Magazine


Brothers in war are back on home ground

by Riazat Butt
23/ 6/2005

IS it my imagination - as Oasis would yell - or have I finally found something worth living for?

Yes folks, the chavs-done-good Gallagher brothers are back in town, playing at their beloved City of Manchester Stadium for what promises to be a raucous rock concert worthy of football chanting of the highest order. That's if they make it through the gig. Last week, Liam walked off stage in Italy, leaving his brother in the lurch.

When the scruffy lads from Burnage exploded onto the British music scene more than a decade ago they were like a breath of fresh air, well that's if you want your air to stink of Special Brew and B&H.

They fought! They swore! They swaggered! Biff! Bash! Pow!

It was very exciting to watch these two unreconstructed males indulge their love of all things illicit as they sneered and snarled and occasionally sang their way through hands-in-the-air anthems.

Liam and older brother Noel (who I think looks not unlike Thunderbirds chauffeur Parker) were pure dynamite in the early days, releasing record after exhilarating record in the Nineties. Their lyrics were shallow and hedonistic, aimed at people 'aving it large. And boy did these lads 'ave it when they hit the big time.

They bought wedding-cake mansions in north London - Supernova Heights anyone? - married designer girlfriends, they fell out, they broke up and they broke down and became fixtures on the tabloid and celebrity circuit.

Oasis also managed to make a fantastic debut album in Definitely Maybe and a cocky follow-up, (What's the Story) Morning Glory? a year later.

Inevitably, their reputation preceded them. Noel divorced his blonde Notting Hill wife, while Liam worked his way through pop starlets.

Oasis became more about the brothers than the music, which must have been galling for the other guys in the band. Do you know what their names are? Thought not.

But for all the walkouts and punch-ups, Oasis were Britain's biggest rock export for a decade.

Heck, Liam and Patsy Kensit - once a pouting chanteuse with Eighties pop band Eighth Wonder and now a pouting actress in a farm-based soap - even made the cover of US glossy Vanity Fair.

And of course the band was in the eye of the Cool Britannia/Britpop storm but the less said about this cultural misnomer the better, safe to say it wasn't one of their finer, more credible moments.

Their music was the soundtrack for Nineties living, no more so than Wonderwall, which may or may not have been penned for the former Mrs Noel Gallagher - Meg Mathews - depending on which half of the rock and roll couple you believe.

Like all good things, this bravado and testosterone has mellowed into parenthood and domesticity. The Gallaghers are no longer Angry Young Men, instead they're Slightly Miffed Older Men.

Nor is their music as sparky or as innovative as before - remember, Oasis came along at a time when bland, faceless dance music was everywhere. Now riotous guitars and attitude dominate the music scene.

My two favourite Oasis records are by no means their greatest musical achievements: Supersonic - "I'm feeling supersonic, give me gin and tonic" - or She's Electric - "She's got one in the oven, but it's nothing to do with me." Purists will disagree - and so, perhaps, would the Gallagher brothers.

Oasis, City of Manchester Stadium next Thursday, Saturday and Sunday


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