I was beyond elated when it finally arrived in the post. I had been waiting for what seemed like forever since I had made the online pre-order. However there it was, the day after the re-release. I had opened the parcel from the UK and there it was sitting in front of me.

It was the super deluxe edition boxset of Oasis debut album Definitely Maybe. 20 years older and just as fresh and irreverent as it was when it first was released to an unsuspecting public.

This album more than anything had not only shaken up a country out what appeared to be a musical and cultural funk, Definitely Maybe had struck a chord in me personally. It was a sonic reaffirmation that I could relate to, especially since all of the song’s themes had really in some way or shape had really reflected on what I was feeling.

My introduction to Oasis came in the form of my shift manager at McDonalds on the corner of Dewdney and Albert in Regina. One afternoon as I was listening to what was playing in the background of our staffroom, a girl by the name of LJ was proofing what would be the second issue to a well done fanzine called Splishin! After listening for a few minutes she had explained to me that she had just returned from Vancouver after seeing a band called Oasis at the Commodore Ballroom. Her energy around this band I had never heard of was infectious. The next week she had made me a few tapes which included the singles and B-sides that was released so far as well as two gigs. One of them included the Vancouver gig that was broadcast on CBC radio the following week.

Listening to the gig and the energy that poured out of my speakers had really spoken to me. And more than anything this was turning into one of the first bands that in my teens I developed a feverish passion for. It was different and familiar all in one. Different from grunge, as familiar as the rock that was imported from the UK in the 60’s and seventies. At that time my musical diet was from the extreme of metal to the other of old school hip-hop. And in particular, one of the songs out of the bootleg cassette really had hit home.

“Live Forever” had become the anthem, my personal anthem. School would be finished in five months, graduating was right around the corner, and after spending three and a half years being more emo than when it became fashionable, I suddenly had a song that took the light at the end of the tunnel and shone it in my direction.

Shortly after that I went and purchased Definitely Maybe and studied it from beginning to end. “Live Forever” became part of a heavy rotation on my playlist. Going back and discovering their singles helped me discover a zealous passion that translated into almost everything I did. As a writer for the campus newspaper at the time, I had put together a three page article, complete with pictures and quotes. Anyone who knew me also knew how passionate I was about five guys from Manchester and the sound that had turned a nation on its head.

April 95 saw the release of “Some Might Say”. If there ever could have been a song that summed up those last couple months in high school, and the newfound hope I was starting to feel that finally, I was getting out, “Some Might Say” had summarized the mood of escape I had craved so badly. In a way it felt like a bookend to a chapter of my life, the next one which would begin back in Saskatoon and in University.

Months later What’s The Story (Morning Glory)? had come out. Again the songs resonated along with me, especially “Wonderwall.” For the first time in university, the words, “there are many things that I…would like to say to you but I don’t know how…” had made sense as for the first time I experienced my first same sex attraction.

I met Noel Gallagher in 1996 in Vancouver when I’d flown out to experience the show. It was enough for me to be determined to start my own band and write lyrics that seemed to have a Noel-esque vibe to them (I didn’t get very far). In addition I started to work on personal writing projects that I thought I may never share with the world. One of these was a fictitious variation of the brothers Gallagher, the other one was the beginning of the first draft to the follow up to Drowned World. Along with Oasis also came the introduction into other British artists, including the techno and house music that eventually found me at Diva’s nightclub in Saskatoon, and for the first time admitting to myself and to close friends the thing that had been put in gear back in 1996.

Be Here Now came out in August of 1997. There was nothing else that could have summed up my mood. I would venture out to Edmonton on my own for the first time that November, truly fall for the first time, experience my first kiss…

Subsequently in 2000, Standing On The Shoulders of Giants was released. I thought of this more album as transitory. I was one year away from moving out to Edmonton. The album to me had felt uneven. I would feel the same way about Heathen Chemistry, because in 2002 I was feeling the exact same way. For whatever reason Oasis had mirrored my life with high and low points during that time. When they released Don’t Believe The Truth in 2004, I was two thirds finished my first novel, and slowly beginning the first draft of what would end up being at that point novel#3.

I got the chance to see Oasis live again in 2008, just weeks before Dig Out Your Soul came out. It in itself couldn’t have been a more perfect album to mirror what was going on. I had experienced Montreal for the very first time, and had just gotten Drowned World to the publisher. It would still be another ten months before the book would finally make it into my hands. Like the first three albums. Oasis’ last album had really struck many chords with me, especially “I’m Out of Time.” When Oasis took the stage in Edmonton that August. It was nothing short of perfect. My friend who went with me had teased me for not singing along. But admittedly I was in complete awe. It was the perfect show from beginning to end, and made up for the chaos surrounding the Vancouver gig.

Unfortunately that would be the last time I would get to hear them. Oasis split in 2009, which to me felt like the end of a musical dream. There would be no weeks of speculation afterwards, no grand reunion. Oasis had officially split up for good. In a lot of ways Oasis had grown up with me musically, but most importantly they had taught me to escape, celebrate, and most of all to be myself, “…I can’t be no one else…”

And L.J. if you’re reading this…thank you from the bottom of my heart.