Oasis’ artwork “Definitively Maybe” will “live forever”

It’s been 30 years since the Gallagher brothers became stars with Oasis’ chart hit “Definitely Maybe” – literally going from a living room in Manchester to the biggest stages in the world.

Supersonic. Shakermaker. Live Forever. As the summer of 1994 drew to a close, the band was on the rise, with each new single charting higher than the last.

The LP that spawned these anthems, the swaggering and combative “Definitely Maybe,” became the fastest-selling debut in British history when it was released on August 29.

It marked the beginning of Britpop and set the group on the path to record-breaking performances at Knebworth just two years later in front of 250,000 people.

It was, says Oasis confidant Brian Cannon, “a meteoric rise”.

“It was like the Beatles. Everything just fit together and they became a huge success so quickly.”

Fans will be familiar with the album’s cover art – which shows the five band members in the living room of rhythm guitarist Paul “Bonehead” Arthur’s West Didsbury home – as well as the songs it contains.

Art director Cannon, who was responsible for the cover concept and design, explains that the idea of ​​Oasis “chilling” was based primarily on a photo of the Fab Four taken in a Tokyo hotel room three decades earlier, as well as a second, much older source.

“I just thought it was a fantastic image,” he says, pulling out a framed copy of a Beatles compilation album from the headquarters of his design company Microdot in Kendal, on the edge of the Lake District.

“The photo on the back cover of A Collection of Beatles Oldies was taken in Japan in the mid-’60s. You know there’s a cameraman there, of course, but it’s a real snapshot.

“That’s where the idea came from.

“Most groups pose in some way on their first album, but Oasis sit and watch the Clint Eastwood western ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ on TV, which I found hilarious.”

“Another work worth seeing is the Arnolfini portrait by Jan Van Eyck (15th century artist). It is in the (later) style of Flemish Renaissance art, in which the images are full of visual metaphors.”

While the enigmatic oil painting featured slippers, a dog and oranges, the Oasis cover, shot by photographer Michael Spencer Jones, featured footballers Rodney Marsh and George Best, musician Burt Bacharach, a pink flamingo and a pack of Benson & Hedges cigarettes.

“The mirror on the wall came from my apartment,” says Cannon, “but all these little pieces, including the inflatable globe, came from the house of sound engineer Mark Coyle and roadie Phil Smith.”

Although Noel and his younger brother Liam have a reputation for being troublemakers, Cannon says filming in May 1994 went smoothly, pointing to the importance of a test session that he says had taken place a few weeks earlier.

“I walked around there with the photographer and Bonehead’s wife and I were sitting in different positions.

“It’s basically a still life that you have complete control over. The photo on the cover is just great. It’s perfect. There’s not one person that you think we should have done something different.”

“When we were filming, we always went with a skeleton crew. I just don’t see the need to have people hanging around, and the last thing you need is someone from the record company hanging around and sticking their nose in.”

But were alternative ideas considered? Cannon recalls a single, somewhat confusing suggestion.

“Liam’s idea was a knife sticking out of a stick of butter. I don’t know what he meant by that or if he was serious. After that, we never bothered to have band meetings again.”

Cannon’s involvement with Oasis had begun about a year earlier, after she and Noel bonded over their love of shoes.

“There’s a story where we met in an elevator and talked about sneakers,” he says. “That’s probably a slightly romanticized version of what happened, but that’s more or less all.”

“He worked for Inspiral Carpets in the same building where I had a tiny office, and we got talking because we were both interested in Adidas sneakers. I was wearing a pair I had bought in Italy when I took my mother to Rome for her 60th birthday.

“Noel had seen the work I’d done for The Verve and said to me, ‘If we get signed’ – not if, because they knew how good they were – ‘I want you to do the artwork.'”

One of his first efforts was to redesign the band’s logo, replacing the swirling Union Jack motif of their demo cassette with a simple black and white box inspired by the Decca Records label of the 1960s.

“Definitely Maybe” was to have a much more personal touch: the title was to be handwritten to underline the informal flair of the cover.

It keeps the piece of paper scanned for printing.

In the age before the Internet – and without a computer of your own – the design process often proved difficult.

“Back then, you had to have the photos taken and then stick all the graphics on boards,” Cannon remembers.

“When I delivered ‘Definitely Maybe’ I didn’t have a car either. My mate Matthew Sankey drove me to London in his Peugeot 205 because it was the only copy of the artwork ready for printing and I couldn’t risk it getting lost in the post.”

Cannon’s partnership with the band spanned all releases up to the B-sides compilation “The Masterplan” in 1998, but then “everything took a turn,” he says disappointedly.

“Bonehead left, (bassist) Guigsy left, Owen Morris stopped producing the records, Noel didn’t even write all the songs anymore.

“At the same time, they said, ‘We’re also going to make a change in artistic direction.’ That was it.”

Today, he still maintains a good relationship with the band, selling merchandise online that harks back to their 90s heyday and also running a shop in Manchester city centre.

And to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Definitely Maybe, the album is being reissued with different artwork – a slipcase showing Bonehead’s living room without the band, using outtakes from Michael Spencer Jones, along with new black-and-white cover photos taken by Cannon at the Monnow Valley and Sawmills recording studios where the album was made.

However, fans will remember the original most fondly.

“I’m super proud of it,” he says. “It will – to quote one sentence – live forever.”