OASIS & MAN CITY: ALL PART OF

THE MAS

- Words James Andrew Additional reporting Ben Marsden Portraits Kevin Cummins

In 1994, a legendary photographer shot some iconic portraits for a soon-to-be legendary band. As Oasis' reunion tour begins, the snapper and others explain how football was at the heart of their supersonic rise

Oasis roadie Phil Smith and sound engineer Mark Coyle. “Phil was a City fan and Coyley was a Red,” explains Brian Cannon of Microdot, who were commissioned to design all of the early Oasis artwork. “But as Phil said, George Best transcended football rivalry, he was a genius, so that’s why he was there.” There was another link to Best, too. “Guigsy’s dad and George Best were friends from Northern Ireland, so growing up, Guigsy was playing football with Best, which is pretty amazing,” says publicist Hopkins. “Bonehead and Tony McCarroll [Oasis’ then drummer] were also Man United fans, so it made sense for Best to be on the cover for a number of reasons.”

The links between the band and City grew stronger, though. Oasis were asked to record the official Manchester City song for the 1995 season, entitled It’s Tough Being A Blue When You Come From Where I Do, but disputes over which record label it was to be released on meant that it never saw the light of day. Noel kept the tune and repurposed it for one of the band’s most popular B-sides, Acquiesce.

Though an official City song never materialised, match-going fans were seen as a target audience when a cover version of Slade’s Cum On Feel the Noize was pressed on CDs with a football design for promotional purposes, and sent to clubs up and down the country to play over the PA system.

“Targeting football fans made total sense, because Oasis made perfect terrace anthems and so did Slade,” says Hopkins. “It was logical to send that song to football clubs and get them to play it before games.”

Cannon agrees. “We were briefed that that was how it would be used, so I came up with the idea of the football motif on the CD,” he remembers.