“He’s got a great voice”: the brilliant singer Noel Gallagher thought everyone ignored
Noel Gallagher didn’t have to look very far when it came to finding a great vocalist.
When he quietly pursued a music career by writing songs in the safety of his bedroom and providing roadie services for the Inspiral Carpets, he didn’t yet realise that the master of his fate was sat at the other end of the dinner table, stealing all his food and demanding all the attention.
Liam Gallagher probably didn’t look like the frontman we know him as now, when he was bouncing around the walls of the family home, but that very rebellious state that annoyed Noel at dinner time would soon become the basis of his band. A band that, thanks to his brother, would become one of the biggest to ever do it.
Liam’s voice had a little bit of everything. It had the punky rage of a young John Lydon that fell away for Oasis’ more delicately written ballads to showcase something more heartfelt and introspective, à la Liam’s hero John Lennon. But achieving that level of greatness came at a cost for the frontman, who in the early years of Oasis approached every live show with the sort of vigour the songs warranted, thus shredding his voice.
It paved the way for Noel to step forward and develop his lead vocals, while simultaneously driving a wedge between him and his brother, which would ultimately bring the band to their knees in 2010. Largely because Liam realised, like the rest of us, that Noel was no mug when it came to performing. His voice wasn’t as immediately captivating, but had the depth to make ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ and ‘Half The World Away’ a little more profound.
So naturally, Noel had an inherent respect for those budding vocalists who live in the shadows of their band’s frontmen. And even though he maintains a much-loved and well-documented relationship with U2’s Bono, he was quick to label his sidekick Edge as someone who, like him, could offer more than just lead guitar.
He explained, “It can be difficult to be the second singer in a band where the first singer is such a great rock and roll frontman, as Liam is when he bothers to show up. But then look at the Edge in U2. He’s got a great voice, but you never really hear it because Bono is the main man there.”
Adding, “One of my favourite tracks off ‘Rattle and Hum is Van Diemen’s Land’, which Edge sings. So I regard myself as the Edge of Oasis. I will sing more in the future, though, mainly because I’m particularly proud of how I sing on ‘Waiting for the Rapture’. I really nailed that falsetto.”
Perhaps the major difference is that Bono and Edge weren’t brothers, forced together by musical fate to create a band despite their tensions. There was less competition between the musicians and more of a united front to serve the song as best as possible, which ultimately rendered Edge as more of a compromising servant than Gallagher when it comes to vocals.
