If you are hunting for presents for Oasis fans, the band is the easy part. The hard part is that there are three maps in this collection, and they tell three different stories, so picking the wrong one is a real risk.
I am Mike, and I built all three from the same set of album credit sheets I keep for every map I draw. This post answers "which of these do I actually buy" rather than "why this map".
Presents for Oasis Fans Split Three Ways, and It Depends Whose Line They Follow
The Oasis band map runs the full thing: the seven Oasis studio albums, then out through Beady Eye, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and Liam's solo records. It is the one for the fan who followed everybody after 2009.
The Liam Gallagher map stops at Oasis, keeps going through Beady Eye, and ends on the 2024 record with John Squire. The Noel Gallagher map takes the same seven Oasis albums and then heads off through four High Flying Birds records.
Both brothers' maps begin identically. That is the point of hanging them as a pair.
All Three Maps Open With the Same Six People
Definitely Maybe carries six credited musicians. Liam, Noel, Bonehead, Guigsy, Tony McCarroll, and Anthony Griffiths are doing backing vocals on "Supersonic" and nothing else, ever again.
Morning Glory adds one. Be Here Now jumps to eleven. From there, the two maps diverge and never come back together.
Noel's line climbs hardest. Chasing Yesterday features 13 credited musicians. Who Built the Moon? At thirty-two, and Council Skies at forty-two. Liam's peaks at thirty-three on C'mon You Know, then drops to five for Liam Gallagher & John Squire in 2024.
That shape is the reason the pair works as a gift. Same six people at the top of both sheets, forty-two and five at the bottom.
Tony McCarroll Leaves on a Single Track and You Can See the Join
McCarroll drums the whole of Definitely Maybe. On Morning Glory, he is credited on "Some Might Say", and that is it.
Alan White is credited on Morning Glory for everything except "Some Might Say". The handover happens within one album, on one song, and it appears on the map as a station that stops dead while another one starts.
Bonehead and Guigsy both run out at Be Here Now in 1997. On all three maps, that is where the original five-piece stops being the original five-piece.
Gem Archer Is the Only Player Who Turns Up on Both Brothers' Sides
Gem Archer joins Heathen Chemistry in 2002 and stays through Don't Believe the Truth and Dig Out Your Soul. After the split, he goes with Liam into Beady Eye for Different Gear, Still Speeding and Be.
Then he appears on Noel's Council Skies in 2023, credited with acoustic guitar, electric guitar, baritone guitar and mouth organ.
Andy Bell went one way and stayed. Greg Kurstin only ever appears on Liam's side. Archer is the one line that touches both branches after the band ended, which is a nice thing to point out when the two maps are hanging next to each other.
Mikey Rowe Has Been on Keyboards Since 1997
Rowe first appears on Be Here Now. He is back on Heathen Chemistry, then on all four High Flying Birds albums, ending with keyboards on fourteen tracks of Council Skies.
That is six albums across twenty-six years, which is longer than Bonehead, Guigsy, McCarroll and Alan White managed between them. Nobody outside the Gallaghers runs longer on the Noel map.
The Guests Who Arrive Once, and the Ones Who Keep Coming Back
This is the table I would use to decide which map suits which fan. Every credit here comes off the sheets, not off a press release.
| Musician | Album | Credited with | Which map |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paul Weller | Morning Glory (1995), then Chasing Yesterday (2015) | Lead guitar and backing vocals on "Champagne Supernova", then organ twenty years later | Band and Noel |
| Johnny Depp | Be Here Now (1997) | Slide guitar, track 7. One appearance only | All three |
| Richard Ashcroft | Be Here Now (1997) | Backing vocals, track 10 | All three |
| Johnny Marr | Heathen Chemistry (2002), Chasing Yesterday, Who Built the Moon?, Council Skies | Guitar solo, slide guitar, harmonica, electric guitar. Four albums over twenty-one years | Band and Noel |
| Zak Starkey | Don't Believe the Truth (2005), Dig Out Your Soul (2008) | Drums, percussion and handclaps on both | All three |
| Gene Gallagher | Why Me? Why Not. (2019) | Bongos, track 2. Liam's son, one credit | Band and Liam |
| Dave Grohl | C'mon You Know (2022) | Drums. One appearance | Band and Liam |
| Robert Smith | Council Skies (2023) | Guitar and piano, track 20 | Noel |
| Pet Shop Boys | Council Skies (2023) | Additional vocals, track 19 | Noel |
If the fan you are buying for is a guitar person, the Marr row settles it. Four albums, spread over twenty-one years, and every one of them on Noel's side of the split. If they came to Oasis through Britpop generally, the Weller and Ashcroft rows make the band map the better buy.
Why Mark Coyle Gets a Station, and Amorphous Androgynous Does Not
I have a rule that applies to every map I draw. A producer only gets a line if they are also credited with playing something.
Mark Coyle is best known as the man behind the desk on Definitely Maybe. He is on the map anyway, because he is credited with backwards guitar on Be Here Now and with electric sitar and twelve-string acoustic on Standing on the Shoulder of Giants. He played, so he got a station.
Amorphous Androgynous are credited with production on two tracks of Chasing Yesterday and nothing else. No instrument, no station. Same for the mastering and mixing credits scattered through the sheets.
It sounds fussy. It is why the maps do not turn into a list of everyone who has ever walked through the studio door.
Matching the Print to the Person
For the fan who stopped caring after Be Here Now, the band map still works, because the first three albums occupy the densest, most legible part of the line. For the one who argues about the solo records at every opportunity, buy the two brother maps and hang them as a pair.
All the prints come in A2, 420 x 594mm, and A1, 594 x 841mm, from £42. Giclée on heavyweight stock, unframed or in a black wood frame.
A2 is right for the small credits to stay readable at arm's length, which matters here because half the interest is in the one-off names. A1 is the one to buy if it is going somewhere people stand and read, or if you are hanging Liam and Noel side by side and want them to hold a wall.
Questions I Get About These Three
Is the band map just the Liam and Noel maps stuck together? No. It runs both post-2009 branches on one sheet, so the split reads as a fork rather than as two separate stories. The individual maps provide more detail on their respective sides.
My friend only really rates the first two albums. Is a full map wasted? Not in my experience. The early section is where the six-to-seven-musician line-ups sit, so it is the clearest, least cluttered part of the print, and the rest gives them something to be rude about.
Do you redraw the maps when a new album lands? Yes, that is what the artist-updated maps collection is for. The product page always shows the final album on the line, so you can check what you are getting before you order.
Liam or Noel, if I can only buy one? Buy the one whose later records they actually play. Noel's map ends dense and busy at forty-two credits. Liam's ends spare on five.
Where to Look Next
All three prints are part of the Oasis and Beyond collection. If you already know which brother you are buying for, I have written separately on why the Noel map is built the way it is and on what Liam's map covers.
Johnny Marr's four appearances across the Oasis and Noel records also make him one of the more useful cross-links in the catalogue, and there is a companion piece on choosing between the Smiths and Marr maps.
Everything else I draw lives in music wall art prints.
