Alan McGee to auction off early Oasis recordings. (Read 3,440 times)

[Shockmaster]

In the story about him selling off never -before-heard Libertines tracks, it says:
"The demo tapes will go under the hammer at the Omega Auction house in Stockport this weekend, along with early recordings by Oasis and letters given to him by former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Hole singer Courtney Love."

Do we probably already have those tracks, or what?

[Shockmaster]

Also, he said:
"If anyone asks if I'm selling all this stuff because I'm skint, it's not true: I live in a very big house in the country."

HE LIVES IN A HOUSE, A VERY BIG HOUSE IN THE COUNTRY!!!!!

[Norbert Gallhager]

Feb 22, 2012 6:53:08 GMT -5 Shockmaster said:

Also, he said:
"If anyone asks if I'm selling all this stuff because I'm skint, it's not true: I live in a very big house in the country."

HE LIVES IN A HOUSE, A VERY BIG HOUSE IN THE COUNTRY!!!!!

;D

[shaokahnage]

Well the Oasis tape is from 93 so I'm guessing it's just Live Demonstration.

[Shockmaster]

Feb 22, 2012 7:27:11 GMT -5 @shaokahnage said:

Well the Oasis tape is from 93 so I'm guessing it's just Live Demonstration.

That's what I thought... But it could be something we've never heard before...

[davidjay]

Thanks for the link, Tom. I wonder if Alan McGee is talking about Live Demonstration or some other early recording. Tony McCarroll mentions in his book that McGee funded a demo which helped the band secure, in October 1993, a contract with Sony records. Maybe something from that session will be auctioned. Here’s a quote from the book:

It was time to meet Alan ‘Ginger Bollocks’ McGee in London. […] McGee, ever the shrewd sweggy, had begged and borrowed to finance what he (and we) considered the best demo ever created. Self belief was running high again. On the back of this demo, Sony agreed to sign us and then immediately licensed all UK sales to the penniless Creation Records… (McCarroll, p. 104-5)

The timing of this and the claim that it was funded by McGee makes me think that the demo referred to isn’t Live Demonstration but another demo, perhaps one featuring Live Forever and/or the demo version of Cigarettes and Alcohol given away on the NME’s Mutha of Creation cassette. Not sure though, as there doesn’t seem to be much detail out there on exactly where and when those were done.

[Frank Lee Vulgar]

Feb 22, 2012 6:53:08 GMT -5 Shockmaster said:

Also, he said:
"If anyone asks if I'm selling all this stuff because I'm skint, it's not true: I live in a very big house in the country."

HE LIVES IN A HOUSE, A VERY BIG HOUSE IN THE COUNTRY!!!!!

Nice one ;D

[shaokahnage]

Wasn't Live Demonstration funded by McGee after seeing them at King Tuts? I dunno

[davidjay]

As far as I can gather from McCarroll's book, Noel offered McGee a copy of Live Demonstration (which I believe was recorded in March 93) when they met after the King Tut's gig. In Paolo Hewitt's book on Creation Records, McGee recalls initially saying to Noel: 'I don't think I need a tape. I think I know your good enough on that', before finally accepting a copy.

Whether they went back and recorded some more songs with the Real People after the King Tut's gig, I'm not sure. There was an interview where the Real People said that they demoed about 20 songs with Oasis, from which the final track list was decided. Hopefully they all still exist!

Also, Anjali Dutt says that Shakermaker always came from a Liverpool session with the Real People, which may account for the demo of that song. The sleeve notes of the DM singles box set say that the studio version of Shakermaker was recorded at Out of the Blue in Manchester, though.

[novascotialad]

I think Shakermaker was complete at that point,,, they just needed to add the vocal,,,, which was done in Manchester at Johnny Marr's studio... is/was Marr's studio called Out of the Blue? ? ?

[davidjay]

Feb 22, 2012 18:34:37 GMT -5 novascotialad said:

I think Shakermaker was complete at that point,,, they just needed to add the vocal,,,, which was done in Manchester at Johnny Marr's studio... is/was Marr's studio called Out of the Blue? ? ?

According to the documentary on the Definitely Maybe DVD the vocal was re-done at Johnny Marr's Clear studios in Manchester, which was where Owen Morris mastered the album. I think it was at this late stage that the New Seekers threatened legal action over the similarity between Shakermaker and their song I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, which had been used in a 70s Coca-Cola advert. Hence they had to rerecord the line causing the most trouble (‘I’d like to teach the world to sing/In perfect harmony/I’d like to buy the world a Coke/To keep it company’). Here's a quote from Noel on the re-recording, from the DM DVD documentary:

‘The only thing that’s not on the album is the verse with the ‘Coca-Cola’ line on it. Luckily enough we had an instrumental mix and me and Liam had to go to Johnny Marr’s studio in Manchester and…we were driving to the studio and Liam said ‘have you got a last verse?’ I didn’t have anything; not one fucking word did I have! And I said ‘no’. And he said ‘what are we going to sing when we get there?’ I said, ‘don’t worry about it man’. And we passed Sifter’s and we stopped at the traffic lights outside…and just sat in the back and wrote ['Mr Sifter sold me songs/When I was just sixteen/Now he stops at traffic lights/But only when they’re green']. So we went to Johnny’s studio; Liam sung it. It took about ten minutes. And that was that.’

[Casino Boogie]

The demo McGee funded was the Liver Forever / Up In The Sky / Digsy's Dinner tracks that have circulated recorded at Loco Studios, Wales in September 1993.

Also there is no demo of Shakermaker. The 'demo' in circulation is just the pre-Owen Morris mix. Seems to be from a different session to the rest of the Definitely Maybe tracks though as it wasn't on the Safety Masters. Seems they did have another session somewhere to record this - maybe it was done at Loco too?

The DM singles boxset booklet refers to Shakermaker being recorded in February 1993 - there's no evidence (not mentioned in set-lists or on Live Demonstration) of it existing that early on though so that looks like a mistake. Possibly should have said February 1994 and referred to the re-recording of the vocals only?

[petedaley]

Mr. Monobrow should be all over this.

[davidjay]

Thanks for the info, Casino Boogie & turtle. I wondered where and when they were done as I haven’t been able to find published references for them so far, at least not in the main books on the band (i.e. Paolo Hewitt and Paul Mathur's books).

The recording history of Shakermaker seems quite confusing. I had thought that there was a demo of Shakermaker based purely on band photographer Michael Spencer Jones’ contribution to Jeff Collins’ book Rock Legends at Rockfield, where he mentions that the first pictures he took of the band were 'at the Out of the Blue studios in Manchester, where they were doing a demo of the song Shakermaker…that cemented the relationship and they asked me to work on the cover for their first single Supersonic’ (p. 122).

No date is mentioned there, but from the context this must pre-date the Monnow Valley sessions (which started early January 1994 if I recall correctly) as Spencer Jones took what became the cover image of Supersonic during that session. Also the website for Spencer Jones’ book Out of the Blue mentions that he first photographed the band at the studio of that name in 93 www.spellboundpublications.com/index.html

That said, the notion that Shakermaker was recorded in February of that year is contradicted by Paul Mathur’s book Take Me There, in which he recalls that the song had been written forty-eight hours before the band's 1993 In the City show (which was on 14.09.1993).

[Casino Boogie]

That's interesting about the Michael Spencer Jones reference. Like you say that must date the session to pre-Christmas 1993 i.e. before the Monnow Valley session with Dave Batchelor. Maybe that is where the demo of Cigarettes & Alcohol came from too?

Maybe the version of Shakermaker was intended as a demo but they returned to it due to the poor sessions with Batchelor. If you listen to the 'demo' all the elements of the final version are there - they are just not in the right place! The difference is similar to the Definitely Maybe Safety Masters.

[davidjay]

Feb 23, 2012 15:00:32 GMT -5 Casino Boogie said:

That's interesting about the Michael Spencer Jones reference. Like you say that must date the session to pre-Christmas 1993 i.e. before the Monnow Valley session with Dave Batchelor. Maybe that is where the demo of Cigarettes & Alcohol came from too?

Maybe the version of Shakermaker was intended as a demo but they returned to it due to the poor sessions with Batchelor. If you listen to the 'demo' all the elements of the final version are there - they are just not in the right place! The difference is similar to the Definitely Maybe Safety Masters.

Sounds a plausible theory to me! It may be worth mentioning here that Anjali Dutt recalls that the whole album was recorded at Monnow Valley before an abortive attempt at mixing several tracks was made at Olympic studios. Apparently Shakermaker was not redone at Sawmills. However, later on they looked at overdubbing the Monnow Valley tapes to see if this held the key to the sound the band was looking for.(Full interview here: www.oasis-recordinginfo.co.uk/?page_id=132).

As you suggested above, Shakermaker's absence from the safety masters could be down to the fact that it's from the Batchelor sessions, which are probably stored across several more tapes and discs by the record company. I think the tracks on the safety masters we have are mostly mixes of the Sawmills recordings done at Eden studios, with several exceptions - i.e. several of Owen Morris's mixes are on CD1.

[mkoasis]

I have a few files I downloaded some time ago that may tie in here. They are labelled as Definitely Maybe demos and studio rehearsals (Shakermaker) included but I'm not sure as to the actual recording source of these tracks.

I'll upload it now. Here are the tracks:

1 - Live forever (studio Rehearsal)
2 - Shakermaker (Rehearsal)
3 - Up In the Sky (demo)
4 - Live Forever (demo)
5 - Shakermaker (demo)

Give it a listen and let me know what you think. All this vague "rehearsal", "studio demo" language is disconcerting lol. Are these from Monnow Valley? They're definitely not from the Whitfield Street Safety Masters.

rapidshare.com/files/3800252517/04_Definitely_Maybe_Studio_Rehearsals_and_Demos.zip

[davidjay]

Here's an update on the recording of Shakermaker, quoted from an article by Cliff Jones called 'Diary of an LP: Definitely Maybe' which was published in the October 1, 1994 edition of Melody Maker. I'm currently updating the Recording Studios page of my site with extensive quotes from this, as there's lots of extra detail in it. (You were right in thinking the album version is the demo remixed, Casino Boogie)...

Out of the Blue Studios, Manchester
17-18 April 1994
(Shakermaker and Cigarettes and Alcohol)
Sessions recorded on a TAC Magnum desk with Otari 24-track

Mark Coyle: Shakermaker is the demo tarted up. It had such a brilliant feel we couldn't think about doing it again. No gates and none of this limiting bollocks on there, just maximum sound to tape.

So from what I can gather the demo was done in February 1993 at Out of the Blue (see the Michael Spencer Jones quote above and Paul Mathur's sleeve notes to the DM singles box). Then they returned to that studio in April 1994 to tart it up (technical term!). In May 1994 Owen Morris remixed it at Matrix Studios in London. Then in June 94 Liam's lead vocal had to be re-recorded at Clear Studios, Manchester (where Owen Morris mastered the album) to include the revised lyrics Noel had come up with to try and avoid legal action from The New Seekers & Coca-Cola.

Not sure what version of Cigarettes and Alcohol was done at Out of the Blue, as the album version is meant to be Owen Morris's mix of the Sawmills recording. Probably one we've not heard. Or it could be one of the many takes on the safety masters. Also I think what's known as the demo of that song (released on the Stop the Clocks EP) is actually from the Hit the North radio session in 1993...that's the version with the unusual addition of conga drums on the outro.

[Casino Boogie]

Interesting info davidjay. I'm not convinced about the Feb 1993 date for the demo of Shakermaker though. Wouldn't it have appeared on Live Demonstration if that was the case? Plus there's a couple of references to it dating from the time of the In The City gig in various books / articles. It makes more sense that they demo'd it in late 1993.

Thanks again for the info.

[deadman]

The original Coke demo will never be officially released in high quality, so someone inside the Oasis camp needs to leak it.

[spaneli]

Thanks Davidjay for the hard work.

Interesting info.

[davidjay]

Aug 25, 2012 14:21:12 GMT -5 Casino Boogie said:

Interesting info davidjay. I'm not convinced about the Feb 1993 date for the demo of Shakermaker though. Wouldn't it have appeared on Live Demonstration if that was the case? Plus there's a couple of references to it dating from the time of the In The City gig in various books / articles. It makes more sense that they demo'd it in late 1993.

Thanks again for the info.

Glad it was of interest. Now you mention it I can see the uncertainty over the Feb 93 date for the Shakermaker demo. Must admit I'm finding it quite hard to work out from the info out there! If I ever get the chance to interview Mark Coyle I'll make sure I ask him about the Shakermaker sessions.

Not sure if this is any help but when I interviewed Anjali Dutt she said she thought Shakermaker came from a Liverpool session with the Real People. When I later asked the Realies about the Shakermaker demo they said they didn't know where or when it was recorded but that they thought it was done later than the Live Demonstration sessions (March 1993). I guess this would make it more plausible that it was done as part of the McGee-funded demo mentioned by Tony McCarroll that, in October 93, secured the deal with Sony.

I wonder if anyone reading is lucky enough to have a copy of Michael Spencer Jones' Out of the Blue book-maybe he gives a date for the original Shakermaker demo session in the accompanying text?

[davidjay]

Just spoke to Michael Spencer Jones, who confirms that he first photographed the band in October 1993 at Out of the Blue studios in Manchester whilst they recorded the demo of Shakermaker. Mystery solved! Thanks Michael.

Visit Michael's website, featuring many rare Oasis photos, here: www.michaelspencerjones.com/

[Casino Boogie]

Thanks for the update and your hard work on this DavidJay.

[oasisunited]

Aug 25, 2012 6:01:55 GMT -5 davidjay said:

Here's an update on the recording of Shakermaker, quoted from an article by Cliff Jones called 'Diary of an LP: Definitely Maybe' which was published in the October 1, 1994 edition of Melody Maker. I'm currently updating the Recording Studios page of my site with extensive quotes from this, as there's lots of extra detail in it. (You were right in thinking the album version is the demo remixed, Casino Boogie)...

Out of the Blue Studios, Manchester
17-18 April 1994
(Shakermaker and Cigarettes and Alcohol)
Sessions recorded on a TAC Magnum desk with Otari 24-track

Mark Coyle: Shakermaker is the demo tarted up. It had such a brilliant feel we couldn't think about doing it again. No gates and none of this limiting bollocks on there, just maximum sound to tape.

So from what I can gather the demo was done in February 1993 at Out of the Blue (see the Michael Spencer Jones quote above and Paul Mathur's sleeve notes to the DM singles box). Then they returned to that studio in April 1994 to tart it up (technical term!). In May 1994 Owen Morris remixed it at Matrix Studios in London. Then in June 94 Liam's lead vocal had to be re-recorded at Clear Studios, Manchester (where Owen Morris mastered the album) to include the revised lyrics Noel had come up with to try and avoid legal action from The New Seekers & Coca-Cola.

Not sure what version of Cigarettes and Alcohol was done at Out of the Blue, as the album version is meant to be Owen Morris's mix of the Sawmills recording. Probably one we've not heard. Or it could be one of the many takes on the safety masters. Also I think what's known as the demo of that song (released on the Stop the Clocks EP) is actually from the Hit the North radio session in 1993...that's the version with the unusual addition of conga drums on the outro.

I know that this is an old post, but the Oasis Twitter account posted a photo of the tracking sheet for Shakermaker at Out of the Blue Studios. I believe the date on it is April 14, 1994. Oasis were not gigging on the 14th and played in Liverpool on the 13th, so the timing makes sense. So the question is: is this the session that Mark Coyle was referring to? Perhaps it started earlier than the 17th as originally thought.