Oasis/Germany 1996

1996 was a year of glory and turmoil for Oasis, with Knebworth at its peak. Surprisingly, when they first started their activities that year, they were still performing at small venues. Although it had become a big name in the UK after conquering Earl’s Court the previous year, theaters and, in some cases, club class theaters were still not attracting a lot of customers until March in Europe and America. The Bielefeld performance on January 15th that will be released this time is a typical day, and in Europe, the several gigs in January including this day were the last to see Oasis at a small venue like the one before. It was a chance. A British Oasis researcher who provided various sound sources for Oasis’ release said, “I saw them at a gig in Edinburgh after this, and it was an arena class gig. That’s why he provided us with this sound source. (As a side note, there are no recordings left of the two performances in Edinburgh. I wish he had recorded them…LOL) The club called PC69, which was the venue for this day, is exactly such a place. After all, it will be on the main road in a few months, so you can imagine how precious this time is. Although it is such a valuable club gig in early 1996, it is an audience recording with very good sound quality, thanks to the small venue. Even if it doesn’t reach the level of a soundboard, the sound image is close enough, and since the surroundings are not noisy, it is even easier to hear. Among them, the outline of Liam’s singing voice is so clear that it is strange that no items have been released so far. In the first place, there are no audience albums that capture gigs in January or February, and Oasis’ 1996 album, which at first glance appears to be full of items, has turned into a completely blank area. It was. A valuable club gig from Oasis 1996 that depicts such wonderful sound quality. At the opening, Liam appeared while “The Swamp Song” was being played, and his first voice was a powerful “oh yeah!”. This scene alone makes me excited, but his voice starts to get rough around “Supersonic” and seems to get even harder during “Hello.” I thought they were going to keep going downhill, but they managed to sing the clumsy “Some Might Say” and got back on track with the next song, “Roll With It.” Rather, the gig progressed in a happy atmosphere, and even Noel spoke well, not to mention Liam, who blurted out “Makershaker” instead of “Shakermaker”. The reason why Liam’s voice became so harsh in these opening songs is that this performance was not long after the Utrecht performance, which was broadcast while he was in a bad state. At their first gig in Utrecht in 1996, on January 10th, Liam caught a cold (it was winter, after all) before the performance, and as a result of going on stage, he ended up looking that miserable. In that case, Bielefeld is a sound source that captures Liam’s recovery process. That’s why the voice in the beginning was questionable, but it also means that he was “recovering from an illness.” It was in 1996 that I recovered and started singing normally after “Roll With It.” On this day, Noel’s singing corner is also very attractive. First of all, like in Utrecht, it started with “Whatever”, and the excitement and chorus of the next “Wonderwall” was as amazing as that time. In Utrecht, Noel would normally wave the chorus part to the audience and have them sing along. However, on this day, he didn’t sing the second line of the opening lyrics, “by now should’ve somehow~”. However, instead of a blank space appearing, the audience’s chorus filled it, a miraculous development that gave me goosebumps. Audience recording shows off the realism of the wonderful recovery that this coincidence gave birth to. “Cast No Shadow”, which was not sung in Utrecht, is also moving. When Noel sings this song, he sometimes does not play the intro and instead starts with a cappella, but on this day it was decided to be even cooler than usual. The splendor of the performance with the addition of backing chorus from the audience is enough to give you goosebumps. Liam returns and sings the last two songs. As expected, the ending of “Live Forever” asks for help from his older brother, but Noel probably expected it after the incident in Utrecht, and the song ended with a baton that didn’t feel unreasonable. Liam ended the finale by screaming “I Am The Walrus”. For this release, equalization has been applied to eliminate the volume difference between the band performance and Noel’s singing part, which is common in DAT audience recordings. In the original recording, Noel Corner’s sound had the impression of being recessed, but as a result of resolving this and bringing his singing and playing to the forefront, the result was that the charming playing of the day became even more prominent. I did. This processing is all the more effective since it is originally an audience recording with very good sound quality. And just like in Utrecht, for better or worse, there were many records of Liam not doing well in Oasis’ live history. In that respect, there aren’t many live records where Liam gets back on track! PC 69, Bielefeld, Germany 15th January 1996 TRULY PERFECT SOUND Disc 1 (45:47) 1. Intro 2. The Swamp Song 3. Acquiesce 4. Supersonic 5. Hello 6. Some Might Say 7. Roll With It 8. Shakermaker 9 Cigarettes & Alcohol 10 Champagne Supernova Disc 2 (36:59) 1. Whatever/Octopus’s Garden 2. Wonderwall 3. Cast No Shadow 4. Morning Glory 5. Don’t Look Back In Anger 6. Live Forever 7. I’m The Walrus 8. Outro Liam Gallagher – lead vocals, tambourine Noel Gallagher – lead guitar, vocals Paul Arthurs – rhythm guitar Paul McGuigan – bass Alan White – drums