How Bloc Party had the last laugh in their feud with Oasis
In the 2000s, Oasis needed a new nemesis once Blur had moved onto new pastures, and indie darlings Bloc Party were willing to bite when Liam Gallagher threw out the bait.
Over the years, Gallagher has poked fun at numerous bands on countless occasions. Whether this is their infamous ‘Battle of Britpop’ or ridiculing Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner for his American accent, nobody is safe from catching a stray punch. Usually, Gallagher claims his outbursts are to entertain himself rather than to cause malice, and the wise thing to do is ignore him. However, Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke didn’t get the memo.
Liam started the feud in 2005 when he said: “Fair play to them (Bloc Party), they’re having a go, doing what they’re doing and all that, and people seem to be in to them. People ask me these questions like ‘are they the new fucking Oasis, new fucking Blur or the new fucking thing?’ I couldn’t give a fuck, I don’t like them.”
Gallagher then had another dig at Bloc Party when he commented: “They’re like a band from University Challenge“. This insult riled up Okereke, who sniped back in 2007: “I think Oasis are the most overrated and pernicious band of all time. They had a totally negative and dangerous impact upon the state of British music.”
The singer also claimed Oasis “made stupidity hip. They claim to be inspired by the Beatles, but, and this so saddens me, they have failed to grasp that the Beatles were about constant change and evolution. Oasis are repetitive Luddites.”
Speaking specifically about the Univerity Challenge remark, the frontman added: “Well, it’s quite funny. It probably would have been a lot more funny had he not used exactly the same words to describe Travis a couple of years ago. Having said that, it’s probably a very sad indication of the state of his mind.”
The singer then suggested Gallagher was a product of a wider societal problem in Britain. Okereke added: “The idea that your ambitions shouldn’t extend beyond getting pissed and watching the football really irks me. It’s this idea that to be authentically working class you need to be untainted by the airy-fairy ephemera of education. And it seems to be pretty unique to this country.”
After Okereke’s outburst, it seemed Gallagher’s work had been done, but the final chapter of their feud was still unwritten. Both bands were booked to play Paris’ Rock En Seine in 2009, with Oasis due to headline, when the unthinkable happened.
The week before Paris, Oasis pulled out of V Festival at the last minute after Liam caught laryngitis which Noel dismissed as a “hangover”. The relationship between the two brothers had disintegrated, but they only had two shows left on their tour, and the plan was to see them through and then take a lengthy break.
Before their performance, Noel was aggrieved with Liam promoting his Pretty Green clothing brand incessantly and let his frustration known. However, Noel didn’t expect Liam to go to “his own dressing room and he came back with a guitar and he started wielding it like an axe,” which he claimed, “Nearly took my face off”. It was the final straw for Noel, who immediately went home to England and left Oasis.
News of the incident soon arrived at Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke, who revelled in telling the audience, “Oasis have cancelled. So I’d like to take this moment to say, ‘That’s a shame, isn’t it guys?'”
“So I guess by default, we are headlining,” he added before guitarist Russell Lissack jokingly played the opening riff from Oasis’ ‘Supersonic’. “I’d like to dedicate this next song to anyone who really wanted to see those inbred twins,” Okereke said as his final blow.
Watch the moment Bloc Party laid Oasis to rest below.
