Oasis or Quoasis

This article is relatively painful for me to write as I used to be a huge Oasis fan and supported them blindly whether it was their music, the politics or Liam's headline grabbing antics. But the hazy summer days or Britpop are over, acceptable lager fueled laddish behaviour is now a thing of the past with the advent of ASBO's and underage drinking and the whole music scene has moved on and is now dancing to the beat of Mr. Turner and his Monkeys - a far cry from the sloganeering monster choruses of the Britpop elite.

So where does this leave Oasis.

Well, Damon Albarn in the midst of the Blur Vs Oasis war suggested Oasis should of been called Oasis Quo on hearing their new single 'Roll With It' as he felt it sounded like Status Quo. Noel, with tongue firmly in his cheek, retaliated by having tour t-shirts made for the band saying 'Quoasis.' The incident was soon forgotten and they both found something new to argue about but the reference still rears it's head every time that Oasis bring out a song which bears even a passing resemblance to Status Quo's sound or song structure.

Now I'll describe a band for you and you tell me which band I'm referring to.

1) They have been going for donkey's years now
2) They haven't really changed their sound very much - their songs have simply got weaker and less well received every time they release new material
3) The members are all visibly aging but are keen to overlook this by retaining the same style they had as a young band
4) They built a loyal fan base back in their heyday which just about keeps them ticking over in their 'long in the tooth' era
5) The new songs have a familiarity to them which seem to hint at and echo parts of previous releases
6) Their lyrics are unlikely to be remembered in a 100 years...or next year
7) They sound highly derivative of bands which have gone before them and now seem to even parody themselves
8) Both have undergone extensive line up changes with the core of the band being the two front men

and to be fair...

8) Their best songs from the start of their career are actually superb pieces of music which were instant classics and will stand the test of time

So, which band am I talking about? Both.

In the midst of the Blur Vs Oasis war, a young Damon and less young Noel argued incessantly about which band was the best, both rubbishing each other's outfits and using any medium, whether it was column inches, radio interviews or even awards ceremonies to start bickering and verbal haranguing the other. Noel, with Liam as his General, Master at Arms and foghorn always seemed to come out on top and even though Blur won some campaigns (Country House beat Roll With It to number 1), I think it's well documented that Oasis won the war.

As Oasis famously said at the time, "Blur are middle-class w***ers trying to play hardball with a bunch of working-class heroes. There can be only one winner.'

So where are Blur today. They took an official hiatus from about 2004 onwards after sacking their guitarist Graham Coxon and have been in limbo ever since. However, Albarn has since started 2 new bands, Gorillaz and The Good, The Bad and The Queen, the former being a concept virtual band whose sound is most likened to a crossover between Hip Hop, Dub and Electronica and the latter being a collection of musicians whose album managed to win the 2007 Mojo Awards best album.
He has also released solo material, written music for films and had brief stints in front of the camera, most notably playing a bank robber in the UK film Face. His last project was to bring an ancient Chinese legend, Journey to the West, to the stage and wrote an opera around the story which had it's premiere at The Palace Theatre in Manchester in 2007. Not bad for the loser.

And where is Mr Gallagher and his errant sibling. Still playing Live Forever and Roll With It to a diminishing crowd of aging fans. Still wearing the same Manchester jackets and bragging about their rare, imported trainers. Still sounding a bit like Status Quo while trying to sound like The Beatles. Winners eh?

If the very essence of an artist is to continually improve yourself, challenge yourself and move outside of your comfort zone in an effort to improve your perception of both your art form and the world around it then for my money whilst Damon Albarn is painting with the Masters, whilst Oasis are still painting by numbers with increasing worn out paint brushes.