A timeline of the strange ongoing feud between Noel Gallagher and Phil Collins
Music is full of opinionated people like Noel Gallagher, and while his words can come across as arrogant sometimes, you can also understand where he gets it from.
I mean, this is a person whose life for the past few decades has been number one records, walking on stage to screaming sold-out stadiums, and people calling him a creative genius and asking for autographs everywhere he goes. After all that, fair enough, the idea that you know best might go to your head just a little bit.
The result is that Noel Gallagher is never afraid to voice his opinion on different musicians, whether that’s positive or negative. Throughout his career, plenty of different artists have felt the wrath of Noel Gallagher’s silver tongue. Perhaps one of his strangest back-and-forth feuds is that which he has with Phil Collins. They’re not really musicians who operate in the same circles, and yet, they’ve had a beef ongoing for years.
These things can be hard to keep track of, so, with that in mind, here is a full timeline of everything you need to know about one of the most random feuds in music.
A timeline of Noel Gallagher and Phil Collins’ ongoing feud:
1980s
Noel attends a Genesis concert “completely out of it”
Recently, Collins mentioned that, in the 1980s, Noel Gallagher attended a Genesis concert while he was “completely out of it” and that Collins’ performance had terrified him.
Collins would later imply that this was the first moment when Noel decided he didn’t especially like the singer, sparking a decades-long feud that Collins never truly understood.
1994
Noel calls Phil Collins the “antichrist of music”
In 1994, while Oasis were enjoying their breakthrough with their masterful record Definitely Maybe, the Gallagher brothers had much to say about a lot of things. One of those things was the proliferation of Phil Collins’ chart position.
“We’re gonna get rid of Phil Collins and Sting – junk food music, McDonald’s music – we’ve got to get in the charts and stamp them out,” said Noel. “I want the severed head of Phil Collins in my fridge by the end of this decade. And if I haven’t, I’ll be a failure.”
In the same interview, he also called Collins the “antichrist of music”.
1997
Noel urges people to help prevent Phil Collins from returning to the UK
During the 1997 UK general election, Oasis made it clear which side of the political spectrum they sat, urging people to vote Labour, often using media coverage to show their active support of the party.
At the time, Noel made another so-called perk crystal clear: that voting Labour would prevent Phil Collins from leaving Switzerland and returning to the UK.
“If the Conservatives get in, Phil Collins is threatening to come back and live here. And let’s face it, none of us want that,” said Noel.
2005
Phil Collins calls Oasis “rude” and “not as talented as they think”
Clearly, Collins had had enough by 2005 and described his so-called enemies as rude, untalented guys who had it out for him for no good reason.
“They’re just horrible. Horrible guys,” said Collins. “They’re rude and not as talented as they think they are. I won’t mince words here; they’ve had a go at me personally.”
He also addressed the claim that he was a Tory who moved to Switzerland to avoid Labour’s tax policies and added, “There’s nobody [Oasis] think is worth anything, apart from them.”
2007
Lily Collins confronts Liam Gallagher at Live Earth concert
Although this ongoing feud seemingly came out of nowhere, no one appears to be more baffled by the unexpected hostility than Phil Collins’ daughter, Lily Collins.
Now a major name in her own right, Lily spotted Liam backstage at the Live Earth concert back in 2007, and immediately confronted him for an answer.
“She went up to him and said, ‘Why do you hate my dad?’” Collins told MOJO. “And apparently Liam said, ‘I don’t hate anybody, love.’”
2022
Noel says he prefers the “Peter Gabriel-Genesis”
Despite the confrontation, Noel continued his subtle swipes at Collins in a 2022 interview with Matt Morgan, when he said that when Collins took over from Peter Gabriel, it wasn’t his cup of tea at all.
“I don’t mind the Peter Gabriel-Genesis,” he said. “They’ve got some good tunes. But when Collins took over, I wasn’t into that”.
2023
Noel addresses Phil Collins blocking The Jam with ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’
In 1982, Phil Collins’ ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ blocked The Jam from bagging their first-ever UK number one with ‘Town Called Malice’.
In 2023, Noel joked about how this made him feel in an interview with The Times, saying, “He kept The Jam off number one with ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’. I thought, ‘Once I get there, I’m not going to let him get away with that.”
2026
Phil Collins says he doesn’t think Noel actually thinks he’s “the antichrist”
In a recent interview with Mojo, Collins also addressed the longstanding feud, claiming that he didn’t actually think that Noel believed him to be “the antichrist of music”, and that he suspected that the Oasis singer initially grew a bad taste in his mouth after seeing Collins perform ‘Mama’ in the 1980s.
“Now I’ve thought this through,” said Collins, “and although Noel didn’t specify what song it was, I reckon it was Mama, where I go, ‘Ha-ha-ha… Oww,’ with the light under my face.”
He continued: “I think ‘Mama’ is why Noel called me the antichrist. But I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt here, and assuming he doesn’t really think I’m the antichrist.”
November 2026
Induction into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
In November 2026, Oasis and Phil Collins are set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an event Liam previously said was for “wankers”.
Whether the two parties will set their differences aside once and for all remains to be seen.
