50 Fun Facts About Oasis

Which ticket seller did Britain's competition watchdog investigate over its 2024 sale of Oasis reunion tickets?

Ticketmaster. The watchdog found no evidence of a 'dynamic pricing' algorithm after all: tickets were priced in tiers, and some 'platinum' tickets cost nearly two and a half times the standard price with no extra benefits.

Before Oasis, Noel roadied for which band?

Inspiral Carpets. Noel came back from the road with them to find Liam singing in a band, and took it over by insisting that he play lead guitar and write all the songs.

Which Oasis number one was the band's first single to feature Noel, not Liam, on lead vocals?

Don't Look Back in Anger. Noel told Liam he could sing either this or 'Wonderwall' but not both, and when Liam took 'Wonderwall', Noel kept this one for himself.

What was the title of Oasis's 1994 debut album?

Definitely Maybe went straight in at number one in 1994 and was back there thirty years later, in the week after the band announced their reunion.

Which band were Oasis's rivals in the 1995 'Battle of Britpop'?

Blur. Their single won the chart race, 274,000 copies to 216,000, but as the saying goes, Blur won the battle and Oasis won the war.

Which independent label signed Oasis in 1993?

Creation Records. Six years later its founder walked away and the label closed, so its biggest band released their fourth album on a label of their own.

Where did Oasis play to 125,000 people a night on two nights in August 1996?

Knebworth. About 2.5 million people applied for the 250,000 tickets, and thirty years later, in 2026, the band announced that they would return there in 2027.

Which Oasis album is the UK's best-selling album of the 1990s?

(What's the Story) Morning Glory? In 2026 the Official Charts also named it Britain's best-selling studio album of all time, after it overtook Sgt. Pepper by the band's heroes, the Beatles.

Under what name did the remaining members of Oasis carry on after Noel quit in 2009?

Beady Eye. They made two albums before splitting in 2014, and their singer and both of their guitarists were back in the Oasis line-up for the 2025 reunion.

What did Noel call his solo band after leaving Oasis?

High Flying Birds. Noel took the phrase from a Jefferson Airplane song, and the idea of putting his own name in front from the early Fleetwood Mac, who were billed as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac.

Which famous drummer's son played drums for Oasis from 2004 to 2008?

Zak Starkey. By his own account he took up the drums because of the Who's Keith Moon, a family friend he called an uncle, rather than his father Ringo, and he later filled Moon's old seat in the Who.

After two failed nominations, Oasis were voted into which institution in 2026?

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. All eight official members were named, so the Gallaghers share the honour with the drummer they sacked in 1995, who went on to sue them.

Which football club have the Gallagher brothers supported since childhood?

Manchester City. In April 1996 the two lifelong fans got to headline two nights on the pitch at Maine Road, which was then the club's home ground.

'Wonderwall' was the first 1990s song to pass one billion streams on which service?

Spotify. The song got there in October 2020, yet by Noel's account Liam disliked it on first hearing and dismissed it as trip-hop.

What was Oasis's first single, released in April 1994?

Supersonic. It was written and recorded in a single day in a Liverpool studio, after the band gave up on the song they had gone there to record.

The band's name is said to come from the Oasis Leisure Centre in which English town?

Swindon. In the band's telling, Liam saw the venue's name on a tour poster in the bedroom he shared with Noel; the domed pool closed in 2020 and has since been listed.

In which city did Oasis play the first show of their 2025 reunion tour?

Cardiff. The Principality Stadium show on 4 July 2025 ended a sixteen-year silence that had begun when the band broke up backstage, minutes before a festival set.

Oasis's 'Wonderwall' shares its title with a 1968 film soundtrack by which Beatle?

George Harrison. He scored Wonderwall, a psychedelic film in which a reclusive professor spies on the model next door, played by Jane Birkin, through holes in their shared wall.

Oasis were sued after 'Shakermaker' borrowed the tune of a famous advertising jingle for which drink?

Coca-Cola. The melody came from 'I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing', the hit that grew out of a Coke advert, and the band's answer to the lawsuit was: 'We drink Pepsi now.'

What was Oasis's first UK number-one single, in April 1995?

Some Might Say. It was the last single made by the original five-piece line-up: the drummer was sacked within days of its release, just as it reached number one.

Which original Oasis drummer was ousted from the band in April 1995?

Tony McCarroll. He sued the band, first over his dismissal and later for a share of their record deal, and the dispute was settled in 1999 without a trial.

Which drummer replaced Oasis's first drummer in 1995, just before the band recorded their second album?

Alan White. He joined at the start of May 1995 and within days was in the studio, where the rest of the album was recorded in about a fortnight.

Which 1997 Oasis album was Britain's fastest-selling album ever until Adele's 25 in 2015?

Be Here Now. Noel soon disowned it, later describing the record as the sound of five men in a studio, on cocaine, who had stopped caring.

In the 1995 Battle of Britpop, which Oasis single lost out to 'Country House'?

Roll with It sold 216,000 copies that week to its rival's 274,000, and the Oasis camp pointed out that the winner came on two different CDs, so some fans bought it twice.

Which label boss offered Oasis a contract after seeing them at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in 1993?

Alan McGee. Oasis weren't on that night's bill in Glasgow and were at first turned away at the door, yet they went on as the opening act and he offered them a deal on the spot.

Which 2000 album was the first to include a song written by Liam, 'Little James'?

Standing on the Shoulder of Giants. Noel copied the title from the edge of a £2 coin onto a cigarette packet during a night in the pub, and got it wrong: Newton's line says 'shoulders'.

Which track was the first Oasis single not written by Noel?

Songbird. Liam wrote it about his partner Nicole Appleton, and even Noel, the band's chief songwriter, has called it perfect.

After their original label folded, Oasis founded which label of their own?

Big Brother. The independence was only partial: its releases still went out through Sony, the major that had part-owned the band's first label for years.

What was the band called before Liam suggested the name Oasis?

The Rain. The band's guitarist grew unhappy with its first singer and brought Liam in to audition, and one of Liam's first moves was to propose a new name.

Which guest played lead guitar and sang backing vocals on Oasis's 'Champagne Supernova'?

Paul Weller. He was returning a favour: Noel had played guitar on a track for Weller's own album Stanley Road, released earlier that year.

The cover of Oasis's debut album was photographed in the Didsbury home of which band member?

Paul Arthurs. Bonehead's front room was dressed for the shoot: the TV is showing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and the mirror on the wall came from the sleeve designer's own flat.

The cover of Oasis's second album shows two men passing on which London street?

Berwick Street in Soho was picked for its record shops, and the album's producer can be seen in the background, holding the master tape up in front of his face.

Bassist Andy Bell had been the guitarist and songwriter of which band before joining Oasis?

Ride. A guitarist and songwriter there, Bell took up the bass in order to join Oasis, and some years after the 2009 split he went back to a re-formed Ride.

Which Oasis B-side, sung by Noel, became the theme tune of the sitcom The Royle Family?

Half the World Away. In 2015 the song reached a new audience when the Norwegian singer Aurora covered it for that year's John Lewis Christmas advert.

After Liam threw a tambourine at him at a 1994 Los Angeles gig, Noel walked out and flew to which city?

San Francisco. He stayed with a woman he had met earlier on the tour, who is said to have talked him out of quitting, and he wrote 'Talk Tonight' about the episode.

Neil Innes gained a co-writing credit on which Oasis single after a plagiarism claim?

Whatever. Its opening echoed his 1973 song 'How Sweet to Be an Idiot', and Innes got his own back by quoting the Oasis tune at the start of a track by his Beatles parody band, the Rutles.

Noel wrote most of Oasis's third album on holiday with Kate Moss and Johnny Depp at which rock star's Mustique villa?

Mick Jagger. Noel wrote and demoed most of the album at the Rolling Stone's villa, and its producer later said that those island demos were better than the finished record.

Liam lost two front teeth in a 2002 brawl in which German city?

Munich. The fight ended with Liam arrested after kicking a police officer, and the rest of the band's German dates had to be called off.

Which London venue hosted Oasis's November 1995 shows, then the biggest indoor gigs in Europe?

Earls Court. Oasis booked the Bootleg Beatles, a tribute act, as their support, and had them back on stage to join in a finale of 'I Am the Walrus'.

Oasis recorded their second album at which studio in Wales?

Recording began in May 1995 with a brand-new drummer, days after he was hired.

Which producer was brought in to rescue the mix of Oasis's troubled 1994 debut?

Owen Morris. Hired only to redo the vocals and remix, he stripped away layers of Noel's guitar overdubs to make room, because there was no budget left for another attempt at recording.

Which guitarist guested on Oasis's Heathen Chemistry, adding a solo, slide guitar and backing vocals?

Johnny Marr. He had been helping out since the start: when the young band had one guitar each, he sent some of his own down to their first album sessions.

Liam skipped which 1996 TV recording, citing a sore throat, then heckled Noel from a box in the hall?

MTV Unplugged. Noel sang the whole set himself at the Royal Festival Hall while Liam sat above the stage, drinking, smoking and shouting down at him between songs.

Which stand-in bassist replaced Oasis's exhausted Guigsy in 1995, then flew home mid-tour without warning?

Scott McLeod. A couple of weeks later he rang Noel to say he thought he had made the wrong decision; Noel agreed with him and added, 'Good luck signing on.'

A picture of which songwriter, one of Noel's idols, leans against the sofa on Oasis's debut album cover?

Burt Bacharach. The picture is really the inside of a gatefold record sleeve, and two years after the album came out Noel sang 'This Guy's in Love with You' on a London stage with Bacharach himself at the piano.

For which 2000 video did Noel play bass, with Liam on rhythm guitar, before Andy Bell joined?

Go Let It Out. The two founder members who quit in 1999 were never replaced on the record itself, where Noel played the bass as well as the guitars.

Under which banner did Oasis and Adidas launch a clothing collection in 2025?

Original Forever. Noel and Liam modelled the Adidas Originals range themselves in the advert, two weeks before they had played a note of the reunion tour.

Which Oasis song did Noel write about his friend Richard Ashcroft, the singer of the Verve?

Cast No Shadow. Ashcroft said he couldn't tell whether the title made him a witch, a vampire or just very thin; thirty years on, he was a support act on the band's reunion tour.

Which club in their home city gave the unsigned Oasis a basement rehearsal room and some of their earliest gigs?

The Boardwalk. One early show there drew about three people, by the account of the comedian Craig Cash, who was one of them; another was Paul Gallagher, who had two siblings on the stage.

Oasis split in 2009 after a backstage fight just before a festival show in which city?

Paris. Minutes before the Rock en Seine set, Liam swung one of Noel's guitars like an axe; Noel walked out, and that night he posted a statement saying he had quit the band.