Definitely Maybe album cover - photograph location, Withington, Manchester

Here I am in Withington on the outskirts of Manchester where the photograph for Oasis’s Definitely Maybe album was taken. Though it became the fastest-selling debut album in the UK at the time the photo was taken the band wasn’t well known outside the city and some of the lads were claiming dole. The photograph was taken in the lounge at 8, Stratford Avenue in 1994 when the band’s guitarist Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs was living (I read it was his sister’s house.)

It’s in a short cul-de-sac with about eight houses on each side and I felt like I was being watched. Too many parked cars stopped me getting a clear photograph of the house from a distance. Thankfully a stub-tailed cat with an Adolf Hitler moustache approached for strokes and this enabled me to take a few photos without looking like I was loitering with intent to burgle. I didn’t see anyone in the bay window (not at number eight anyway). I got onto my toes to look in to see the room where Oasis had many practise sessions.

It was Noel Gallagher’s idea to have the photographer shoot the album cover at Bonehead’s home. He want the album to show the band sitting around the dining table but the photographer suggested using the lounge instead and - after his visit to a museum to see Egyptian mummies - he suggested Liam lay flat on the floor like a mummy - a and to stop it looking like an advert for floorboard polish. The wine glass next to Liam holds Ribena as red wine comes out blackish in photos. On the television is the film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (on the album’s back cover is a scene from A Fistful of Dollars.) There’re photographs of footballers Rodney Marsh (the Gallagher’s are Man City fans) and George Best (Bonehead is a Man Utd fan.) Noel admires Burt Bacharach so there’s a poster of him, too.

When Definitely Maybe was released Oasis didn’t know it would help revitalise British pop music in the 1990s (80's stuff had been lightweight and poppy.) They’d only been in existence for three years and had been called “The Rain” at first. They’d only signed a record deal the year before the album was released. They’d been on a trip to Amsterdam to record the album but it sounded bad. They tried recording it at a recording studio in Cornwall but it hardly improved. Ultimately they returned to Johnny Marr's studio in Manchester (not far from this house) and with piles of production help the songs were greatly improved. It spawned four singles.

I stroked the cat and considered kidnapping it and then demanding a £500 ransom. A car arrived and disgorged four people. They gawped at me and I was hoping they were going to number eight and would invite me to see the room where many practice sessions happened (they entered another house). Noel Gallagher wrote most of the album and lived five miles away in central Manchester and the link is here...

http://johnhalley.uk/BP%20-%20Noel%20Gallagher.htm

I looked at the bay window a few times. Blimey a photograph of that room sits in the lounges of millions of people (the album sold 86,000 in its first week and has since sold about 8 million copies.) Nowadays this Victorian is home worth over £500,000 and, looking at the latest sales glossy, it hasn’t changed much. The wooden floorboards don’t have a carpet over them but the wooden mantle piece has stripped of its paint. The ornate fireplace was taken when Bonehead moved out. The cornicing, picture rails and shelves by the window are still there. The walls are now a neutral tone and the blinds have been replaced by curtains. The house sold in 2016 for £485,000.

The cul-de-sac looks onto Withington Community Hospital and though I like the area it reminds me of many trips to Christie's Cancer hospital with my mum. I tickled the cats chin and left.

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