Oasis at War: Liam and Noel Gallagher’s 10 Biggest Fights
After weeks of gradually escalating rumors, it seems the long-awaited Oasis reunion finally was announced on Tuesday morning. Liam and Noel Gallagher, the two estranged, famously feuding brothers without whom Oasis cannot exist, officially announced the group’s first concerts in 15 years with great fanfare at 8 a.m. U.K. time.
While it ultimately grew bitter, the brothers’ arguments were often as entertaining as the band’s music — one classic early dust-up during an interview was even released as a bootleg single — and there’s no question that the friction between the two was part of the band’s magic. With smash albums like the band’s debut “Definitely Maybe” — which, not coincidentally, sees the 30 th anniversary of its release on Thursday — “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory” and hits like “Live Forever,” “Don’t Look Back in Anger” and “Champagne Supernova” — there’s no question the brothers’ work together has a certain something that their solid solo releases just don’t.
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Oasis split up 15 years ago, after Noel left the group he’d founded, and for which he wrote most of the songs. Even if the reunion actually happens, it doesn’t mean brotherly love: If, unlike most sensible people, you believe the U.K.’s Daily Mail, the brothers still “have not buried the hatchet,” according to an unnamed source, but the reported $530 million payday speaks louder than any sibling grudge.
And if the news is true, there are more battles to come. But in the meantime, here’s our take on the top 10 Gallagher brothers battles.
It begins with a splash…
Noel is six years older than now-51-year-old Liam, so it’s difficult to pin down a date when their Manchester home first became wracked by their fighting — although, since the brothers had to share a bedroom (with eldest brother Paul getting his own), it probably started early. However, Liam has his own opinion on the lasting impact of a later incident: In director Mat Whitecross’ 2016 documentary “Supersonic,” he blithely recalls, “One night I come in pissed and I couldn’t find the light switch, so I pissed all over his new stereo. I think it basically boils down to that.”
“Wibbling Rivalry,” 1994
Oasis had barely released their first single before the brothers’ battling nearly overtook their music in popularity. The pair’s screaming battle during an early 1994 NME interview became so legendary that it was released as a 14-minute-long single (“Wibbling Rivalry” released under the name “Oas*s”) the following year.
The cause of the argument? Which brother is more rock and roll. The discussion quickly devolves Liam calling Noel a “dickhead” and a “fucking priest” and receiving “schlepper” and “dick.” Along with multiple “fuck offs,” things get even more colorful when Liam tells Noel to “Stick your thousand pounds right up your fuckin’ arse ’till it comes out your fuckin’ big toe” and snarling, “You think it’s rock and roll to get thrown off a ferry. And it’s not… If you’re proud of getting thrown off of ferries… why don’t you get the fuck out of my band and go and become a football hooligan, right?”
Tambourine tussle, Los Angeles, 1994
After the August release of “Definitely Maybe,” the band played Los Angeles’ legendary Whisky a Go-Go on their first full U.S. tour the following month. There, Liam sniped at Noel in song — changing the lyrics of “Live Forever” to “Maybe, I don’t really want to know, why you pick your nose”) before hitting his brother over the head with a tambourine, making fun of the audience, and walking offstage before the set’s end. Noel quit the band the next day, only to rejoin soon after.
Cricket-bat bust-up, Wales, 1995
During a 1995 session for the band’s classic sophomore album “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?,” the brothers went at it after Liam brought a group of strangers that he’d just met at a local pub to watch Noel trying to record. After the inevitable argument ensued, Noel smashed Liam over the head with a cricket bat just happened to be sitting in the studio. “The whole studio got smashed to pieces, everything just got blitzed to bits,” Liam recalled. “It was probably me not giving a fuck and him trying to write fucking ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ and me going, ‘Bollocks, let’s have it.’” The end result of this battle royale? They sold the bat with a certificate of authenticity.
Brother Unplugged
Shortly after Oasis played the biggest shows of their career — to 250,000 fans at England’s Knebworth Park in August of 1996 — the band was set to record an episode of “MTV Unplugged” at London’s Royal Festival Hall. However, Liam backed out due to a purported case of laryngitis, leaving Noel to carry on with the vocal duties. However, Liam did show up in the balcony of the Royal Festival Hall, smoking, drinking and heartily heckling his brother with little evidence of a sore throat. And when Liam did try to jump onstage for a re-recording of several songs, Noel told him to “piss off.”
Priorities…
During a 2002 interview where Noel is told by the NME of an incident where Liam has been in a reported fight with police and had several of his teeth knocked out, the only sympathy he can muster is “All I’m bothered about is that he can still sing.”
Mind Control
During a 2005 interview with SPIN, Noel Gallagher says of his brother Liam that their whole relationship has been something like the brainwash session in “The Manchurian Candidate.” “He’s actually frightened to death of me,” Noel said. “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.”
Fork in the Road
Apparently saving the best for last, the year before the band’s seemingly final schism in 2009 included some of the funniest comments. Responding to a previously published interview, Noel told the U.K.’s Herald Sun,“I don’t know who the guy is who’s in these interviews — he seems really cool, because the guy I’ve been in a band with for the last 18 years is a fucking knobhead.” Soon afterward, Noel one-upped himself in Q magazine, calling Liam “the angriest man you’ll ever meet. He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”
Ten years later, because a grudge is only a grudge if you can keep it forever, Liam responded to Neil on Twitter with a video of him eating soup with a fork.
High Flying … something
Ever since his brother began releasing records as Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Liam Gallagher has had something to say. First came the word, “Shitbag” in in response to Noel’s 2011 solo debut, along with a retitling of that band as “High Flying Turds.”
In 2016, Liam began posting photos of his brother Noel with the caption of “potato” in each one.
Then in 2020, on the occasion of Noel releasing a demo of Oasis’ “Don’t Stop…” without Liam’s vocals or guitarist Paul “Bonehead” Arthur’s work, Liam let Noel have it with, “Oi tofu boy if your gonna release old demos make sure im singing on it and boneheads playing guitar on it if not it’s not worth a wank,” with the trademark sign off, “as you were LG x.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of… Bumbaclarts?
In 2024, the brothers were still at each other’s throats, even when the possibility of a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination was in the offing. In consideration of having to reunite with his brother Noel, Liam wrote on X/Twitter. “Fuck the Rock n Roll hall of fame its full of BUMBACLARTS,” (a choice Jamaican insult) before focusing yet, again, on his brother. “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 a manicure.”
If the reunion goes as expected, there easily could be a totally new top 10 before 2025 is out…
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