Oasis: What's The Story?

by Iain Robertson

Oasis was a band like bands used to be. Hard-drinking and substance abusing. If they liked you, they loved you. If they didn't, you had to be prepared for confrontation. They were also the most viscerally exciting rock band to emerge from Britain for years. Iain Robertson is used to tough jobs—after retiring from the Parachute Regiment, he took on jobs guarding George Harrison, Gary Moore and Johnny Rotten. But keeping Oasis on the rails after debut album Definitely Maybe ignited their rise toward global superstardom would be the toughest gig of them all. Iain was side-by-side with Oasis as their road manager and minder, 24 hours a day, eight days a week, as they took on the world and won. No one was closer to the maelstrom. His story is the defining chronicle of life on tour with Oasis.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography

304 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2017

Reviews

[Delia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Felt like the author loved himself too much and the book doesn’t really provide any insight into Oasis… quite disappointing. Felt like oasis was a side plot to the author’s life (ironic for a book supposedly focused on oasis)

[Ryan Anys · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but not great...

I bought this hoping for some Oasis "insider insights." You know, some real "behind the curtain" revaluations.

I was hoping for a closer look at Noel's musical genius and recording studio prowess.

I was hoping for the straight dope on Tony McCarrol's firing.

What I got was the story of Rock + Roll road manager Iain Robertson set against a backdrop of Definitely Maybe and What's the Story era Oasis on the road.

Robertson certainly captured some interesting moments on the road with the band. But no grand reveals. No stunning surprises. No unexpected twists or turns.

In short, it's not bad, but it's not great...

[Mollie Ballinger · Rating 1 out of 5]

‘Who could deny they've earned it, all of it. But what concerns me still, and might concern you, should you care, is this: the next time you see them triumphant in performance, arms raised aloft to receive the favours of the faithful, are they waving ... or drowning?’

honestly this was not good, like i gained nothing from this book. liam is portrayed as a prick, noel a lyrical genius and tony a victim of bullying. bonehead is a legend.

it felt more like an autobiography of the author rather than a novel about oasis. the writing was pretty terrible & half the chapters just glorified substance abuse.

[Caitlin Fisher · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5, really. Much of this book is shockingly experimental/Dada in structure in a way quite unexpected in the road manager of Oasis from 1994-5’s memoir. It’s quite a funny book—the characterization and chaos and 90s UK of it all reminded me of “Trainspotting,” a bit—and I appreciated how it introduced me to some of the rudimentary vibes and characters of early Oasis (I didn’t actually know who Bonehead was before I read this).
However fun and silly the weird side tangents about the origins of cocaine and epigraphs from Freud and Kafka and the like at the beginning of chapters were, it made the narrative almost impossible to follow and also revealed how little this guy actually had to do with almost everything that made Oasis Oasis. It was fun to read up about Oasis hijinks at the end of Oasis reunion tour summer, though!

[Linda Becker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Writing is all over the place....

This book starts out well, the narrative is good, but it goes downhill from there. To be honest, way too much about the writer and not enough about the band. Even for die hard Oasis fans, I rate this a why bother.

[N.D. Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

What's the story? More like where's the story?

Firstly, this book is only going to be read by die-hard Oasis fans (guilty as charged), but even then it's more Sholder of Giants than Morning Glory.

The trouble is Ian Robertson was only the tour manger come on the road security guard for a brief stint in the bands career, between late 1994 to Sept 1995. He therefore misses any monumental moments in the history of Oasis. His anecdotes effectly cover the promo tours of Definitely Maybe, being prior to the release of Morning Glory. He openly admits he was not present for the recording of Morning Glory, so misses out of witnesing the band at their peak as recording artists.

Whilst there are some fun anecdotes, they offer no real insight and Robertson tends to be on the outside looking in.

Given his short time with the band and his position, there is little material to make this book servicable.

Another issue (and no fault of Robertson himself) is that the author is not a trained or seasoned writer, nor is he a gifted story teller. Many of the prose are incoherent waffel with dreadful sentence structure. There are full stops in the middle of sentences by way of example. Then there is the narrative and style changes, which servce no purpose other than to fill a few pages.

I don't know who edited this book, but they need to seriously rethink their career choices.

Taking into account this book was originally released in 1996 - the height of Oasis mania - this is nothing more than a cash-grab, probably commisioned by an unscrupulous media mogul. With the released version (the copy I read) to cash in on the 30th anniversry of Definitely Maybe and the buzz around the announcement of the long awaited reunion tour.

Iain Robertson worked with some notable bands during his career. Perhaps a better story would have been for him to write about his career as a whole rather than focusing a whole book on a single 12 months, which would have been more effective in a couple of chapters.

If you're considering reading this, don't waste your time. The Supersonic documentary will provide a much better insight into Oasis.

[Spencer Preece · Rating 2 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed it for a bit but the format started to annoy me and there's quite a lot of random pointless bits. It's somewhat interesting at times but alas the way it's written is poor. Robertson was only involved for a couple of years, anyway.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, okay, one more Oasis book to round out the year...

Iain Robertson's colorfully written chronicle takes the middle spot of the three. Like Forever the People, it captures the band's early days as they're crashing headlong into success. Robertson had more intimate access than Hewitt, though, since he served as the band's tour manager and security coordinator. Overall, it's a fun book and he's a whimsical writer, though his shifting styles and wordy digressions can be both entertaining and irritating. The literary instability's difficult to navigate but it reflects the madness of the subject matter -- so I get it.

Straight off the bat, Liam Gallagher does not look good here. I got about 10 pages into this book and was already rolling my eyes, thinking Christ, Liam, grow the fuck up... I'm inclined to believe Robertson's version of events -- I don't think he was exaggerating the circumstances or distorting the truth. The brothers did break up in 2009, after all, and Liam's always been fairly forthright about being a cunt. But Robertson doesn't seem to hold too much ill will towards Liam about the fallout and he ends the book on a grateful note, just glad for the experience of touring with the boys. It was a fun -- if bumpy -- ride, and Robertson's chapters are peppered with astute observations about the band's dynamics and their early formative gigs.

His admiration of Noel is evident in his writing and, like, same. Noel is a bit of a revelation here. I had to reorient my perception of the elder Gallagher because this was early Noel, early, early. In interviews, Noel's always admitted to his past drug use, but he puts on such a smooth and well-spoken front about it that my mind didn't quite make the connection between his words and the actual reality of using drugs. The chapter where Robertson is wading through Noel's trashed hotel room, attempting to pack a suitcase for him in the midst of all the empty bottles, cigarette butts, and mysterious plastic wrapping was both disorienting and hilarious. No wonder the man came to such a hard stop with it all in the noughties. But baby Noel was endearing. So many moments just made me love him even more: sharing an awkward joint with Paul McCartney, his intimidation around the classical musicians on the Whatever shoot, even his resigned love and support for Liam -- "...the punters don't care what you sound like, they just want to see you up close...".

+++

So 4/5 stars: this was a good book to end my Oasis reading marathon on. Enjoyed the stories, the pictures, the Oasis Post excerpts. I'm going to go back to reading fiction now, but it's been great to take this deep dive into Oasis lore. The band really does have such a rich history to explore alongside their wonderful discography.

Madferit, always.

[Matzen Sen · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. As you might expect, this book is essentially a handful of anecdotes, stretched and padded out as much as possible. The writing is atrocious; I'm not sure whether it's because the author is not a writer and didn't have a decent editor, or because an inexperienced ghost writer was used and was nowhere near up to the task. Whole sections of the book are completely unintelligible and nonsensical; I suspect there's an attempt at experimentation and whimsy going on, but sadly it doesn't work at all. The margin notes are just weird and don't add anything (except maybe padding), and nor do they belong in a book like this.
Despite those shortcomings, however, the book does manage to capture Noel's and Liam's characters quite well, and their voices, and offers a believable window onto what life on the road with them would've been like. It's just a shame that it was put together so strangely, as with a more conventional and competent writing style it could've been quite riveting. Nonetheless, there is one short section that stuck in my mind and was actually quite moving: the passage describing how Noel played the germ of what would become the album 'What's the Story (Morning Glory)' to the rest of the band for the first time. That was worth a whole extra star all by itself, and stood head and shoulders above the rest of the book.

[Ruby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Iain Robertson was Oasis's tour manager, and, has written a book about his time with the band. I binged it, finishing it in less than two days, and whilst I found it extremely interesting, I thought that Robertson presented younger Gallagher brother Liam as a bit of a brute, a drug-using fiend, and a borderline alcoholic. Whether or not these are accurate portrayals is a matter of opinion and open to interpretation; Liam is, of course, known as the more rowdy and headstrong of the two brothers.

The book itself was a quick and easy read. Quick because the font size was large and easy to read because it was written an informal, chatty style that made it feel more like Robertson was a friend sharing tales of his time with the band than an author who had written and published a book. Personally, I prefer an informal style of book, so I really enjoyed how this one was written.

However, whilst I found the informal style of the book enjoyable, there were times that the continuously changing format of the book; from a general biographical style to a playscript-style was difficult to follow at times, though this did not completely hinder my reading and at times was a welcome change from the mundane.

My favourite part of the book was the stark difference between the entire work and its last page; it becomes very personal for the epilogue, and, if it were possible, I became even more attached to Robertson because he opened up and shared his more personal thoughts after he was sacked from Oasis following a row with Liam who, at the best of times, is portrayed as a violent yobbo with multiple personality disorders - one must use their own knowledge to come to the conclusion on whether or not this is a fair character representation.

[Liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

I checked this book out a couple of years ago and remember distinctly disliking it. Depending on the chapter I found it either overwritten to the point of incoherency or incredibly dull. On a re-read, though, I found myself really getting surprisingly into it. I still get the impression that Robertson stayed up way too late some nights replacing every concept with a metaphor and every word with a synonym and that an editor should have reversed some of the changes. But this time, instead of pretentiousness, I got the impression of a man who clearly cared about his job trying to put some distance between himself and events that must still be fresh in his mind. I don't think I learned any mindblowing truths about Oasis (mainly Gallagher brothers, and even then we don't get a lot of facts) but this book provided a vivid impression of the band on the road that's more believeable than anything I could have come up with myself. The captioned pictures I didn't think much of the first time 'round provided a lovely closure, almost like a slide show of the chapters.

All this being said, a handful of chapters were still so "artistic" I ended up skipping them.

[Pete daPixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I consider myself far too old to be 'mad for it', what I liked about 'Oasis: What's the Story' was the unusual, probably unique, perspective this memoir is written from. Iain Robertson's background in the Parachute Regiment and his eventual appointment as Tour manager and security co-ordinator is certainly not the usual view into the poptastic universe.
My only disappointment was that the physically able Mr Robertson was relieved of his duties after pinning the petulant and obnoxious lead singer of the band up against a wall and ripping his jacket, when what was really required was something more substantial to write home about.
I would also like to correct the author's description of my home town, "Manchester is gangster-run, a crack city; people do get killed. Right here and now, I'm awake to my surroundings, big time."
'Ere y'are, madhead.....what's a story without a little embellishment?

[Matt Seargent · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were times when I questioned whether I was enjoying this but in the end I think it’s fair to say I did. Unlike some others I found the writing style pretty easy and I’ve flown through this in the last few days. I think it is fair to say that there is little in here that isn’t printed elsewhere, being a big fan of the Supersonic documentary I think for me this stands as a nice companion piece to that. It is as advertised the authors story as an addition to the band and to complain that it is not soley about Oasis would be unfair however I do wonder if artistic liberties were taken in the crafting of the narrative (at times admitted by the author). My only real complaint is the occasional crossing of the line into what I see as misogynistic writing (not in the content of the stories, these are what they are) but in the description of people who at the end of the day probably due not deserve the crude physical descriptors they are attributed which in reality are unnecessary.

[James Ridgers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most band/artist biographies are written by the artist, or from the artist's perspective, or their bitter ex, so it's refreshing to read a book that covers a early-to-mid career snippet of a highly successful band from a tertiary perspective. In this case, Oasis' road manager and Noel Gallagher's security detail.

There are no surprises in this book. Anyone familiar with the Gallagher brothers will know about Liam's self-important, volatile temper, and Noel's pragmatic but inflated ego. What Robertson does well, though, is relate the intricacies of managing the friction and static caused by the push-pull nature of their relationship as they grapple with newfound fame and fortune.

This is a quick and easy read; one definitely worth reading if you were around during BritPop's musical reign.

[Edwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

An autobiographical story by the tour manager of Oasis' first year of touring in 1994 and 1995. Full of drugs, alcohol and violence, this had to end badly. Still, Iain Robertson didn't write this out of pure spite, but seems thankful for the time he had with the crazy Gallagher brothers and their band. An uneven but interesting look into the first year of succes of the biggest British rock band of the '90s.

[Bruce Kirby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely an interesting read and wholly believable telling of how it was handing Liam Gallagher and dealing with the internal politics of Oasis, I always go back to the story of another famous set of notorious brothers, Chris and Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes who toured with Oasis. They thought that the Gallaghers were crazy. Imagine if the Robinsons thought that you had problems! Glad to see both sets of brothers making music and touring again. Awesome!

[Darla Ebert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robertson has an unusual style. After I could get past the "in" jokes and allusions to foreign experiences (to most of us) I began to enjoy his writing, though with some reservation.
If nothing else the book gives a very real and disturbing peephole into the lives of druggie rock musicians. It should be and remain a cautionary tale.

[Andrew McLeod · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great insight into the behind the scenes of the band oasis in the mid 90’s. A lot of stories you wouldn’t hear otherwise. Some funny bits throughout also. The book is written in a very unique style, with some chapters recreated as dramatic dialogues. I would recommend for any oasis fan.

[Gail · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writing is lazy, the storytelling is hazy, and the subject matter is obscured by the writer’s fascination with himself. It felt like the whining of a drug-addled glorified bouncer trying to make a buck.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read from a non celebrity perspective. Glad I didn't have to work under them pressures though. Being a Tour Manager is a logistical nightmare at it's best but factor in these pair. Wowsers! Ticking timebombs and all that. Poor bloke deserves a medal.
3/5 🌟🌟🌟

[George Foord · Rating 3 out of 5]

the story was more interesting when the author was talking about himself, but when talking about oasis it was a mess

[Gav Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

A picture of life within Oasis at the very beginning. Was expecting a lot more from it. A wild time but unfortunately for me not very well written.

[Jessie Hogg · Rating 3 out of 5]

i reckon i’d beat bonehead in a drinking challenge xx

[Gill Woolley · Rating 2 out of 5]

The strangest book I’ve ever read!

[Joseph McHale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strangely written and very confusing, it does provide some insight on Oasis in their biggest era but seems to fall short of actually documenting what went on properly.

[mercedes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Más que un libro de Oasis es un libro de su autor. Tiene algunas anécdotas y cosas interesantes como fan de la banda pero tampoco ha sido lo que esperaba.

[Jo ✨☾ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great telling of Oasis`s beginnings with their tour manager - Loved the dry humour but not some of the weird pages.

[ROS]

This book is written by Oasis manager, Iain Robertson. It is quite interesting to read how everything was going on within one of the most important rock band of the world. The book explains what were the main problems they found working as group, how they life was behind the scene and how they dealt with their differences. I really liked to read Robertson's anecdotes and I enjoyed to discover some curiosities about the members. If you are an Oasis fan, you will enjoy this book for sure.

[Dale Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a massive Oasis fan, I can't get enough of anything to do with the band. I've read a few books detailing the various exploits, but this is by far the best so far.

Experience life on the road through the eyes of their tour manager and enjoy a standard of writing that is as articulately clever, witty and funny as it gets. Phenomenal.

"Come on Liam, she'd not be there if you were a green grocer", being one of my favourite quotes.