It’s now 20 years since ‘Be Here Now’ was released: Oasis’s marmite third album that has always divided opinion. Receiving rave reviews on its initial release, over the years opinions changed; but in 1997 when people first heard it, it was critically acclaimed. Indeed, NME’s reviewer wrote: “Halfway through the epic ablutions of ‘All Around The World’, you realise that every single hair on your arms and neck is standing erect.”

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When ‘Be Here Now’ was released in 1997, it was at a time when queuing up to get the latest record from your favourite band was a special event. As fans across the country waited to get their hands on a copy of ‘Be Here Now’, MTV headed out on the streets to interview those in line, and as they did, came across the now very familiar face of a young Pete Doherty.

At this point The Libertines had just formed, and it would be another five years until their blistering debut ‘Up the Bracket’ would be released; but the young Pete Doherty was already delighting his audiences (in this case the MTV interviewer who had stumbled across him).


When asked to sum up Oasis, Pete told the interviewer that he subscribed to the Umberto Eco view that “Noel Gallagher is a poet, and Liam is a town crier” which is a “perfect combination”. And when asked if he could sum up the band in one word, went with “trousers”. Obviously.

‘Be Here Now’ has now sold eight million copies worldwide.

In a 30-minuted interview posted on Oasis’s Vevo channel in 2016, Noel Gallagher said they he thinks they should have waited longer to record the follow up to ‘Morning Glory’.

“I only say this now, looking back on it after 20 years…. we should never have made that record then,” he admits. “‘Cause we came off the back of that American tour which was, again, the third tour in a row that we never completed. And I came back to the airport and the fucking world’s press was there and instead of going, ‘Right, we should just go our separate ways for a year or two,’ we decided like idiots to go straight into the studio.”