Liam Gallagher outwrote Noel on Oasis album ‘Heathen Chemistry’
From a travelling roadie to one of the most important songwriters in Britain, Noel Gallagher was the key that elevated Oasis from being a fledgling indie band in Manchester to a global rock and roll phenomenon, but he wasn’t alone in his songwriting skills.
When Oasis first formed in 1991, under the horrendously bad original name, The Rain, Noel wasn’t in the picture. Away in some far-flung corner of the world, working as a roadie for Inspiral Carpets, he wasn’t desperate to return to the perpetual drizzle of Manchester, but an invite to his brother’s band rehearsal was enough to change the course of his life forever.
Almost immediately after attending The Rain’s rehearsals at Manchester’s Boardwalk, it was clear that the band needed a songwriting direction, rather than attempting to rip off the sound of The Stone Roses. Noel quickly joined up and the rest, as they say, is history. A string of songwriting masterclasses followed, launching the Britpop mastery of Definitely Maybe and the global smash-hit of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? in the process.
Inevitably, when Liam was rattling off generational anthems like ‘Live Forever’ and ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’, stoically in his signature parka, Noel stayed the de facto songwriting force driving the group forward, but towards the end of their 1990s heyday, the younger Gallagher began to experiment with his own songwriting style, too, ushering in a new era for Oasis.
While the move coincided with the departure of Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs and Guigsy, 2002’s Heathen Chemistry thrust Liam into the writing spotlight, and Noel was more than happy to acknowledge it. “What’s really changed is that I’m no longer the main songwriter,” he told the NME at the time, “I’m one of the songwriters and the best songwriter may well be Liam”.
“His three songs are absolutely mega,” the songwriter continued, in a rare instance of brotherly love between the pair, doting, “I mean, really. You wait until you hear them, people are going to be very, very surprised at how good he is.” To be fair to Noel, people were fairly surprised to see any songwriting contributions from his brother at all, given that he spent the majority of his spare time swaggering around London, threatening reporters, and living an archetypal life of rock and roll excess.
Still, Liam’s songwriting didn’t come close to matching his brother’s chops, and even his stand-out contribution of ‘Songbird’ has a fairly divisive history among Oasis fans. Ultimately, Heathen Chemistry marked a colossal step down from the band’s previous work, and the loss of ‘Bonehead’ and Guigsy only accentuated that diminished impact.
Liam’s songwriting did become a sporadic fixture of the band’s existence over the next few years but, in the end, it is Noel’s words which continue to be belted out by thousands of adoring fans in arenas across the globe, all these years later.
