“Maybe I’m going a bit mad”: Noel Gallagher on his most awful experience in Oasis
Anyone who has been in the music business for a while has had their fair share of bad gigs. Although most people can chalk up those few moments where the equipment wasn’t working right, or there was shoddy production work in the background, no artist is safe from those few moments where they start thinking they are going to knock them dead and end up looking like fools when they get to the stage. And while Noel Gallagher could justifiably claim to be one of the most self-confident men in the music industry, he had enough foresight to realise when something was an absolute trainwreck.
Because if Noel couldn’t admit that something was crap, chances are Oasis would have never been global superstars. Becoming one of the biggest bands on Earth doesn’t happen overnight, and even when they were making Definitely Maybe, the album had to be passed through multiple different hands before Owen Morris found a way to mix it properly, adding that signature brick walling technique.
Considering what they were up against after Be Here Now, though, it’s not like they were operating from a position of strength. Cocaine had become an inherent part of their lives, and once they fell back down to Earth on Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, it was time for everyone to get clean, even if it meant losing people like Bonehead and Guigsy from the lineup.
Despite the shakeup, the album was still fairly decent, and there was a good chance that anyone in England would go haywire the minute they saw the band live. No one could deny that they still crushed live, but that also meant that everyone had to be in the right headspace and when the band made their grand return at Wembley Stadium, Liam seemed to be plastered before he even got up onstage.
Even though Noel had been going through his own struggles with panic attacks and a brief period where he left the band in the middle of the tour, Liam was the one to relapse in spectacular fashion. The rest of the group brought their A-game to the first date at Wembley, but looking at the live foundation from that time, it’s clear that Liam is doing everything in his power to sabotage things on the second night, either refusing to sing the words or shouting gibberish into the microphone.
For all of the great music that Noel could make in the studio, he had to admit that he could never defend what went down in front of those kids that night, saying, “The second night was awful. It was one of the most awful experiences I’ve had in my fucking life. Liam hadn’t been to bed the night before and I found that very disrespectful to the audience. Subsequently, that gig got reviewed and it was said to be one of the best performances by a British band in like God knows how many years, which makes me think that maybe I’m going a bit fucking mad.”
Granted, it is somewhat funny to watch things fall out so spectacularly. Liam is certainly not at his best vocal-wise, but the fact that this was recorded live on television gives off the same sensation as witnessing a massive car pileup on the highway, as everyone sits by and wonders if they will catch something particularly ugly in the mix.
Having been to rehab since then, though, it’s safe to say that Liam has been a lot more careful when it comes to his wild times in front of the crowd. He can still deliver some of the best vocals of his career in his later years, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that this is where the wheels started falling off for him.
