Oasis have launched a previously unheard live recording of their debut single, Supersonic. And while fans may be forgiven for not getting too excited by the news – there are, after all, many live versions of Supersonic available on your streaming platform of choice – this one does have a touch of history about it.
For a start, its release is timed to celebrate the 30th birthday of the studio version's original release, on September 12 1994. And secondly, it was recorded at the Limelight Club in Belfast mere hours after Oasis learned that their debut album, Definitely Maybe, had soared to the top of the UK chart.
"It was a sell-out 500 people at the gig and tickets only £6.75!" recalls then-Limelight manager David Neely. "The Sunday of the week the debut album was released, the Limelight show was the right venue, for the right band at the right time.
"I remember around 6.30pm (in the dark days before mobile phones) that a call came into the office from Radio One, saying the band had just went to Number 1 in the album charts. It was a show that is now claimed by thousands that they were there - simply a show that is legendary in these parts."
To mark the anniversary, a replica of the original 1994 CD Single and an individually numbered pearl coloured 7” vinyl are on sale at your local record dealer now, presumably as a precursor to the 30th anniversary reissue of Definitely Maybe, which will arrive later in the year.
A year ago, band leader Noel Gallagher told Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera that an expanded edition of the album was on the way, and would include a host of early Oasis recordings that had been lying undiscovered in the Sony vaults, and were therefore unavailable to be included in the album's 20th anniversary edition. Or, indeed, its 25th.
“We thought they were lost, but they were mislabelled,” Gallagher explained. "They are wonderful versions of those songs, some acoustic versions."
We look forward to further developments. Although not, apparently, a reunion tour.
