How Many Special People Change?

We were all Oasis fans back then. It's not because they were great -- at least not on a technical level. It's because 'Wonderwall' was on the radio, and Liam had attitude, and we needed a soundtrack to our endless summers.

Right now, it feels like 'Gangnam Style' is viral just because it's viral, like it happened in a vacuum. But one day we'll look back and we'll see how beautifully it fit in with the moment, the culture, the experiences we were collectively going through at the time -- we just can't see it yet.

And to be young and English in the 90's, Oasis were your band. And sure, maybe you were one of those who preferred Blur, or was adamant that Liam couldn't sing. But if you were like that, you missed the point, we didn't care that Liam couldn't sing. It was about more than that.

Go visit an English pub and throw 'Don't Look Back In Anger' on the jukebox, we'll sing along to every word. And we'll have a little tear in our eye; we'll feel alive again, because that song is who we were.

'Champagne Supernova' was gibberish. What were they singing about? Nobody knows, but we all related to it.

When you're a kid, you don't realise you're a kid. You don't realise the feelings will pass. You don't realise that the daily dramas are not the be all. You think that Jenny not returning your phone call is the end of the world, you think falling out with Bradley because he wouldn't lend you a fiver is the biggest disaster in history.

And then you grow up.

But years later, you hear the records again. And the fall-out with Bradley still cuts deep. And Jenny was the most beautiful girl who ever existed and would it have been so hard for her to give you the time of day?

When you're young and stupid, you think every moment matters, until someone straightens you out and tells you to focus on doing something with your life. 

So you do something with your life. 

But you feel a little dead inside, because so much is gone. One day you're at a restaurant or a pub or you're walking past and old record store, and you hear it---- you hear who you were, where you've come from. You hear the voices of the people you haven't heard from in fifteen years. It hits you that those days were everything. We were kids and we loved Oasis, not for any reason other than because we just did.

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