Who was the original Oasis drummer?
Manchester rock ‘n’ roll icons Oasis formed in 1991 after Liam Gallagher auditioned as a singer for a band called Rain. Initially, the Madchester-inspired outfit were fronted by Chris Hutton, but the other members were dissatisfied with him as a frontman, so they attempted to recruit a more suitable singer.
When Liam got onboard, he took hold of the reins, and Rain quickly became Oasis, featuring Paul McGuigan on bass, Paul Arthurs on guitar, and Tony McCarroll on drums. The swaggering singer successfully usurped Chris Hutton as the vocalist, and he quickly suggested the name change.
As the founding drummer, Tony McCarroll was integral to the band. By all accounts, he was quiet and reserved, which prevented things from going too far awry too quickly. Furthermore, while his drumming style may have been basic, in his book Oasis: The Truth, he claims he had chops in other areas and assisted with the writing of some of the early hits.
Nevertheless, he wasn’t cut out for the band, and in 1995, he parted ways. McCarroll was replaced by Alan White, who remained with Oasis until 2004, proving that sticking it for any degree of time with the warring young brothers at the helm was quite an achievement. After all, there aren’t many bands where one member repeatedly brays the other on the head with a cricket bat every once in a while.
But why did Oasis fire Tony McCarroll?
During the production of Definitely Maybe, it was becoming apparent that McCarroll might not be able to cut it in the studio. In a documentary focused on the album, Noel Gallagher explains that frustrations reached a head when recording ‘Bring It On Down’, recalling: “I had been telling him for fucking ages ‘It goes like this’. We had a session drummer come in with Tony there, and it must have been awful for him, but whatever. And then the session drummer couldn’t get it right”.
Eventually, riled up by the incident, McCarroll took to the stool from the session drummer and nailed the track in one take. However, the narrative was already set in motion that he mightn’t be able to cut it, and he was too quiet of a character to fight against that. Even elements of their debut like the hiss at the start of ‘Champagne Supernova’ is an overdub to hide McCarroll’s obvious error.
In the Supersonic documentary, soundman Mark Coyle mentioned how tough it must have been for McCarroll when they first hit the road as a serious act and his playing came under scrutiny, mostly from the band themselves, saying, “You’d have to feel for the boy. I’ll put my hand up with the rest of the band and say I gave him a terrible time as well”.
Eventually, McCarroll reportedly returned and insult to Noel and that was that. He parted ways and was replaced by White a matter of days later.
So, who was in Oasis?
Oasis originally consisted of Paul McGuigan on bass, Paul Arthurs on guitar, Tony McCarroll on drums, Liam Gallagher on lead vocals and Noel Gallagher as the chief songwriter. However, things weren’t as simple as that. When things got moving for the band, the tours got so frantic that members were scared off left, right and centre. In the end, you wound up with the following roster of musicians…
Final members:
- Liam Gallagher (1991-2009)
- Noel Gallagher (1991-2009)
- Gem Archer (1999-2009)
- Andy Bell (1999-2009)
Former members:
- Tony McCarroll (1991-1995)
- Paul Arthurs (1991-1999)
- Paul McGuigan (1991-1995, 1995-1999)
- Alan White (1995-2004)
Touring musicians:
- Scott McLeod (1995)
- Mike Rowe (1997-2000, 2001)
- Matt Deighton (2000)
- Steve White (2001)
- Zeb Jameson (2000-2001)
- Zak Starkey (2004-2008)
- Jay Darlington (2002-2009)
- Chris Sharrock (2008-2009)
