Oasis reforming swells a wave of 90’s nostalgia.
A personal glimpse of the past: What creativity and innovation looked like then.
Back in 1996, or maybe 1997, it’s all a bit vague now, when being bored meant throwing chewed up bits of paper at each other rather than waiting for your phone to charge and you had to dig deep to find things to fill your days, one of us had an idea: Let’s mock up an album cover (as that will take all day).
Now in the pre-digital, pre-internet pre-AI era that made perfect sense.
The obvious fact that without any “technology” this was virtually impossible never occurred to us, or if it did was quickly dismissed as of no concern.
With the mission objective clarified it was on with the details: What would we choose?
“Right. Let’s do the Oasis one. No, the good first one.”
Next problem, there are only two of us and we don’t have a house. So, after a rambling pitch of delusional enthusiasm to the only person we knew with the right type of house and who was willing to be in a photograph later we were three; PM’s on board and he has a house. Perfect.
Another barrage of overly zealous pitching later and JH and PB (complete with rock and roll long hair) completed the Saturday afternoon wannabe supergroup and it was game on.
At this point there is a distant memory of a two car convoy of 80’s sports cars going round the (incomplete) M60 making our way to the photo shoot location in North Manchester and realising while looking through the rear window of the lead car that we had given the job of blowing the inflatable globe to the asthmatic. Risk assessments such as they were never got down to this level of detail.
Destination reached, props all set, oh bloody hell the room is too short. The real one must have knocked through the front and back room. Never mind, just have to roll with it.
Camera set, best mimic poses, pictures taken, done. Apart from later realising that the ISO setting on the camera, that’s the film speed, film, develop, wait, not instant, not ever digital, was 400 ASA for an ISO 100 film stock, so days later all the pics were two stops under exposed. Ah well, too late now. No second chances with film.
So we had a “band”, we had photos, just got to make a poster.
Now that wasn’t as easy as it sounds. With about one PC in the office with anything like the right software (and no idea how to use it even if we could of got on it) more enthusiastic persuasion was required. Eternal thanks to Dawn for going along with it over her lunch times.
And so to the result.
An A3 poster, a bit like the album cover, a bit like the title and, of it’s time, all in all rather a good use of a Saturday.
Then, with that done, on to the next caper; whatever that was.
There is no digital original, just a handful of A3 prints shared amongst the “band” and a few spares hidden away in a manilla envelope in the loft for the last 30 years or so.
Up here in post-millennial times scanning, editing, AI enhancing is effectively free and instant.
The images show the original and an AI enhanced version (with a remade frame that took about 10 minutes).
The source material isn’t great and there is probably a whole load of “improvements” one could make, but that misses the point.
It is what it is, it doesn’t need to live forever.
And the thanks…
to “the band”: Phil Bamforth, John Hoyes, Paul Merson, DL and the author
to Plan Printing Ltd of Sale, Manchester for the A3 scanning
The Posters
The original
The AI enhanced and remade
