Oasis were one of the biggest bands in the UK in the 1990s, but ended up squabbling in Paris and self destructed on the eve of a big US tour. They had it all but messed up right royally.
It’s that Icarus thing: flying too close to the sun. It’s like Brexit, you take a side. Noel who is the reasonable one who holds it all together, or Liam, the wild man of Borneo.
Who is richer? The one who wrote the songs, the bangers, the stadium anthems and the half-decent ones. Or the one whose voice is the Lion’s Roar of Rock and Roll but who was off his trolley, unhinged and at times scary, if you were a photographer looking for paydirt.
They could’ve been huge in the US, bigger than massive, but were unable to impose on themselves to the level of self discipline needed to crack the lucrative US market. They never were too good at playing that corporate game, something that has preserved their integrity. You can adopt a bad boy attitude for the media but can’t fake rock and roll attitude for the masses.
Brothers Noel and Liam are still goading each other to this day, moving their insults and barbed darts onto Twitter.
Noel Gallagher wrote all the songs-the good ones, and made the bulk of the money from writer’s royalties – these were the day before songs are written by committees and ‘interpolated’ with other composer’s melodies.
Liam sang his older brother’s songs with a voice marinated in rock ‘n’ roll furor, a snarling snare at the world of conformity and comfortable middle class complacency.
i went looking for action but all i found was cigarettes and alcohol.
Post Oasis the fortunes of the brothers have fluctuated Noel has persevered with his band, High Flying Birds, still writing good songs but without his brother’s voice to back them up has hardly set the world on fire.
Liam has stuck to the Liam Gallagher look of Oasis, first with his new band Beady Eye, and recently embarked on a world tour in his own name playing to an audience tired of autotune and programmed instruments, hungry for authenticity, The high points of his shows are all Oasis songs written by his brother.
Noel seemed to be the happier with this arrangement-partly because he acquired considerable wealth, some 70 million from his Oasis day, if the reports are to be believed, and can afford to be relaxed about most things that life throws in his direction – far from his working-class origins in Manchester on the council estate – whereas Liam went through marriages and divorces and paternity suits, living la Vida Rock’n’Roll on his earnings, and burning cash like he was protesting against something.
Those close to Liam, however, said he has now mellowed from the angry boot of a man that he was in his Oasis days. Although his fashion sense and haircut has hardly changed in three decades, and he is still the poster boy of Brit Pop, he’s in his 50s now and age does bring maturity and a degree of wisdom. And a worldwide tour does wonders for the bank account.
A documentary on sky called Liam Gallagher Knebworth 2022, has brought him the kind of media attention that Noel could not muster these days
It is highly unlikely that the two brothers will reform Oasis for a comeback tour anytime soon. In fact, Noel recently pointed out that the band is as popular as ever and still sells as many records as in their heyday. There is no point to tamper with the winning formula. And with Liam pumping out Oasis songs at his live gigs, new Liam fans buy the old Oasis records
If Oasis did reform, you can’t exclude the two brothers fighting again within 30 minutes on the live stage again.
One sticking point for a reformed Oasis would be the publishing rights. Noel will always make more money, unless Liam learns to write his own songs – and much of Liam’s original material is co-written and unlikely to feature on any reformed Oasis tour.
In July 2012, Noel said to The Sun about Liam performing Oasis tunes with his band Beady Eye: “I say he should go around the world, do those songs and fill out the PRS forms.”
Later, in December 2018, Noel told MOJO magazine: “When he’s headlining Finsbury Park, I’m sitting here watching Match of the Day getting a PRS cheque for him playing my songs. But instead of making him happy, it’s made him even worse, it’s made him even angrier.”
By Will Fresch – originally posted to Flickr as oasis.gallagher.bros.002, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6857270
