“It mentions drugs and boozing and social comment and listening to tunes, what more do you want?”: Noel Gallagher on the making of Oasis’s classic anthem Cigarettes & Alcohol

Oasis in 1994.

Noel Gallagher was dead against releasing Cigarettes & Alcohol as a single, but Oasis’ guitarist and chief songwriter has never regretted caving in to label pressure to put it out. The classic Oasis anthem came out 30 years ago this week, the fourth single from their era-defining debut Definitely Maybe and, in the eyes of Noel, it was one song too far to be lifted from the same album for a standalone release.

“We got a little leant on to put a fourth single,” Noel said in an interview conducted for the group’s 2006 compilation Stop The Clocks. “I wasn’t into the idea at all. I was like, ‘Fourth single? Fucking hell, I don’t know about that…’.”