Liam Gallagher
William John Paul Gallagher is an English singer and songwriter who is the lead singer and co-founder of the rock band Oasis. Gallagher fronted Beady Eye, an offshoot of Oasis, between 2009 and 2014, before starting a solo career in 2017. One of the most recognisable figures in British rock music, he is noted for his distinctive vocal style and outspoken personality.
Gallagher was interested in joining a band called the Rain. After mutual agreement, the band underwent a name change to Oasis, and his older brother Noel was initially approached to be their manager. Noel was subsequently extended an invitation to join the band as their lead guitarist and songwriter, which he accepted. The band's debut album, Definitely Maybe, was a critical and commercial success amidst the emergence of Britpop. Their second album, Morning Glory?, reached the top of the album charts in many countries, and their third studio album, Be Here Now, became the fastest-selling album in UK chart history. Britpop eventually declined in popularity, and Oasis failed to revive it; however, all of their subsequent albums topped the UK charts, and they continued to tour, playing gigs to 1,000,000+ people worldwide, but particularly in Europe, and South America. In August 2009, following Noel's departure from Oasis, Gallagher and the remaining band members would go on to form Beady Eye, with whom he released two studio albums before they disbanded in 2014.
In 2017, Gallagher began his solo career with the release of his debut solo album, As You Were, which proved to be a critical and commercial success. It topped the UK Albums Chart and was the ninth fastest-selling debut album of the 2010s in the UK, with over 103,000 units sold in its first week. In 2018, the album was certified platinum with over 300,000 units sold in the UK. His second album, Why Me? Why Not, received mostly positive reviews and topped the UK charts upon its release in September 2019. This made it his tenth chart-topping album including eight with Oasis, and it also became the fastest-selling vinyl of 2019. In March 2010, he was voted the greatest frontman of all time in a reader poll by Q magazine. In 2019, he received the MTV Europe Music Award for "Rock Icon". Gallagher's third album, C'mon You Know, was released in 2022 and became his fourth solo album to debut at number one on the UK Albums Chart. In 2024, Gallagher collaborated with ex-Stone Roses musician John Squire on the studio album Liam Gallagher & John Squire, which was released on 1 March 2024 and continued Gallagher's streak of debuting atop the British charts.
Oasis's time was marked by turbulence, especially during the peak of Britpop, during which Gallagher was involved in several disputes with Noel. Their conflicts and wild lifestyles regularly made tabloid headlines. The band had a rivalry with fellow Britpop band Blur.
Early life
Gallagher was born in the Longsight area of Manchester on 21 September 1972, to Irish immigrant parents Peggy and Tommy Gallagher from Charlestown, County Mayo, and Duleek, County Meath, respectively. As the youngest of three children, he has two elder brothers, Paul and Noel. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Ashburn Avenue and then Cranwell Drive in the Manchester suburb of Burnage. As the eldest child, Paul was given his own bedroom while Liam had to share his bedroom with Noel.When he was 10, Peggy took him and his brothers and left abusive Tommy, whom she divorced four years later. Although Liam maintained sporadic contact with his father throughout his teens, their issues remain unresolved. While drinking at a pub after an Oasis show in Ireland during the height of their fame, Liam noticed his father from across the room and had to be calmed down by Noel. A leaked phone call later revealed that he subsequently called his father and threatened to break his legs if he ever saw him again.
Gallagher was educated at St. Bernard's RC Primary School and the Barlow Roman Catholic High School in Didsbury. Despite common reports that he was expelled at age 16 for fighting, he was actually suspended for three months. He then returned to school, where he completed his last term and gained four GCSEs in 1990. He preferred sports at a young age, having no interest in music. During his teens, he suffered a blow to the head with a hammer from a student at a rival school, which he credits with changing his attitude towards music. After this incident, he became infatuated with the idea of joining a band. He became confident in his ability to sing and began listening to bands like the Beatles, the Stone Roses, the La's, the Who, the Kinks, the Jam, and T. Rex. In the process, he became obsessed with the Beatles' John Lennon, and would later sarcastically claim to be Lennon reincarnated despite being born eight years prior to Lennon's death. Liam and Noel attended a Stone Roses benefit gig at International 2 in 1988; both brothers claim that if they had not gone to that gig, Oasis would never have happened. Liam later claimed: "That was my favourite gig of all time, killed me dead, changed me fuckin' life. If I hadn't gone that night, I'd probably be sitting in some pub in Levenshulme." He would also help Noel with his job as a roadie for Inspiral Carpets and worked as a tax collector for HM Revenue and Customs.
Career
1991–2009: Oasis
When school friend Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan invited Gallagher to join his band The Rain as a vocalist, he agreed. He was the band's co-songwriter, along with guitarist Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs. Noel has since openly mocked this writing partnership, describing them as being "just awful", and Liam also admitted that they were "shit". The band only rehearsed once a week and did not get many gigs. It was at one of their rare shows in 1991 at the Boardwalk in Manchester that Noel, having recently returned from touring internationally as a roadie for Inspiral Carpets, saw them perform. In 1993, Oasis played a four-song set at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow, where Alan McGee of Creation Records discovered them and signed them for a six-album deal. The band's debut album Definitely Maybe was released on 28 August 1994, and went on to become the fastest-selling British debut album of all time. Liam was praised for his vocal contributions to the album, and his presence made Oasis a popular live act. Critics cited influences from the Beatles and Sex Pistols. Liam's attitude garnered attention from the British tabloid press, which often ran stories concerning his alleged drug use and behaviour. In 1997, Definitely Maybe was named the 14th greatest album of all time in a "Music of the Millennium" poll conducted by HMV. In Channel 4's "100 Greatest Albums" countdown in 2005, the album was placed at No. 6. In 2006, NME placed the album at No. 3 in a list of the greatest British albums ever. In the 2006 book of British Hit Singles and Albums, the album was voted the best album of all time, with the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band finishing second. Q placed it at No. 5 on their greatest albums of all-time list in 2006, and NME hailed it as the greatest album of all time that same year.The band's second album Morning Glory? was even more successful, becoming the third-best selling album in British history. Around this time, Oasis became embroiled in a well documented media-fuelled feud with fellow Britpop band Blur. The differing styles of the bands now leading the Britpop movement—Oasis a working-class northern band, and Blur a middle-class southern band—made the media perceive them as natural rivals. In August 1995, Blur and Oasis released new singles on the same day; Blur's "Country House" outsold Oasis' "Roll with It" by 58,000 copies during the week. When the band mimed the single on Top of the Pops, Liam pretended to play Noel's guitar and Noel pretended to sing, taking a jibe at the show's lip-syncing format. Morning Glory? is considered to be a seminal record of the Britpop era and as one of the best albums of the 1990s, and appears in several charts as one of the greatest albums of all time. In 2010, Rolling Stone commented that "the album is a triumph, full of bluster, bravado, and surprising tenderness" and that it "capped a true golden age for Britpop". The magazine ranked the album at No. 378 on its 2012 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". The album's enduring popularity within the UK was reflected when it won the BRITs Album of 30 Years at the 2010 BRIT Awards. The award was voted on by the public to decide the greatest Best Album winner in the history of the BRIT Awards. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Oasis's third album, Be Here Now, was released on 21 August 1997 and set a new record as the fastest-selling album in UK Chart history. The album was denounced by Noel in later years, but Liam has defended it. On the first day of release, Be Here Now sold over 424,000 copies and became the fastest-selling album in British chart history; initial reviews were overwhelmingly positive. The band's long-time producer Owen Morris said the recording sessions were marred by arguments and drug abuse, and that the band's only motivations were commercial. As of 2008, the album had sold eight million copies worldwide. It was the best-selling album of 1997 in the UK, with 1.47 million units sold. The album topped the UK Vinyl Albums Chart in 2016, 19 years after its original release. Creation Records shut down in 1999, after which the Gallagher brothers set up their own label, Big Brother Recordings, for all future Oasis releases. Future album and singles were marked with codes starting with "RKID". Oasis returned in 2000 with the album Standing on the Shoulder of Giants. Founding members Bonehead and Guigsy left during the recording, leaving Liam as the only member remaining from the band's pre-Oasis lineup. The album featured the band's first song written by Liam, "Little James", written for his then-wife Patsy Kensit's son James. This song, along with the album as a whole, received generally mixed reviews.
Oasis's next album, Heathen Chemistry, was released in 2002 and featured three more songs written by Liam. One of them was "Songbird", an acoustic ballad about his love for Nicole Appleton, whom he would later marry. The song was the fourth single from the album and reached No. 3 in the UK charts. Later that year, Gallagher broke several teeth and sustained injuries to his face after a fight broke out at a Munich bar. He and Oasis drummer Alan White were arrested but released without charge. Oasis had to pull out of the shows in Munich and Düsseldorf due to Liam's injuries. 2005 saw the release of Oasis's sixth studio album, Don't Believe the Truth, featuring a further three compositions by Liam: "Love Like a Bomb", "The Meaning of Soul", and "Guess God Thinks I'm Abel". The album won two Q Awards: a special People's Choice Award and Best Album. Gallagher joined the rest of Oasis to receive the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award at the BRIT Awards in 2007. As the band picked up the award, he commented on stage, "Seeing as we don't get nominated for this shit no more, this'll have to do."
2008 saw the release of the band's final album Dig Out Your Soul, which featured three Liam-written songs: "I'm Outta Time", "Ain't Got Nothin'", and "Soldier On". Dig Out Your Soul went straight to No. 1 on the UK Album Charts and reached No. 5 in the U.S. 200 Billboard Charts. In the UK, the album sold 90,000 copies on its first day of release, making it the second-fastest selling album of 2008, behind Coldplay's Viva la Vida. It debuted on the UK Albums Chart at No. 1 with first-week sales of 200,866 copies, making it the 51st fastest selling album ever in the UK. The album debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 in the U.S. with 53,000 copies sold. It is the highest chart position of any Oasis album in the U.S. since Be Here Now, which debuted at No. 2, but fewer total opening week sales than Don't Believe the Truth. It spent over 30 weeks in the French Albums Chart. Many critics lauded Dig Out Your Soul as one of the band's strongest albums, one opined that "it seems Oasis have made something that can happily play alongside Morning Glory". In August 2009, during the tour in support of the album, the band split up due to Noel not being able to work with Liam any more.