Champagne Supernova

"Champagne Supernova" is a song by English rock band Oasis, written by guitarist Noel Gallagher. The seven-minute anthem is the closing track on the record-breaking album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?. Though only released as a single in Australia, U.S., France and New Zealand in 1996, a music video directed by Nigel Dick was released to music channels and, as a result, the song received significant television and radio airplay.

The song was released in the U.S. as a radio single to great success, becoming the band's second No. 1 single on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. It also peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay, becoming the band's third top 40 single on that chart. The song is considered a fan-favourite and has received widespread critical acclaim. The song is also included on Oasis' compilation album Stop the Clocks and on the U.S. release of Time Flies... 1994–2009

Background

Noel Gallagher claimed, in a 2005 interview, that he has still not made up his mind as to what the song actually is about. He then had this to say about the song's lyrical content on the band's official website:

Knebworth

Coordinates: 51°51′58″N 0°11′02″W / 51.866°N 0.184°W / 51.866; -0.184

Knebworth is a village and civil parish in the north of Hertfordshire, England, immediately south of Stevenage. The civil parish covers an area between the villages of Datchworth, Woolmer Green, Codicote, Kimpton, Whitwell, St Paul's Walden and Langley, and encompasses the village of Knebworth, the small village of Old Knebworth and Knebworth House.

History

There is evidence of people living in the area as far back as Neolithic times and it is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 where it is referred to as Chenepeworde (the farm belonging to the Dane, Cnebba) with a population of 150. The original village, now known as Old Knebworth, developed around Knebworth House. Development of the newer Knebworth village started in the late 19th century centred a mile to the east of Old Knebworth on the new railway station and the Great North Road (subsequently the A1, and now the B197 since the opening of the A1(M) motorway in 1962).

Oasis

In geography, an oasis (plural: oases) or cienega (Southwestern United States) is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source. Oases also provide habitat for animals and even humans if the area is big enough. The location of oases has been of critical importance for trade and transportation routes in desert areas; caravans must travel via oases so that supplies of water and food can be replenished. Thus, political or military control of an oasis has in many cases meant control of trade on a particular route. For example, the oases of Awjila, Ghadames, and Kufra, situated in modern-day Libya, have at various times been vital to both North-South and East-West trade in the Sahara Desert.

Oases are formed from underground rivers or aquifers such as an artesian aquifer, where water can reach the surface naturally by pressure or by man-made wells. Occasional brief thunderstorms provide subterranean water to sustain natural oases, such as the Tuat. Substrata of impermeable rock and stone can trap water and retain it in pockets, or on long faulting subsurface ridges or volcanic dikes water can collect and percolate to the surface. Any incidence of water is then used by migrating birds, which also pass seeds with their droppings which will grow at the water's edge forming an oasis.

Champagne

Champagne (French: [ʃɑ̃.paɲ]) is a sparkling wine produced from the Champagne region grape grown in France following rules that demand, among other things, secondary fermentation of the wine in the bottle to create carbonation, specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from specific parcels in the Champagne appellation and specific pressing regimes unique to the region. Some use the term Champagne as a generic term for sparkling wine, but in most countries, it is illegal to officially label any product Champagne unless it both comes from the Champagne region and is produced under the rules of the appellation.

The primary grapes used in the production of Champagne are black Pinot noir and Pinot Meunier but also white Chardonnay. Champagne appellation law only allows grapes grown according to appellation rules in specifically designated plots within the appellation to be used in the production of Champagne.

Royalty became associated with Champagne in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The leading manufacturers made efforts to associate their Champagnes with nobility and royalty through advertising and packaging, which led to popularity among the emerging middle class.

Supernova

A supernova is a rare astronomical event that occurs during the last stellar evolutionary stages of a massive star's life, whose dramatic and catastrophic destruction is marked by one final titanic explosion. For a short time, this causes the sudden appearance of a 'new' bright star, before slowly fading from sight over several weeks or months.

Only three Milky Way naked-eye supernova events have been observed during the last thousand years, though many have been telescopically seen in other galaxies. The most recent directly observed supernova in the Milky Way was Kepler's Star of 1604 (SN 1604), but remnants of two more recent supernovae have been found retrospectively. Statistical observations of supernova in extragalactic galaxies suggest they should occur on average about three times every century in the Milky Way, and that any galactic supernova would almost certainly be observable in modern astronomical equipment.

Supernovae are more energetic than novae. In Latin, Nova means "new", referring astronomically to what appears to be a temporary new bright star. Adding the prefix "super-" distinguishes supernovae from ordinary novae, which are far less luminous. The word supernova was coined by Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky in 1931. It is pronounced /ˌsuːpərnoʊvə/ with the plural supernovae /ˌsuːpərnoʊviː/ or supernovas (abbreviated SN, plural SNe after "supernovae").