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Zak Starkey on: |
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back to Oasis 2005 releases
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Oct
10 - DBTT wins Best Album at Q Awards
Aug
28 - The Importance of Being Idle single debuts at
#1 on UK top 40
June
8 - Don't Believe the Truth enters Billboard Top 200 at #12!
June
5 - DBTT entered the UK album chart at #1
June
5 - DBTT enters Japanese combined Intn'l & Domestic Album Chart at #1
May 31- Exclusive
bonus track from iTunes only when you download
entire album
May 22
- Lyla number ONE on the UK singles Chart!
The highly anticipated 2005 album by Oasis began life back in November of 2003! Zak Starkey became involved in January of 2004 with the departure of longtime Oasis drummer Alan White. The full reports of rumors and stories and here-say can be read in the Oasis 2004 section of the site.
The road to final release of Don't Believe the Truth was a long and winding one for sure. The recording of this follow-up to Heathen Chemistry had been plagued by numerous direction changes. Recording began in November 2003, and in January (6th) 2004, Noel was telling interviewers that the new album would be out that September, with an already chosen single in July. He was saying it would be "a psychedelic Rock n Roll Record", praising Liam's songs and talking about working with producers Death In Vegas.
By Jan 11th 2004, Alan White was out of the band, and rumors of Zak and Terry Kirkbride as replacements were circulated. (see Oasis2004 for details). Late February '04 came the reports of the inevitable release delay, but those same reports were still mentioning the band was working with Death In Vegas.
Death in Vegas were out of the picture by March 09, 2004 though Noel called the "really ****in' good" impending release well on the way to being finished, complete with a chosen track listing: "We've done a bunch of really ****ing good demos and we put together a running order of what we thought the album was gonna be and we whittled it down to ten tracks." Noel was still telling NME on March 13th 2004 that the album was on schedule, but by the 31st he was simply saying it should appear by the end of the year.
April '04 brought the ever popular 'they're killing each other' brotherly dust-ups back into the papers. And by the time of Glastonbury, stories of requests for separate dressing rooms as far apart as possible from each other were all the rage. Just after the Glastonbury gig (June 25th), Noel told the BBC that it was "back to the drawing board" as "the moment has passed" for some of the songs already recorded. He said the band would work on more new material, and that his 'end of year' prediction for release was also not likely anymore. In his letter to NME July 8th 2004, Noel says: "... we think the 'moment' for that particular record has passed. We plan to start work on a new set of songs some time in July and we hope to have a new album out in February/March 2005 ..."
In a Sept 29th interview with XFM, Noel explained that they started out recording the album with Death In Vegas, but ran out of time due to DIV's other commitments. So they then tried to combine that material with other demo material they had done already, but that didn't work. Then they were just going to release the demos. But because they had Alan drumming on them, that would have been a problem. Then they thought they'd just get Zak to drum on the demos that were already done, but that didn't sound right as the drums were going on last. Which led straight to the 'f*** it, we're starting from scratch' approach. Noel said they never completely scrapped it, but during all this time, more and more songs were being written, so there was more to choose.
During Noel's Live Webchat (Apr 22 2005), he talks about Zak's involvement:
(paraphrasing) They had already asked Zak to do the tour (Glastonbury), and had been using Terry Kirkbride on some tracks while in the studio with DIV. After the Cornwall sessions were scrapped (transcription attempt) "we said to Zak, 'look, we've put all the record off, you up for playing on the record? We don't want to get half way round the world and you play on a song live that you didn't play on record and it sounds BETTER, so you might as well come play on the record.' And he said, 'Well I'm kinda with the Who for another two months'. So we said alright, well, we'll have a two month break and go and write some songs - which was a problem with the Death In Vegas sessions, we didn't have the tunes - an he finished off his stuff with The Who, and we kinda went back and did some more writing. Then down he came and that was it y'know, he's in."
(transcription attempt) "Cause to me he's great. His drumming on the record is fantastic, it speaks for itself. But drummers are drummers innit they, so I don't know, it's not for me to say if he's better that Alan or not, or better than, um, Terry, y'know wot I mean? It's for someone else to say, but he's a very very funny, cool guy."
- Noel Gallagher Web Chat Apr 22 2005 (can be viewed until Jun 24th)
By the end of August 04, rumors surfaced that Rick Rubin had been recruited to help out producing. This was followed by Noel reporting “We have got four tracks down but there is still another six or seven to do. "We've spent almost a year recording but we haven’t got the sound right — but the songs are good." There was then talk of the band doing some recording in LA. A Sept 16th 2004 NME report finally reported that the band was in the studio in LA, working with producer Dave Sardy (Thrills producer).
On Sept 20, 2004 Noel was again quoting release dates on Canadian Radio but this time being very specific: "May 26th and you can quote me on that", with a single probably in March. He reasons that having an actual deadline date will force them to focus.
In
Late October, the Gallaghers were spotted out and about in LA. Apparently some
recording did take place of at the Capitol Building, while the majority of the
stay was spent mixing and overdubbing at Village Recording Studios. The band was
working with Producer Dave Sardy and engineer Greg Gordon. The band wrapped things
up by the last weekend in November, and headed home.
Terry Kirkbride confirmed in November that he was NOT involved in any of the LA sessions, and that he had previously worked on some of the demos and original sessions, but wasn't sure if any was to be used on the album. Zak was in the Capitol studios with the band during these recording sessions.
Noel confirmed (while attending the Comedy Awards, Dec 22) that the album was indeed finished, and that they shot the cover that very day. He did not quote his original "hold me to it" release date, but said it would be out in May with a single in March.
As it has been in the past, the rumor mill (fed by ALL players) works overtime trying to anticipate moves, scoop announcements, fake-out many and basically generate high levels of anticipation for the impending release.
Originally said to be "I Stand Alone", scheduled for March 14th. This rumor had been touted on the 'net for a long time, with little other evidence. Noel in his interview on KROCK on Feb 16th, did not reveal a single title and said they are still choosing between two contenders, and that it would be released two weeks before the album. The official announcement came Mar 7 2005: the first single will be "Lyla", release set for May 16th.
The single had its Radio World Premiere officially on Monday April 4th, 08:15GMT. However, Polish radio - Radiowej Trójce - had managed to air the single a few days earlier on March 29th, resulting in instant mp3 proliferation on Oasis forums, chats, and download sites.
The video world premiere was April 6th on Channel 4 UK at 23:05.
The single has gotten mixed reviews by critics and fans alike. On April 14th, Noel was reportedly "furious" with the record label for releasing Lyla as the single "against the band's wishes". Noel is quoted as saying "If it was up to the band, that wouldn't be the single. It was the powers that be, whoever they f**king are, that decided the first single. It's a f**king scandal that as the leader of this group I don't get to pick what our fans hear first."
Also in April, a white-labeled, uncredited promo only one-sided 12" for DJ's from Big Brother [RKID28TPX] hit the streets, alledged to be limited to only 50 copies of the mostly instrumental tune "I Can See It Now". (It would later appear on the Japanese DBTT release).
The release date was at first expected to be May 16, 2005, as Noel had said as much while on Radio 1 on Jan 07, 2005. XFM in a Jan 20th online report, said that one of the rumoured working titles of the album was "Don't Believe the Truth". A few online stores used the title for their 'coming soon' listings.
Jan 20th 2005 brought reports (contactmusic.com & nme.com jan 20 2005) of the band having 66 songs in the can, and that they at one time planned to release a double album. However, since their contract with Sony is up this summer, they are sticking it to 'em by only handing over 12.
Noel a month later told KROCK on Feb 16 that the release date was May 26th (the US release date). Also during this KROCK interview, Noel said that he knows the title of the album and singles but he's not saying, then drops that the title was tentatively"The Ear Has No Memory" < ha! HMV even used this as the upcoming title for a brief time> He also again confirms 12 tracks on the album and that it was due to be mastered on the 18th Feb.
Official announcement came Mar 7 2005: The album will be called "Don't Believe The Truth" and will be released May 30th (31st in US).
Since Nov 2004, various song titles had been bandied about: I Stand Alone (originally rumoured to be the first single); Lyla; Boy with the Blues; Guess God Thinks I'm Able (Abel); Part Of The Queue; The Importance Of Being Idle; A Bell Will Ring; The Meaning Of Soul.
The
official track listing was announced Mar 16 2005 (and only goes to eleven!)
Title: Don't Believe The Truth (due May 30th)
Tracks: Turn Up The Sun, Mucky
Fingers, Lyla, Love Like A Bomb, The Importance of Being Idle, The Meaning Of
Soul, Guess God Thinks I'm Abel, Part Of The Queue, Keep The Dream Alive, A Bell
Will Ring, Let There Be Love.
Once the official announcement the single and the track listings
were made, Noel was quoted in various places trying to explain the sound of the
tracks:
LYLA : "It's The Who. 'Lyla' was specifically designed
for pogoing. We wrote 66 tracks and 'Lyla' was one that we revisited late on and
it's ended up on the album. I'm happy with every track on the album." - Noel
LYLA: "the Soundtrack of our Lives doing The Who on Skol in
a psychedelic city in the sky (or something!)" - Noel (as quoted on
Oasisinet.com 16 Mar 2005)
Part of The Queue: "doesn’t
sound remotely like anything we’ve ever done before. Legendary Cuban percussionist
Lenny Castro shuffles up a storm. Amazing."
The Meaning of Soul:
"Elvis on Red Bull"
... this time to Q magazine
He gave a blow by blow description of the tracks in Q, and XFM published an excerpt on March 23, 2005:
(even XFM was still saying "the band’s new 12-track album" while the official track listings on all sources so far only "go to eleven".)
Turn Up The Sun- "A bit like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, A stomper"
Mucky Fingers – "Imagine Bob Dylan singing [The Velvet Underground’s] ‘Waiting For The Man’ with that frantic drumbeat."
Lyla – "Our poppiest thing since ‘Roll With It’ Annoyingly catchy. A bit like The Who."
Love Like A Bomb – "One of Liam’s. It starts off acoustic and Martin Duffy of Primal Scream plays this kinda country piano solo."
The Importance Of Being Idle – "A cross between The Kinks and The La’s about being a lazy f**ker."
The Meaning Of Soul – "Like Elvis on crack. We played it at Glastonbury like The Stooges."
Guess God Thinks I’m Abel – "A Liam tune that’s kind of slowish and acoustic."
Part Of The Queue – "One of mine with a weird 3/4 rhythm that’s a bit Shack [mid ‘90s smack-blighted, hugely melodic Liverpudlian nearly-rans] doing Love"
Keep The Dream Alive – "A song by Andy [Bell – bassist] that’s like The Stone Roses."
A Bell Will Ring –"Gem [Archer – guitarist] wrote it. It's the closest anyone’s got to sounding like [The Beatles’] ‘Revolver’."
Let There Be Love – "We [Noel and Liam] both sing, like the self-Righteous Brothers. It’s a fitting anthem to finish the record."... this time to Oasisinet.com
1. TURN UP THE SUN : It’s that epic it could’ve and should’ve been the first 3 tracks on the album!!
2. LYLA: It’s the soundtrack of our lives doing The Who on Skol in a psychedelic city in the sky (or something!)
3. MUCKY FINGERS: The result of one too many nights in the dressing room, brainwashing Gem with The Velvet Underground then thinking “Fuck it! Dylan rules!”
4. LOVE LIKE A BOMB: Songbird’s bigger, far more interesting brother. One for the ladies, as Liam says.
5. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING IDLE: Having nothing to do is such a massive job that someone had to write a song about it.
6. THE MEANING OF SOUL: Elvis on Red Bull!!
7. GUESS GOD THINKS I’M ABEL: Up until two weeks ago, everyone thought the title was “Guess God Thinks I’m Able”!! Now everyone’s confused.
8. PART OF THE QUEUE: Doesn’t sound remotely like anything we’ve ever done before. Legendary Cuban percussionist Lenny Castro shuffles up a storm. Amazing.
9. KEEP THE DREAM ALIVE: A Song that totally does justice to the title. Will be a live staple for years to come.
10. A BELL WILL RING: Ringo’s favourite. Enough said.
11. LET THERE BE LOVE: Should’ve been the last 4 tracks on the album. It took 7 years to finish. Worth the wait?? Oh yes!!
Don't Believe The Truth (Japan) has two additional tracks: Can Y'See It Now?, and Sittin' Here In Silence On My Own (they may or may not end up as b-sides of other US & UK cd singles)
LEAKS abound.
First the Polish radio station violates the airplay
embargo and plays Lyla 6 days ahead of schedule.
On
April 17th, an Ebay Auction appeared that was selling a bunch of CD-R copies of
the Promo CD album, for £9.99 each. By the 19th, fans who had attempted
to purchase copies of the promo on ebay got official ebay emails saying that the
item was removed at the request of "the intellectual property rights owner"
and were urged not to complete their transactions. Many buyers also got an email
from the seller, stating that the source of the promo copy had not delivered and
that he was refunding their payments.
Remarkably, during the same time frame, 4 songs (Mucky Fingers, Meaning Of Soul, Keep The Dream Alive and Let There Be Love) had made there way to every corner of the web for eager fans to taste [grassy knoll conspiracy theorists note that this leak comes only days after Noel's dissatisfaction of Lyla as the single. LOL! - kvt]
Sony publicity employees were free to step out for another Mocha-latte as the leaks generated much standard press about how shocked and angry the brothers were, how they stood to loose money, how Sony was actively pursuing the culprits, how the release date could be affected, yadda, yadda, yadda.
The
EPK's (Electronic Press Kits) can be viewed in their entirety at Oasisus.com
. The band talks about the recording sessions song by song, as well as in general.
In EPK1, Zak talks about the other bandmember's work ethic. In EPK2, Zak can be
see playing a Wheaties box ontop of his snare with wooden spoons - all part of
getting "that D.J. Fontana" sound of the early Elvis records for the
tune Meaning of Soul.
Don't
Believe the Truth became available for download on iTunes' German Store, to German
residents only (spotted May 3rd). Though this is not an unusal move for iTunes
(this has occured both by design and supposed "error" in the past),
the fact that ONLY the German store has it is a bit odd. 
Word that the downloads were available broke around 11:30am EDST. At 4pm it was
NOT a choice when searching Oasis while in the German store, BUT it could still
be reached the direct link that had been posted in a number of forums. This screenshot
was taken about 4pm. As of 9:30pm EDST, I could still reach it through the direct
link. Word has it that the "excuse" is that iTunes Germany got the release
date of May 30 confused with May 03 (Don't believe the truth indeed).
When the Album became
available on iTunes on May 31st, there was an added surprise. An exclusive extra
bonus track called "Pass Me Down The Wine" that you can
only get when you download the entire album.* (the UK Itunes has Eyeball Tickler
as the bonus track).
*(that was true until the release
of the second single!)
The hidden 'easter egg' menu item on the Lyla DVD single is all about Zak! [depending on the player, moving the mouse around to the right of the menu (with or without holding down the button) will bring up "ZAK" as a menu choice]
"The Importance of Being Idle" was released as the second single on August 22, 2005 as a CD Single, a DVD single, and a 7" vinyl single. The b-sides are Liam's ‘Pass Me Down The Wine’ (produced and mixed by Dave Sardy) and the Gem's, ‘The Quiet Ones’ (produced and mixed by the band). The DVD single will feature the video, the ‘making of’, and the album and demo versions of the song.
The video's world premiere was 7.55pm on Friday 1st July onChannel 4 (UK ), featuring Rhys Ifans as a (dead) funeral director!
Meanwhile, in June of 2005, a "Let There Be Love(Radio Edit)" promo CD was distributed to US radio stations as the second push from the LP in the US.
The third single was "Let There Be Love", release Nov 28th. The B-sides will be "Sittin' Here In Silence (on My Own)" [drums: Terry Kirkbride] and "Rock n' Roll Star" (Live Manchester July 2 '05). The DVD Single features the song, the demo [drums: Terry Kirkbride], the video and excepts from a Tour Documentary produced by Baillie Walsh, called "Lord Don't Slow Me Down".
The video's world Premiere was set for Nov 2, 11PM Channel 4 (UK), however it was shown in advance on Japanese TV and on MTV-Italy's TRL when Noel guested.
May
22, 2005 - Lyla debuts at NUMBER ONE on the UK singles chart. (falls to #6
May 29, and 14 Jun 5)
June 5 2005 - Don't Believe the Truth entered the UK album chart at Number 1 (06 June), with opening sales of 237,865 copies. And, in a first for a UK act since the Baycity Rollers in 1977, Oasis entered the Japanese combined International and Domestic Album Chart at Number 1 (06 June).
Jun 8 2005 - "Hot shot Debut" on the Billboard Top 200 belongs to Oasis DBTT, entering the US Album chart at number 12 - the best chart placing and highest sales week since 1997 (according to Billboard Magazine). [Sellign 65,000 copies the first week out, and the highest selling new album of the week].
Aug 28 2005- The second single, The Importance of Being Idle single debuts at #1 on UK top 40.
Oct 10 2005 - Oasis win two Q Awards: Best Album for "Don't Believe The Truth" and The People's Choice Award. They had been nominated for 5 (Best Live Act, Best Album, Best Video, Best Act, Best Track (TIOBI) ).
(July 2005) Meaning of Soul and footage of the band was used for the 2005-2006 FA Premeir League football season Sky Sports promotional campaign. The ad campaign bagan running in July 2005.
(Sept 2005) The movie GOAL features some Oasis classics remixed, as well as a new track, "Who Pu The Weight Of The World On My Shoulders", recorded in May of 2005. The soundtrack CD was released in October.
(Oct 2005) Part of The Queue - being used in trailers for the movie North Country. It does NOT appear on the soundtrack release. [Was it IN the movie - anyone?]
Oct 17, 2005 - Toshiba announced that they have an agreement for exclusive live and pre-recorded content from Oasis for its music mobile phone the Tochiba 803. They are also sponsoring European dates this fall. The 803 will launch in Oct and be bundled with exclusive adio and video from Oasis on a 512 MB SD card. The content includes the first chance to view the "Let There Be Love Video" and 5 exclusive live audio and video tracks from the Manchester Gig in July. The Toshiba 803 SD card will include the following content from Oasis: Let There Be Love (audio and video), Let There Be Love – exclusive demo track (audio only), Live audio and video exclusives from the band’s Manchester gig of: Live Forever, Wonderwall, Rock ‘n’ Roll Star, Acquiesce and Lyla. The Toshiba 803, available exclusively on the Vodafone network, is the company’s first combined 3G phone and music player.
"Who Put The Weight Of The World On My Shoulders" was released on the soundtrack to GOAL on Oct 3rd. Noel contributed the song after the film's director, Danny Cannon, visited him while the band was recording in LA [plus the soundtrack is released on Big Brother]. The track was recorded in London in May, and was produced by UNKLE.
In October of 2005, after the Q Awards, Noel told XFM and others that the band hopes to release a new tune - as a stand-alone single - early in 2006. "It depends if we get the time to go into the studio because we're pretty flat out until next March. We'll see what happens after that." The song being bandied about is one written by Liam that didn't make DBTT. "It's called 'The Boy With The Blues'... I think we're gonna put out just as a single, that's not gonna be on the next album," explained the guitarist. "That might be out for early next year, but I'm not sure yet." And of course it's never too soon to be plugging a NEW album, so Noel adds "We've got about 11 pretty good songs for the next record that were left over from this one, but if we go into the studio I don't know if we're gonna go in there and say 'Right we're making an album'. We're just going record the ones for this one that we didn't record in our own studio and see how it goes."
... B-sides the Album
So far, non-lp B-sides from the DBTT include:
Eye Ball Tickler
Won't Let You Down
Can Y'See It Now? [I Can See It Now]
Sittin' Here In Silence On My Own
Pass Me Down The Wine
The Quiet Ones
Back to Zak
on Oasis 2005 RELEASE DETAILS
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to Zak with Oasis 2005 |
|Zak
with Oasis Live 2005 |
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to Zak's Bands,Gigs,Sessions |
Releated Links:
- Oasis Don't Believe the Truth CD
- Oasis - Lyla UK IMPORT CD Single
- Oasis catalog at Amazon.com
Last Updated: Saturday, December 3, 2005
Created: Jan 01, 2005
Copyright ©
Kathy VanTassell
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