots to go straight into the studio.”

In a new 30 minute video posted to the band’s Vevo channel, Gallagher acknowledges that Morning Glory “hadn’t really run its course” by the time the band set out to record its follow up, still holding high chart positions both in America and England. The Oasis songsmith, who tours now with his own band, the High Flying Birds, also revealed that Be Here Now had a difficult birth, with recording sessions taking place in no less than three separate studios.

While Gallagher notes that he should have taken more time before starting work on Be Here Now, he also admitted that Oasis’ management was concerned that stalling their momentum would have caused the entire phenomenon surrounding the band to implode, as Rolling Stone reported.

“I don’t think anybody will ever be able to fully explain to people, who are maybe like teenagers now, what a colossal thing Oasis was in the lives of anybody who gave a s*** about music. It was massive… I do festivals all over the world, and there are big bands. F***ing Oasis was a hundred times bigger than all of them put together.”

While released to critical scorn at first, Be Here Now has nonetheless gone on to become a favorite album for some fans, largely due to precisely the rock star excesses that define it. The record’s creator, however, cites the final mix as Be Here Now‘s most glaring flaw. Lead single D’you Know What I Mean, for example, featured a hundred guitars “all doing the same thing,” which Gallagher discovered while remixing the track for the album’s remastered reissue, which was released this week.

That reissue is set to give fans of Oasis’ halcyon days far more than they could have ever asked for. In addition to the remixed version of D’you Know What I Mean (referred to as “NG’s 2016 Rethink”), the reissue includes demos of unreleased songs, including If We Shadows, featured alongside early versions of many of the album’s core tunes and B-sides. Originally recorded on the Caribbean island of Mustique and sung by Noel, they give a unique perspective on the genesis of Be Here Now, revealing rawer, nascent takes on much of the material.

While Be Here Now may be nearly two decades old, the record still marks the heyday of one of the biggest bands the British Isles ever produced, and stands as an achievement only they could have produced. A one-of-a-kind album that still divides its creator from some of his most ardent fans, Be Here Now gives those same acolytes a unique window into the rock and roll “chaos” that followed Oasis in the wake of their ascent to fame.

[Featured Image by Mauricio Santana/Getty Images]

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