To mark the Oasis reunion, we look back (without anger) at the amazing work music that photographer Jill Furmanovsky did with their band as they hit their stride in the 90s – as current Leica user Jill explains, her love of the portrait work of Diane Arbus came in handy!
The biggest music news story this week by far is the announcement of an Oasis reunion and tour – particularly now that early member Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs has confirmed he will also be joining Liam and Noel Gallagher on stage.
So it’s only fitting to celebrate the powerful and evocative images that famous music photographer, Jill Furmanovsky, made with the band in its heyday.
Jill was there from the early days, capturing Oasis onstage at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in 1994, Noel Gallagher celebrating the band’s legendary performance at Manchester’s Maine Road and the recording sessions for the Be Here Now album in 1996.
Jill also shot the massive Knebworth Park gigs, where Oasis performed to over 250,000 people. ‘Jill Furmanovsky captured within two hours what other photographers had failed to do in two years,’ said Noel Gallagher, who remains a friend.
Jill has received more honours and accolades that we have room to list here, and received our Lifetime Achievement Award earlier this year (she has also recently been named the ‘ICON’ Award Winner in the Abbey Road Music Photography Awards 2024). So, to celebrate the Oasis reunion and the amazing career of Jill Furmanovsky, we again share her recollections of working with the band.
Working with the Gallaghers
‘Noel in particular knew of my work, as did the people at Creation Records,’ Jill explaIns. ‘They loved a lot of the bands I’d shot from the punk era, so it all built from there. I was in my forties when I started working with Oasis, they were like my Beatles.’
Despite the band’s laddish reputation, Jill recalls it being very easy to fit in as a female photographer. ‘Oasis liked working with women. They had a female tour manager, who was definitely the boss, a female truck driver, and then there was Liam and Noel’s mother, Peggy – a proper matriarch who they loved and respected.’
As mentioned, Jill’s admiration for the US portrait and documentary photographer Diane Arbus came in particularly useful when shooting Noel and Liam. ‘She also photographed slightly dysfunctional families! I found it interesting that this was a band fronted by brothers, who had a pretty turbulent relationship. I wasn’t fazed by this, however: it was something to be managed.’
As well as her fruitful creative relationship with Oasis, the 90s were memorable for Jill as she set up Rock Archive, dedicated to celebrating the best in music photography.
‘I’d just done a big exhibition of Oasis images at the Roundhouse in 1998, on the cusp of the digital revolution. It was sponsored by Epson and it got me thinking that myself and other music photographers could do our own prints. I asked other people to contribute, and it grew from there.’
Rock Archive continues to go from strength to strength, and with a new generation of Oasis fans falling over themselves to get tickets for the forthcoming gigs, hopefully Jill’s images of the band and many other music legends will become even better known.
