At midnight on October 2, 1995, Oasis took to the stage at London’s now defunct Virgin Megastore.

In front of 300 fans – some who’d queued for five hours – the Manchester group debuted their second album, (What’s The Story?) Morning Glory, in a secret free gig, although Liam later admitted he was too drunk to remember the words.

(David Cheskin/PA)
Liam Gallagher singing at the What’s The Story launch gig in 1995 (David Cheskin/PA)

By the end of the day, the album was selling at a rate of one every 30 seconds.

On its 20th anniversary, Oasis may have disbanded but What’s The Story remains one of the defining albums of the 90s.

Here’s a look back at it, and the band’s, history.

(What’s The Story?) Morning Glory by numbers

Producer Owen Morris claimed that the album only took 15 days to record at Rockfield Studios in Wales.

When Liam wasn’t required for recording Don’t Look Back In Anger, he went down to pub and invited around 20 drunk Monmouth locals back to the studio. Noel was so furious that he kicked everyone out, including a girl Liam wanted to stay; Liam lost it and attacked Noel; Noel retaliated by beating his brother with a cricket bat, quit and drove back to London. He rejoined the band two weeks later.

A record-breaking 347,000 albums sold in the first week alone. Worldwide, it’s racked up current sales of over 22 million copies.

Liam Gallagher and Noel Gallagher of Oasis  in 1996
(Fiona Hanson/PA)

What’s The Story spent 10 weeks at the top of the albums chart.

Wonderwall, arguably their most popular song from the album, only reached number in the singles chart. It was beaten by Robson & Jerome’s I Believe/Up On The Roof.

Oasis played 103 gigs on their album tour, starting on 22 June 1995 at the Bath Pavilion (new drummer Alan White’s first show) and ending at the Mayo Civic Centre in Minnesota on 4 December 1996 when Noel walked out mid-tour.

It took just 4 hours for the band to sell out 125,000 tickets for the first night of their historic Knebworth gigs. They played to 250,000 people over two nights.

The band line-up before their Knebworth gig (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
The band line-up before their Knebworth gig (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

“The Battle of Britpop” began on August 14 1995. On the same day, Oasis released Roll With It and rivals Blur dropped Country House.  Blur would go on to win, selling 274,000 vs Oasis’ 216,000.

But was it any good?

Blur won the battle, but they didn’t win the war. At the 1996 Brits, What’s the Story won best album, Wonderwall bagged best video, and Oasis won best British group. Every radio station, every pub sing-a-long buzzed with their northern anthems.

Critical reception to the album was a little more mixed than public opinion.

Rolling Stones magazine declared that Oasis had “discovered their feminine side…but that doesn’t mean they can’t still rock.” They “revel” in borrowing “shamelessly” from the Beatles, Kinks, T.Rex: She’s Electric “ends with a passage nicked straight from With a Little Help From My Friends.”

“If Oasis can avoid falling prey to the kind of brotherly shove that eventually destroyed the Kinks artistically, the future looks bright indeed,” wrote Jon Wiederhorn.

Liam and Blur's Damon Albarn face-off during a charity football match (David Cheskin/PA)
Liam and Blur’s Damon Albarn face-off during a charity football match (David Cheskin/PA)

Melody Maker’s David Stubbs disagreed. “What’s The Story is occasionally sublime, but too often laboured and lazy. On this evidence, Oasis are a limited band.”

Hello is “clumsy, predictable, half-a***ed kitsch at it’s most heart-sinking”. Don’t Look Back In Anger is “Oasis as their least incandescent.” Step Out, dropped for legal reasons, alone gets a rave review: “a lusty Thunderbird of a track that features a glorious and effective steal of the chorus from Stevie Wonder’s Uptight. It’s larceny with panache and totally A.”

(The band omitted Step Out from their album when Stevie Wonder demanded 6% royalties over its similarity to his tune. Noel later admitted he’d also used a guitar riff from Thin Lizzy’s Rosalie.)

NME gave it a 7/10; it was Oasis “an altogether different direction; away from the conscience-free overloaded hedonism towards an understanding of its consequences.”

The famous spats

Oasis were plagued with fist-fights (and cricket bat-terings) within the group and feuds without.

Accepting their BRIT from Michael Hutchence (Fiona Hanson/PA)
Accepting their Brit from Michael Hutchence (Fiona Hanson/PA)

Their rivalry with Blur led to one of Noel’s most controversial, and apologised for, statements. ”I hate that Alex (James) and Damon (Albarn). I hope they catch Aids and die,” he told the Observer.

At the 1996 Brits, Noel labelled INXS front man Michael Hutchence a has-been, saying, “Has-beens shouldn’t present awards to gonna-bes.”

Noel would go on to call Robbie Williams “that fat dancer from Take That” and split Liam’s lip when he questioned the legitimacy of Noel’s fatherhood of daughter Anais.

At the Q music awards, receiving the Best Act In The World trophy in 1996 (Fiona Hanson/PA)
At the Q music awards, receiving the Best Act In The World trophy in 1996 (Fiona Hanson/PA)

Liam would term George Harrison a “nipple” for saying Oasis weren’t very interesting, punch a photographer as he celebrated the birth of his son Gene, and shoot a fire extinguisher at Paul Gascoigne as he ate soup at the Groucho Club. Liam was subsequently banned.

The brothers’ fractious relationship caused the break-up of the band in 2009. Just before they were due to play at Paris’ Rock en Seine, Noel quit, announcing, “I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.”

Liam admitted that by that time he hardly talked to his brother, travelled separately and they only spoke on stage. Noel said he left due to “verbal and violent intimidation”.

Messy love lives

As newsworthy as their music were their love lives.

Liam with Patsy Kensit in 1996 (FIONA HANSON/PA)
Liam with Patsy Kensit in 1996 (FIONA HANSON/PA)

Liam married actress Patsy Kensit in 1997, two years after What’s The Story was released. The marriage got off to a rocky start when he was cautioned for leaning out his car window and throwing a cyclist off his bike.

In March 1998, he fathered a love child, conceived during an affair just months after he married Patsy. He divorced her soon after they had their own child, Lennon, in 1999.

By 2001, he had another son, Gene, with singer Nicole Appleton and he famously got into a fight with a photographer outside the hospital. He married Nicole in 2008, but they announced their pending divorce in August 2013.

Liam with Nicole Appleton and their son Gene (front right) (Ian West/PA)
Liam with Nicole Appleton and their son Gene (front right) (Ian West/PA)

In the same year Liam and Patsy made it official, so did Noel – in Las Vegas with Primrose Hill set member Meg Mathews. They had a daughter Anais in 2000, but divorced just a year later on the grounds of adultery with publicist Sara McDonald.

Noel now has two sons with McDonald and married her in 2011, with Russell Brand his best man.

Noel and ex-wife Meg Mathews (Toby Melville/PA)
Noel and ex-wife Meg Mathews (Toby Melville/PA)

The brothers’ best quotes

Liam

On Chris Martin: “Chris Martin looks like a geography teacher. What’s all that with writing messages about Free Trade (on his hand)? If he wants to write things down I’ll give him a pen and a pad of paper. Bunch of students.”

On depression: “I suppose I do get sad, but not for too long. I just look in the mirror and go, ‘What a good-looking f*** you are.”

On performing at Glastonbury: “‘I f***ing hate Glastonbury, mate. I’m only here for the money.”

On his life: “I’m Liam Gallagher and I’m in Oasis. The whole world is jealous of me. it should be.”

On being a softie: “I am a tender, beautiful and loving guy that happens to slap a photographer now and then because they get in my way.”

Reunited to announce their tour in 2008. The band split a year later (Zak Hussein/PA)
Reunited to announce their tour in 2008. The band split a year later (Zak Hussein/PA)

 Noel

On the royals: “I wouldn’t wish the Royal family dead, just seriously maimed. I’d take a couple of legs off.”

On Kaiser Chiefs: “I did drugs for 18 years and I never got that bad as to say, ‘You know what? I think the Kaiser Chiefs are brilliant’.”

On a lunar visit: “If I ever get to go to the moon, I’ll probably just stand on the moon and go, ‘Hmm, yeah…Fair enough…Gotta go home now’.”

On Liam: “He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

And again: “Sure I love Liam, but not as much as I love Pot Noodles.”

There’s never a dull day in Oasis.