“I first saw Oasis that night at King Tuts Wah Wah Hut [in Glasgow, supporting 18 Weeler on May 31, 1993], I knew literally nothing about them. I hadn’ t heard anything. I was trying to grab a girl that I was kind of semi-involved with [Debbie Turner, from Manchester indie group Sister Lovers], and she brought them up for that gig, and asked me to check them out.
“I only made the connection afterwards, but much earlier, in September ‘92 maybe, she took me to the rehearsal studio she shared with them in Manchester, and there was the Oasis Union Jack on the wall. I said, ‘Who is that band – are they fascists?’ And she went, ‘Yeah!’ That was as near as I got to knowing about them, before seeing them in Glasgow.
“People have embellished the story like I nearly missed them – I never missed the train or anything – and I showed up because I was chasing Debbie. I didn’ t have a fucking clue who they were. Suddenly, it was them onstage, and it was, ‘Fuck, they’ re amazing!’ And straight after, I said, ‘Do you want a deal?’ That was totally how it happened. I know people go, ‘He knew!’ I fucking didn’t know. Ask Noel, and he will tell you the same thing. It was a fucking fluke. But I will say, to counter that: it takes a certain mentality to go on a Bank Holiday Sunday to see a show with four little bands. You have to make your own luck, and I made mine.
“I don’ t think I really knew what I was seeing. I saw a brilliant group but at the time I don’ t think I really knew they were superstars. You know, I had put out a lot of good records by that point – Screamadelica, Loveless, Bandwagonesque, and I’d been involved with Psychocandy. It wasn’t as if I didn’t know how to get a good record out of people. I had done that a few times, and I probably just thought it was another one of those – it was going to be a Primals, a Valentines, a Fanclub, a Mary Chain, a House Of Love or a Sugar – one of these bands that gave Creation a lot of credibility, but would probably sell worldwide half a million to a million records. And you know, if you get to headline Brixton Academy, what a wonderful achievement – if 5,000 people show up in London, you’re successful!
“So, I just thought it was a good band. I signed the records to Creation, and the publishing through Creation to Sony as well. At that point, I don’t think I really realised what they had, songs-wise. I didn’t even hear Live Forever until two or three months into our involvement. I was on the beach in Maui, and a UPS guy came and found me and gave me a cassette. I put it in my Walkman, and it was Live Forever!
“Noel used to sit around my flat, just me and him, and he would look at me and go, ‘We are the best band in the world!’ In my head, I’m thinking, ‘It’ s just me and you talking, you can calm down, there’ s no journalist here, you don’ t need to fucking say it!’ But that’s how mad that band was – he was in the best band in the world, and he saw it, and the belief was so strong. Most times when people say that to you, 99.5% of people – you know deep down they don’ t really think that. With Noel it was so mental, it actually ended up being true. They were absolute fucking superstars.
“There were a lot of false starts to actually recording Definitely Maybe. We recorded it with Dave Batchelor, and it didn’t work out. Then we re-recorded it with Mark Coyle and Anjali Dutt, and they recorded it great, but then neither of them could really mix it – weird, because both of them were really good otherwise. Then we tried lots of different people.
“In the middle of all that, I ended up in rehab, not because of Oasis, just because of my own fucking madness. So Noel and [Oasis, and also Johnny Marr’s manager] Marcus Russell were coming to fucking rehab to play me mixes, and I was going, ‘No, it’s not good enough!’ It was never good enough. Then Marcus finally went, ‘I’m going to give Owen Morris a call’, and I went, ‘Who has he done?’ He was like, ‘Electronic’, and I was like, ‘Hmm, really, okay’, thinking, ‘This will be rubbish!’ The first thing Owen sent back was Rock ‘N’ Roll Star, in the mix that actually came out, and I was like, ‘Fuck, it’s him! He’d better mix the lot!’
“We used to do a checklist when we signed a band, to kind of work out where we were going and what we wanted to achieve, and most of the times you never really got through the list, because the band would maybe get halfway through, but not get to Brixton Academy or whatever. I remember sitting down with Marcus about three months into the first album, and we had achieved everything on the checklist! It just went crazy.
“The obvious highlight in their whole period with Creation was when we got sent the cassette of Wonderwall from [Russell’ s management company] Ignition. It had been recorded for one week, and the songs came in this order: Wonderwall, Don’ t Look Back In Anger, and then a couple of others. I put it on, and there was Wonderwall, and I went, ‘Fuck, we’re going to do it – if we’ve not already done it, we’re doing it!’ It was unbelievable.
“Just the scale of it became a challenge. We were such an indie label, really. It went from putting out little seven-inch singles to kind of big time with Primal Scream, but compared to where Oasis ended up – Oasis dwarfed everything, not just my bands, every other fucking band.
“I was involved in the first three albums and [Oasis B-sides compilation] The Masterplan, and to be honest, looking back, I was just glad to be involved. The beautiful thing about Oasis for me now is that it’s cross-generational: you meet people’s 18-year-old sons and daughters, and they love Oasis, which is kind of amazing. If I’m going to get defined by one thing, like: You’re the guy that signed Oasis - it’s not a bad thing to be defined by!
“Now they have longevity, and it really is a bit like The Beatles – they’ve just got the songs. It’s got to be that, don’ t you think? My three favourites are Slide Away, which is my absolute favourite, then Acquiesce, and Stay Young, which was the B-side to D’ You Know What I Mean?
“I look back on everything with fondness and wonder – of course I do. How could you be bitter about anything? What a great time, and we managed to all survive it. I’m still in music, managing people. I haven’t seen Liam in years, but I’m in touch with Noel, and I get on very well with him, he’s a great guy. Liam has been very kind to my bands. He has given Cast [who McGee manages] the 19 stadium shows – so, respect, know what I mean?”
As told to Andrew Perry
“You had to be there…”
As Oasis's summer gigs approach, get the latest issue of MOJO for the full reunion special, featuring their 50 greatest songs, Noel on songwriting, the inside take on the shows and more! More info and to order a copy HERE.
Photo: Fred Duval/Getty