Oasis: Not slowing down

By • Nov 9th, 2007 • Category: Columns

The green room of Cardiff’s Millenium Stadium could have been any on Oasis’ massive world tour in support of “Don’t Believe the Truth,” the band’s sixth LP.

Band mates mull around among venue staff members, journalists trying to peg down an unknown side of the infamous Gallagher brothers, and a constant flow of onlookers. It’s a few hours before the gig, and a large group of people has gathered around and started shouting obscenities at an extravagant 3-foot bottle of champagne. Each takes a shot at removing the pear-sized cork lodged firmly atop the bottle. Tour managers, road-crew members, friends, everyone but an actual member of the iconic English group has a go-round at removing the Excalibur.

Eventually, Noel Gallagher, the mastermind behind one of the U.K. largest selling acts, takes a crack at breaking open the bubbly. The guitarist grimaces, spends a half-minute fidgeting with the top, and walks away, only to return moments later opening a smaller bottle of the same champagne with ease.

It might not be as lavish as sipping drinks poured from a several-gallon bottle of booze, but it certainly is easier. And at this stage in his career, Noel Gallagher isn’t much one for a struggle.

Yes, Cardiff could have been backstage at any of Oasis’ gig that year. But it just happens to be the one that filmmaker Baillie Walsh chose to open “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down.” The grainy, mostly black and white documentary released this week – the first official, band-sanctioned one – that follows Oasis from May 2005 to March 2006, from the U.K. to Japan to Australia through North America.

Taking its title from a previously unreleased song by the same name, one thing is clear from the opening-credits’ struggle with the liquor – Oasis still is the biggest band in the world. More than 15 years and 50 million worldwide album sales into the act’s illustrious career, the members finally have reached a point in which they seem satisfied interpersonally and professionally – although critical acclaim never has been an issue nor aim for the notoriously smug group of Brits.

Instead, the only two remaining original members – Noel and his front man brother, Liam – are content to sit back and let the rock’n'roll world come to them. And throughout the 100 minutes of “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down,” this never is clearer than during that opening sequence. As everyone around them struggles to get to the vortex of rockstar sex-and-drugs excess, shouting and laughing hardily, the Gallaghers watch it all relaxed, as uninterested in living up to their hard-partying habits as they are in answering journalists’ questions about them. Yet when the time comes for the final twist and removal of the cork, almost in unison the group calls Noel over to do the honors.

After all, he’s earned it. If it weren’t for him, none of the crowd would be backstage in Cardiff that night. They know it. He knows it. The filmmaker knows it. And it’s this understanding of the years of perseverance through unbelievable highs (many of them fueled by narcotics) and crippling lows (many of them also fueled by narcotics) that makes this the perfect time to follow the band.

It’s something that Noel Gallagher alludes to during an interview at the famous Hollywood Bowl.

“I’m glad this has come along at a time when we are old enough to appreciate it,” he says. “The year that we had ‘Morning Glory’ we were just to young and mental. I can’t remember any of those years.”

But other people can, especially the younger bands that supported Oasis during this extensive trek. It’s because of records such as 1994′s “Definitely Maybe,” which became the fastest selling debut in U.K. history, and subsequently one of the largest selling albums in modern-rock history, “[What's the Story] Morning Glory,” which allows a group at this juncture in its life to embark on it’s most expansive tour ever.

In fact, some of the most telling footage in “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down” features members of opening acts who were in their early teens when Oasis began its chart onslaught more than a decade ago. In one scene, before a sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden, the camera circles about the dressing room of Jet, the hard-rock revival band from Down Under. As the film crew weaves in between awestruck fans asking for autographs, the band perks up from signing posters and shaking hands with schoolboy giddiness the moment that Oasis emerges from the dressing room. In another scene much later in the film, critical darlings Kasabian can’t control their excitement after Noel Gallagher agrees to sign a birthday card for one of their members.

It’s this self-awareness that makes closing many concerts – including one at City of Manchester Stadium featured in its entirely on a bonus disc – with a cover of The Who’s “My Generation” a perfect ending. Oasis always has been a band of its generation. In the early ’90s they were brash newcomers battling the press, each other and any band in their path. They possessed both the blinding invincibility and crippling self-consciousness of any 20-something male. Today, they are in their late 30s and early 40s; and while the harshness of their youth still is there, it’s filtered through a mature caution.

This is evident throughout “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down,” and especially during the performance footage of the classic Who track. When it comes time for Liam Gallagher to belt out the unforgettable lyric, “Why don’t you all just fade away,” the last two words repeatedly are left out. When the band began including this tune in its live sets a few years ago, nothing was edited out. Altering the line is a new occurance. It’s as if the singer now is mindful that without his crowd he’d be singing to no one. And despite his claims over the years that he’d be the same character with or without his success, in or not in a band, choosing to edit the stanza to a more accepting and open-ended verse says otherwise.

He doesn’t want us to fade away. And for the first time, he seems to be slightly OK admitting it.

“Lord Don’t Slow Me Down” doesn’t fully pull back the curtain on the great and powerful Oasis, but it does find them peaking their heads out from behind it a bit more often. Now, when Liam Gallagher rips into acts such as Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party and Scissor Sisters, he follows up the insults by saying, “I’m sure they are all nice people. … I think these people take it personally [when I don't like their music], like I’m saying I want them to get hit by a bus tomorrow.” It’s still outspoken, but a far cry from years ago when he proclaimed that he wanted members of rival Blur to contract AIDS and die.

The Gallaghers no longer seem at odds with the world, they have reached the level of aloof superstardom that they always pretended to have. Before, when answering questions about their well-documented feuding, the duo would either deny it aggressively or play up the roles of being each other’s nemesis. Not anymore, as each of the numerous interviewers in the documentary who asks about their relationship is met with a cordial response on how the fighting was exaggerated and how the questions about the fighting are inevitable.

Oasis still is the biggest band in the world, and the biggest band in the world doesn’t have anything to prove. Not to journalists hoping to ignite the feuds that they read so much about a decade ago. Not to record label executives hoping for high sales. Certainly not to each other. And it’s about time that the Gallaghers realized that. Although Liam arguably is the greatest front man of his generation, and Noel has penned more chart-topping songs than most people could dream of, the two continually have paraded around with a chip the size of Buckingham Palace on their shoulders. But much like the monarchy, the mystique of that chip has eroded in recent years.

Without doubt, that is because of the band’s current lineup.

The elder Gallagher has loosened his grip on the songwriting monopoly, and as the band’s roster has grown to include more established musicians, the freedoms within the group also have expanded. Whereas Oasis once was ruled by Noel’s iron first, it now is closer to a democracy than it ever has been. Granted, his leadership technique might have changed simply with age, but there is no denying that a looser Noel arrived at the same time as the band’s current personnel.

Bassist Andy Bell already was a U.K. celebrity when he joined the band in 2000, having been a member of shoegazer pioneers Ride. Although guitarist Gem Archer never had the critical or commercial success as his current bandmates, while a member of Heavy Stereo he acquired a cult following throughout much of the U.K. because of the same songwriting that Noel Gallagher later would refer to as, “his musical soul mate.” And of all the clout now in Oasis, touring drummer Zak Starkey might have the most of all. As the son of Ringo Starr, the part-time member seemed the least phased and the least interested in getting a photo when the former Beatle stopped by the tour.

It’s this developing level of equality in Oasis that “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down” captures in a hotel room in Japan. As the brothers down a few pints and shout at the TV during a game by their beloved Manchester City soccer team, Archer and Bell retreat to another room with an acoustic guitar to work out a few notes that they’ve had stuck in their heads. What becomes of the song never makes it into the film, but that it could have is more important – Oasis no longer is an avenue only for Gallagher’s songs. He trusts his band mates more than he ever has.

Which makes some of the most compelling moments in the film the hidden-camera scenes featuring the four friends. Seeing the group laughing together, telling jokes, pulling pranks and interacting like teenagers almost makes us forget that Oasis is big business, and that this tour is a fine-tuned machine costing (and making) millions of dollars. Millionaires don’t sit backstage betting only pocket change on games of “Frustration.” (Similar to the board game “Sorry”). Superstars don’t have to put lubricant on their earplugs to get them to fit properly. Future Hall of Famers don’t launch into in-depth conversations about why “Cocktail” is the only good Tom Cruise movie, or pretend to ride their guitars around like horses to entertain children who won a meet-and-greet contest.

But today’s Oasis does, and it’s something you never would have seen a decade ago. Back when the band thought it was the biggest group in the world – versus today when they know that they are – it was all about fear. Fear of failure. Fear of criticism. Fear of each other. Not anymore. Now the band is comfortable to razz one another, like during the audio commentary when Archer and Bell make fun of the brothers for dressing the same in Japan, musing that the pair’s mother picked out their clothes and packed them matching lunches for the trip. Or when the filmmakers capture Liam Gallagher dancing in front of a mirror in his dressing room, footage that his band mates reminded the singer of frequently throughout the commentary track.

Through birthday parties, award shows, and ultimately more than 110 tour dates spread over 10 months, “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down” captures an act finally at peace knowing that taking photos with fans might “make their year,” or that journalists ask stupid questions in interviews not because they are dumb but because they are nervous.

Most importantly, “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down” captures one of rock’s greatest outfits transitioning through a vital time. It’s something that no amount of singing fans camped beneath the band’s hotel windows, magazine-readers’ polls, or critical adoration ever properly could celebrate and appreciate.

Few people know what it feels like to crack open a 3-foot bottle of champagne. But even fewer people know what it’s like to be the biggest band in the world. But thanks to “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down,” some of us regular folks can see what it’s like to be Noel Gallagher – even if for just 100 minutes.

Northwest Herald, Nov. 9, 2007

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