Capturing Oasis on camera: Michael Spencer Jones reflects on his iconic Definitely Maybe album cover

[Music] And we begin in California with Oasis playing the Pasadena Rose Bowl this weekend. A landmark moment for the reunion tour, filling one of the world’s most iconic venues. Given the success of the band in Europe since the ‘9s, there was always talk about why they couldn’t crack America. Null said back in 2023 during a rift with his brother that it’s because they didn’t have a charismatic frontman friends again and sold out all over the world. It’s a great time to introduce my next guest, legendary music photographer Michael Spencer Jones, the man behind Oasis definitely maybe album cover, what’s the story morning glory be here now as well as the verb’s urban hymns. Michael is fantastic to have you with us tonight. And I should say from the off definitely maybe is considered as one of the most iconic album covers of all time. I’m sure you know one of the few that many people grew up with like me in the ’90s can instantly conjure up iconic covers that enemy call one of the 10 best of all time. So tell us a story of how it all came about. Yeah, well hello. Yeah, thanks for having me. Um how it all came about. Well, um the original idea was um null had seen the back cover to oldest but goldies um by the Beatles and it was a photograph taken by Robert Whitaker I think in 1966 and it was the Beatles crowded around this small table in um this hotel room in Japan. Uh so that was the initial basis for the cover. So they they were insisting on taking it at um Bonehead’s house uh Paul Arthur’s um in West Isbury in Manchester and uh so I went round for a wrecky and saw the table and the dining room where they wanted to do the shoot and uh I was a bit kind of dumbruck. It’s like whoa, you know, it’s not going to that’s not going to work there. So, um, so I basically in the other direction there was this living room, this Edwardian living room with a big bay window. So, I said, “Well, if we’re going to have to do it at Bonehead’s house, we’re going to have to do it in the um in the living room uh sh, you know, shooting uh towards the light.” Uh, which is what we did. But it it was a very tiny room. um it appears quite big on the album cover, but if you go there and we I went back with them with Nolan Lim um I think in about 2010 uh for the anniversary uh 10th anniversary and um and everyone was a gas at how small the room was. It’s tiny. It’s a bit like, you know, when you go back to your old school and you see the chairs that you used to sit on when you were about five or six and you think, “Nah, no, no. They couldn’t have been that small.” It was like that. So, um, so in order to get everyone in the room, this five piece band, I had to put this wide angle lens on the camera to get everyone in. And then that created this instant problem of this mass of floorboards. Um, which, you know, with all these lines. So, um, basically I came up with the idea of getting Liam to lie on the floor just to break up all these distracting lines. So, um, and it kind of developed from there. Um, uh, on the day of the shoot, um, so I did a few test shots and then on the day of the shoot I turned up and, um, there’s like a bit of a party going off. So that what kind of threw me really. Um, so like like, you know, it’s like party brothers like 11:00. Yeah. 11:00 in the morning on a Tuesday. It’s like, whoa, whoa, whoa. What’s happening? And uh so so it was awkward because I had to ask all these people to leave, you know, and I didn’t want them to sort of take all the energy with them. But uh anyway, one of the people that were in that some of the strangers I’ve not met before, you know, friends of the band, uh a guy called Phil Smith actually u one of the roadies brought in this inflatable globe. So um I thought, yeah, that’s interesting. And it sort of reminded me of Ian Brown at Spike Island when he held um this inflatable globe when he was on stage. So that was that was a sort of catalyst really. But it was at the back of the room and um so I’m about to take pictures. I’m thinking, you know, what is an inflatable globe doing in someone’s living room like that, you know? So I was thinking, does a geography teacher live here or something? and and so that’s when I came up with the idea of hanging it from the ceiling and spinning it and it all kind of sort of developed from there. But initially when I started the shoot um that they obviously been drinking lagger and you know not obviously but they had been and uh so there was all these red stripe laga cans in the shot everywhere. They were on the mantle piece on the window sill on the floorboards. So the first thing I did was say, “Look guys, you know, we’re going to have to get rid of the the laga cans, you know, and they said, “No, we want to we want them in.” So there was it was a bit of a sort of standoff. Uh so it was the first few minutes of the shoot were very awkward. They wanted the laga cans in, I wanted the laga cans out. And uh so I stopped the shoot basically. And um and then I explained to them, “Look guys, it looks like product placement, you know, uh you know, it’s a James Bond film. when James Bond looks at his watch and then the giant letters the word, you know, the watch manufacturer appears on the screen, I said, you know, it looks like product placement. And uh and and I said, look, if the if the cans stay, you might as well call the album Redstripe. At which point, at which point they they move them. And then they said, uh, you know, we still we want a reference to alcohol on the cover. So, um, it’s like, well, okay, well, let’s have some wine in the shop. Ah, so that’s where the wine came from. And then we quickly discover Yeah, we Yeah, I said, well, look, you know, wine glasses and wine bottles, they’ve got more shape than cans. Um, and then we quickly discovered that there was no wine in the property. And, uh, I think we discussed about going, you know, buying some. And I said, well, let’s use Ryena. It photographs better than real red wine, which is what we did. So, we got some Ryena out. And um so that glass of wine stationed next to Liam Gallagher’s shoulder is not wine. It’s Ryena. It’s Ryena. When we one thing that is amazing, how rock and roll is that? Amazing. Especially when it, you know, we know how untrue to form that is. One thing that amazes me, everybody talks about for so long all the little things in the image from Bert Bakarag, the TV and what’s on and this is a fascinating insight. I’ve heard about you Michael if this is true that you were inspired I read by the old Flemish masters it was true if tell me the van uh Arnoldeni painting of the 1400s you took inspiration from that and that’s where you worked it in No I think that’s a little bit of a myth to be honest urban legend I I think the um it’s an urban legend urban him um I yes um I I think the only sort of reference to sort of Flemish painting was um the fact that you know Flemish painters you know they used to have a when they were doing their still life paintings used to have a table laden with fruit and on a table and in order to break the sort of table edge the sort of line of the table edge they’d always have a bunch of grapes hanging off the edge of the table so um so the problem with the floorboards with all these lines you know what breaks up the lines in the floorboards so um so that’s you know where Liam came in handy you know, lying on the floor. But I I think it’s a bit of an urban myth that the um Van thing, although it is an interior with a with a mirror. So, uh I think that’s where the similarity and you talked about the globe as well. I know that you mentioned Ian Brown at Spike Island. Also, I think I’m right in saying that you’re inspired by David Bowie and David Bowie at one point with a globe and his use of a globe. He deflated it and your idea was trying to get on the back cover a deflated globe, but Liam Gallagher said, “No, life’s too beautiful.” Yeah. Yeah. It’s funny. Yes. So, I’m I’m exploring ideas for the back cover and I’m thinking, wouldn’t it be great if the globe was deflated? So you turned the cover over and you’ve got a world that’s probably not in the best of shapes and he’s making, you know, so I suggested that to to to the band. I said, you know, let’s do some shots with the the globe deflated. And then Liam Gallagher just sprung to his feet and he just like, Spencer, the world is a beautiful place. That globe is going to remain fully inflated. So he was like, okay, I’ll go with that. you give me one sentence to explain the man and that’s and I think you’ve you know you’ve caught another side of Liam Gallagher you know and I know I think part of it was your fascination for Egyptology because he’s not often egos of rock stars you want to be face on close to the screen you wanted him lying down kind of iconic that that there would be more more to him than that yeah well well um I just thought you know because I was I’m into surrealism you know Darly and McGrit and all those people And uh so I wanted it to be a sort of surrealist cover um but not overtly surrealist but um so the idea of having Liam lying on the floor creates a sort of surrealist component to it and um but I wanted him with his eyes closed and um you know so he’s just kind of in this altered state you know not of this world you know almost you know kind of lying in state where uh there’s there’s all this stuff happening around him and he’s the sort of main um you know where the sort of energy’s coming from kind of thing. So it was quite subtle. Um but when I came up with the idea of him lying on the floor um you know I obviously it’s a big ask for any you know to ask the lead singer of a band to lie on the floor for their debut album cover. And so I was super nervous about asking him. Um, and I knew if he said no, then I was in a lot of trouble because plan A was him lying on the floor and plan B was Liam al, you know, was him lying on the floor as well. So, there was no there was no plan B. So, um, so I’m very grateful that he kind of was up for it with it and, um, and he was okay with it. Yeah. which is, you know, is and the great thing about working with Oasis is they’re always open to ideas and stuff like that. So, um he yeah, he he um he said, “Yeah, I’ll do it.” So, uh if he had if he’d have said no, then I don’t know what I’d have done. And we’re seeing it wouldn’t have been the cover that it is because No, he wouldn’t. And I think it’s so I mention it to anyone in whether it’s in the the office or uh outside in the street, people know it straight away. And it’s also worth saying that you’ve done some brilliant albums as well, covers for Oasis, including um including Be Here Now, we just saw as well, and What’s the Story? Morning Glory. We saw the big Rolls-Royce in the Verve as well, urban hymns. So, you’re known for that. You you have legendary status in the industry. Tell me about your your life now. You what what did you decide to to do? What are you working on? Do you still keep in touch with Oasis? Uh yeah, well I’ve been um well I did I did the 30th anniversary uh cover which is um there definitely may be cover but there’s no one in the room. Um so so that was um that had been photoshopped actually just so I had to take all that the band out. So that they use that for the 30th anniversary and I’ve um yeah I’ve just shot a campaign for OA Levis’s um Oasis teamed up with Levis’s. So I just shot there global campaign but um I’m getting more into publishing. So I’ve I’ve just done a book called um definitely maybe a view from within and um this publisher approached me to do a book on Oasis and most of all my archive is is on negatives. So there’s only about 10% of it that’s been digitized. So um I was digitizing the whole archive and then I so I was starting at the beginning and I got through 1994 and suddenly realized that hang about you know I’ve got enough for a book in this first year. It’s a really interesting year 1994 you know when it all sort of takes off. So I decided to focus on that one year and um which is the book definitely maybe a view from within and um it just takes you from the recording of the album um and it just and then they a sort of prefame period and then um goes on to cigarettes and alcohol that shoot and then creating the cover and then the launch and then um there’s a chapter called Hyian Days and um and then it goes to you when we returned sort of 10 years later for the anniversary. So it’s a nice sort of story of you know if you want to immerse yourself onto the into that first year um it’s a good book to get. Michael, it’s been brilliant chatting to you. This is it. Oh, it’s brilliant. We’ve got it there. So this is Michael Spencer Jones’s his work uh with definitely maybe as you say the inside and there’s some incredible images in there that we haven’t seen that haven’t been made public. Uh real pleasure to talk to you. Thank you so much. Legendary music photographer Michael Spencer Jones. Thank you so much. Yeah, it’s a pleasure. Yeah, thanks very much. Speed to you soon. All the best.

As the Gallagher brothers take the world on a new musical Oasis for a whole new generation, Gavin Lee is pleased to welcome British art photographer & music video director Michael Spencer Jones. Over the decades, he’s collaborated with the likes of U2, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, The Verve & Oasis. And now we get an intimate look at his life and legacy. Known for his love of surrealism, Dalí, Magritte, Mr. Jones has published an extensive digital collection of his work spanning decades in a book of living history. “Definitely Maybe: A View From Within” (https://www.spellboundgalleries.com).
#Oasis #Culture #Rock’N’Roll

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