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Post by teppic on Oct 16, 2006 18:13:14 GMT -5
Had to log back in and shout about this. It's way too special to me not to point out. I don't care if you absolutely hate Oasis or (preferably) not, just stay with me a second...  Admittedly there's some of my own take on things in this telling, but if you aren't interested in any background then skip the next two paragraphs and save yourself some time. So Oasis have a 'Best Of...' album coming out which was forced upon them by Sony to fulfill their album contract. Noel was pissed off but said he'd play along if "the band" (so that's prolly just Noel then ) could choose the tracklisting. He got revenge on Sony by making sure the running time forced the 'Best Of...' onto two cd's by being only a few mins over the limit of what will fit on one cd. This is where things get muddy. No one knows which started first, but Oasis pushed to put an EP out with a couple of classics and rarities on it under the exact same name as the 'Best Of...' album, meanwhile Sony announced they would be filming a video for the first track of the EP and invited fans to submit themselves to be in the video as they wanted "the video to be about the fans" (this was done via the official mailing list and presented as if it was from the band). The video came out a few weeks back and was quite simply the worst piece of shit anyone had ever seen.  Fans who were invited to be in it started to post that they felt ripped off - the band wasn't there, they were told they had to dress like they would in the 90's but were forced to the back whilst a mixture of asian-looking fans and actors were placed at the front (there had been a rumour that the people behind the video were only looking for asian people before this came out), it was even said they were dragging homeless asian people in off the street with promises of food, and there was hardly any food or water given out to the "fans" despite them being in an incredibly hot environment for hours. When the video was finally shown it consisted of Japanese "look-a-likes" miming to the song (badly - they clearly didn't know the lyrics), and that was it. For one of the best songs Oasis ever made Sony went and made the worst video they could whilst simultaneously fucking over the fans. Obviously there's tension between band and soon to be former record label, and as always the fans are the ones trapped in the middle. Now out of nowhere Oasis have released a video for the second song on the EP ('The Masterplan' - perhaps the best song Noel ever wrote, and also a song on which he sings). It's entirely animated and based upon the paintings of Mancunian artist LS Lowry, with full permission of the Lowry estate. I don't know how well known he'll be for those outside the UK (his pictures and paintings were mostly of industrial Manchester from the 1920's through to his death in 1976, there's a center in Manchester named after him where many of his paintings can be seen [ www.thelowry.com ] - this was how i first learned of him myself as i went there on a school trip when i was young, and although i have no particular love of industrial Manchester i was always drawn to his paintings and drawings). The video is stunning.  It (faithfully) uses lots of LS Lowry's paintings and drawings whilst quietly inserting references to the band's past. It is, quite simply, one of the best video's i have ever seen. It captures everything that the whole area of Manchester was and is, and therefore everything behind the origin of the band. See 'The Masterplan' here: entertainment.msn.co.uk/music/masterplan_exclusive/default.aspNote: Sadly, being on MSN's site it will only play the video if you go there in Internet Explorer and have Windows Media Player. But trust me, it's worth the second it takes to copy and paste a url into IE. So strange seeing all these paintings of places i've known all my life, places i've been (including a place i actually saw the band and which made me such a fan in the first place). All to the sound of one of best songs (if not THE best song) to have come out of Manchester. And with little things which only the most long-term and loyal Oasis fans would ever pick up on. If this is the band's answer to Sony's video then all i can say is ... GOAL!  (Yeh it was long, but if i hadn't typed it i'd have exploded...  ) |
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Post by Franklin on Oct 17, 2006 10:26:32 GMT -5
That Best Of album is called "Stop The Clock", right? I'm getting it thanks to Meganova.org (torrent). It's a 2x 9 track album, but why is the fantastic 6:30 min song "Whatever" not on it? I'm not really into Oasis, but only 18 songs on a best of-set?  I don't know where you buy the cd-set, but at Play.com you only pay 7,95 GBP (or 12,99 GBP including a dvd). Just to let you know. |
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Post by Saar°berry on Oct 17, 2006 12:33:47 GMT -5
OMG... WOW. That's all I can say right now. I ABSOLUTELY love it, even if you're not an Oasis fan, you must see this. Love how it's like a moving painting. And I always say 'Noel's' the better singer... he really proves it in this yet again. All my fav Oasis songs are the ones he's singing. And I had to laugh how they 'painted' Liam, his way of walking... ROTF.  There is SO much stuff going on in this video, am definately going to watch it a few times, I think I saw some Beatles reference, and noticed the 'Big One' @ Blackpool. And I found it cute how they let the brothers go in one house at the end of the day. Am loving this, thanks for sharing. Am so happy for you. This is indeed one of the best videos I've ever ever seen.  And it's a damn good song too.  |
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Post by Alamo on Oct 17, 2006 13:43:53 GMT -5
Cool story. But I cannot watch it. :-(
I will try it at youtube now. I am so curious!
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Post by Alamo on Oct 17, 2006 13:49:51 GMT -5
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Post by Saar°berry on Oct 17, 2006 13:52:40 GMT -5
^ I guess it makes more sence to me [and even more to Andrew], I see a lot of stuff in the video which I have seen in real life. [Manchester, Blackpool, ect] Also, I love the many Beatles references... there is so much detail, it's definately something you need to watch a couple of times. I LOVE It. So much going on.
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Post by teppic on Oct 17, 2006 14:34:12 GMT -5
That Best Of album is called "Stop The Clock", right? I'm getting it thanks to Meganova.org (torrent). It's a 2x 9 track album, but why is the fantastic 6:30 min song "Whatever" not on it? I'm not really into Oasis, but only 18 songs on a best of-set? I don't know where you buy the cd-set, but at Play.com you only pay 7,95 GBP (or 12,99 GBP including a dvd). Just to let you know. At the risk of repeating myself... So Oasis have a 'Best Of...' album coming out which was forced upon them by Sony to fulfill their album contract. Noel was pissed off but said he'd play along if "the band" (so that's prolly just Noel then ) could choose the tracklisting. He got revenge on Sony by making sure the running time forced the 'Best Of...' onto two cd's by being only a few mins over the limit of what will fit on one cd. Noel always said Oasis wouldn't put out a Best Off/Greatest Hits album until the band had split up - he's reported as not being too happy at Sony for forcing the release, and he's made it pretty clear that he doesn't care much for the 'Stop The Clocks' compilation or how well it does. The truth is it's not even close to being a true 'Best Off...' (and it was Noel who made sure of that). It's no coincidence that any true fan would already have everything which is on there, and that it's actually missing the unreleased song which it's named after (unless it's on there as a hidden track, but all the rumours say it's not). As for 'Whatever', it's the song most people moan about not being on there, but it couldn't be due to legal issues (one of those times Noel's magpie tendencies got the band into a little bit of trouble, and they had to hand over a lot of the royalties from that single to someone else). Oh, and the Limited Edition of STC with the bonus DVD and a free exclusive DVD containing live footage is available from HMV for £11:99. |
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Post by teppic on Oct 17, 2006 15:18:30 GMT -5
South Park? I think Lowry just turned in his grave. Or maybe not actually...  He was a very strange man in many ways, and maybe it would have appealed to his sense of humour. Have a scan through his Wikipedia entry if you want to get some idea of what his personality was like. To give you an idea here's my fave quote from the Wiki there on him: "Lowry declined an OBE in 1955, a CBE in 1961, knighthood in 1968, and CH in 1972 and 1976. He holds the record for the most honours declined." ;D Not many people get to turn down the Queen of England more than once. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LS_LowryIt's true that to fully appreciate the video you probably need to either know Lowry's art or be a little familiar with Manchester - ideally both. And as an example of the stuff hidden away for the true Oasis fans, right at the end of the video you see the band walking past some shops, one of which is called Johnny Roadhouse. Johnny Roadhouse is a well known musical instrument shop in the center of Manchester which has been around for over 50 years, and during one of the most famous Oasis gigs in Manchester (at Manchester City Football Club's Maine Road stadium - now sadly torn down) the original rhythm guitarist (Bonehead) had a problem with his equipment which left the rest of the band to fill in time for a moment - at which point Liam started to tell the audience that he'd told Bonehead not to buy his stuff from Johnny Roadhouse, then Noel joined in as well. You can actually see it on YouTube HERE (it's only short at 1min 16sec's so isn't a big file - and yes, it is footage from the gig i always rave about whenever Oasis is mentioned ;D). I've actually emailed the shop to point the video out to them. They've probably already been told, but i just thought any potential reply might be ... interesting.  |
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Post by Leewah Brown on Oct 17, 2006 18:53:24 GMT -5
That's really amazing, I need to see this a few times to take it all in.  Thanks for the background history Mr Gallagher, oh, I mean Teppic |
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Post by teppic on Oct 17, 2006 20:46:28 GMT -5
 Well, me and Oasis...
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Post by Leewah Brown on Oct 17, 2006 21:18:32 GMT -5
Seriously, you have so much knowledge on this band, and on a lot of topics actually (no, that topic is not included), that you should write a book. Or a blog. Or something. Lessons with Tep. ______________________________ What's news today Teppic? "Well, Oasis and Sony do not see eye-to-eye, you know? Let me explain the current state of musical and creative differences with a story that also focusses on Mancunian art".
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Post by annemarieirene on Oct 17, 2006 22:58:12 GMT -5
They are so good.
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Post by teppic on Oct 19, 2006 18:25:58 GMT -5
Seriously, you have so much knowledge on this band, and on a lot of topics actually (no, that topic is not included), that you should write a book. Or a blog. Or something. Lessons with Tep. ______________________________ What's news today Teppic? "Well, Oasis and Sony do not see eye-to-eye, you know? Let me explain the current state of musical and creative differences with a story that also focusses on Mancunian art". Then you'll enjoy my investigative journalism from the last couple of days. Because...Well me and the friend i went to 'The Best Gig Ever (tm)' (saturday Maine Road '96) with have talked about Liam and Noel shouting about how people should "never buy anything from Johnny Roadhouse!" (as mentioned in an earlier post) often over the last ten years since that glorious day. We've gone back and forth countless times trying to decide if it was a joke which just came across wrong, or if it was a more serious tongue-in-cheek comment. And of course when i saw the shop in the video i got to thinking... One email to Johnny Roadhouse politely asking if they'd seen their shop was in the video and making a tiny throw away comment about the "infamous Maine Road comment" later, i had my answer (two actually). So, for your viewing pleasure... ;D ---Email from me to Johnny Roadhouse:Hi guys, I don't want to waste any of your time, but i couldn't help asking if you'd seen the new animated LS Lowry inspired video for Oasis' 'The Masterplan'? If you haven't heard about it yet then you may want to take a look - one of the shops the band walks past near the end should be very familiar to you. A very cool video - even people who aren't fans of the band have told me they love it - and i loved seeing the shop hidden in there. Just wanted to say congrat's (and i couldn't help wondering if this was some sort of apology for the infamous "Never buy anything from Johnny Roadhouse" comments at the saturday Maine Road '96 gig). --- Link to the video: entertainment.msn.co.uk/music/masterplan_exclusive/default.asp-Andrew. --------- ---Email 1 from JR:Thanks for the link Andrew. We had already been made aware of it and in the words of our Guitar Manager Danny 'Fucking nice one'. "the infamous "Never buy anything from Johnny Roadhouse" comments at the Saturday Maine Road '96 gig"
The real story behind that is twofold. There were a few of the shop guys backstage that night including John Roadhouse Jnr. He, as all shop owners would, asked Liam to give us a mention at some point during the gig so that he could hopefully profit immensely from all the Oasis fans who wanted to buy some gear (not of the drug variety). Liam, being generally a nice guy, obliged but unfortunately in the way that Liam does hence, with what on the surface seems a negative comment but actually wasn't. It was a throw off remark during the guitars tuning up that triggered it, probably the first thing that entered his head in trying to help John out but we all know that Liam's comments sometimes are 'misinterpreted', even if his intentions are good. The second aspect of the story is down to Johnny Roadhouse Sr. He was asked to comment by the Manchester Evening News and, being of the school of publicity that says 'There is no such thing as bad publicity', played up to the remark. There was no malice intended or understood as far as we were concerned, it was however, great publicity for us. Although Noel etc. live down south now and probably get the gear given to them, Bonehead still appears occasionally. When he upgraded his studio and thinned out his large guitar collection last year we were the ones he turned to to sell his stuff for him. Hope that answers your question "if this was some sort of apology", no apology needed, we are just a part of their beginnings which I think this video is about. Regards, Kieron --------- ---Email 2 from JR:Hi there, I'm sure Kieron will have replied to you, but just to say thanks for pointing that out (they have even included the A-frame stand sign outside, and Liam's walk is hilarious!) We weren't aware of it before and it provided a little moral boost to the shop. As for the infamous Maine Rd incident, John Snr always says there's no such thing as bad publicity! But I don't think the two are related. I think the shop is as much a part of the local culture as the Lowry paintings and I'm sure there were some other references in there too. Perhaps the lads are just getting back to their roots. Or the video producer walked past our shop one day and liked what he saw ;-) Kind Regards James --------- So there you go. It was a joke that backfired. Only took me ten years and six months to find out the answer to that one.  As for the question of if they had heard about it before i emailed them or not (given Kieron said they had, but James said they hadn't)... Ask me in about ten years time and maybe i'll have found out the answer. ;D |
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Post by teppic on Oct 19, 2006 18:37:53 GMT -5
Oh, and why not that topic? I'm sure i could write a book about that if i put my mind to it (and lets be honest - i hardly ever don't put my mind to it ). And then it could lead to something even more interesting: Practical Lessons With Tep!
:tep: Unless by " that" you meant something else, like knitting? ;D |
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Post by Leewah Brown on Oct 19, 2006 18:48:48 GMT -5
The only practical things you'd be teaching us to knit would be willy warmers and nipple protectors |
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