‘We were drunk all the time!’: how Oasis got mad for it – in pictures

Live Forever shoot, London, January 1995

Photographer Jill Furmanovsky: ‘I worked with Oasis intensively from 1995 to 1997, at the height of their popularity. I was experienced in the rock business, and they were just beginning. It was natural that I should feel protective of them. All the media attention and the phenomenal speed of their rise to super-stardom was extremely stressful. It was hard to take it all in.’ Oasis: Trying to Find a Way Out of Nowhere 1994-2009 is published by Thames and Hudson. All photographs: © Jill Furmanovsky

Cambridge Corn Exchange, December 1994

‘It began with a concert at Cambridge Corn Exchange in 1994. I had a feeling the gig was going to be special before I even laid eyes on the band. A queue of excited people, many of them super-cool teenage girls, snaked down Wheeler Street and right around the block. It looked like a picture I’d once seen of Beatles fans queueing for the Cavern Club in Liverpool. I was introduced to Noel briefly before the gig: he was friendly and low-key. But in the photographer’s pit the magic revealed itself. Here was a band that shone from the inside out’

San Francisco, January 1995

‘I got to know the band much better on the stage and off when I went to San Francisco with them. Guigs and Bonehead were a great foil for Noel and Liam, and Tony McCarroll was good-natured. The combination was highly entertaining. There was a lot of laughing on that trip, and I felt I could do something special with them’

Liam Gallagher, San Francisco, January 1995

Noel Gallagher: ‘All the great photographs are silent, but they speak to you, right? Jill’s photographs have that quality; they just say something to you. I guess they’re shot with love for the art itself, and with respect for the artist, and all that comes through in the photos’

US tour, Detroit, March 1995

Noel: ‘People see it as mine and Liam’s band. It’s actually Bonehead’s band because he invitied Liam to join and Liam invited me. Bonehead was the original member. He would always knock our heads together for the sake of the band’

The Seine, Paris, November 1995

Jill: ‘I was quite a bit older than them, like a mother figure. That was useful because all of them were more or less brought up by their mums, so they were perhaps more likely to be cooperative with an older female.’ Read more in this My Best Shot special on the band

Noel in Paris, November 1995

Noel: ‘Paris is quite a significant place in the tale of Oasis. We did some really amazing gigs there but we also had some catastrophic days and nights there. It’s where I wrote Don’t Look Back in Anger and it’s also where the band broke up [in 2009]’

Liam, Creation Records party, December, 1995

Jill: ‘Liam could be difficult: he tested me out at the beginning. Photographer’s small talk was not tolerated. He was and still is a “wild card”, unpredictable and reckless, but that is what makes him a “proper” rock star. He could also be sensitive and kind. What helped with our relationship was the realisation that we share the same birthday – 21 September – 19 years apart but soul twins’

Wonderwall shoot, London, September 1995

Jill: ‘Video sets are a great place to take photos because you can take full advantage of the beautiful lighting. Here, the big lights created silhouettes of the figures. The Wonderwall video was filmed by director Nigel Dick, and it went on to win British video of the year at the 1996 Brit awards’

Noel at Maine Road, April 1996

Noel: ‘Her photo of our first ever stadium gig at Maine Road, Manchester City FC’s home, in 1996 is a fucking great picture. It’s significant to me because I stood on those terraces as a child, and I still support the club. But it also sums up that period. And it tells the story of the connection between the band and the audience. That picture says to me that everybody in that stadium is with us heart and soul. The incredible thing about this being in 1996 is that we only got signed in 1994. We’d gone from nothing to this in about 18 months’

US tour, Rhode Island, March 1996

Noel: ‘The coat that never came off. For about a year and a half, Liam wore it on stage and off. As far as I know, for that tour, it didn’t go to the dry cleaner’s or anything. It probably just went in the bin at the end of the tour. That coat is on every single picture from that tour … yeah, I bet it stunk’

Knebworth, August 1996

Jill: ‘The two shows at Knebworth were the last that Noel and I remember that were free of mobile phones, and so they had great intimacy. On stage on the second night, Liam borrowed his fiancee Patsy Kensit’s oversized cream Aran sweater. Perhaps not the most suitable garment for a summer’s night performing under hot lights. But somehow it worked and those images of him have become iconic. This is another “crossing shot” I was always on the lookout for: Noel tethered to his guitar and amp, and Liam cruising past him’

Schiphol airport, November 1997

Noel: ‘Jill’s work is so varied: there’s stuff that has made it on to album covers, live shots, candid shots, polaroids – everything. I don’t think you could pigeonhole her as a photographer. This candid shot of us at Schiphol airport is one of my favourites. We’re absolutely rat-arsed and Bonehead puts himself on the baggage conveyor belt – her photo captures the spontaneity and sheer joy of the moment perfectly’

Air Studios, London, February 1997

Noel: ‘The era of us just being pissed all the time. Fucking brilliant’

Air Studios, London, February 1997

Noel: ‘With our band we always had women working round us. One of the really clever things that our management did was understand that if a bunch of guys worked with us it would all be over. We were very respectful towards Jill. She’s one of those rare people involved in the arts who’s got virtually no ego. We were young lads in a band, full of drugs, in the 1990s. Some crazy shit went on. But I never saw her get offended by any of it’

King’s Cross, London, May 1997

Jill: ‘For the second day of the Be Here Now shoot we hired a pool and snooker club in King’s Cross, complete with bar and dartboard. Noel, Liam and Whitey each wrote something on the blackboard about themselves. It was the day after Tony Blair had been elected prime minister. There was euphoria across the country as people celebrated. I ran out of film during the shoot and ordered some more. A motorbike messenger duly arrived with the film and did a double take when he saw Oasis sitting in the bar area. He was so shocked. The band thought it was hilarious’

Oasis recording at Christian Dior’s mansion, Château de la Colle Noire, May 1999

Jill: ‘I was greatly influenced by David Hockney’s photographic “joiner” images of the early 80s. To me they reflect how we actually see the world, not in frozen moments but rather in a series of alternate wide-angle and detailed glances, which our brains assemble. This joiner shows Noel, Alan White, Guigs and Liam in the grand dining room of Christian Dior’s house where they were recording Standing on the Shoulder of Giants’

Wembley Stadium, July 2000

Jill: ‘What they didn’t have the patience or incentive for was spending a day in a photography studio changing clothes and posing in different setups. They were known to walk out of shoots that were meant to last a day after only 15 minutes, particularly in the US. Being a quick worker was probably the chief asset I had as a photographer as far as they were concerned. I try to be a low-key presence. I would go to the sound checks, hang out in the dressing rooms, photograph the concerts and join them on the road and in recording studios’

Manchester Apollo, October 2001

Noel: ‘We loved Jill from the moment she rolled up at the Corn Exchange in 1994. I met her on a stairwell backstage. She is a very, very dear friend of mine and it’s been an honour to have been associated with her for 30 years’

Noel at Olympic Studio, December 2001

Jill: ‘Noel is gifted not only as a songwriter and guitarist. Journalists love to interview him because he is witty, honest and insightful. He also has a tremendous work ethic. He carried a heavy burden within Oasis, keeping everything together musically, as well as doing most of the press interviews. In addition, he worked closely with me and others on choosing images for press use and record covers’

Technical problems at Heaton Park, Manchester, July 2009

Jill: ‘Noel and Liam never stood together and sang into the same microphone and they certainly never put their arms around each other on stage. When he wasn’t singing Liam would prowl around, so the only way to get both of them in one picture during a performance was to take a photo when one walked past the other, usually from the side of the stage. I was always on the lookout for that moment’

Noel Gallagher and Jill Furmanovsky, JFA Studio by Yvonne Catterson, October 2023

Noel: ‘Jill’s a quiet person, working in a very loud world. She stands in the shadows at the side of the stage or follows you around the dressing room, and you forget she’s there. I’m really comfortable around her and I just completely trust her. She’s the best, do you know what I mean? When I look at Jill’s photographs, I always think to myself, I wonder where that fucking jacket is? Because she always got me in really fucking striking clothes and then I’d spend a year looking for them’

Photograph: Yvonne Catterson/Jill Furmanovsky