Oasis to release lost Definitely Maybe recordings

Secret early versions of songs from the first recording session of Oasis' debut album Definitely Maybe will be released on Friday just days after the band announced a reunion tour.

The previously unheard cuts of anthems like Live Forever, Cigarettes & Alcohol and Rock 'n' Roll Star were taken from their first stint at a recording studio as a signed band.

Those early recordings from Monnow Valley Studios in south Wales will be released on Friday to celebrate Definitely Maybe's 30-year anniversary.

Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher said the tapes had been lost for almost 30 years.

"I kept saying there's no way they've gone missing, those tapes must be somewhere," he said.

"The tapes went to our record label and were never seen again. It was canned. Turns out it was mislabelled. So I'd never heard that Monnow Valley record until six months ago."

Noel said at the time he and the band thought it sounded "great" but the Oasis management felt they lacked the raw intensity of their live sets.

So the songs were redone and remixed before Definitely Maybe went on to become the UK's then fastest-selling debut album of all time.

Now Oasis have announced they will reunite 16 years after splitting and play a huge tour in 2025, with the first show starting at Cardiff's Principality Stadium.

Fans have already had a taste of one of the classics - but not as we've known them - after Oasis released a new old version of Up in the Sky, remixed by Noel, last month.

Friday's release will include early cuts of songs like Shakermaker and Columbia from their three-week stint at Monnow Valley in January 1994.

Fans feared those first versions were lost and never heard but from Friday, they will finally be able to hear how eight of those Definitely Maybe tracks - known by some as Oasis's lost album - might have sounded.

Cult classic Slide Away, an Oasis setlist staple until their split in 2009, was the only Monnow Valley recording that appeared on the record released on 29 August, 1994.

Oasis used various places to record the album, but most recording was done at Monnow Valley and Sawmills, a riverside studio near Fowey, Cornwall.

It was all supposed to be at Monnow Valley, a remote riverside studio on the Wales-England border, close to Rockfield Studios where Queen recorded Bohemian Rhapsody and Oasis would record their second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?

The band recorded nine of the album's 11 tracks at Monnow Valley, including Slide Away - which was written by Noel in a bedroom on the Les Paul guitar Jonny Marr used to record The Smiths album The Queen is Dead.

Oasis guitarist Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs said Liam's vocal performance on fan favourite Slide Away was "the best vocal delivery he'd ever done".

Liam also recalled he was haunted by a ghost in his bedroom during their stay and admitted helping to steal a combine harvester to go partying with the Stone Roses, who were recording their Second Coming album at nearby Rockfield.

Alan McGee, the boss of their record label Creation, told them it was not good enough and lacked the raw power and energy of their live shows.

"When you hear the Monnow Valley stuff, it's not got a swagger to it," Noel told Oasis's YouTube channel.

"The songs were still great but it isn't very loose. We'd only played 14 or 15 gigs when we got to Monnow Valley, it was too early to make that record.

"We were all playing in different rooms. There was loads of backing vocals and that's not what we sounded like on stage. It was missing that thing and that was playing live together .

"I remember being frustrated because I just wanted to get it out. Thank God McGhee and our manager Marcus Russell had the wherewithal to say you can't put that out. Thankfully we eventually got it right."

The album was re-recorded in a few days at Sawmills after they'd played a host more gigs.

Bonehead said Oasis's management were in "panic stations" to rescue the recordings after they had sacked successive producers.

So their manager asked a Welsh producer called Owen Morris to have a go at capturing the essence of the band without even meeting them.

Morris transformed songs like Live Forever, Cigarettes & Alcohol and Supersonic into generation-defining anthems that helped make Oasis one of the biggest British bands of all time.

Aside from the place where Oasis made Slide Away as well as some rookie recording mistakes, those doomed sessions did provide the backdrop for the world's first glimpse of the band.

The front cover of debut single Supersonic was shot in Monnow Valley's recording space in front of the studio's famous cartwheel doors.

Noel recently returned to Monnow Valley with Oasis's long-time art director Brian Cannon to prepare artwork for the release of these previously unheard versions.

The eight remixed songs from Monnow Valley include singles Live Forever, Cigarettes & Alcohol and Shakermaker while the older versions of Rock 'n' Roll Star, Up In The Sky, Columbia, Bring It On Down and Digsy's Dinner have also been redone.

Former Monnow Vallew enginner Callum Marinho, who is now Noel Gallagher’s in-house producer at his Lone Star Studios in London, is helping remix the old sessions.

"It feels like it has gone full circle," said Jo Riou, Monnow Valley's owner.

"Callum did work experience with us, he trained here and worked here for years so he knows our room so well. We're really proud."

Definitely Maybe's 30th anniversary edition will also include outtakes from their subsequent recording at the Sawmills studio in Cornwall and a previously unreleased demo version of Sad Song featuring Liam on vocals.

Monnow Valley became a recording studio in 1976 when the 17th Century Old Mill House, as it was called then, was a rehearsal space for nearby Rockfield Studios.

It became a seperate studio in the 1990s and has welcomed Black Sabbath, Simple Minds, Biffy Clyro and Phil Collins as well as Oasis.

"We've had Lemmy here shooting air rifles," recalled owner Jo.

"And Sir Tom Jones watching Eggheads, we've had both extremes!"

Now Jo and husband Phil are selling the 11-bedroom, 10-bathroom farmhouse - complete with fly-fishing rights on the River Monnow - for £1.95m.

"It's still regularly used as a rehearsal space because we've taken the studio out because it was getting so expensive," said Jo.

"So it's a good business that I hope someone can continue. Plus it's a popular holiday let as people want to stay where their favourite musicians once recorded."