As Oasis prepare to take the stage at a sold-out Rose Bowl in Pasadena, a new photo book revisits their rise — the fights, the anthems, and the brotherhood that changed rock ’n’ roll.

It’s hard to imagine a band more photographed, mythologised, and lionised than Oasis. Yet Jill Furmanovsky’s new tome, Oasis: Trying to Find a Way Out of Nowhere, proves there are still fresh ways to see the Gallagher brothers and their swaggering cohorts. Furmanovsky, who has photographed rock royalty from Pink Floyd to Amy Winehouse, brings not just her lens but her loyalty — she’s been embedded with Oasis since their first thunderclap in 1994.

Chaos, Charisma and Close-Ups

The book, boasting over 500 images, is less a greatest hits package than a cinematic reel of chaos and charisma. We get the candid backstage moments, the sweat-drenched stage shots, the tumbleweed quiet of airports and hotel lobbies. Furmanovsky is there for the explosions and the implosions — the wide-eyed beginnings of Definitely Maybe, the cocaine-fuzzed excess of Be Here Now, the weary grandeur of the later tours. She catches Liam in full messianic flight and Noel looking like the bemused general of a rogue army he can’t quite control.

25 November 1997, Schiphol Airport Amsterdam, Netherlands © Jill Furmanovsky SINGLE USE ONLY
25 November 1997, Schiphol Airport Amsterdam, Netherlands. Image Credit: Jill Furmanovsky
31 January-2 February 1995, San Francisco, California, USA © Jill Furmanovsky SINGLE USE ONLY
31 January-2 February 1995, San Francisco, California, USA. Image Credit: Jill Furmanovsky
23 November 1995, Paris, France © Jill Furmanovsky SINGLE USE ONLY
23 November 1995, Paris, France. Image Credit: Jill Furmanovsky

What elevates this beyond the usual rock-photo cash-in is the intimacy. Furmanovsky’s access wasn’t granted, it was earned. The trust between band and photographer crackles on every page. You feel the proximity: the banter, the brawls, the fragile moments of stillness when the world wasn’t watching.

Noel the Reluctant Philosopher

Noel’s commentary, threaded through the book, adds extra bite. His words snap and spark like lighter fluid, part myth-making, part mischief. Reading him riff on the very images he lived through is like being in a pub lock-in with the world’s most reluctant rock philosopher.

4 December Corn Exchange Cambridge, UK © Jill Furmanovsky SINGLE USE ONLY
4 December Corn Exchange Cambridge, UK. Image Credit: Jill Furmanovsky

The design is bold, the sequencing cinematic. Flip through and you don’t just relive Oasis — you re-enter the 1990s: the baggy jeans, the bucket hats, the union jacks repurposed as cultural armour. It’s Britpop in high definition, with the benefit of hindsight and the ache of nostalgia.

2 May 1997, King’s Cross, London, UK © Jill Furmanovsky SINGLE USE ONLY
2 May 1997, King’s Cross, London, UK. Image Credit: Jill Furmanovsky

Is it a idol worship? Inevitably. But it’s also history. Furmanovsky has managed to pin down the lightning that was Oasis — a band forever on the brink of either world domination or self-destruction. For fans, this is essential. For doubters, it’s proof that sometimes the myth really was the man.

October 2023, Noel and Jill in Jill’s Studio, London, UK © Jill Furmanovsky SINGLE USE ONLY
October 2023, Noel and Jill in Jill’s Studio, London, UK. Image Credit: Jill Furmanovsky

Oasis: Trying to Find a Way out of Nowhere by Jill Furmanovsky and Noel Gallagher

$65, Thames & Hudson, Hardback, 304 pages, ISBN: 9780500030646 : Published October 2025 – available to pre-order here