“They haven’t wrote any masterpieces”: When Liam Gallagher wrote a song just to prove U2 wrong
The 2010s were a strange period for rock music, triggered by the split of Britain’s most beloved band of the era: Oasis.
After their dramatic demise, a bizarre and muddled era of indie rock beckoned. Not quite pop, not quite alternative and all of it somewhere in between, die-hard Oasis fans blamed their beloved band for thrusting them into this place of musical obscurity, but really, that wasn’t their biggest crime of the era.
Liam Gallagher retreated into a state of exile, haunted by the demons of his own fame that he desperately tried to overcome in privacy, while his older brother, on the other hand, enjoyed the fruits of his newfound freedom, writing songs that scratched his more experimental itch and did so without the looming pressure of his raging frontman.
But within that, he forged some rather questionable friendships. Throughout the decade, he was seen regularly rubbing shoulders with the likes of Morrissey and Russell Brand, who together account for a large proportion of the industry’s right-wing toxicity. But oddly, as those three bounced between London’s most elite member clubs, indulging in late-night boozing sessions, they would be doing so in the slipstream of their true leader, Bono.
The philanthropist became the unlikely captain of this new team, and boy, did Noel like to tell everyone about it. While most of the country grew tired of hearing anecdotes that involved these anti-heroes drinking their riches away, Noel’s brother grew quietly frustrated at the sheer thought of his newfound company.
To Liam, Bono was representative of the sort of mainstream plastic Oasis sought to push back against. They were a well-oiled machine, driven by the commercial powers of America’s biggest record labels and so devoid of the true spirit of rock and roll. So, when it came to penning songs for his comeback solo album, Liam was desperate to hit Noel where it hurts. Not his wallet, not his songwriting and not even his appearance. But instead, towards his beloved friendship group.
On ‘You Better Run’, Liam lays out an unflinching diatribe in which he challenges the rock pretenders of the industry, later outlining that it was Bono whom he had in mind.
“That’s to every little shitbag wannabe rock star who thinks they’re doing this rock’n’roll business a service, because there’s a lot of them out there that ain’t,” Liam Gallagher said, “I look at the likes of U2. Even years ago, they were going, ‘We’re coming back to claim fucking rock’n’roll’ and all that nonsense. For me, they haven’t wrote any masterpieces, for a band that fuckin’ big, with all the fuckin’ stuff they’ve got at their disposal, they should be writing masterpieces. They’re certainly no Beatles. It’s like ‘You’d better run, you’d better hide’ because this album’s gonna give you a fucking clip round the ear or a kick up the arse.”
It’s likely that Noel himself was also in the crosshairs when Liam wrote the song, but upon release, he cleverly realised that his brother had the ability to be self-deprecating and deflect criticism. But his beloved Bono was on such a pedestal that aiming his vitriol towards the Irishman would have been a far more impactful statement.
