(Paris) Sad symbol for the 30th anniversary of Oasis’ first album Definitely Maybe : Liam Gallagher is releasing an album on Friday, with guitarist John Squire (ex-Stone Roses) and not his brother Noel, to whom he has not spoken since 2009.
The Britpop years
The genesis of the Manchester group is like the two brothers, mocking. In 1991, Noel, then roadie passing through Munich (he adjusts the guitars before the concert) of the Inspiral Carpets, calls his mother. Asking about Liam, he learns that his younger brother is part of a group.
“I didn’t even know Liam listened to music. At home, we shared the same room. When him and his friends were hanging out and doing stupid things, I stayed home smoking weed and playing guitar […] he had no record,” confides Noel in the book Manchester Music City by John Robb.
Liam and his band later ask Noel to come over to rehearsals. “Since I wasn’t jacking off anything that day, I went.” And the name of the group? Noel had an Inspiral Carpets poster with the names of the towns on a tour, including a stop at the Oasis, a leisure center in Swindon. “I always told Liam not to choose that damn name.” Who didn’t listen to their elder.
The first single Supersonic was released on April 11, 1994. It was an explosion. Oasis becomes one of the pillars of BritPop.
“Good times without him”
PHOTO MIKE CLARKE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
The Oasis group in 2006
It all ends with a storm in the dressing rooms, with a guitar smashed in the process, just before going on stage at the Rock en Seine festival, in 2009 on the outskirts of Paris. It’s one spat too many between the two brothers, who haven’t spoken to each other since.
Fans of successful authors Wonderwall (1995) fantasize at regular intervals about a reformation. And the perspective of 30 years of Definitely Maybe has caused a lot of ink to flow.
Especially when Liam announced a tour in June to cover this first album on stage. “Fuck no, he’s not going to do it,” Liam said, without pronouncing his eldest’s first name, this month to the music magazine Mojo, ending a false suspense. “I called him, well, my entourage called him, we put an offer on the table for this Oasis thing and he said no,” explained the cadet.
“It’s a big tour, a lot of money. He declined. I will do the thing of Definitely Maybe and I will have a good time without him.”
“All stung”
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Liam Gallagher at Osheaga in 2017
Friday sees the release of a new album by Liam, well not quite solo, since it simply bears his name associated with that of John Squire, guitarist of the Stone Roses, a Manchester group which shone before the advent of Oasis.
“I can’t wait for people to listen to this album. I think people who are into the Stone Roses and Oasis and all that kind of stuff are going to fucking love it. It’s spiritual, crucial,” boasts Liam, inimitable, in a press release.
Liam already confided in Manchester Music City his fascination with the Stone Roses, seen on stage. “I flashed, I caught it in the face and I said to myself, this is going to bother me.” “Ian Brown (singer) and John Squire came straight from the streets, they made incredible music and it spoke to me.”
Ian Brown, in the same work, philosophizes on the consecration of Oasis and the connection with his group. “We were supposed to be the masters and these kids who loved us showed up and stole everything from us while we were sleeping, that’s what music is and I think it’s awesome.”