Paul Weller - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Phoenix Festival, Long Marston Airfield, Stratford-upon-Avon, Britain, 7-13-1995

I got so carried away posting BBC albums from other artists that I forgot I'd started posting a series of BBC albums from Paul Weller's solo career. But I've remembered, and now here's another one. There are many more to come.

This is another full BBC concert. Many BBC concerts were released on the box set "At the BBC." I've decided some of them are too similar to others for me to want to post them all here. Some of them also are shortened concerts, edited down to an hour or less. I'm trying to post the full-length concerts. The last one I did was from 1994. This one is just a year later. But in the meantime, he released his best selling solo album, "Stanley Road," so I think that's good reason for another concert here.

At first, I assumed this would be very straightforward, I would just post the concert from the "At the BBC" box set. But it turned out to be much more difficult than that. Listening to the concert from that box set again, I realized that there was absolutely no banter between songs whatsoever. And while Weller isn't the most loquacious person in the world, I figured he would at least say some things. 

So I found a soundboard bootleg of this exact same concert before the box set was released and I discovered that indeed there was some banter here and there. Thus, I kept the music from the box set version, figuring it's probably of slightly better sound quality (although both versions sounded the same to me). But I took all the bits of banter between songs that I could find and I pasted them in. So this combined version is arguably better than either the bootleg or box set versions. However, note that the bootleg version was missing four songs, so it could be there were some bits of banter before those songs that I missed.

Noel Gallagher, the lead guitarist and primary songwriter for the British band Oasis, joined Weller for the final encore. Gallagher was extremely popular at this time, which was at the height of the "Britpop" movement. The second Oasis studio album "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" wouldn't get released until October 1995. But Weller and Gallagher played a song off it, kind of, an instrumental called "The Swamp Song." I say "kind of" because it was broken into two unnamed snippets of less than a minute each for the album. The full version was released as a B-side to the big hit "Wonderwall." On the recorded version, Weller played harmonica while Gallagher wailed on lead guitar, so that's what they did in this concert version as well.

After that, Gallagher also stayed for the final song, "I Walk on Gilded Splinters." That was originally done by Dr. John, but Weller did a version for his "Stanley Road" album.

This album is an hour and 21 minutes long.

01 talk (Paul Weller)
02 The Changingman (Paul Weller)
03 Hung Up (Paul Weller)
04 talk (Paul Weller)
05 Has My Fire Really Gone Out (Paul Weller)
06 Whirlpools' End (Paul Weller)
07 talk (Paul Weller)
08 Uh Huh Oh Yeh (Paul Weller)
09 Out of the Sinking (Paul Weller)
10 I Didn't Mean to Hurt You (Paul Weller)
11 Porcelain Gods (Paul Weller)
12 talk (Paul Weller)
13 Stanley Road (Paul Weller)
14 You Do Something to Me (Paul Weller)
15 Can You Heal Us [Holy Man] (Paul Weller)
16 talk (Paul Weller)
17 Shadow of the Sun (Paul Weller)
18 Sunflower (Paul Weller)
19 talk (Paul Weller)
20 Into Tomorrow (Paul Weller)
21 talk (Paul Weller)
22 Broken Stones (Paul Weller)
23 talk (Paul Weller)
24 Woodcutter's Son (Paul Weller)
25 talk (Paul Weller)
26 The Swamp Song [Instrumental] (Paul Weller & Noel Gallagher)
27 I Walk on Gilded Splinters (Paul Weller & Noel Gallagher)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16075952/PaulW_1995_BBSessonsVolum4InConcrtPhoenxFestivlStratfrdupnAvnBrtain__7-13-1995_atse.zip.html

The cover photo of Weller comes from an appearance on the TV show "White Room" in 1995. By coincidence, Gallagher also played with Weller during that appearance.

Oasis - Setting Sun - Non-Album Tracks (1995-1997)

In 1995, Oasis was on top of the world. Their album "(What's the Story) Morning Glory" was critically acclaimed and sold millions. So there was great anticipation for their next album, "Be Here Now," which came out in 1997.

Unfortunately, it was a big disappointment. Fame, fortune, and lots of drugs had gone to the heads of the Gallagher brothers, who led the group. It was hard to even tell in the songs on it were good or not, because they were all so overproduced, as well as usually being overly long. They also were early advocates of "brickwalling," making the recording so loud that destroyed the subtlety in the music. Both Gallaghers later admitted that they screwed up with that album. The band continued, and had a lot of success in later years, but they never were as big and as acclaimed as they were before that debacle.

As you can tell, I'm not a fan of "Be Here Now." I plan on posting an alternate version here at a later date. But it turns out the band was still putting out songs that weren't ruined by overproduction, because they were only considered for B-sides and the like. Here's a selection of songs mostly from the "Be Here Now" era that don't include any songs from that album. Personally, I like this album better than that one. Noel Gallagher was still writing high quality songs, so much so that their B-sides were better than many band's A-sides.

The one hit here is "Setting Sun." This technically was released as a Chemical Brothers song featuring Noel Gallagher on lead vocals. But while the Chemical Brothers did put their stamp on the song's production, especially by adding the "Tomorrow Never Knows"-styled drumming, it's an Oasis song. In fact, I've included an early version of this song on the "Take Me" stray tracks album under the name "Coming On Strong."

Most of the songs here are from B-sides, though there are a few exceptions. Note that I didn't include all the B-sides from that era, because some of them were infected by the same problems of the "Be Here Now" album. In the case of "My Sister Lover," I edited it to lop the last couple of minutes off. It's a good song, but way overlong, just like too many of the "Be Here Now" songs.

I believe all the songs are originals, except for a cover of "This Guy's in Love with You" by Bacharach and David.

By the way, I have lots of acoustic versions of Oasis songs, especially from the 1990s. I'm not including any of those here because they'll go on all-acoustic albums instead.

01 Fade Away [Warchild Version] (Oasis)
02 How Does It Feel (Oasis)
03 This Guy's in Love with You (Noel Gallagher with Burt Bacharach)
04 Setting Sun (Chemical Brothers with Noel Gallagher)
05 Angel Child [Demo] (Oasis)
06 Going Nowhere (Oasis)
07 Stay Young (Oasis)
08 My Sister Lover [Edit] (Oasis)
09 Flashbax (Oasis)
10 Untitled Instrumental (Oasis)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15908979/Osis_1995-1997_SettngSun_atse.zip.html

For the cover, I used the cover to the "Setting Sun" single. But this is an Oasis album, and that was technically a Chemical Brothers release. So I pasted the Oasis logo over the Chemical Brothers name.

Oasis - Acquiesce - Non-Album Tracks (1995)

I just posted an Oasis stray tracks album that mostly collects their best 1994 B-sides. This is basically the same deal, except it's 1995 B-sides.

As I mentioned in that last post, the stray tracks Oasis did in the 1994 and 1995 era are some of the best songs they ever did. But just as I like their 1995 album "(What's the Story) Morning Glory" more than I like their 1994 album "Definitely Maybe," I like their 1995 stray tracks slightly better than their 1994 ones.

As it so happens, every single song here was officially released as a B-side in 1995. And that's remarkable, because so many songs deserved a better fate. That's especially true for the first song, "Acquiesce," which many consider one of the band's best songs. The band's main songwriter Noel Gallagher later admitted they messed up releasing so many excellent songs as B-sides in this time period. He said he assumed that the songs of that caliber would continue to come fast and furious for him. But unfortunately, they didn't.

The songs here make for a 44 minute-long album. If you like the band at all, you should have these songs.

01 Acquiesce (Oasis)
02 Talk Tonight (Oasis)
03 Headshrinker (Oasis)
04 It's Better People (Oasis)
05 Rockin' Chair (Oasis)
06 Step Out (Oasis)
07 Underneath the Sky (Oasis)
08 Round Are Way (Oasis)
09 The Swamp Song [Instrumental] (Oasis)
10 The Masterplan (Oasis)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15259188/Osis_1995_Acqsce_atse.zip.html

For the album cover art, I found what looks like the cover to a single for the song "Acquiesce." However, that song never was released as an A-side. I think it was a promo single released around the time of "The Masterplan" compilation album, because the art is very similar to that. In any case, it works perfectly for me, and I didn't have to change a thing.

Oasis - Half the World Away - Non-Album Tracks (1994)

I've got a lot of Oasis material to post, especially acoustic stuff. But first, I want to chronologically go through their non-acoustic stray tracks. So here we go.

From about 1993 to 1996, Oasis was awesome. They put out their two best albums in my opinion, "Definitely Maybe" and "(What's the Story) Morning Glory." But seemingly everything they did during that time was golden. Unfortunately, they frittered away all sorts of really good songs as B-sides. Many of the best of these were later collected in the compilation "The Masterplan." However, in my opinion, that collection was incomplete. It was only one album's worth of songs when Oasis had two album's worth of high quality B-sides in that time period. So I've made those two albums.

Personally, if I were to pick the four best Oasis albums, it would be the two studio albums they did in that time period, plus the two stray tracks collections here. And I say that even though I like a lot of their later stuff. That's how strong their material was at that time.

All the songs here are B-sides, except for one A-side and one bonus track. Plus, the last song, "Talk Tonight," is kind of a bonus track in that it's a live acoustic version sung with Paul Weller. I'm including the studio version on the other stray tracks collection I'll be posting after this.

I think these songs would have made for a very strong album. The first song was even a major hit in Britain. The album length is 48 minutes, which would have been ideal for a real album.

01 Whatever (Oasis)
02 Fade Away (Oasis)
03 Listen Up (Oasis)
04 I Am the Walrus [Live] (Oasis)
05 D'Yer Wanna Be a Spaceman (Oasis)
06 [It's Good] To Be Free (Oasis)
07 Half the World Away (Oasis)
08 Sad Song (Oasis)
09 Take Me Away (Oasis)
10 Talk Tonight (Oasis with Paul Weller)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15259189/Osis_1994_HalfWrldAway_atse.zip.html

For the cover art, I used a photo of the band from 1994. I'm not sure if they really were in blue light with a red background or someone manipulated that, but I like how it looks. All I did was add the text at the top.

Oasis - Take Me - Non-Album Tracks (1991-1993)

I have to admit that I like Oasis. Yeah, the feuding of the Gallagher brothers has been an embarrassment, and they've put out some bad music, and their production (especially wanting to "brickwall" everything) has often ruined things. But when they've been on, such as with their 1995 album "(What's the Story) Morning Glory," they've often achieved greatness.

I plan on posting a bunch of albums to separate the wheat from the chaff. They have a surprising number of really good songs that never made any album, and their acoustic versions of their songs have been consistently excellent, and also avoid the overproduction issues of most of their albums.

Naturally, I want to start at the beginning. Oasis began as a band called "the Rain," which featured Liam Gallagher on lead vocals. They already were developing their famous Oasis sound, but they had very little in the way of good original songs. Liam's older brother Noel had been writing lots of songs, and joined the band in 1991, around the time they changed the name to Oasis. They didn't start to hit it big until mid-1994, when their first single was officially released.

This album deals with their years before they got famous or had a record contract. Luckily, they made a bunch of well-recorded demos of songs that they left behind. Also luckily, a lot of those songs were pretty good. I've been very choosy here, including only the songs I like, and only the ones with very good sound quality. Happily, that turns out to be exactly one album's worth of music (52 minutes).

I believe three of the songs towards the start of this album, "Alice," "Reminisce," and "Take Me," were written by Liam Gallagher and Bonehead, rather than Noel. The first two were recorded before Noel joined the band, possibly while they were still called the Rain. It's pretty hard to tell though, since they already sound very much like Oasis.

The songs generally get better as the album goes along, showing how the band was steadily improving. The fact that one 1992 reject, "All Around the World," would become a number one hit in 1997 despite not changing much shows that most or all of these songs were worthy of release. But only two of them came out as early B-sides ("I Will Believe" and "Alive"), while another eventually got released as a bonus track ("Strange Thing"). Everything else here remains officially unreleased.

The last song, "Coming On Strong," is basically the exact same song as "Setting Son," which was a 1996 hit for the Chemical Brothers with Noel Gallagher singing lead vocals. The lyrics and melody are the same, and just the instrumentation and production are significantly different. "Lock All the Doors" later morphed into "My Sister Lover," a 1997 B-side. It also was reworked and included on the 2015 Noel Gallagher album "Chasing Yesterday."

In my opinion, Oasis were at their best prior to the 1997 album "Be Here Now," and were only occasionally brilliant after that, because they were undone by drugs, fame, and ego. I consider this album part of their early peak.

01 Alice (Oasis)
02 Reminisce (Oasis)
03 Colour My Life (Oasis)
04 Take Me (Oasis)
05 See the Sun (Oasis)
06 Life in Vain (Oasis)
07 All Around the World (Oasis)
08 I Will Believe (Oasis)
09 Lock All the Doors [Early Version of My Sister Lover] (Oasis)
10 Alive (Oasis)
11 Strange Thing (Oasis)
12 Coming On Strong [Early Version of Setting Sun] (Oasis)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15909057/Osis_1991-1993_TakMe_atse.zip.html

There's a YouTube video of Oasis performing "All Around the World" in somebody's house in 1992. The picture I used as the cover art is a still taken from that video. It's kind of low resolution, and only singer Liam Gallagher can be seen, but I thought it sums up early Oasis perfectly, because you can see a Beatles poster in the background, along with the British flag stenciled on the wall.