The girl who inspired Oasis’ “Talk Tonight”, Melissa Lim, has finally been found!
Melissa first met Noel Gallagher in the backstage at the Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco on September 26th, 1994, while Oasis were making their San Francisco live debut supporting their first album ‘Definitely Maybe’.
“He came over and sat down next to me”, she said.
“I had never been backstage before, so I asked him ‘Where’s the afterparty?’ and he goes ‘What afterparty? Can I hang out with you tonight?”.
This encounter would have a huge part in Oasis‘ formative years, chronicled in Matt Whitecross‘ documentary ‘Supersonic’.
Three days after this first intercourse, following a terrible gig at the Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles, Noel had a fight with his brother Liam and decided that he’d had enough.
He took a flight to San Francisco and went hiding at Melissa’s apartment in lower Nob Hill.
“He was very upset. I took him in, I fed him and tried to calm him down. He wanted to break up the band.”
“We went to Huntington Park to clear his mind. We listened to music. We went record shopping.”
One day, Melissa went out to get her usual supply of Snapple Strawberry Lemonade and she brought back home some British music magazines. All of them included features on Oasis.
“San Francisco has a reputation of being a place where bands come to die, like the band and the Sex Pistols”, she said. “I wasn’t going to let it happen on my watch. I told him ‘You can’t leave the band, you’re on the verge of something big!'”.
During the documentary “Supersonic”, without saying her name specifically, Oasis‘ producer Mark Coyle says that Melissa was a “spiritual animal” who took Noel under her wing and set him straight.
Noel’s memories of his time with Melissa are less clear.
In the documentary he says:
“If I close my eyes now, I can’t even picture the girl. I can’t remember her name.”
However, nobody can deny that Melissa played a fundamental role in Oasis‘ story.
When Noel finally decided to go back to the band, one of the first things he did was to check into a studio in Austin, where he recorded ‘Talk Tonight’.
“All your dreams are made / Of strawberry lemonade / And you make sure I eat today / You take me walking / To where you played when you were young.”
On the chorus, Noel sings:
“I want to talk tonight / Until the morning light / ‘Bout how you saved my life”.
Noel stayed in touch with Melissa while the tour continued, and she met Oasis while they were shooting the video for the song ‘Supersonic’ at the Cabezon Dinosaurs in Southern California.
The two were also talking on the phone pretty regularly, and Melissa was answering Noel’s calls with a line from the movie Bye Bye Birdie: “What’s the story, morning glory?”.
This long-distance relationship ended when Noel met his future wife, Meg Matthews, at the end of 1994.
When Oasis went back to San Francisco in 1995, Melissa said that Noel was distant. However, hoping to maintain their relationship, she told him:
“It’s ok, I won’t look back in anger. I know we’re just friends.”
Watching ‘Supersonic’, Melissa said she was disappointed by Noel’s callous attitude about the time they spent together in the US.
“Keith Richards can remember the name of his milkman from when he was 8 years old”, she said. “I don’t know what’s going on with Noel, and that’s fine. I was a part of something that touched so many people. That’s good enough.”
Source: SFChronicle