Noel Gallagher - The Biography. Lucian Randall
play again. Oasis, said Gallagher, ‘was always going to end in a fight of some description. Everybody was aware of that. We all wanted it to last forever. I certainly did, but I was always aware that when it came to it that one of us would eventually say, “Fuck you and you and you and you.” It just happened to be me. It could well have been Liam.’ But even as he spoke he seemed to realise that it would be down to him to end the band, that the element of control had always been with him. He added, ‘I think maybe it was inevitable that I would walk out. I’ve got a pretty long fuse and pretty thick skin until the day that I haven’t and then it’s just like, “No, no, no… I’m out of here”.’
Much had been made of Gallagher’s driving ambition and he didn’t always seem comfortable with the notion, as if it somehow implied something negative, rather than the creative impetus he felt. ‘I’ve had this reputation since the band broke up of being called a control freak and all that,’ he told Mark Lawson. ‘And I was,’ he continued, glancing directly into the camera. ‘And I controlled them all the way to Knebworth and Wembley and all the way to the top of the charts.’ And again, Gallagher looked into the camera directly, his level gaze with just a ghost of a smile giving no sign as to whether he was talking to fans or addressing critics or even former band mates. ‘So you’re welcome.’
Despite his assertion that he had lots of songs ready to go post-Oasis – and it was well known that he was always writing, always topping up his stockpile of killer tunes – he was now out on his own and he was keen to give himself plenty of time to kick back and make plans at leisure. It was left to his brother to make the first move and, always portrayed in the media as the more impetuous of the two, Liam never really took himself out of the public eye. In the aftermath of the split he was interviewed about his clothing line, Pretty Green, and could be relied upon to provide quotes about his brother. More than anything, he never stopped what had been Oasis. Within a couple of months of Noel’s departure, Liam announced that the line-up of himself, Gem Archer, Andy Bell and Chris Sharrock would write new material and continue with the addition of bassist Jeff Wootton.
The younger Gallagher had been writing songs for several years and while the number of offerings that made it onto Oasis albums was relatively small, he had quite quickly amassed a large number of half-finished attempts. His brother had been generous in his opinion of those first steps. ‘I’ve got demos of his at home with about 40 tunes,’ Noel had said years earlier, ‘which, if he could be bothered finishing, would be amazing.’ Almost a full decade before he went solo, Noel Gallagher had come close to predicting his brother might end up doing more with his own material. ‘He’ll be the best songwriter in this country in five years time,’ Noel said of Liam in 2002. ‘People thought I was being ironic. I wasn’t, his new songs are great.’ The circumstances were now far from what Noel Gallagher would have wanted all those years earlier, but his praise seemed heartfelt.
With Oasis gone, neither brother needed to continue working – they certainly didn’t need to go out separately and try to make their names separately. They might have always seemed to need to prove something to one another, but they both knew that the press and public would be judging whatever they did against the highs of Definitely Maybe and (What’s the Story?) Morning Glory. It was a measure of the passion for music of not just Noel but Liam as well that they were both willing to subject themselves to the ordeal of starting out again. The Gallaghers were jointly worth around £63 million, according to the Sunday Times rich list of 2012 and for many aspiring musician the experience of having either written or sung on even one song such as ‘Champagne Supernova’ or an elegiac moment like ‘Half the World Away’ would have been enough. Both Gallaghers seemed more driven, but what Noel did next was in a way going to be more of a challenge for him than what he had done first. Because this time around, everyone was watching. There were certain expectations.
It might not have been a battle to compete with the struggles between Blur and Oasis in the mid-1990s, but there was just as much riding on how the two brothers approached their new lives. A bullish Liam was enthusiastic about how his future looked with the new line-up and with the new name, Beady Eye, proceeded without hesitation. Details of recording sessions were announced and their initial single in January 2011 would be the first indicator of what fans made of a post-Oasis world.
In the past, Noel Gallagher had been vocal in how little attention he made to chart placings and he was dismissive of acts which monitored their careers like corporate executives following their stocks. By and large he claimed not to keep up with the fortunes of his brother’s outfit. Yet even took notice as news of Beady Eye’s reception came in. ‘The Roller’ peaked at UK No 31 which, as a debut for any other new band, would have been more than satisfactory – coincidentally, it was the position that ‘Supersonic’ reached back in spring 1994. But everyone connected with Oasis had become used to the conveyor belt of hits and Noel got no pleasure from seeing his brother brought up short. ‘I thought it would do what Oasis singles do,’ he said when asked by the NME if he felt a certain ‘glee’ at the disappointing figure. ‘… To be quite honest, it was a bit of a wake-up call for me. ’Cos I was like, right, well, fucking hell, maybe that’s what’s out there for me.’
The album Different Gear, Still Speeding followed at the end of February. It did well, hitting UK No 3 and as an album, well, it wasn’t bad. It had the energy and the attitude that you’d expect from Liam Gallagher. The sound was retro-classic, a bit of Led Zeppelin here and a touch of the Beatles there, but subsequent singles failed to make any impact on the charts, while the band toured to respectable responses for the rest of the year in support.
With Beady Eye a fact of life in the music industry, the storm around the bust-up of Oasis eventually subsided. Life moved on, Adele dominated the charts, X Factor winners came and went and so when Noel Gallagher made his move, there was genuine interest in him and novelty about his return. It felt like he had properly been away and as a result people wanted to know what he had to say. As ever, he had judged the timing of his entrance with consummate skill.
By the time he did, he had also made a further change to his life – this time in the personal sphere. On 18 June 2011 he married Sara MacDonald – his girlfriend of a decade. He had said that he would never marry again after splitting from Meg Mathews in early 2001, but he and MacDonald already had two sons – Donovan, born 2007, and Sonny, born 2010. ‘I just got to the point where I’d introduced Sara as my girlfriend one time too many. I was like, “I sound like Rod Stewart. We should all have the same surname in our house.”’ Russell Brand was the best man at the wedding. He and Gallagher had a mutual old chum in controversy and when the comedian and Jonathan Ross had got in trouble back in 2008 over rude messages left on the answer machine of actor Andrew Sachs, Gallagher had spoken up for him. ‘Yet again, the joyless fuckers who write the columns in the Daily Mail, the Telegraph or the Observer have dictated the tone and are telling people how to behave.’ Gallagher had found a kindred rebellious spirit in Russell Brand, both of them operating in their own unique ways in different branches of an otherwise increasingly corporatised media.
Gallagher had been a semi-permanent guest on Brand’s show and was a radio natural, going on to sit in for Dermot O’Leary in 2011. During that stint he showed himself to be no more in awe of the BBC than anyone else he’d encountered in his career, mischievously making references to Brand’s departure from the corporation following the infamous phone prank. When Gallagher introduced Matt Morgan, who had worked with Ross, to his own show, Morgan self-deprecatingly called himself the sidekick and Gallagher leapt in to tease the BBC, ‘“Sideshow” Matt on the Russell Brand radio show. Can we mention his [Brand’s] name here? Or is his name dirt round these parts? His name is mud, isn’t it?’ The affection was obvious amid the baiting of BBC suits and it was Brand who presented Oasis with their Outstanding Contribution to Music award at the 2007 Brit Awards.
Like Brand, Noel Gallagher had always seemed to be at home in the media, self-aware, yet confessional and intimate. He was not just adept at giving quotes but putting almost as much into making interviews notable as he did into the music itself. He was a consummate entertainer, with a star’s instinctive understanding of timing. He was very skilled at turning awkward questions around and if there was a positive spin he could be