| Be Here Now is the third studio album by English rock band Oasis, released on 21 August 1997 by Creation Records. Oasis had achieved worldwide success with their 1994 debut album Definitely Maybe and 1995 follow up (What's the Story) Morning Glory? The third album was highly anticipated by both fans and music critics. Oasis' management company, Ignition, were aware of the dangers of overexposure, and before release sought to control the media's access to the album. The campaign included limiting pre-release radio airplay and forcing journalists to sign gag orders. The tactics resulted in the alienation of both the press and many industry personnel connected with the band, and fueled large-scale speculation and wide publicity within the British music scene.
On the first day of release, Be Here Now sold over 424,000 copies, becoming the fastest-selling album in British chart history, while initial reviews were overwhelmingly positive. The album's producer Owen Morris said the recording sessions were marred by arguments and drug abuse, and that the band's only motivations were commercial. As of 2008, the album had sold eight million copies worldwide.It was the biggest selling album of 1997 in the UK with 1.47 million units sold that year. BackgroundeditBy the summer of 1996, Oasis were widely considered, according to guitarist Noel Gallagher, "the biggest band in the world ... bigger than, dare I say it, fucking God." The commercial success of the band's two previous albums had resulted in media frenzy and an ubiquity in the mainstream press that was in danger of leading to a backlash. In the summer of 1997, Oasis members were being invited to functions at 10 Downing Street by new Prime Minister Tony Blair and holidaying with Johnny Depp and Kate Moss in Mick Jagger's villa in Mustique. During their last stay on the island, Noel wrote the majority of the songs that would make up Oasis's third album. He had suffered from writer's block during the previous winter, and has since admitted he wrote only a single guitar riff in the six months following the release of (What's the Story) Morning Glory?. After a few weeks "idling", he disciplined himself to a routine of songwriting where he would go "into this room in the morning, come out for lunch, go back in, come out for dinner, go back in, then go to bed." Noel has later said about the album "... most of the songs were written before I even got a record deal, I went away and wrote the lyrics in about two weeks." The band's producer Owen Morris joined Gallagher later with a TASCAM 8-track recorder, and they recorded demos with a drum machine and a keyboard. (more...) |
