While he may be more fervently known as a loud-mouth Mancunian singer who stands alone, the truth is that to relaunch his career following the split of his previous band Beady Eye, Liam Gallagher needed the love of his girlfriend Debbie Gwyther to help him back on his feet.
So says the director of his upcoming documentary As It Was, Charlie Lightening. The director offered some rare glimpses of humanity in the self-purported Greatest Rock Star of all Time’s armoured personality. With the documentary looking to show the life and times of LG between the end of Oasis and the start of his solo work, Lightening suggests that Liam was “lost” finding himself without a band or a real direction. But one crucial factor in changing that attitude was his long-time girlfriend Debbie Gwyther.
Speaking with GQ Hype, Lightening shed some light on the pair’s positive relationship: ”Oh, Debbie’s impact was massive. She saved him in so many ways. He was lost. He didn’t know what to do or how to do it. As he says in the film, she gives him a kick up the arse, explains that, ‘Come on, no one died,’ and tells him to focus again on the music.
”She supported him through some of the worst. And they just love each other, you know what I mean? It’s all in the film. You see how close their relationship is, how they bring out the best of one another. Again, it feels wonderful that I was able to capture that, as really I was doing his musical comeback, I wasn’t doing a documentary about Liam’s love life, but then Debbie is such a part of that, and now his family, that it shines through – hopefully.”
He also answered the question that we all ask when presented with one of the Gallagher brothers, the siblings who soundtracked so much of a generation’s youth. Where’s your brother? Lightening said ”There’s still those questions and still that relationship that is there or not there. At the end, the keyboard player, I think, says, ‘I think Noel overestimates the importance of the music and underestimates the importance of Liam.’ And he makes the point that, ‘I am sure [Liam] can’t do anything without wondering what his brother thinks of it. Everything he leaves out or puts into a show is almost solely done for an audience of one.’ The Noel questions are there, of course, but they don’t dominate. As Liam says, ‘Noel has become a massive cunt. Whereas I’m just still a cunt.’”
Speaking more on the documentary itself Lightening sees the film as an extension of Liam’s work. “It’s a continuation of As You Were, if you look at Definitely Maybe and What’s The Story (Morning Glory)?one’s the more punkier one and one’s the bigger one, you know what I mean? That’s progression. It’s someone in the prime of it all. People aren’t gonna be disappointed with it. I think it’s gonna blow people away.”
Debbie Gwyther and Liam Gallagher’s relationship came under scrutiny last year when it was reported that Liam had inappropriately grab Gwyther by the throat. Something the pair wholly refuted as gossip.