Alan McGee: Oasis would have made it in social media age

10 October 2018

Alan McGee believes Oasis would have still made it if they started in the social media age because Noel Gallagher is "so smart".

Liam Gallagher

Music mogul McGee was responsible for signing the 'Supersonic' hitmakers to his Creation Records label in 1993 and in the space of three years they became the biggest band in the world with their albums 'Definitely Maybe' and '(What's the Story) Morning Glory?' and incredible live shows.

Guitarist Noel, 51, has described them as the last "last great, traditional rock'n'roll band" before the internet became ubiquitous, but McGee, 58, believes Oasis would have become just as big now and would've found a way to use social media to their advantage and so would have their peers Primal Scream and The Happy Mondays.

In an interview with YouTube show 'Red Stripe presents: This Feeling TV', he said: "I think the people are so smart, your Noel Gallaghers, Gillespies, your Shaun Ryders, they would have adapted to the whole social media thing. And they would understand it. And then they intrinsically had the music anyway, all these three bands, especially Primal Scream and the Mondays, they were incredibly unique. Like 'Bummed' is unique. Like 'Screamadeclica' is unique. You know they were incredibly unique bands."

However, McGee - who has launched a new label Creation Records 23 - does think the ease at which bands and new artists can share their music online means they have no time to develop which means they don't get a chance to hone their craft.

He added: "One of the reasons that Oasis got good is that they were left in Manchester for a long time. One of the reasons My Bloody Valentine got good is they were left to their own devices for some time. Primal Scream took six years to get good. Because they were underneath the radar. I don't think anybody's underneath the radar now. It's called YouTube."

Although Noel only runs his Instagram account, Liam is a regular poster to his account on the photo sharing site and Twitter.

The 46-year-old singer has 3.01 million followers on the platform and his most popular tweets and responses to fans were used in the promotional campaign for his 2017 solo album 'As You Were' - which went platinum.

McGee's interview with Radio X's Gordon Smart for 'Red Stripe presents: This Feeling TV' is available to watch on YouTube now.