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While many of us were still in our cribs or yet to be born, brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher defined the sound of the 1990s with their band Oasis. They released hits that provided the soundtracks to the movies we grew up watching, from Wonderwall to Don’t Look Back In Anger and Champagne Supernova, while pulling, possibly unintentionally, chic looks left, right and centre (they were described by James Brown, publisher of Loaded magazine, as looking “like football fans playing Sex Pistols songs.”)
They also hated each other.
The Evening Standard described the Gallagher brothers as “modern-day Kane and Able.” They spent most of the 1990s and 2000s at each other’s throats. While this eventually led to the band’s dissolution and heartbreak for fans, it provided some of the best burns in music history, putting Paris Hilton, Nicol Richie, and the cast of MAFS to shame.
Essentially, they don’t make celebrity feuds like they used to.
Before we delve into the best moments of brotherly hate (and best looks), here’s a quick recap on Oasis.
(@90s.inspiration)
Why Are People Talking About Oasis?
Oasis formed in 1991, with brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher at the helm. Noel was the songwriter and guitarist, and Liam was the frontman. Despite creating some of the biggest hits of the 90s, the pair couldn’t stick it out. Noel and Liam Gallagher haven’t been seen together since the band split in 2009. This was following years of public spats, insults and physical fights. Right before a performance at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris, the two got into a fight that involved Liam wielding Noel’s guitar “like an axe.” Noel announced his exit on the Oasis website, saying: “It’s with some sadness and a great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight. People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.”
This week, a cryptic announcement led fans to believe the two were participating in a reunion, and the supporting evidence is strong. What’s bringing them together? Cash. According to the Mail Online, the Gallagher brothers have been promised 50 million pounds, around $97 million Australian, to partake in a global tour in 2025. They’ve confirmed they’ll perform together for the first time in 15 years in 2025. According to Variety, $530 million dollar payday, which is the incentive in addition to profits from fourteen shows across the UK and Ireland, speak louder than any sibling grudge.”
Whether triple-figure millions can truly erase 33 years of sibling animosity remains to be seen.
Why Do The Gallagher Brother’s Hate Each Other?
The two grew up in Manchester and, according to Liam, Noel, who is six years older, was always a bully. In a 2016 documentary Oasis: Supersonic he recounted, “One night I come in pissed and I couldn’t find a light switch, so I pissed all over his new stereo. I think it basically boils down to that.”
Wibbling Rivalry: You Think It’s Rock and Roll To Get Thrown Off A Ferry
Growing up, we all had a friend who didn’t know when the right moment to channel their “brat” energy was, and, according to Liam, Noel’s the type. One of the brother’s earliest press interviews imploded into an expletive-laden screaming match a few minutes in. The 1994 NME interview became so famous it has been released as a 14-minute-long single called “Wibbling Rivalry.” The argument was triggered when Liam started recounting a recent arrest onboard a ferry to Amsterdam, which he said was part of his “rock and roll animal” persona.
The bragging rubbed Noel the wrong way. “Stick your thousand pounds right up your fuckin’ arse till it comes out your fuckin’ big toe,’ adding “You think it’s rock and roll to get thrown off a ferry… If you’re proud of getting thrown off of ferries… why don’t you get the fuck out my band and go and become a football hooligan, right?” Liam, at one point, made the condescending interjection, “Sit the f*** down; you’re getting into a state; you’ve had too many G&Ts.”
Tambourine Fight, 1994: “I don’t really want to know, why you pick your nose”
During Oasis’s time at the top of the charts, the brothers quit and regrouped multiple times. The first Gallagher resignation came early, following a performance at the Whisky a Go-Go Bar in 1994. Liam took the opportunity to insult Noel with a lyric change in Live Forever (“Maybe, I don’t really want to know, why you pick your nose”) and then hit his brother over the head with a tambourine and walked off stage. Noel quit the band the next day and rejoined shortly after. Liam recalled in the 2016 Oasis: Supersonic that a contributing factor in the on-stage disaster was that the band had mistaken a bag of crystal meth for a bag of cocaine. “It just kept us up for f***ing days,” he reflected sadly, “the band were not in the right place.”
A Cricket Bat, A Fire Extinguisher And A Farmhouse
Over the years, the Gallagher brothers have spent as much time answering questions about their famous fights as they have about their music. And they are generous with their memories.
A sombre Noel recounted an incident that occurred during the recording of What’s The Story Morning Glory, in which one of his guitars got damaged. “Somebody let a fire extinguisher off in the farmhouse. I think maybe one of my guitars got damaged, and I blamed him [Liam]. I ended up having a proper fight with Liam. It might have been the biggest fight we ever had. I remember smashing his head with a cricket bat.”
Liam attributed the combat situation to Noel being too much of a perfectionist. “It was probably me not giving a f***, and him trying to write f***cking Bohemian Rhapsody,’ and me going ‘Bollocks, let’s have it.”
The argument didn’t get in the way of success, What’s The Story Morning Glory sold a record breaking 345,000 copies in it’s first week and spent 10 weeks at number one on the UK Album Charts. The cricket bat deployed in the fight was sold at auction in 2011.
MTV Unplugged 1996
There’s nothing worse than a colleague who calls in sick, only to be spotted out for drinks or at the beach on social media hours later. Noel was faced with this frustration when Liam, the lead vocalist, bailed on a set for MTV Unplugged due to laryngitis. While Noel was breaking the news to disappointed fans, cameras showed Liam in the audience knocking back champagnes, enjoying some ciggies, and heckling his brother (sore throat seemingly resolved). Liam then tried to jump back on stage during a re-recording and was told to “p*ss off” by his brother.
The Manchurian Candidate: “I can play him like a disused arcade game”
In 2005, Noel told SPIN that Liam was “frightened to death of me.” He compared their relationship to the brainwashing session scene in The Manchurian Candidate. “I can read him and I can f***king play him like a slightly disused arcade game. I can make him make decisions that he thinks are his, but really they’re mine.” However, he could never overcome Liam’s recurrent sick days.
‘A Man With A Fork In A World Of Soup’
In 2009, after their breakup, Noel Gallagher, master of the absurdist putdown, described his brother as “the angriest man you’ll ever meet. He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”
The Oasis brothers have never been ones to miss an opportunity to look back in anger and a full ten years later, Liam Gallagher posted a video of himself eating soup out of a teacup with a fork along with the hashtag: #happymanwithaforkinaworldofsoup” to thank fans for buying tickets to his solo tour.
#happymanwithaforkinaworldofsoup pic.twitter.com/G7pDhE9KO7
— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) July 13, 2019
Liam Would Rather Get A Pedicure
While they might be caving to financial incentives now, the brothers have been impervious to other incentives as recently as this year. This year, Liam responded to suggestions a nomination of a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame might prompt him to get back together with his brother. His post on X/Twitter contained some choice expletives before ending “The little fella loves hanging out with celebrities, so he’d prob go; as for me I’m washing my hair and having a pedicure and manicure.”
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The post ‘A Man With A Fork In A World Of Soup’ 7 Of The Gallagher Brother’s Best Insults appeared first on ELLE.
