Since Oasis split up in August 2009, when Noel Gallagher quit the band after an argument with his brother Liam, the Gallagher brothers have walked quite different paths. Noel went solo and created Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, which despite the name suggesting the formation of a band became a solo project for Noel, accompanied with different musicians depending on the album and tour. Meanwhile, Liam, Gem Archer, Andy Bell and Chris Sharrock went on to form a new band, Beady Eye, along with Kasabian guitarist Jay Mehler.
In February 2011, Beady Eye struck first and released their debut album, ‘Different Gear, Still Speeding’, which was a mixed bag of a debut and received mixed reviews to reflect this. There was great tracks on this album, such as ‘Kill For A Dream’, ‘The Beat Goes On’ and ‘The Roller’, written by Andy Bell (x2) and Gem Archer respectively. Liam’s songs unfortunately were not as good as those written by his former Oasis bandmates.
Noel on the other hand released his debut album ‘Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ in October 2011, with 10 tracks all written by the man himself. This album received more positive reviews and included some strong tracks like ‘If I Had A Gun’, ‘The Death of You and Me’ and live favourite ‘AKA… What a Life!’
Not only was Noel’s debut the better album of the two, all of the songs were written by him. Noel had won Round 1 and became established as the media darling of the pair.
Various publications used Noel’s success to have a dig at Liam and, in turn, Beady Eye. This continued to widen the divide between the two brothers but also boosted publicity for both acts with constant barbs between the two appearing in the media. That summer Beady Eye headlined the NME Stage at Reading and Leeds while NGHFB sub headlined T In The Park and V Festival to the newly reformed (and heroes of both brothers) The Stone Roses.
Just over two years later, Beady Eye returned with their second record, ‘BE’, which introduced new sounds not previously heard in Oasis or Beady Eye work. This gained the band some new fans and some interested listeners. Lead singer ‘Flick of the Finger’ was a genuinely intriguing piece of work, with a strong lead vocal by Liam Gallagher. Unfortunately again, the album as a whole did not live up to this standard. Again, reviewers took the chance, seemingly with glee to criticise Liam and Beady Eye. Unlike 2011 Noel did not release an album in the same year. Interestingly though, one of the bonus tracks of ‘BE’ titled ‘The World’s Not Set in Stone’ proved to be arguably the best Liam-written song of the Beady Eye era but received little attention. In October 2014, Liam Gallagher confirmed Beady Eye had split up. While he still received significant media attention as an individual, musically he had become ignored.
‘Chasing Yesterday’, the second NGHFB album was released in February 2015 with the Blur sound-alike single ‘In the Heat of the Moment’, an interesting turn from the former Oasis man given the past rivalry of Blur and Oasis, now long gone! Whilst not receiving quite as positive reviews as his first record the album still was generally well received and spawned some of Noel’s most exciting work in years in the shape of ‘You Know We Can’t Go Back’ and ‘Lock All the Doors’ along with epics such as ‘The Dying of the Light’ and the Johnny Marr-featuring ‘Ballad of the Mighty I’.
Also in 2015 Liam had appeared in a pub signing a new song called ‘Bold’ which sounded like it had real promise, would it ever see the light of day on a record?
Check out the video here:
Luckily it did! In 2017, this year of course, Liam released his debut solo record, ‘As You Were’, taken from the phrase he used to sign off many of his tweets. The album featured many co-writes with songwriters including Greg Kurstin and Andrew Wyatt. Between them, they created by far the strongest record Liam had released since leaving Oasis. Whilst there was much publicity about the co-writers it was clear that Liam was writing better songs than ever before. Only ‘I’m Outta Time’ from his previous work could compare with his new songs. Tracks like ‘You Better Run’ and ‘I’ve All I Need’ are genuinely brilliant songs and sounded massive live when he toured them in June this year in smaller venues such as Glasgow Barrowland.
Unlike the Beady Eye days, Liam’s new sets were a mix of new solo and old Oasis material, giving him one of the finest back catalogues around to draw from. ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’, ‘Morning Glory’, ‘Slide Away’, ‘Be Here Now’ and ‘Live Forever’ amongst others were all aired and sounded fantastic. The press were back with Liam, as were his fans.
Glowing reviews of the album and his live shows followed. Liam Gallagher is back on top was the general gist of any comments. His album sold over 100,000 copies in its first week and charted at Number 1 in the UK. He announced a UK-wide arena tour which sold out in a matter of minutes. Eventually he announced outdoor gigs for the summer of 2018 which again, remarkably sold out in minutes. He has re-established himself as one of the biggest acts around and the media love him again.
So where does this leave Noel? A month after the massive success of ‘As You Were’, Noel launched his third album, ‘Who Built The Moon?’ with the lead single ‘Holy Mountain’ to a chorus of “Hold on, what? This is Noel Gallagher?”, which I feel is exactly what he wanted. With the media deciding they love Liam more just now, this was the perfect time for Noel to try something a bit different, and he certainly did. Working with David Holmes, Noel produced music like nothing we had ever heard from either brother before. Once critics put their doubts aside and gave the album a try, many decided they loved it. Noel had cemented himself as a creative solo artist and pushed through his own boundaries. Whilst his arena tour is not sold out at time of writing it’s not far off. But this is interesting in itself, as not only has it sold more slowly than Liam’s, his album sold 25,000 less copies in launch week. Quite a chance in affairs since Noel was headlining festivals with Liam played to 2,000 people.
For the first time since Oasis split, Liam is on top and he knows it. What will be very interesting will be to see what the future holds. Will Liam be able to match ‘As You Were’? Will Noel emulated ‘Who Built the Moon’ or return to his classic Oasis sound? And who be the media darling going forward? Only time will tell.
Mumblings And Ramblings 