Hosts: Neil & Chris

Two landmark albums, one meteoric rise, zero business plans. Neil and Chris tackle both Definitely Maybe and What's The Story Morning Glory in a single epic episode, tracing how working-class Manchester lads practicing opposite the Hacienda (but rarely going inside) became the last wild rock and roll band before the internet changed everything. From playing to 10-15 people to 250,000 Knebworth applications in just two years, this is lightning in a bottle captured at the perfect cultural moment.

The recording journey unfolds across three studios with wildly different results. Mono Valley sessions with David Batchelor sounded like "the Beach Boys, not Oasis," missing the essential swagger, so Alan McGee rejected them outright. Then came Sawmills with live sound engineer Mark Coyle producing despite zero studio experience, mic'ing everything together in one room (except Liam in his vocal booth), three takes per song maximum before heading to the pub. Owen Morris's mixing turned the cassette arrival on tour into a "fucking amazing" relief moment, cranking and amping everything to create that definitive Oasis sound.

Chris learned guitar in the mid-90s with these exact songs forming his musical gene pool, while Neil experienced the exponential rise as it happened. Both hosts reflect on why Oasis represented something unrepeatable: right time, right songs, right chaos, pre-digital era when rock stars could still feel genuinely dangerous. The reunion tour buzz makes this deep dive especially timely, documenting the albums that started it all.

Supersonic was written in 15 minutes during a takeaway break when Tony McCarroll couldn't nail Bring It On Down (the intended first single). That one-note top line verse made it incredibly easy to sing along, launching them into the stratosphere. Slide Away came from an uninspiring Mono Valley room with a Les Paul, the demo version actually becoming the album version. Wonderwall's swung, funky groove proves deceptively difficult to replicate, open mic versions sounding nothing like the record because the feel is so specific.

Cast No Shadow marks Chris's What's The Story favorite for its beautiful, dancey top line you can disappear into while performing, showing clear songwriting maturity evolution from Rock and Roll Star's straightforward swagger. The album ratings tell the trajectory story: Chris gives Definitely Maybe a 10, What's The Story a 5, Be Here Now a 2.5. Despite phenomenal songs like "Do You Know What I Mean," something essential got lost in the indulgent layers and digital polish.

Oasis captured the last wild rock and roll moment before digital era dilution fractured everything into infinite niches. The timing was improbable perfection: post-Stone Roses, grunge dying, everyone wanting real rock stars again. Working class Manchester not London, not processy, just right songs at right time with right manager running pure chaos (no business plans, just Alan McGee's "that's amazing" philosophy). That council estate to Knebworth rise in two years couldn't happen today.

These albums created communal anthemic experiences where everyone sings together, lightning in a bottle before the internet changed how music gets discovered and consumed. The frazzled post-Knebworth state (should've taken six months off but didn't, wheels already in motion for destruction) shows what happens when meteoric success meets human limits. The reunion tour proves these songs still resonate because they captured something genuine and unrepeatable, a moment when rock and roll felt vital and dangerous one last glorious time before everything changed forever.

Perfect for: Anyone wondering how a band practicing opposite the Hacienda went from 10-person audiences to Knebworth in 24 months, musicians interested in the three-take Sawmills philosophy versus digital perfection obsession, fans of studio chaos stories involving pub exile and air rifle brawls and remote control cars driving through acoustic takes, anyone who learned guitar in the 90s and wants to understand why these songs became the essential gene pool, listeners riding the reunion tour buzz who want the full origin story of what made these albums cultural landmarks, production nerds fascinated by Owen Morris's compression magic and why it works on acoustic but kills electric swagger, and anyone who believes imperfections are the art and energy beats perfection every single time.