In today's headlines with Wilhelmina Shrimpton, investigations into horror crash continue, Wellington looking at beam e-scooter issues and Oasis are back together.
When Liam and Noel Gallagher get together, hide the tambourines.
The Kinks, the Allman Brothers Band, the Jacksons: every band of brothers occasionally bickered, even feuded.
But no sibling rivalry reached the level of rancour found in Oasis, the Britpop band that improbably announced that it is reuniting afteryears of animosity, insults and at least one incident involving a cricket bat.
Here’s a look at the rollercoaster career of Liam and Noel Gallagher, two brothers who managed to produce the music of a generation while mostly despising each other.
The members of Oasis in 1993, from left to right: Paul McGuigan, Noel Gallagher, Tony McCarroll, Paul Arthurs and Liam Gallagher. Photo / Getty Images
Oasis was formed in 1991 in Manchester, England. There were various members, some of whom came and went. But the constants were the Gallagher brothers: Liam, the lead singer, and Noel, the lead guitarist and songwriter.
They soon came to be the most prominent band in a ‘90s movement called Britpop, joining groups like Blur and Pulp in producing catchy rock music with a ‘60s influence.
Reviewing a concert at Wetlands Preserve in Manhattan in 1994, music critic Neil Strauss wrote in The New York Times that “the least experienced and most hyped of this new wave of British bands is Oasis”.
The following year, music critic Amy Linden wrote in the Times of its first album, Definitely, Maybe: “Original or not, Oasis is a reminder of why the world fell in love with rock-and-roll.” The album, like all seven the band released, hit No 1 on the UK pop chart.
Liam, the lead singer, and Noel, the lead guitarist, had trouble getting along. Photo / Getty Images
In the mid-90s, Oasis firmly seized the role of “voice of a generation,” at least in Britain, with huge hits like Wonderwall and Don’t Look Back in Anger off their second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?
But trouble was brewing. In 1994, Noel briefly quit the band after Liam threw a tambourine at his head, Noel said later. More was to come.
In 1995, a bootleg tape of the brothers arguing emerged and was released as a single called Wibbling Rivalry. On the recording, the brothers bicker over whether “bad boy” behaviour helps the band. Liam believed the image was beneficial, while Noel thought the band should stick to music. Things devolve into a shouting match.
On tape, the brothers do agree about taking cocaine. “We all snort white lines every day,” Noel says. The recorded argument somehow charted in the UK at No 52.
In 1995, Noel, maybe angry that Liam had brought back some people to the studio while he was trying to record, or possibly annoyed about a damaged guitar, or both, hit Liam in the head with a cricket bat, both brothers have recounted.
Hit albums and cancelled shows
Liam Gallagher at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards, where he was “swearing up a storm.” Photo / Getty Images
At the MTV awards in 1996, Strauss, the music critic, wrote in the Times: “Liam Gallagher was swearing up a storm, knocking over the microphone, spilling beer, spitting, making lewd gestures and criticising the lameness of the event as he sang ‘Champagne Supernova’ intentionally off-key, out of rhythm and with the wrong lyrics.”
In a review of the band’s show at Jones Beach on Long Island later that year noted, Strauss wrote that while the band was not nearly as famous in America as it was in Britain, Oasis carried on acting like it was: “The singer, Liam Gallagher, acted bored and restless, pacing like a caged animal, scratching himself distractedly, staring blankly at the audience, punching the microphone off its stand and making bratty faces and gestures whenever he wasn’t singing.”
Days later, the tour was cancelled after a fistfight between the brothers.
The fights continued even as the hit albums did: Be Here Now in 1997, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants in 2000.
In 2000, Noel walked out on the band in the middle of a European tour. Reports said this was prompted by Liam questioning the paternity of Noel’s daughter. Perhaps heralding a changing of the pop guard, the Times noted this development in an article led by the news that the boy bands ‘N Sync and Backstreet Boys were selling millions of albums.
Their breakup did not end the bickering
Liam at Madison Square Garden in 2008. Photo / Getty Images
Although their cultural prominence was slipping, Oasis maintained a high level of popularity, filling Madison Square Garden in 2005, for example.
In 2009, after technical problems at a show in Manchester, Oasis offered a refund, then criticised fans who tried to claim it. Soon after, Noel quit the band, apparently for good, saying he could no longer work with his brother and citing “verbal and violent intimidation”. Oasis was finally over.
But while the band was finished, the feud was not. Liam sued Noel in 2011 over comments Noel made after the split, specifically Noel’s contention that Liam missed a gig because he was hung over; Liam claimed it was because of laryngitis. He also said it was a lie that he had demanded to promote his clothing line in the tour programme. The suit was later dropped.
The Gallaghers formed new bands: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, and Beady Eye, fronted by Liam.
That didn’t stop the bickering. Over the years, for example, Liam has posted numerous references to his brother as a “potato”.
Noel said that Liam was “rude, arrogant, intimidating and lazy. He’s the angriest man you’ll ever meet. He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.” Liam responded with a photo of himself duly eating soup with a fork.
After 15 years, an unlikely reunion
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And now Oasis is getting back together, although as recently as last year, both brothers confirmed that they did not speak to each other.
When the Eagles staged a reunion, they nodded at the improbability by calling their live album Hell Freezes Over. It’s not clear what is less likely than the devil going ice skating, but Oasis reuniting may be it.
