Oasis should never have made Be Here Now when they did, according to Noel Gallagher.
Despite being bullish around the time of its release, the Oasis songwriter now claims that the band’s overblown 1997 album was recorded too soon after their hugely successful second LP What’s the Story (Morning Glory)?
During a video interview with Vevo, Gallagher said: “I only say this now, looking back on it after 20 years … we should never have made that record then. 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 fucking 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.”
He added: “That maybe wasn’t the best idea. Morning Glory hadn’t really run its course then. It was probably still number one in England, it was definitely still top five in the States. And yet, there we were, going into the studio, effectively trying to make another album to kill it, which was ridiculous.”
Gallagher also claimed that the band should have been talked out of making the record when they did. He said: “I often think, looking back, the people around us who were in the music business for 20 years before we got there should really have said something.”
Be Here Now received rave reviews at the time of its release, and saw fans queuing outside record shops to buy it. But it has since gained a reputation as being an act of cocaine-addled folly, full of overlong songs and nonsensical lyrics.