This song is the epitome of Oasis.
The video was filmed at the band’s Live By The Sea gig at Southend-on-Sea while the off-stage scene were filmed at Southend Pier,. Anyone who has ever been a rock ‘n’ roll star has been directed at least once by Nigel Dick.
Enjoy!
The title of this song is for a lot of people today. It’s time to move on. It’s time to stop crying and complaining and yelling and it’s time to just move on.
I actually prefer the Leona Lewis version of this song but that wasn’t doesn’t seem to have a music video. We’ll make due with the Oasis original. This video was directed by a man who calls himself WIZ. Not the best nickname in the world but if it makes him happy being the Wiz, that’s all that matters.
Not the same Wiz.
The star of this video is Michelle Roman. This is the only credit that I could find for her.
Again, I want everyone to remember this title. Stop crying your heat out. Stop obsessing on what cannot be changed. It’s time to move forward.
Enjoy!
The 1990s was a decade when many bands, who otherwise had little in common, were bonded together by a mutual hatred for Oasis.
Originally hailed as being the second coming of the Beatles, Oasis was fronted by two brothers, Liam and Noel Gallagher. At the height of Oasis’s popularity, the Gallaghers never hesitated to let it be known how little they thought of their musical competition. At the 1996 Brit Awards, when Noel Gallagher received an award from INXS’s Michael Hutchence, he accepted by saying, “Has-beens should not be presenting awards to gonna-bes.” Backstage, Hutchence got into a scuffle with the other Gallagher brother, Liam. Apparently, Liam made some disparaging remarks about Hutchence’s then-girlfriend, Paula Yates. Hutchence reacted by throwing a fire extinguisher at Liam.
Following the altercation, Hutchence went to the recording studio and added some additional vocals to the chorus of the song that would become the title track to INXS’s upcoming album, Elegantly Wasted. The original chorus was “I am elegantly wasted.” Hutchence added, “I am better than Oasis.” You have to listen carefully for it but it’s definitely there.
(The rest of INXS reportedly didn’t find out about Hutchence’s additions until several months later, when the album was released.)
As for the song itself, depending on which source you consult, it was originally inspired by either a pub crawl with U2’s Bono or by Hutchence’s relationship with Yates. The video was filmed in Los Angeles, on a set that was made up to resemble an airport. While the song may not have been as big a hit as the some of INXS’s previous releases (it peaked at 20 in the UK and 48 in Australia), it did reach the number one spot on the Canadian charts.
Sadly, it would also be one of the last INXS single to be released in Michael Hutchence’s lifetime. Hutchence committed suicide in November of 1997. He was 37 yeas old.
I remember when this music video came out. It was for me the first time I heard Oasis. They seemed to come and go in the blink of an eye to be honest. However, they did leave behind several notable music videos, and this is one of them. Watching it now, I immediately thought of Werner Herzog’s Stroszek (1977). I kept looking around for the dancing chicken.
That’s not a bad thing, but I’m kind of disappointed director Nigel Dick didn’t put it in here somewhere. He seems to have used just about everything else in the video. However, it doesn’t feel like Nigel just threw everything he could think of at the screen in haphazard manner either. It gels together quite well and gets the real message across to the audience watching it. That message being that you are kind of supposed to think of Oasis as the new Beatles. That didn’t work out. It does seem to have panned out a bit better for them than it did for The Cyrkle with their song Red Rubber Ball back in the 1960s.
Speaking of the 1960s, take a look at this 1967 performance by The Box Tops of their song The Letter where apparently the syncing didn’t go exactly as planned, the band noticed, and they had some fun with it.
Let’s throw in one more for good measure with The Byrds performing Turn, Turn, Turn.
The point is that Oasis certainly fall into The Beatles lineage in sound even if they were never as good, and Nirvana was realistically The Beatles of the 1990s.
If you haven’t already heard the song Wonderwall, then certainly watch the music video. It’s essential 90s rock that is a time capsule of 1995, and a throwback to the 1960’s endless Beatles soundalikes.
What I find most interesting is the crew. I have done a little over 50 of these, but even without me, two songs that Nigel Dick directed the music videos for have been brought up in the last month or so. He directed both Everybody Wants To Rule The World by Tears for Fears and Paradise City by Guns N’ Roses. From what I can see by looking over his 300+ directing credits for music videos, he seems to have had a thing for black and white. He used it for Guns N’ Roses, Oasis, and Taylor Dayne at the very least. Nigel Dick has also worked as a producer and art director on about 50 music videos between the two jobs. That includes having produced Do They Know It’s Christmas? back in 1984.
The other crew member I was able to find is the producer Phil Barnes. From what I can see, he has produced somewhere between 80-90 music videos. He seems to have stopped now, while Nigel Dick seems to have just cut back on the number he is making these days. I love that Phil Barnes has at least four separate entries in IMDb because people clearly didn’t know it was the same guy.
Enjoy!
Through the Shattered Lens 