Noel Gallagher has been honest about his love of The Beatles and how they have been a source of inspiration for him.
The Fab Four stayed at Perthshire hotels when touring Scotland in 1964, so what would Noel do as the Definitely Maybe album was coming together 30 years later?
That’s right.
Stay in a Perthshire hotel.
Noel, Liam, Bonehead, Guigsy and Tony were in Scotland to play some songs for the executives at the Sony Music Conference in February 1994.
Except while John, Paul, George and Ringo went boating on a loch and had tea with a countess, Oasis’s stay at Gleneagles was a little more rock and roll.
You would think Noel’s steady diet of half pints of brandy and huge cigars would surely mean that things would not end well.
They didn’t.
But they also produced an Oasis B-side that is loved by fans of the Manchester men and would go on the 25th anniversary edition of Definitely Maybe.
Noel needed the support of an amp to stand
This was life on the road, Oasis style.
Journalist Paolo Hewitt spent two years with the band as they rose to stardom and wrote about the Gleneagles concert in his 1997 Oasis biography.
On arriving Noel went to the bar and asked for some drinks.
After being told to put his money away as everything was free, he said to the barmaid: “Well, if that’s the case what’s the most expensive drink you’ve got?”
The barmaid said: “Those bottles of brandy which are a grand apiece.”
Noel said: “I’ll have half a pint of that and one of these big cigars, please.”
Oasis were accompanied in Gleneagles by their Welsh manager Marcus Russell and were due to perform six songs for the music executives.
Hewitt wrote: “The next day the band got up early, but the conference was running behind schedule, so they put Noel, Liam and Marcus into a hospitality suite.
“Mistake.
“The trio sat in a room with a waitress and ordered drink after drink.
“Then Noel had an idea.
“He phoned up PR officer Johnny Hopkins and told him that Bonehead had broken into the lodge of the legendary racing driver, Jackie Stewart, stolen an air rifle and was now out on the golf course shooting at trees.”
Hopkins duly reported this information to the press.
Melody Maker ran with it the next week under the headline “Oasis Gun Drama”.
Oasis played six songs at Gleneagles
“Eventually the band were called for a soundcheck,” said Hewitt.
“But by now they were smashed out of their heads.
“In fact, Noel had to lean against his amps just to keep his balance.
“Even so, that didn’t prevent them from producing a magnificent version of I Am The Walrus, which they later placed, after it had appeared on a limited white-label edition, on the B-side of Cigarettes and Alcohol.
“The applause at the end is sampled from another artist’s live album.
“The night ended at 8 in the morning with Marcus roaming down the corridor, singing Welsh songs and eventually having to be helped on to the plane home by Noel.”
The set list included songs from that now legendary debut album.
Shakermaker, Bring It On Down, Digsy’s Dinner, Live Forever, Cigarettes and Alcohol and Supersonic were performed at the Sony Music Conference.
The band hit the road a couple of weeks later.
The first Oasis UK tour for Supersonic included a performance at Lucifer’s Mill in Dundee on April 5 1994 in front of 74 people who paid £3 for a ticket.
Shakermaker was another Perthshire link
Supersonic reached number 31 on the UK Singles Chart.
Two more singles followed.
Shakermaker was number 11 in July with a melody borrowed from I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing by The New Seekers whose vocalist was Eve Graham.
From Perthshire.
Third single Live Forever made the Top Ten the following month.
When Definitely Maybe dropped on August 29 1994 it was the fastest-selling debut album in the UK at the time.
I Am The Walrus appeared on the B-side of Cigarettes and Alcohol which was the fourth and final single from the album in October 1994.
The Beatles cover was titled as being live from Glasgow Cathouse in June 1994.
It wasn’t.
But that wasn’t known until many years later when Noel fessed up after the classic cover was included on the 1998 compilation album The Masterplan.
“So we were doing the soundcheck and we did I Am The Walrus,” he said.
“There was no-one there, it was empty.
“So that song was actually recorded at a soundcheck in Gleneagles, right?
“And I’m going to get in trouble for saying this, but the crowd noise was taken from a Faces bootleg album!”
How drunk was Noel in Gleneagles in 1994?
He didn’t want to put “Live at Sony Seminar in Gleneagles” on the cover and they already had a version of it from the Glasgow gig which sounded quite similar.
Noel thought the Gleneagles version in the empty hall sounded better.
They used that thinking nobody would know.
“But I always meant to set the record straight one day,” he said.
“Sorry to anyone who bought it on the premise of being at that gig.
“It was an absolutely empty hall.”
Was Noel really worse for wear during the Gleneagles performance?
“I was p***ed as an a**e,” he confirmed.
But this wasn’t the only link with the Faces whose singer was Rod Stewart.
Noel bought a house in Spain from the royalties from Rod the Mod’s cover of Cigarettes and Alcohol which appeared on his 1998 album.
Oasis returned to Perthshire in July 2002 to headline T in the Park.
Beatles song was perfect Perthshire finale
Oasis performed I Am The Walrus over 300 times before splitting in 2009.
Liam and Noel enjoyed successful solo careers before Oasis reunited in 2024.
Noel was back in Perthshire in May 2018 when he was the headline act on Saturday evening at the three-day BBC Music’s Biggest Weekend at Scone Palace.
He couldn’t resist a cheeky quip when he signed the visitor book.
Noel wrote: “A palace? My gaff’s bigger than this.”
He added his signature and two kisses.
Although the solo hits went down well it was the Oasis songs which led to deafening singalongs including Little By Little and Don’t Look Back In Anger.
Noel’s final song?
All You Need Is Love.
Another cover of The Beatles in Perthshire.
It was a full circle moment.
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