Oasis The Masterplan

As iconic photographer, adventurous fan and inside eye-witness, Kevin Cummins has always been where the cultural action is.’ Paul Morley

‘No one has captured the look of alternative UK music over the past half a century more tellingly than Kevin Cummins.’ Simon Armitage

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How does a band come into being? What are the myriad forces that shape the sound, look, and identity of an emerging band?

In 1993, Oasis signed to Creation Records and were shortly to begin recording their first album. Unknown, and unknowing what was ahead, the following year began with a masterplan – the creation of Oasis.

At the centre of this enterprise was Kevin Cummins, brought on board to help the band find a look that fitted their sound. As chief photographer of Joy Division depicting that band on a snowy bridge and in the chilly environs of Manchester with a backdrop of the black stone of a gothic cathedral, Cummins was well aware of the intersection between the visual and the sonic.

Oasis The Masterplan tells the story of how Oasis cemented their identity. Drawing on the first six months of the year, we follow Cummins as he photographs the band in various locations such as London, Manchester and the Netherlands. Using many unseen images as well as more well-known iconic shots, Cummins guides us through the ways a band can be shaped and designed, such as the famous photographs of the Gallagher brothers in Manchester City shirts – emblazoned with the Brother logo (a Japanese electronics company) which helped provoke worldwide interest in the band. With input from Noel Gallagher, we see how they played with fashion, were taught how to pose, and present themselves as they approached the summer of that year when their first album, Definitely Maybe was released on 29 August.

The story from that moment on is well-known. This book reveals just how effective the masterplan was to get them to that point.