“Mega”: Liam Gallagher on his favourite Coldplay albums
As the most arrogant rock band in Manchester’s rich musical history, Oasis, Liam Gallagher especially, liked to make a point of rubbing their rivals up the wrong way. If The Beatles thought they were bigger than God, Oasis thought The Beatles resembled a profound deity, and they came in at a close, Biblical second. Whether you concur with this or not, one has to respect the gall of the Gallaghers.
Throughout the 1990s, the Gallagher brothers made it pretty clear that they idolised The Beatles and some of their British invasion-era neighbours like The Who and The Kinks. However, they didn’t get on board with contemporary pop stars like Take That’s Robbie Williams or the Spice Girls. When the music press began throwing the Britpop banner around, Oasis also stepped up to the mark to oppose Blur as their most dangerous rivals.
The Gallaghers were perhaps justified in slagging off Blur’s trashy angles like ‘Girls and Boys’ and ‘Country House’, but later came to admit that most of it was pose. Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn have buried the hatchet now and admit to mutual appreciation.
Perhaps more serious was Oasis’s aversion to Radiohead, another huge contender during the 1990s and early 2000s. Radiohead fans and musicologists might put it down to jealousy, but Liam Gallagher has always been clear on the point that he can’t get on with dour and abstract themes. “How the fuck did these teds get big[?]” he tweeted in 2018, and had previously told the Quietus with regard to The Bends: “I heard that fucking Radiohead record, and I just go, ‘What?!’ Them writing a song about a fucking tree? Give me a fucking break! A thousand-year-old tree? Go fuck yourself!”
It is plain to see that Liam doesn’t take half-measures once he sinks his teeth into a rival. Like Radiohead, Coldplay also felt the sharp end of Liam’s tongue throughout their rise to fame in the 2000s. Notably, he called them a “bunch of students,” which was accurate, given that they formed while attending UCL. Still, mocking intentions were apparent when he likened Chris Martin to a “geography teacher,” thus denouncing Coldplay’s credibility as a serious rock group.
Though usually rooted in some true feeling, Liam often expresses his opinions with comic exaggeration. In reality, he was a fan of Coldplay’s early material and is an acquaintance of Martin’s. In 2017, the Oasis frontman surprised his fans by agreeing to perform with Coldplay at Ariana Grande’s Manchester benefit concert following the terrorist attack at Manchester Arena.
Liam encountered a few raised eyebrows following his guest appearance, which he addressed in a conversation with Herald Sun. “You’ve got to put all that stuff aside when it comes down to these kinds of things,” he said. “Chris rang me up and said would you be interested in doing it? Too fucking right. That’s my home town. I’m there.”
Not only was the cause close to Liam’s heart as a Mancunian, but he was actually rather fond of Martin and his early work with Coldplay. “I’ve met Chris Martin loads of times and the other guy,” he added. “It’s only been banter. I don’t wish them any harm. I actually apologised to them, I said ‘I’m only winding you up, let’s get on with what we’re here for’ and off we went.”
Continuing, Gallagher revealed that he had recently revisited Coldplay’s first two albums, Parachutes and A Rush of Blood to the Head and thoroughly enjoyed them. “I had a bit of a party at my house the other night, and a guy on a guitar who is a massive Coldplay fan was there. I let him sing the first two Coldplay albums on an acoustic guitar. The first two albums are mega. Those albums have some good songs,” Liam asserted.
Coldplay began to evolve their indie rock sound over the next two albums, X&Y and Viva la Vida and eventually wound up with a more danceable, synth-driven sound. Understandably, Liam finds it harder to relate to this latter material. “I’m not a fan of their new stuff,” Liam admitted. “It’s all gone a bit dancey now. Guitar music now doesn’t have enough guitars in it, it’s gone pop, they’ve taken the guitars off and made dance music.”
