Mojo - The Music Magazine

Shock, sadness and resignation follow news of Noel Gallagher's departure. MOJO's Danny Eccleston on what happened, why, and what's next...

MANY QUESTIONS REMAIN unanswered, but the weekend's drama leaves one thing clear. Noel Gallagher has quit Mancunian rock group Oasis, unable - he says - to "go on working with Liam a day longer".

But is this really the end? Irrespective of current levels of intra-band ire, it doesn't have to be. We have seen violent exchanges between Oasis's singer and guitarist before. Both have previously quit the band; and when Noel last took his ball home - in Barcelona, 2000, after inflammatory comments by Liam about Noel's daughter Anaïs - it seemed terminal, only for the Noel-less band to honour subsequent tour dates and for the elder Gallagher to rejoin after a cooling-off period.

What makes Noel's latest statement seem more serious is the saddened finality of his language, the fact that he has used the Oasis web site to seize the political initiative and the not-so-veiled criticism of the band's management.

"The lack of support and understanding from my management and bandmates has left me with no other option than to get me cape and seek pastures new," wrote Noel on oasisinet.com.

For Noel to quit Oasis AND take issue with manager Marcus Russell a massive breakdown within the Oasis setup must have occurred. Has management backed Liam, and why? Do they think that Noel has overreacted? "The Chief" does not expect his primacy within Oasis to be questioned, least of all by "the staff".

---------------------------------------------------------------

SO HOW DID WE GET HERE? Touring, as ever, has been the major catalyst. It's the arena where conflict between Noel (generally sober, proudly "professional") and Liam (eternally "having it", unconcerned about the impact on performances or the fans' experience) is most intense. Beyond the magnification of their personalities, they're forced to deal with each other nightly.

The current tour had been an up-and-down affair. Sound problems afflicted shows at Heaton Park, Manchester on June 4 (there were 20,000 refunds) and Wembley on July 9. The band's Roundhouse show in October last year was the best your correspondent had seen them play since the departure of Guigs and Bonehead, but a less-than-spectacular return to that venue on July 21 this year deteriorated into brotherly bickering. Their V Festival cancellation - blamed on a miraculously short-lived throat infection - smacked of a more typical Liam affliction: the incapacity to be arsed.

During the tour, it emerged - in a MOJO magazine interview by Pat Gilbert - that Noel blamed Liam for two superior tracks being shelved from the last album. The singer had interrupted sessions for Dig Out Your Soul in order to spring an unmooted Valentine's Day wedding. "I was f**king furious about it," said Noel. "I don't give a shit about the fact he didn't invite me to the wedding; but when it affects our work it infuriates me."

The subsequent deterioration of the brothers' relationship can be mapped through recent interviews. Noel's disclosure in April's Q magazine that Liam shows no interest in seeing his nephew was salutary. "He's never seen my little lad, just pictures," said Noel. "To a stranger it sounds ludicrous, but you wouldn't have him in the house if he spoke to you the way he speaks to me and my family. He's rude, arrogant, intimidating and lazy. He's the angriest man you'll ever meet. He's like a man with a fork in a world of soup."

While The Gallaghers have seemed, in a weird way, content to hurl brickbats in the press as long as it entertained the public and sold Oasis, one can only guess at the long-term damage done by this permanent state of mutual contempt. It's death by a thousand papercuts.

Meanwhile, last Friday's flashpoint followed a uncannily familiar pattern. Liam had travelled to the Paris show on the Eurostar and, according to The Sun newspaper, had arrived drunk. Noel confronted his brother about his state, whereupon the "steaming" frontman passed further comment on Noel's children. When Liam hurled his guitar - a present from wife Nicole - the guitarist caught it, stamped on it and walked away.

All of that takes a lot of coming back from, even if either party wished to.

---------------------------------------

THAT THERE CAN BE NO OASIS without Noel Gallagher goes without saying. Although a relative latecomer to the band, it was his drive and his songwriting that transformed them into contenders. Oasis is Liam's charisma plus Noel's songs plus an audience willing to raise their hands and sing along.

Things will be different without them. They will be mourned by fans of feral rock'n'roll; they were a force-of-nature rock band without peer amongst their generation. They will be mourned, frankly, by the music media, deprived of a group who regularly sold magazines while others could not.

But perhaps it is for the best. For every triumphant show or great new song, recent years have seen a decline in album sales and a growing impression of a band treading water, trading on past glories. Meanwhile, Noel has seemed happy to allow inferior writers - his brother, "Gem" Archer, Andy Bell - their place in the sun, and expressed relief that he no longer had to carry Oasis alone.

Perhaps Oasis has held Noel back as much as he has driven it on. Certainly he has more talent, wisdom and wider-ranging tastes than recent Oasis records have suggested. MOJO looks forward to the second act of Noel Gallagher. He can take stock, start over and surprise us once again. He need not make "Oasis Records" any more.

By Danny Eccleston

Return regularly this week for more of MOJO's Oasis memories...

Photo © Kevin Westenberg