On August 28, 2009, Noel Gallagher conveyed a brief message on the official Oasis website, declaring the band’s dissolution. He was candid in attributing responsibility for this decision.
“It is with a mix of sadness and immense relief that I announce my departure from Oasis this evening,” he stated. “While people may express their opinions, I could no longer continue collaborating with Liam for even one more day.”
On Tuesday morning, the band announced that it will finally reunite for a series of shows in the U.K. and Ireland, 15 years after the Gallagher brothers parted ways acrimoniously.
How did this iconic duo, bonded not just by music but also by family, fall out so deeply?
1. Oasis emerged as one of the most prominent bands of its time, achieving sales of approximately 75 million records and leading a resurgence of guitar-driven music in Britain and beyond.
The group also fostered one of rock music’s most remarkable partnerships, characterized by the confident bravado of Liam Gallagher and the exceptional songwriting abilities of his elder brother, Noel, reminiscent of the Beatles’ craftsmanship.
While their vocal performances were in perfect unison, their relationship offstage was markedly different. Noel’s farewell announcement in 2009 followed a violent confrontation between the brothers just moments before they were scheduled to perform at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris, part of a European tour.
In Noel’s version of events, the pair had clashed over Liam’s clothing label and his failure to play a festival (Noel claims he was hungover; Liam said he had laryngitis). Liam, his brother said at a news conference to promote a new album in 2011, threw a plum in anger before he “came back with a guitar and he started wielding it like an axe.”
1. The senior Gallagher expressed his sorrow regarding the dissolution of the band: “Liam often claimed he would ultimately bring about Armageddon; that is how he prefers situations to unfold. And here we are. It is unfortunate, as I felt at ease within that band,” he stated during the press conference.
The cracks in the relationship were visible from the very early days.
On the band’s first American tour in 1994, Liam reportedly changed the lyrics to songs to annoy Noel. And Noel briefly quit the tour and the band before he rejoined.
The peace did not last: On Sept. 29, the band played a disastrous drug-fueled gig at Los Angeles’ Whiskey A Go Go, complete with faltering performances, threats from and aimed toward the crowd and a thrown tambourine.
In 1995, a recording of an interview conducted the previous year with the two brothers was leaked and circulated extensively after another record label issued it as a single. The recording showcased the siblings engaged in a heated exchange, hurling a series of inventive and profane insults at one another.
The Gallaghers were embroiled in a dispute regarding a recent incident in which four members of the band—excluding Noel—were apprehended and expelled from the Netherlands due to a drunken altercation on an overnight ferry traveling from the United Kingdom.
During the recording of the band’s second album, “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” Liam invited a group of people he had been out drinking with at a local pub to the recording studio in rural Wales. Noel was so annoyed that he hit his brother with a wooden cricket bat, an incident detailed by Oasis biographer Paolo Hewitt. The bat was sold at auction for an unknown fee.
Noel has described that as possibly the pair’s biggest fight, but it was not their last. During downtime after a gig was canceled in Barcelona, Spain, in 2000, the pair came to blows, leaving Liam with a split lip. Noel left the band for the second time, and it completed the tour without him.
