Liam Gallagher has revealed that he attempted to reform the original line-up of Oasis without brother Noel – but the members didn’t want to be involved.
Oasis were originally called The Rain and formed in Manchester in 1991 with the line-up of Liam as frontman, Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs on guitar, Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan on bass, and Tony McCarroll on drums. Noel joined shortly afterwards on guitar, vocals and as chief songwriter.
The band went through various line-up changes until their split in 2009, and now Liam has revealed that he attempted to reform as the original four-piece, but the other members declined.
“If the old crew from Oasis first line-up wanted to reform with just you, would you?” asked one of Liam’s followers on Twitter, before he replied “I did ask them and they weren’t up for it.”
Liam’s comments came amid a lengthy attack on Noel, retaliating to his comments about artists who use the aid of songwriters.
“I’m offended by singer/songwriters who when you scratch the surface don’t do any f***ing songwriting,” said Noel. “As far as I’m aware if you scratch the surface of any solo artist in Britain and they’ve all got a team of songwriters behind them apart from me, Paul Weller and Johnny Marr, I’m struggling to think of anybody else. Richard Ashcroft, Our Kid (Liam) all the way to f***ing Ed Sheeran and the little fella from One Direction they’ve all got an army of songwriters behind them.”
Despite brother Liam repeatedly calling for an Oasis reunion and claiming that the ball is very much in Noel’s court, the High Flying Birds man claims that he is far more interested in evolving as a solo artist – arguing that his recent album ‘Who Built The Moon?’ is his best and most ambitious work to date. He added that an Oasis reunion would ‘kill him as a person‘.
“I’ve been very consistent about it,” said Noel last year. “I don’t need the money, I don’t need the glory, I don’t need to relive the memories. If I was to get Oasis back together tomorrow and then do a tour, I’d have a hundred million dollars in the bank but I’d have learnt fuck all.”
“I’d have actually wasted a year of being in the studio with a person like David Holmes. It would be the death of me as a person.”
Gallagher added: “I could understand if we were a band who’d been going for five years and were just at out peak, but Oasis have got no unfinished business. We did it. We fucking did it, and then some. It’s done.”