Britpop legends Oasis are gearing up to (potentially) announce a long-awaited reunion. It’s huge news for fans of the indie-rock band after 15 years of the founding members — brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher — making headlines for their snarky quips and digs at each other in the media.
Now, the duo have seemingly put their differences aside, delighting fans all over the world. But what was it that saw the brothers say goodbye to their worldwide success as Oasis, just to avoid each other?
In celebration of their reconciliation, let’s take a walk down memory lane to where the beef started in the first place.
The Liam And Noel Gallagher Fued explained
Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let’s kick off where it all began. Oasis was started in 1991 after singer Liam Gallagher put together a band consisting of guitar player Paul Arthurs, bazz guitarist Paul McGuigan and drummer Tony McCarroll. Liam then asked his older brother Noel to join too. Accepting, Noel joined the band playing lead guitar and vocals but was instrumental in the songwriting and creating the sound Oasis has become known for today.
Two years later, the band was signed to a music label and in August 1994, they released their smash hit debut album Definitely, Maybe. Within weeks, it became one of the fastest-selling debuts in the UK. But after a year of touring and solid partying, the cracks began to show.
In September 1994, the band had their first public blow-up. During a gig at the Whiskey a Go Go in Los Angeles, the band gave a notably awful set which ended with Liam smacking Noel with a tambourine before he stormed off stage. As a result, Noel quit the tour… but then joined again after he had some time to cool off.
But this was only the start of the sibling rivalry beginning to tear the band apart.
By 1996, Oasis was fucking huge. They’d released what is now their most famous album (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? and had truly hit worldwide acclaim after the skyrocketing success of hits like “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back In Anger”.
They went on a worldwide tour but when Liam decided to sit out during one leg of the shows due to a bad case of laryngitis, the press had a field day. Especially when during an MTV Unplugged show, Liam opted to heckle his brother as he smoked a durry and chugged beer from the venue’s balcony.
The brothers managed to hold it together until shit really hit the fan in 2000 when Noel quit the band for a second time.
During their world tour, the siblings got into a scrap in which Liam allegedly questioned whether Noel’s daughter Anaïs was actually his. According to an article in The Guardian at the time, it was an absolute punch-on. Noel left the tour and the rest of the band continued without him until they reunited a year later — but the damage was done.
“I’ve never forgiven him because he’s never apologised,” Liam told Q Magazine in 2005, per The Guardian.
“He’s my brother. I hope he’s reading this and realises that. He’s my brother but he’s at arm’s length until he apologises for what he’s done.”
The band continued performing and releasing music but tension was clearly bubbling behind the scenes. It was at this point that their beef reached new levels of public and petty.
In 2005, Noel told a reporter that instead of having an argument with his bro, he resorted to playing mind games.
“I’ve kind of learnt that instead of arguing stuff out with him and ending up in a fight, I work on his psychology and he’s completely freaked out by me now,” he told Spin, via NME.
“He’s actually frightened to death of me. I can read him and I can fucking play him like a slightly disused arcade game. I can make him make decisions that he thinks are his but really they’re mine. Without fighting. It’s an art I’ve learned.”
After almost a decade of in-fighting and passive-aggressive antics, Noel called his time on the band for good — minutes before they were due to perform a gig in France.
“It’s with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight,” Noel wrote in a statement on Oasis’ website in August 2009.
“People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.”
In 2011, Liam even sued Noel for claiming that Oasis once pulled out of a gig because Liam was hungover.
“I am used to being called all sorts of things by Noel and I have in the past said things about him, but what Noel has alleged this time went way beyond rock-and-roll banter and questioned my professionalism,” he said, per Rolling Stone.
Liam, along with the rest of the band, continued to perform under the name Beady Eye until they disbanded in 2014 and both siblings went on to have solo careers.
While you’d think the feud might simmer down now that the angsty duo weren’t working together, that’s not what happened. Once the Liam got online, so did their beef. Here are a few stand-out tweets on X — formerly Twitter — that have gone down in history.
Since the band broke up, fans have been begging Noel and Liam to put their differences aside and get Oasis back together. In 2021, Noel told Radio X
“If anybody wants to offer me £100 million ($194,688,048 AUD) now, I’ll say it now, I’ll do it. I’ll do it for £100 million,” he said, noting that there probably wasn’t £100 million within the entire music business.
In response, Liam said he’d be willing to do a reunion tour for free. However, in 2023, Noel claimed that he was simply waiting for Liam to get in touch.
Now that the brothers and the band’s X accounts have all shared cryptic posts in the signature Oasis font pointing to a date (TOMORROW!!!), it looks like Liam finally did call Noel up to tee up a reunion.
But until tomorrow when we know for sure, let’s file the potential reunion under definitely, maybe.
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