Their bust ups were the stuff of legend and then 11 years ago Liam and Noel Gallagher had one row too many and Oasis were no more.
The beginning of the end started with Liam’s sore throat and ended with the biggest band of the last decade imploding and the sibling stars no longer speaking to each other.
Liam was struck down with laryngitis just before Oasis were due to perform at V Festival in Chelmsford, August, 2009.
Noel claimed his brother had a hangover and Liam launched legal action and demanded an apology.
The law suit was dropped when Noel backed down and said sorry to his little brother but the problems were still very much rumbling on in the background.
Then, a few weeks later, Oasis’ manager announced their gig at the Rock en Seine festival was cancelled just minutes before they were due on stage.
Two hours later Noel posted a blistering statement on the band’s website saying: “It is with some sadness and great relief…I quit Oasis tonight.
“People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.”
Ever since then the brothers have been locked in a vicious war of words with a reunion looking increasingly unlikely.
But one woman, Katrina Russell, claims she knows the band will get back together.
Kat is the secret powerhouse behind the band and guided them through choppy waters at the height of their fame.
She was instrumental in how the band were managed in the late 1990s when she was a key player at Creation Records.
Best pals with Noel’s first wife, Meg Matthews, Kat fell into life with the band almost by accident.
As an 18-year-old in London, Kat was a huge fan of dance music and DJ Paul Oakenfield was her boyfriend.
Meg was running dance nights at the time and it was at one of these that Kat ran into her.
She told Cornwall Live: “The next thing Meg and Noel [Gallagher] got together just as Oasis were getting somewhere. It was instantly obvious that the band were something else; that they were going to be unbelievable.
“I’ll always remember where I was when I first heard Live Forever. I sat down and thought, ‘this is the future’.
“I said to Meg, get me a job at the record label and I literally went there and started working for nothing.”
She and label boss Alan McGee, who also signed Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus and Mary Chain, became inseparable and Kat’s promotions kept coming.
She said: “The reason I was able to get on so well at Creation was because I was so involved with Meg and Noel, always with them at their house, Supernova Heights.
“You couldn’t believe the people that were there, the parties that went on. Just the most amazing and wild time to be around.”
And when it came to those infamous Gallagher rows, Kat had a front row seat.
She said: “You had to hide under the desks sometimes when they were kicking off, but that was part of the charm.”
And Kat has very firm views on what she thinks drove the brothers apart.
She said: “Noel on one hand, believe it or not despite the bravado, is actually quite quiet and shy, and Liam is actually a really lovely guy.
“Liam’s got a job and he’s doing it. He’s not really like that. Sometimes we’d go out and I’d feel sorry for him as he’d be quite lonely and lost.
“Liam’s really real and would sit in the pub with you and I right now and talk about normal stuff.
“Noel, you’re not going to get that. Noel was much more interested in hanging out with celebrities, trying to be Paul Weller. They’re very different characters.”
But when it comes to Oasis getting back together Kat, who knows them better than almost anyone else, has very firm views.
She said: “The fans will get a reunion at some point, blood is thicker than water, they’re brothers.
“It doesn’t matter what the wives and the journalists say, what they went through together you can’t underestimate.
“I don’t think it’ll be a world tour but you’ll get a big gig.”
Kat left the music business behind her four years ago when she moved to Cornwall.
But when her daughter handed her a CD of a local band, Penny Eyes, Kat was immdiately hooked.
She contacted her old boss, Alan, and other big players in the music business, convinced she had found the new Oasis.
Kat said: “What I see in Penny Eyes is what I saw in Noel’s songwriting. The level of songwriting is so good, especially the new stuff we’ve just done in the studio, it really does remind me of Oasis.”
Source: Mirror
Image: Getty Image