Michael Spencer Jones is a name synonymous with some of the most iconic imagery in British rock history. As the visionary photographer behind the legendary cover of Oasis’ debut album, Definitely Maybe, his work has left an indelible mark on the music world. With 2024 marking 30 years since the release of this groundbreaking album, we’re celebrating Michael as our Photographer of the Month. To honor this milestone, we sat down with him for an exclusive interview, delving into the stories behind the lens and his experiences capturing the spirit of an era. Read on to discover more about the man who turned rock 'n' roll moments into timeless art.
SE: What was the initial inspiration behind the cover to Definitely Maybe?
MSJ: The original idea came from Noel – he had seen a photograph of the Beatles on the back cover to The Beatles Oldies but Goldies album. It showed the Beatles gathered around a small table in a hotel room in Japan and he wanted to replicate this idea in the dining room at Boneheads house in West Didsbury, Manchester.
SE: The finished shot doesn’t at all resemble that photograph, so how did it change?
MSJ: Well, I went around to Bonehead’s house to do a recce and realised that the dining room was wholly unsuitable; no aesthetics and far too confined. I was also struggling to visualise with what they might be doing sat around a table. So I suggested shooting the cover in the lounge area instead, which was the opposite direction to how they had originally envisaged the shot to be.
SE: So how did Liam end up lying on the floorboards?
MSJ: The living room was also small and in order to fit the entire room within the camera frame I had to resort to using a wide angle lens. Whilst this solved the problem of getting the entire band in shot, it created another problem; I was left with a vast expanse of floorboards with distracting lines that dominated the photograph. So getting Liam to lie on the floor was a solution to filling that ground space.
SE: Whose idea was it to have a globe in the shot?
MSJ: That was very much unplanned. One of Oasis’ roadies brought the globe to the shoot, and I instantly connected with it. It reminded me of the globe that Ian Brown had held aloft at the Spike Island gig in 1990. However during the shoot, it had become permanently positioned at the rear of the room by the bay window, and I felt it looked very odd in this position. So in one of those ‘lightbulb’ moments I came up with the idea of hanging it from the ceiling, and as the camera exposure was between 2-3 seconds in duration, I thought if I spun the globe before I took each photograph it would appear blurred when seen on film, or more to the point, it would appear as if it were orbiting in the room itself.
SE: Is it true that the wine by Liam’s shoulder is Ribena?
MSJ: Yes, that’s true. There were a lot of lager cans in the room when I first arrived and I didn’t want to have them in the shot, but Oasis still wanted a reference to alcohol, so I suggested having wine in the shot instead. But we quickly realised there was no wine at the property. We briefly discussed going to the shops to get some but I suggested using blackcurrant juice instead, which looks like wine when photographed.
SE: What advice would you give to aspiring photographers?
MSJ: I would say take visual risks, and embrace the ‘art of looking’ – the more you look, the more beautiful things become and the more alive you feel. After all, we don’t really see with our eyes, they are just lenses in our head…we see with our brains and our emotions.
SE: It’s safe to say, the Definitely Maybe cover has become iconic. How do you feel about its legacy and your role in creating a piece of music history?
MSJ: Yes, I feel good about it. The music and cover have become inextricably linked to the point where people see the cover and music as one. It’s almost impossible to imagine the music to Definitely Maybe being with any other image, much like the cover to Abbey Road.
