Over the past 20 years, there have been few bands bigger or more important than Oasis. In the early 1990s, bands like Suede, Pulp, Blur and Manic Street Preachers were beginning to disregard the American music that dominated the charts and sowed the seeds for what would later be known as Britpop.

If those bands sowed the seeds, Oasis were the combine harvester. In 1994, Definitely Maybe became the highest selling debut album in British chart history and sent the band right to the top of British pop music.

At the centre of it all were vocalist Liam Gallagher and older brother Noel, whose name takes songwriting credits on the band’s early albums. Citing The Beatles, The Who, T-Rex and The Smiths as primary influences, the Gallagher brothers, along with Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs (guitar), Paul ‘Guigsy’ McGuigan (bass) and Alan White (drums) produced a long line of hit singles including Supersonic, Shakermaker, Live Forever and Rock n Roll Star.

The five-piece followed it up in 1995 with (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, which quickly became one of the highest selling albums of the 1990s. While Definitely Maybe took them to the top of British rock, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? took them to the top of the charts around the world, with hits like Wonderwall, Don’t Look Back in Anger and Champagne Supernova providing the soundtrack to an era.

Be Here Now, the band’s third album, and B-sides compilation The Masterplan failed to build on the band’s achievements in the mid-to-late 1990s and it wasn’t log before the band started to cave in. Guigsy and Bonehead were soon out of the band, and some very public spats between the brothers Gallagher turned the world’s biggest rock band into a travelling circus.

In 1999, Liam and Noel put their differences aside and recruited former Ride guitarist Andy Bell as well as axeman Gem Archer to join the band to tour Standing On the Shoulder of Giants, the fourth Oasis album. Though the critics savaged the record, opening track Fuckin’ in the Bushes remains a favourite among fans, while Gas Panic! and Go Let it Out are regarded as some of their strongest tracks.

After touring 2002 album Heathen Chemistry, health problems forced White to leave the band, with Beatles descendant Zak Starkey picking up where White had left off. Along with Bell, Archer and the Gallaghers, Starkey played on 2005 long player Don’t Believe the Truth, which was hailed as a return to form for the Manchester band.