by Chris Williams, Reporter

The year is 1996. Two brothers from the projects of Manchester, England are flying by helicopter above a crowd of over a quarter of a million eager fans who are patiently waiting for the boys to take the stage. Over four percent of the entire British population applied for tickets for this show — the largest open-air concert in British history. 250,000 fans are waiting for the younger of the two brothers to walk on stage in his signature walk, to wear an oversized white sweater and a pair sunglasses, and to greet the thousands with his signature question, “Are you mad for it?” in a thick Mancunian accent. The stage is Knebworth Park in Stevenage, England, and it doesn’t get any bigger than this. The band is none other than the biggest band in the world, the kings of Britpop, and the biggest band in British history — bigger than The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, you name it. Led by lead singer, Liam Gallagher, and his older brother, lead guitarist and songwriter, Noel Gallagher, they are none other than Oasis.

In the comments of “Slide Away” by Oasis live at Knebworth onYouTube, Carl McGonigle leaves the most fitting comments about his experience at Knebworth that also accurately describe how the Gallaghers and their rock ‘n roll have impacted my life so significantly. He says, “I was there as a 15 year old… These lads changed my life.” Right below, someone asks him, “In what way?” McGonigle simply replies, “Hard to explain, but I left that gig with a new-found confidence in myself and a bit of swagger that just seemed to grow over the following years… It was suddenly cool to be different.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Growing up, I was always a shy, awkward, and smart kid. Yeah, you can say that I was “popular,” but Iwas still the kind of kid who would blush and get all choked up when speaking to others. There was also always that one kid who would try to make fun of me for being smart because I guess that it was “cool” to do so. Although “some might say” something different (pun intended — “Some Might Say” is a single off of Oasis’s second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?), the combination of all of these things began to bring me down inside, and I began to lose confidence in myself.

This lack of confidence carried along with me as I made the transition into high school, and when I was fifteen, I personally went through the toughest period of my life. For a whole variety of reasons, such as losing people in my life and just being “different” than everyone by the way I went about life and how I dressed, to name a few, I wasn’t happy, I lost more confidence, and not even playing soccer, the thing that I love the most, could lift me up. Again, I would try to cover it up so no one could notice, but inside, I was struggling to find my true sense of identity and find happiness. To quote Liam Gallagher in the Oasis hit anthem, “Champagne Supernova,” it literally felt as if I was “caught beneath the landslide” — a landslide of emotions that I could not escape from.

All of this changed in what seemed to be a matter of a day.

I come from an English family, my dad being from England, and I was raised listening to popular British music, playing soccer, drinking tea, the whole nine yards. One day, my father decided to hang up a canvas painting of the Gallagher brothers downstairs in our family room. I always grew up listening to the Oasis hits like “Wonderwall,” “Morning Glory,” “Roll With It,” “Champagne Supernova,” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” but I never once viewed Oasis as my favorite band or to have life-changing lyrics. With the hanging of this painting, I began to listen to the Gallaghers more and more, not thinking that they will help me discover who I am and increase my confidence.

I have never been so wrong in my entire life.

I went to bed every night listening to “Wonderwall,” wondering if I would ever find “the one to save me,” and to “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” telling myself not to “look back in anger” at all of the naysayers in my life, just as Noel Gallagher to me to do so every night.

From here, I began to explore more and more of the band’s music, discovering songs like “Supersonic,” “Slide Away,” “Rockin’ Chair,” “Live Forever,” and “Acquiesce,” which would soon grow to become my favorites. Their songs ooze with swagger, confidence, and attitude like nothing that I had ever heard before. After all, they were just a group of kids from the projects who were trying to make it big.

Their songs weren’t just songs to me; they became anthems of my life. “Supersonic” taught me, “ You need to be yourself, you can’t be no one else,” “Roll With It” taught me to “roll with it,” “take your time,” and to “not let anybody get in your way,” “Acquiesce” taught me that “we need each other, we believe in one another,” to enjoy life, and keep my loved ones close, “Live Forever” told me that it’s okay to be different, especially through the words, “Maybe I just wanna fly. I want to live, I don’t want to die. Maybe I just want to breathe, maybe I just don’t believe. Maybe you’re the same as me, and we’ll see things they’ll never see. You and I are gonna live forever,” “Rockin’ Chair” taught me to not care about what others think about me, and “Listen Up” taught me that it’s okay to be independent through Liam’s words, “I don’t mind being on my own.”

Lyrics so simple and elegant as these changed my whole life around, and two years later, I walk around with the same amount of swagger and confidence that Liam walks around with everyday, and the same amount that he and his brother preach through their songs.

I’m no longer “caught beneath the landslide.” The Gallaghers have made me develop a deep passion for music that I do not think I would have today without them. Because of them, I now play the guitar, and I plan on pursuing something with music on the side while studying journalism in college.

Carl McGonigle and I were both 15 year olds whose lives the Gallaghers and Oasis have changed and impacted so greatly. Because of them, we both know what it’s like to be “mad for it,” how it feels to “feel supersonic,” not to “look back in anger,” and that with their music, it seems that we will “live forever.”

Oasis provided us both with a new-found sense of confidence and, and for once in my life, I know that it’s okay to be different and to be on my own.