POP MUSIC : UNMASKED AVENGER

Oasis’ faces are just becoming familiar to American music fans, but the group’s next video will feature an already well-known visage--Patrick Macnee, the veteran actor best known for his role as secret agent John Steed in the ‘60s TV series “The Avengers.” The series is currently enjoying a revival in Britain, with prime-time reruns on the BBC and plans for a movie version.

Macnee joined Oasis in a Beverly Hills mansion for the video shoot during the band’s U.S. tour late last year. “The Avengers” has long been a favorite of pop music figures, with Chrissie Hynde modeling her mod spy role in the video for the 1986 hit “Don’t Get Me Wrong” after the show’s co-star, Diana Rigg.

Macnee himself turned up in “This Is Spinal Tap” as Sir Dennis Eton-Hogg, the head of Polymer Records, and he even reached the pop charts in 1990 when “Kinky Boots,” a novelty song he recorded in the ‘60s with another “Avengers” partner, Honor Blackman, became a freak Christmas hit in England.