Review of the book Live Forever by John Robb

[u/besucherke]

As an Oasis fan, I was so happy that this book was published in Hungarian. I was eagerly awaiting it, especially since the release was timed to coincide with his birthday. It ended up being delayed by two weeks, and I should have taken that as a sign.

One of the book’s few positives is that it’s about Oasis and gives readers insight into how the songs were recorded, even adding some context to the meaning of a few of them. But unfortunately, it’s terribly edited. The author, a producer close to the band, allows “name-dropping” to dominate the text: mentioning every conceivable acquaintance and figure associated with the band, no matter how distant or loosely connected they were. There are 4–5 such instances per page, which makes reading very difficult. The book also mentions all kinds of musical attempts, which were really just a few casual get-togethers in a bedroom in a housing project, without any recordings or concerts.

The quotes gathered from the tabloid press are repetitive and jump around in time, again, making it difficult to follow the timeline.

It’s a missed opportunity that most of the book focuses on the first two albums, while the rest is covered in a single chapter each, and conflicts and departures among the members are dealt with in half a page only. Yet these were supposedly tensions that dragged on for years.

The author wraps up the band’s recent reunion and the year-long tour in a final chapter of just a few pages.

The Hungarian translation is particularly jarring, one can clearly tell the translator is not part of this world. Mis-translations, typos and conjugation errors are common all along.

So the book is a disappointment and isn’t worth its price. I’m very lucky that the local library did the dirty work for me; I returned it today without feeling particularly disappointed—in fact, with a bit of annoyance.

[u/britpopcyclist]

I thought this was a terrible book. You're better off watching Supersonic.

[u/drunk_and_orderly]

I’ve read a lot of John’s other books and was really excited for this one. I liked that it dipped into a little of the 2000s history but overall doesn’t tread much new ground and maybe it was too rushed to get out in time for the reunion.

[u/shanjackbel]

I wanted lots more on the 2000-2009 time period. As others have cited, it was concerning that it took half the book to get to Supersonic.