Liam Gallagher, the story of the Mancunian singer from Oasis a to solo career, passing through Beady Eye.
They may have split from Oasis over a decade ago, but the battling Gallagher brothers just can’t help taking swipes at each other.
And they show absolutely no signs of letting up either.
In one corner, Liam has claimed that his brother Noel has turned his nose up at a £100m offer to reunite their band.
In the other corner, Noel has dismissed Liam’s claims as so much hot air.
However, Liam’s solo career is going well having released two albums: debut album ‘As You Were’ and follow-up ‘Why Me? Why Not’ in 2019.
We’ve since also received bangers such as ‘All You’re Dreaming of’ and ‘Down By The River Thames’.
He even performed at the 2021 Reading and Leeds festivals.
The origin of Liam Gallagher
Like his brother Noel Gallagher, Liam was born in Longsight, Manchester. He was born on 21st September 1972 and raised in Burnage, also in Manchester.
Unlike his older sibling, Liam showed little interest in music as a teenager.
But he claims that all that changed after he’d been hit on the head by hammer during a fight.
Fascinated by the music of The Beatles, The Kinks and The Jam, he then decided to become a singer after seeing The Stone Roses in Manchester.
The other bands outside Oasis
Liam Gallagher gained equal amounts of fame and notoriety as frontman of Oasis, the band that came to define Britpop in the 90s.
Oasis evolved from a band called Rain that Liam formed with his pals Bonehead, Guigsy and Tony McCarroll in 1991.
They came to the attention of Noel, who’d just returned from the US after working as a roadie for Inspiral Carpets.
With Noel taking over all songwriting duties, Liam was the newly-christened Oasis’ charismatic frontman.
After being discovered by Creation Records boss Alan McGee at gig at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow, Oasis soon defined the zeitgeist.
Their first album, ‘Definitely Maybe’ was the fastest-selling debut album in British chart history.
‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory’ zoomed to the top of the charts the world over.
Their third album, ‘Be Here Now’ became the fastest-selling album in UK history.
Despite line-up changes Oasis proved to be a bankable live draw, even if albums ‘Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants’ and ‘Heathen Chemistry’ failed to match the success of their predecessors.
Oasis’ last two albums, ‘Don’t Believe The Truth’ and ‘Dig Out Your Soul’ found the band re-discovering their mojo, but it wasn’t to last.
Years of internecine fighting and sibling rivalry all came to head when Liam is reported have attacked Noel backstage at the Rock en Seine festival on August 2009.
With just minutes to go show time, Noel quit the band, thus the performance, and Oasis were over.
Beady Eye era
According to Liam, the remaining members of Oasis, Gem Archer, Andy Bell and Chris Sharrock went back to their hotel and decided to carry on under the name Beady Eye.
Beady Eye released two albums ‘Different Gear, Still Speeding’ and ‘BE’.
Despite saying they’d never play any Oasis songs, they performed ‘Rock’n’Roll Star’ and ‘Morning Glory’ when supporting The Stone Roses at Manchester’s Heaton Park in June 2012.
They also played ‘Wonderwall’ during the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic games.
Despite their best efforts, Beady Eye didn’t really catch on and announced their split in 2014.
Andy Bell rejoined Ride, while Gem Archer and Chris Sharrock found welcome in Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
Liam’ songwriting with Oasis
Despite Noel Gallagher’s vice-like grip on Oasis’ creative process, he eventually relented and let others have a go.
Liam’s first effort, ‘Little James’, appeared on 2000’s ‘Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants’.
He then wrote ‘Songbird’ for the ‘Heathen Chemistry’ album. Released as single in 2003, it reached No. 3 in the UK singles chart.
Other Oasis songwriting contributions include ‘Love Like A Bomb’, ‘The Meaning Of Soul’, ‘Guess God Thinks I’m Abel’, ‘I’m Outta Time’ and ‘Ain’t Got Nothin’.
Songwriting on solo project
Even if his first album contains many solo compositions, he teamed up with producer and songwriter Greg Kustin.
Other contributors include songwriter and Miike Snow singer Andrew Wyatt, songwriter Michael Tighe and Cherry Ghost frontman Simon Aldred.
The album spawned the singles ‘Wall Of Glass’, ‘Chinatown’, ‘For What It’s Worth’, ‘Come Back To Me’ and ‘Paper Crown’.
His second album, ‘Why Me? Why Not’, saw him reunite with the same songwriting team and went straight to Number 1 in the album chart.
About solo tour
There is uncertainty around upcoming shows due to the current situation facing the UK.
However Liam is planning to begin touring in August 2021.
Getting back into the swing of things, Liam took to his Twitter to share the love with his fans, writing:
‘You steal the show im very proud take a bow as you’re the best fans in the world LG x’ (sic).
Liam also previously took to Twitter and Instagram to announce the exciting news that he will be headlining Reading and Leeds festivals this year.
Building up even more excitement by revealing that he may be performing Oasis hits such as ‘Champagne Supernova’ and ‘Slide Away’, as well as his own songs, he next told his fans:
‘Send us your Setlist / Wishlist and I’ll see what I can do for youse can’t wait to see all your little happy faces peace n love LG x’ (sic).
Oasis Reunion
Liam seems the keener of the two for an Oasis reunion, although his tweets suggesting that Noel has ‘begged’ him to reform the band were totally shut down by his elder brother.
In February 2020, Liam tweeted that Noel had refused a £100m deal to reform Oasis, something Noel also strenuously denied.
After Oasis’ legendary 1995 track ‘Wonderwall’ hit the milestone of one billion streams on music streaming platform Spotify, Liam took to his Instagram to celebrate the news, leading fans to beg the band to get back together even more.
Source: Planet Radio
Images: Getty