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Noel Gallagher, lead guitarist, songwriter and musical director of the English band Oasis declared, "I could say to any band member from any era, 'Pick your best song. Give me the best song you think you've written, and I'll pick mine.' And I think the best of ours would be above the best of theirs. " This pronouncement from an interview with Spin's Neil Strauss gives a fair indication of Gallagher's confidence. Yet unlike many other U.K. hopefuls, Oasis managed with their first two records to match their voluminous hype with large-scale success. After a critically lauded debut and a couple of strong radio singles, they returned with an even more popular sophomore album; and despite alienating some listeners with their foul-mouthed, cocksure behavior and often lackadaisical live shows, they showed every indication of continued growth. And unlike many of their American compatriots, these self-proclaimed "lads" embraced stardom unequivocally. "I can't stand snivelling rock stars who complain about being famous," Noel groused to Entertainment Weekly. "Why not just work at a car wash or a McDonalds? There's no point in starting a band unless you wanna be famous."

The story of Oasis begins in the industrial, northern English town of Manchester, where Noel and his younger brother grew up. Their father poured concrete floors by day and worked parties at night as a country and western disc jockey. Though Noel was introduced to some classic country artists through his father, he discovered classic rock on his own. The crafted, eclectic pop of the Beatles, Led Zeppelin's thunderously adventurous rock, the glam-rock opuses of T. Rex, and punk standard-bearers the Sex Pistols' sneering iconoclasm all melded in his mind. He received his first guitar at age 13 and learned the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride"; soon he was writing his own songs. Though he shared his music with no one for many years, little else interested him. He gave up on school early on, as did many of his working-class peers. "As soon as I learned to read and write," he revealed to Jason Cohen of Rolling Stone, "I didn't even bother turning up half the time. I can't even spell, but who needs to spell? There was just nothing there for the musician in me." A period of rootlessness and petty crime followed.

"So I Started Me Own Band"

Liam Gallagher played soccer, which most of the world calls "football," and didn't gravitate toward music until the end of the 1980s, when Manchester became England's hot music town. Hosting a variety of successful bands that mixed post-punk energy with dance beats, "Madchester," as it was briefly known, swirled with excitement. Liam got together with some of his "mates," Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs and Paul McGulgan, and started up a band. McGuigan told Liam he couldn't play anything, he informed Musician, to which the younger Gallagher replied "'Then play bass, 'cause you only have to play the top string if you want.' Sol said okay." They enlisted the only drummer they knew, Tony McCarroll, to round out the lineup. "We had f—all else to do," guitarist Arthurs recollected to Rolling Stone. "It was either get in a band or get drunk every night." The two pursuits turned out not to be mutually exclusive.

Noel, meanwhile, became the "guitar tech" for the band Inspirai Carpets, accompanying them on the road to keep their instruments and other equipment in shape. "I knew how to change strings, how to tune a guitar, and change a fuse or a plug, and that's about it, really," he told Musician. Though other guitar technicians he met possessed all manner of arcane knowledge about the gear, he admitted, "I haven't got a clue, mate. Not a clue. I just lied when I got the job."

Going on tour with the Inspirais was frustrating for him, since "they didn't treat us well at all, and I didn't like the music. They had a couple of good tunes, but they didn't have any spirit. They were just going through the motions for the money. And then, well, I'd be looking at them and thinking, 'F—ing hell, if they can get away with it, I can.' So I started me own band." In reality, he offered to take over Liam's band. Having written a number of songs during the Inspirais tour, he felt that his kid brother's group had little to offer beyond Liam's surprisingly powerful, sneering voice. He therefore announced that he would join—provided they stand aside and play his songs according to his exacting instructions. In Rolling Stone he reported having said, " I can only do this one way: with me in complete control of it."

Definitely Wowed Critics, Fans

Oasis began working far more intensively. "All our friends would say, 'Let's get drunk, let's chase some women, let's take some drugs,'" Noel recounted in Musician. "We'd say, 'No, no, we have to practice.' They all thought we were mott [crazy] for quite a while." After spending the requisite period learning to play Noel's songs exactly as he wanted to hear them, Oasis talked themselves onto a bill at a Glasgow, Scotland club. Closing their set with an earsplitting rendition of the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus," they got a record offer from a member of the audience, Creation Records founder Alan McGee. "It was agreed that we were going to sign [a contract] that night," Noel told Rolling Stone, "but we didn't sign until two or three months later."

Their debut album, Definitely Maybe, was released in 1994 and synthesized the pop, glam-rock and punk influences that had informed Noel's youth. The band immediately became the darlings of the passionately fickle British music press. Thanks in part to singles like the evanescent ballad "Live Forever," the album rocketed up the English charts. Their status as darlings of U.K. rock scribes certainly derived in large part from their way with a pop tune, but the band's bad-boy attitude also contributed. "We always knew we were going to be good," Noel said with characteristic immodesty in Guitar Player, "because you don't write a song like 'Live Forever' and disappear. We weren't surprised that the album reached #1 in England and went gold. It was just surprising how fast it got there."

Unfazed By Skeptical Yanks

Things took a bit longer in the United States, where audiences and reviewers scarcely took Oasis' purported Godhead on faith. Despite largely glowing reviews for the album, the band's live shows often drewfire. Julia Rubiner complained about their "lackluster live set" in Music Connection, faulting Liam's "unvaried vocal presentation" and tendency to stand still with his hands behind his back most of the time. "Maybe delusions of grandeur pass for entertainment in England," Rubiner wrote, likening the band's performance to "the fulfillment of a contractual obligation." Onstage, Jason Cohen wrote in Rolling Stone, "Oasis act completely oblivious to the rich nuances and joyous, thudding impact of their music," and described their performance as "frustratingly passive-aggressive." A disgruntled concert-goer interviewed by Musician's Charles M. Young, meanwhile, dismissed the band as "a very loud version of [1970s bubblegum popsters] The Bay City Rollers." Yet the record fared quite well, thanks in large part to the airplay earned by "Live Forever."

Oasis very loudly replied to such criticism that they didn't care. They toured relentlessly—so much so that McGuigan had to take a break from the band, citing "exhaustion," and was briefly replaced—and proudly indulged in classic rock and roll pursuits like drinking, drugs and the trashing of hotel rooms. They also engaged in a very public feud with fellow Brit band Blur and derided most other bands, especially American ones. Their acerbic esprit de corps had its limits, of course; Liam and Noel quarrelled constantly. "Some days we get on really well, " Noel reported to huHs Mark Blackwell. "Other days we f—ing 'ate the sight of each other. But that's life." And the band's high opinion of itself was recorded faithfully in a stream of interviews. "I'm always sayin', 'We're the best band in the world,'" Liam informed Blackwell. "The reason I say it is because we jus' f—ing are. I don't say it for the sake of just sayin' it. I believe it, man. Every band should be able to go, 'Yeah, we're the best band in the world,'" though he added that not many bands could say so with conviction.

Morning Glory Showed Growth

While the band's meteoric rise and unflinching arrogance invited many a prediction—and no doubt a fervent wish or two—that they would wind up as one-hit wonders, Oasis instead came back stronger on their sophomore effort. They replaced McCarroll with Alan White before going back in to the studio, however. "Tony's a nice guy and all that," Noel explained to Elysa Gardner of Roiling Stone. "But the band is moving on, and he wasn't really up to standards." McCarroll would later file suit against the band for firing him wrongfully. The new album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, showed greater songwriting depth, according to reviewers like Rolling Stone's Jon Wiederhom, who called it "more than a natural progression; it's a bold leap forward that displays significant personal growth."

Morning Glory stormed up the American charts on the strength of "Wonderwall," another anthemic ballad. By its fourteenth week in release it had reached the number-eighteen position on the Billboard 200 album chart, and was dubbed the week's "pacesetter" disc. Such triumphs hardly stunted Noel Gallagher's already towering self-regard. If Oasis had existed at the same time as the Beatles, he told Spin, "I think we'd be the Beatles." He described his band, "an unstoppable ball that is rolling down a mountain, and when it gets to the end, that's it. It's finished. I don't think any of us will be able to go off and do something else and have it be as big as that." In Musician he proclaimed, "I just want a back catalog, something for the kids to plagiarize. I'll have done my service to rock 'n' roll. So long as I have my music and I feel enthusiastic, that's all I want. I want to realize my own potential."

—Simon Glickman