Oasis had hidden at least as many hits as b-sides as they had released on their albums. Their sales figures had proven that their singles could sell records, but among the fans it was well known that you risked missing their best songs if you only bought their albums. So what was Oasis to do then? The answer was The Masterplan, a collection of b-sides that showed Oasis at their prime. Initial sales were strong, but the album quickly started showing up in used record stores. Reviews were hardly scathing, but things would never again be as they were for Oasis. Less than a year later, the most anticipated and hyped album of their careers, Be Here Now, was released. While by that time, it was nothing new for band members to walk off stage, or disappear during tours, in hindsight the summer after Morning Glory was when Oasis started coming back down to earth. The next month, it was Noel's turn to leave, when he abruptly returned home to England in the middle of an American tour after a fight with Liam. At the taping of their MTV Unplugged special, lead singer Liam Gallagher pulled out at the last second, forcing brother Noel to take over vocals.

But just two weeks later, the cracks in the band started to show. Oasis played to 250,000 people over two days at Knebworth, and it looked as though their momentum was unstoppable. So where did it all go wrong?Īugust 1996 saw two of the biggest concerts in the history of the world.

They were hitting heights that bands since the Beatles and the Rolling Stones had struggled, and mostly failed to hit. 1995's (What's The Story) Morning Glory was the record that made them stars worldwide, and the songs from that album did a lot to define the sound of Britain, not to mention the entire world, during that time.

Since the release of their debut album, Definitely Maybe, they were breaking attendance records for concerts, selling millions upon millions of records all over the world, and taking guitar music back from American bands. They're still a huge live draw, and they've managed to outlive many of their Britpop alumni, but the days when Oasis made headlines for record sales instead of bar fights have past. Has Oasis' peak past? If you ask Liam Gallagher he'll probably tell you that they're still the biggest band in the world, but the general consensus is that they'll never be as big as they once were.

The swamp song materplan