Oasis: Opening Night Party "Chasing The Sun 1993-97" Photo Exhibition featuring Paul Slattery

Photo by Paul Slattery

"Chasing The Sun: Oasis 1993-1997" is an exhibition of rare and iconic photographs, artefacts and memorabilia from the early years of Oasis, the most significant band to emerge from the U.K. in the past two decades. "Chasing The Sun" takes us on the band’s supercharged journey from a Manchester rehearsal studio to international rock stardom, via three landmark albums - "Definitely Maybe", "(What’s The Story) Morning Glory", and "Be Here Now" - and many legendary gigs, from London’s 100 Club to Glastonbury Festival to their era-defining two night stand at Knebworth House. Curated by renowned photographer Lawrence Watson, who has photographed Oasis several times and worked on Noel Gallagher’s solo album, the exhibition includes previously unseen images from the photographers who had fly-on-the-wall access to the band, including Jill Furmanovsky, Paul Slattery, Tom Sheehan, Kevin Cummins, and Jamie Fry. The exhibition will also display some of the iconic instruments played on the early albums (lent by the band members themselves), vintage merchandise, artefacts from the album sleeves, plus rarely seen early audio-visual content. There's also a full size mock-up of the room from the "Definitely Maybe" album cover where you can recreate your own take on the photo. Opening 20 years to the day since the release of their debut single "Supersonic" (released 11th April 1994), "Chasing The Sun: Oasis 1993-1997" is the first ever exhibition dedicated entirely to Oasis.

Paul Gallagher, Bonehead, Paul Slattery & Liam - Copyright Retroman Blog 2014

The Exhibition takes place at the Londonewcastle Project Space at 28 Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, London E2 7DP, it's free to enter and runs until April 22nd. The Opening Times are: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Saturday 12:00-19:00hrs, Thursday & Friday 12:00-20:00hrs, Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday 12:00-18:00hrs.

I went along to the private view launch party last night as my Retro Man Blog and Retrosonic Podcast colleague Paul Slattery has some of his excellent early Oasis photos on display and I got there early to make sure I could check out the exhibition itself. I can thoroughly recommend a visit, there is an excellent selection of superb photos and memorabilia on display, some as yet unseen and the gallery space is large so it's easy to view the exhibits. Liam Gallagher made an appearance along with brother Paul and guitarist Bonehead and it was nice to see them meet up with photographer Paul Slattery again. Here are some photos from the opening night. 

Paul Slattery signing copies of his book "Oasis: A Year On The Road"

...and some of his photos that feature in the book

You can order Paul Slattery's excellent book "Oasis: A Year On The Road" from Amazon or decent book shops with good taste in music and photography. Paul also has a stunning book, "The Smiths: The Early Years" available which features many iconic photos of the band's formative years. 

Nowadays, Paul is still to be found at the front of many a stage photographing the underground Garage Rock and Psych scenes with bands such as The Fallen Leaves and The Len Price 3 and contributing to Retro Man Blog. He is also one of my regular co-hosts on Retrosonic Podcast and we will be discussing his time with Oasis in a future Episode, so please follow our various Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud sites for news and updates on when that will be released. You can hear Paul talking about his very early days in Rock Photography in this Episode of Retrosonic Podcast. 

Check out the excellent Oasis website oasisinet.com for further information on the Exhibition and for a huge archive and on the bands' gigs, press, videos, discography, memorabilia and much more. Exhibition Photos Copyright Retro Man Blog 2014, Black & White Portrait of Liam and Noel Gallagher Copyright Paul Slattery 2014. For more photos from the exhibition's opening night "Like" the Retro Man Blog Facebook page for access to the photo album.

The Soundtrack of Our Lives - iTunes Festival at The Roundhouse with Noel Gallagher

Fredrik Sandsten & Ian Person of TSOOL

Noel Gallagher has always been extremely supportive of his favourite Swedish band over the years, right back to his days in Oasis, he would often devote valuable column space in his own and Oasis's interviews to praise the band. So, considering The Soundtrack of Our Lives will cease to be by the end of 2012, it was a nice gesture by Noel to invite the band to open for him and the High Flying Birds at their iTunes Festival show at London's Roundhouse. Noel was also to be seen watching the band from the side of the stage as they kicked off a short, eight song set to the cavernous Roundhouse. Of course, iTunes can only be applauded for putting on events like this and supporting live music. However, the problem with these corporate style shows, is that it can be difficult for die-hard fans to get tickets. And so it is tonight, as the band take the stage to be greeted by a strangely bemused, polite, yet pretty unresponsive crowd made up mainly of iTunes competition draw winners.

Mind you as always, singer Ebbot Lundberg seems to revel in the situation, he's never been one to take the easy option. He appears on stage alone with an acoustic guitar and strums away, it takes a while before I recognise the song is a cover of The Damned's twisted side-show oddity, "These Hands" from Machine Gun Etiquette. "These are the hands of a demented circus clown", sings Ebbot, "outside I'm happy but inside I'm really wearing a frown..." Is that a reference to the band splitting up? Maybe he's changed his mind, a pang of regret even? No, I don't think so. Since the band have announced the split, there seems to be a big weight lifted off their shoulders and the gigs have been some of the most joyous I have seen for many years. As guitarist Ian Person told me after their show, "now the pressure is off we can have some fun". The band then take their places on stage and proceed to give it their all, straight into the storming title track of their latest, and last album "Throw It To The Universe". Ebbot intones..."We are the ones who never die..."

Ebbot Lundberg

However, it seems they are facing a bit of an uphill struggle, not just in the face of the rather passive audience but against the acoustics too. It's a poor sound, and the more psychedelic passages seem to waft up and get lost in the huge dome of the Roundhouse. It seems this is occasionally causing timing issues, I'm not sure if it's anything to do with the fact that the shows were being recorded and filmed for a live Internet broadcast, maybe the sound mix is more geared to that? "Firmament Vacation" follows and then the excellent Ian Person song "Still Aging" from the "Behind The Music" album, a track that seems to have found it's way back into set-lists recently. The sound gradually clicks into place and the set builds nicely with the flamenco intro to new song "Where's The Rock?". Fan favourite "Confrontation Camp", a sort of Stooges style take on The Sweet's "Blockbuster", seems to perk up the audience a bit. One of the new album's highlights "Faster Than the Speed of Light" is somewhat interrupted by an extensive section of vocal gymnastics from Ebbot, and the momentum is lost a little bit.

Kalle & Ian of TSOOL

The slow build of "Second Life Replay" is a challenging choice of song to play to an audience mainly consisting of people who hadn't heard the band before. Sure, it's become a bit of a classic TSOOL song with the passing of time since the superb double album "Communion", with it's complex passages and Martin Hederos' beautiful harpsichord break, its not an immediate hit, but it's a stunningly powerful song. This is followed by probably their most well known number, the faultless "Sister Surround" and it all comes together, the familiar driving rhythm laid down by drummer Fredrik Sandsten and bassist Kalle Gustafsson Jerneholm is followed by the call and response duelling guitars of Mattias Bärjed and Ian Person and it gets heads nodding finally. One fan waves a lone Swedish flag in front of Ebbot but I'd like to think they did pull in a few more converts after all, even if it might be too late.

The visually stunning Roundhouse

All photographs Copyright Steve Worrall Retro Man Blog 2012

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