Oasis's Definitely Maybe at 30: "We've got to get in the charts and stamp Phil Collins out!"

"If we’re gonna get rid of Phil Collins and Sting – junk food music, McDonald’s music – we’ve got to get in the charts and stamp ‘em out."

In unearthed footage from 2016 documentary Supersonic, Noel Gallagher is unapologetic in outlining Oasis’s ambitions from the off. Complete chart domination is the only viable outcome. 

That, and the decapitated noggin of a Genesis drummer. 

"I want the severed head of Phil Collins in my fridge by the end of this decade. And if I haven’t, I’ll be a failure."

It’s July 1994. The UK is four years into a Tory term under John Major, and Wet Wet Wet’s Love Is All Around is the country’s Number 1 single for the fifth week running. The likes of Ace of Base, Mariah Carey and East 17 are also troubling the Top 40 with some sickly-sweet, though evidently very popular, offerings.

The soundbed underpinning British culture certainly isn't to Liam Gallagher's taste. "The whole [of Manchester] was immersed in this music that didn't make sense to me," he goes on to explain in 2016.

The absence of rock ‘n’ roll is obvious. Then, in crash five rowdy Mancunians with their debut release, Supersonic.

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Penned by Noel in ‘however long it takes six other guys to eat a Chinese meal,’ Supersonic immediately catapults brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, rhythm guitarist Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs, bassist Paul ‘Guigsy’ McGuigan and drummer Tony McCarroll into the British zeitgeist. 

The track goes straight in at Number 32 on the Official Singles Chart and, faster than you can say 'mad fer it,' Oasis are making their prime-time TV debut on suitably-raucous Channel 4 show The Word. 

"We weren’t the best musicians, but we had spirit, man," explains Noel in the Supersonic documentary, "and that was lacking massively at that point."

A new era of British rock music had arrived. One more boisterous, belligerent and representative of the people for which it spoke.

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All hailing from Greater Manchester - from Longsight to Levenshulme - Oasis knew not of poncy, mid-nineties London hedonism. Theirs was a very different hedonism indeed. If London's cigarettes and alcohol was Montecristo and Macallan, Manchester's was a rollie and a can of Boddingtons.

It was the band's humble beginnings that saw them, somewhat inadvertently, appointed a voice for the working classes.

"The songs were all-inclusive," Noel explained in conversation with John Robb recently. "They weren't elitist in any way."

The spirit of Oasis permeated the public consciousness. This was a band for the people.

Two more singles followed Supersonic in quick succession, each outperforming the last. Shakermaker went straight in at Number 11 that same July. Live Forever did one better as it debuted at Number 10 just one month later.

In a 2003 interview, Noel spoke of Oasis's success straight out the gate, reflecting: "As soon as the first record came out, it was pretty much accepted. We were pretty accepted.

"After about the first minute of Supersonic, people just went 'oof, that’s it!' As soon as you get to the chorus of Supersonic…everybody else, sit down, go to the chippy…You know, we’re in charge."

Though the journey to Definitely Maybe's release wasn't quite so speedy.

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First recorded at Monnow Valley Studio in Monmouthshire, Wales in late 1993, Definitely Maybe originally had producer Dave Batchelor at its helm.

Though already pals from Noel's time working as a roadie for Oldham band Inspiral Carpets, their artistic differences soon became apparent.

"I met [Dave] and we had the same record collection," Noel told MOJO in 1995. "We spoke about how [Definitely Maybe] should sound and I thought, fine.

"But he’s so old - he’s in his 50s, does front-of-house for Ray Davies and stuff - and I’m, like, 27. When it came to sitting at the mixing desk and I’m like pissed and saying, "Let’s get a bit mad here, let’s really let go and be young and compress the shit out of this so that the speakers blow up," he’d go, "Nope, 'cause this is the way we done it in our day, son."

In its original form, Definitely Maybe failed to capture Oasis's innate deviltry. After all, by Noel's admission, their music was "about being alive and having a good time, about being happy, about enjoying yourself."

"It was thin. Weak. Too clean," Bonehead concurred in John Harris's 2004 book Britpop!: Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock.

Batchelor's sessions were subsequently scrapped, and it was back to square one.

Oasis then set about re-recording the LP at Cornwall's Sawmills Studios, alongside producer Mark Coyle.

Again, Gallagher and Coyle's visions for the record didn't align.

"It sounded fucking shit," Noel recently recalled in conversation with John Robb.

"I remember taking a final mix that we did with Mark to [Creation label boss Alan] McGee’s flat, and sensing that he was completely underwhelmed by it."

"I remember thinking 'I give up.'"

It was then that manager Marcus Russell put Definitely Maybe in the hands of engineer and producer Owen Morris, and a Britpop behemoth was born.

This was proper, lightning in a bottle stuff.

For all its false starts, Definitely Maybe's commercial success was immediate.

The record went straight in at Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart in August 1994, becoming the fastest-selling debut album in British music history at the time.

"The album’s gone straight in at Number 1; above Pavarotti, above Prince, even above Elvis Presley," guitarist Guigsy said at the time. "It’s the fastest-selling debut album of all time in England, and quite deservedly so!"

To date, Definitely Maybe has shifted a total of 2.6 million chart units in the UK. It remains the group's second biggest-selling album, with 1995 follow-up (What's The Story) Morning Glory? currently standing at a total of 5.2 million UK chart units.

Third single Live Forever is the album's most-streamed track to date. With 162 million combined UK streams and counting, it's the group's fourth most-streamed song of all time.

So, as it celebrates its 30th anniversary, what's the true legacy of Definitely Maybe?

It's one that transcends time. Generations. Transcends class and knows not of pretence.

"The songs are timeless," says Noel. "They deal with universal truths. Cigarettes & Alcohol applies to every young kid, even now."

Oasis's Definitely Maybe (30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) is released August 30 via Big Brother Recordings.

Article images: Getty/Michel Linssen/Redferns.