WHEN Oasis announced they were reforming last year, most of the nation gasped in shock, got super- excited . . . and then went back to their daily lives.
But for some, the reunion was what they had spent years of their lives discussing, analysing and hoping, wishing and praying for.
Emily Cleary met future husband Jamie as a teenager on a bus to her first Oasis gig[/caption]
Because when original members Liam, Noel, Bonehead, Guigsy and Tony McCarroll burst on to the scene in 1994, Oasis changed their lives for ever.
Here, we speak to five superfans who met their partners or found their calling through the band.
“I always loved bumping into this guy who had been on the journey with me from the start” – Emily Cleary
MUM-OF-TWO Emily, 47, from Gerrards Cross, Bucks, met future husband Jamie as a teenager at her first Oasis gig. She says:
“I first set eyes on Jamie when I sat next to him on an eight-hour coach trip to Paris in 1995.
Emily and Jamie are now married with two children[/caption]
Emily at age 16, the year she met Jamie[/caption]
And After All: A Fan History Of Oasis tells the story of the band’s superfans[/caption]
I was 16 and had somehow convinced my mum I would be perfectly safe travelling with a group of four boys to the French capital to watch a rock ’n’ roll band play at the Bataclan.
While my girl friends were into Take That, I was obsessed with Oasis.
And as we boarded the 5am bus from London’s Victoria, I sat down next to Jamie, who I only knew through mutual friends.
We travelled to Paris, watched Oasis bring the house down, and I returned a lifelong fan.
The gig was amazing, so we decided to go to Glastonbury to watch them a few months later.
That appearance at Glasto was the first time we heard Don’t Look Back In Anger, and I remember my spine tingling as I looked at Jamie.
This was something special.
Time passed and over the next ten years I saw Oasis at Knebworth, Earls Court, Wembley and more.
Sometimes I’d bump into Jamie and I’d always love seeing this guy who had been on the Oasis journey with me from the beginning – and I rather fancied him.
Emily and Jamie’s inscribed wedding rings[/caption]
As I approached 30, Facebook was invented and Jamie and I got back in touch properly.
We started to plan a Glastonbury trip and book gigs to go to, including Oasis at the Eden Project.
Friendship developed into more, and soon we were a couple.
So in July 2009 and newly engaged, off we traipsed to Cornwall to watch what was to be one of their last gigs.
Shortly after failing to catch Liam’s tambourine, we got married, and now have two kids.
The first song played when we were married was Live Forever, and our wedding rings are both inscribed with “Live Forever”.
On Friday, Jamie and I, plus two of the original Paris group, will travel to Cardiff to see Oasis’s first reunion gig.
A month later we will take our kids to Wembley to watch them.
Everything has come full circle.”
“After I met Justin briefly at a concert, the universe just kept throwing us back together” – Lisa Marks
LISA, 41, from Canada, met her husband Justin through their love of Oasis – and named her children after them. She says:
“My son Liam, 13, was named after, well, Liam, and my 11-year-old daughter Jill is named after one of the band’s most legendary photographers, Jill Furmanovsky.
Lisa with her hero Noel[/caption]
Lisa with Liam, who she named her son after[/caption]
But it didn’t just inspire my parenting, it shaped my entire life. I met Justin through a shared love of the band
We walked down the aisle to Round Are Way, and even had ‘OASISGRL’ as the licence plate on my old Pontiac.
I first discovered Oasis aged 12 in 1996.
The song I love the most is Whatever. I had a hard time in school.
I was bullied and ended up changing schools.
It made me feel, ‘F*** you all. I’m going to be whatever I want to be’.
While my classmates went mad for the Spice Girls, I launched The Liam Lover’s Club, sold Oasis bootlegs on eBay and had the email address “timeforliam”.
Then on June 17, 2005, I met Justin briefly at an Oasis gig.
Lisa reconnected with Justin at a Noel solo gig[/caption]
I was in a relationship at the time, but we stayed in touch through MSN Messenger, swapping messages about Oasis news and ticket sales.
Later, when I was single in 2006, I reconnected with him while buying a gift at HMV – after spotting a Liam Gallagher photo taped to the till and discovering from the cashier that Noel would be playing locally.
When I messaged Justin about it he revealed that he was working at HMV, it was his picture of Liam taped to the till that I’d seen and it was his tip – from a music industry pal – that I’d heard about.
The universe just kept throwing us back together.
We reunited at a Noel acoustic gig in November 2006 and got together not long after.
It was so corny but our first kiss was while Wonderwall was playing.
We married in September 2010, with matching rings engraved with “I U OASISGRL” and “And7 we can slide away”.
- Lisa also tells her story in And After All: A Fan History Of Oasis by Melissa Locker. Re- printed by permission of Gallery Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC
“I’ve been mistaken for Liam” – Steve Brown
THE 46-year-old from Basildon, Essex, went from fan to lead singer in tribute band Oasiz. He says:
“From the moment I clapped eyes on Oasis blasting out Some Might Say on Top Of The Pops in 1995, I knew life would never be the same.
Steve Brown went from fan to lead singer in tribute band Oasiz[/caption]
I was just 16. I went from having a curtains haircut and listening to Whigfield to having the basin haircut, getting the baggy checked shirts and walking around in shades even when the sun wasn’t out.
I kept scrapbooks with every news-paper cutting.
No matter how small it might seem, like news Liam had had a haircut, I’d make sure I had it.
Within weeks, I’d started teaching myself how to play the guitar.
I started writing songs and then in 2005 I formed Oasiz, with my older brother Marcus as Noel, while still working a day job in exports.
Five years later, I went full-time, performing as Liam Gallagher in the tribute band but also doing solo gigs in character.
In 2023 a video I performed in racked up more than half a million views, with some fans convinced I was the real Liam.
But Oasis didn’t just shape my career, the band shaped my entire life.
I met Gary Ayres, the bassist in Oasiz, 25 years ago and we’re still best mates.
And while gigging at a hotel in Ibiza in 2012, I met Melanie, then 33 and on holiday with family.
The spark was instant and we married just six months later.”
“I started calling people Our Kid” – Felix White
FELIX, 40, is guitarist for indie band The Maccabees and a presenter on cricket podcast Tailenders. He says:
“(What’s The Story) Morning Glory? became the first LP I owned. It was better than any-thing I could have ever imagined.
The Maccabees’ guitarist Felix White grew up as a huge Oasis fan[/caption]
Oasis had taken my confusion and searching and turned it into words.
The information that they sent into my infatuated mind, however, could at times be quite confusing.
Rock ’n’ roll was the only form of music worth listening to. Got it. The Boyzone and Eternal tapes were dispensed to the bin.
Guitars were the best. Yep. Synthesisers were terrible. I didn’t know what one was, but agreed.
Rock ’n’ roll was about being yourself. Noted.
It’s just that in the same breath, they seemed to not approve of anyone who was ‘themselves’ and wasn’t, well, them.
Fashioning an upbringing from Burnage, Manchester, when you live next to Wandsworth Common in South London is a complicated manoeuvring act.
But I had faith that I could achieve it if I made sure I was exposed to Oasis at all times of the day.
Before I’d sleep I would plan what Oasis song I would listen to first thing the next morning, fast-forwarding the cassette to the position.
I learned the interviews completely by heart. I would now refer to people as ‘our kid’.
I looked at Noel Gallagher on the cover of There And Then, the live Oasis video.
I studied every face in the crowd fixed exclusively on him, all joined together in communal worship.
He had achieved all that with a guitar. I knew the only way to make sense of my life from here was to, somehow, get myself there too.”
- It’s Always Summer Somewhere: A Matter Of Life And Cricket, by Felix White, £9.99, published by Cassell.
“No Oasis? I’d be pretty boring” – Rob Fiddaman
THE DJ, music historian and radio host, from Stoke-on-Trent, got in early on collecting Oasis memorabilia. He says:
“I was 17, driving home, when Live Forever came on the radio.
Rob Fiddaman got in early on collecting Oasis memorabilia[/caption]
We were so used to hearing boybands crooning on bar stools, but to hear this guitar-driven music on the radio changed everything.
I went to see Oasis in 1996 at Knebworth and that sealed the deal.
I’d always been a music collector, but around 2010 I noticed that no one was selling Oasis memorabilia.
So, I started buying bits and bobs for fun.
Then I got a phone call from Alan McGee, the record label owner who’d signed Oasis in 1993.
‘Either you’re f***ing mad, or you’re a genius,’ he said to me.
And he asked me to sell some of his Oasis stuff for charity.
Then I started selling and valuing things for ex-bandmembers too.
In 2014, the band’s managers asked me to value items for the exhibition Oasis: Chasing The Sun.
On opening night, I was a bit early so I went to the pub next door.
I walked in and a guy went, ‘Hi Rob!’ It was Brian Cannon, who was the band’s original art director.
He introduced me to Paul Gallagher, Liam and Noel’s brother.
Then Bonehead joined us, by which point I was feeling pretty rock ’n’ roll.
Then the guys said, ‘We’re going to meet Liam now.
And, soon enough, I was drinking pornstar martinis with my idol.
Over the years, I’ve somehow become the go-to Oasis guy.
I’ve made 100 BBC appearances and written a book, Buying Into Britpop.
I’m constantly DJ-ing, and I’ve just set up my own record label, Deadly Records.
Oasis changed my life. Without them, I’d be a pretty boring guy.”
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