Oasis reunion: Noel and Liam Gallagher’s biggest bust-ups and the rivalry that would make and break the band

As far as sibling feuds go, there are perhaps none as iconic — or, indeed, that played out as publicly — as that of Oasis founder Noel Gallagher and his brother, Liam.

The Gallagers’ bitter relationship, and their recurring blow-ups, were almost as famous as their band’s music. Many fans and music pundits would probably say the friction between the brothers’ was part of Oasis’ magic.

Unfortunately, that same fraternal friction that propelled Oasis’ supersonic rise to rock and roll stardom in the 1990s ultimately tore the band (and the brothers) apart for good in 2009.

But, it seems the estranged brothers have buried the hatchet — or, at least, they’ve promised to play nice for the sake of a reported $90-odd million paycheck — and are getting the band back together for a run of shows in 2025.

In a statement announcing the UK tour, the band said: “The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over.”

The concerts will be Oasis’ first in 15 years since Noel sensationally quit the band moments before they were due to perform at a Paris concert, after getting into a final backstage brawl with his younger brother (guitars were reportedly smashed, medics were called).

It remains to be seen whether the brothers can make it through the 14 UK shows they’ve already announced without incident — given the tit-for-tat swipes they’ve traded since parting ways as bandmates — but it seems only fair to look back (not in anger!) at some of their best bust-ups over the years.

Wibbling Rivalry, 1994

It’s hard to pinpoint when exactly Noel and Liam first learned to rumble — though tensions likely started in the bedroom they shared as kids in their Manchester home — but they were quick to let the public know the Gallaghers were hardly the Gibbs brothers when they burst onto the music scene.

In an interview with NME in 1994, the brothers got into a screaming match over which brother was “more rock and roll”. Liam called Noel a “f...ing priest”. Noel called Liam a “d..k”. They repeatedly tell each other to “f..k off”.

Liam tells Noel where to “stick your thousand pounds ... til it comes out your … big toe”. Noel tells him to “get the f... out of my band and go be a football hooligan”.

The interview became so legendary that it was released as a 14-minute-long single Wibbling Rivalry under the name Oas*s the following year.

(What’s the Story) about fights on-stage and in-studio, 1994-95

The brothers’ relationship only seemed to unravel the more they worked together.

Noel briefly quit the band in 1994 after Liam took a swipe at him during their gig at Los Angeles’ Whisky a Go-Go. The younger Gallagher changed the lyrics of Live Forever to “Maybe, I don’t really want to know, why you pick your nose” and hit Noel over the head with a tambourine during the set.

A year later tensions boiled over in a brutal bust-up involving a cricket bat while Oasis recorded their sophomore album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory.

The story goes: Liam brought a group of drunk strangers he’d met at a local pup to watch his brother record. Noel got mad and forced the group out. Liam got mad, a guitar was damaged. Then Noel belted Liam over the head with a cricket bat.

The brothers had two very different recollections of the incident. Liam said in one interview: “The whole studio got smashed to pieces, everything just got blitzed to bits”.

“It was probably me not giving a f..., and him trying to write f...ing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, and me going, ‘Bollocks, let’s have it’.”

Noel, on the other hand, recalled his younger brother going “mad” after he was blamed for a fire extinguisher going off in a farmhouse and damaging a guitar.

“I ended up having a proper fight with Liam. It might have been the biggest fight we ever had. I remember smashing his head in with a cricket bat,” Noel said.

The cricket bat was later sold at auction, with a letter of authenticity, in 2011.

MTV Unplugged, 1996

It’s 1996, Oasis was due to record an episode of MTV Unplugged at London’s Royal Festival Hall. It turned out to be one of their most chaotic gigs yet.

Liam, the band’s lead vocalist, backed out due to a purported case of laryngitis, leaving Noel to break the news to the crowd before taking the vocal reins.

Only, the younger Gallagher showed up and put on a cheeky show of his own from the balcony of the Hall.

The cameras panned to Liam smoking, drinking champagne and heckling his brother (what sore throat?) and the band.

Noel later recalled in a documentary that Liam had barely rehearsed with the band over weeks of rehearsal and went AWOL on the day of the recording.

“About an hour before we were due to go on, he turned up, absolutely s...faced. We said, well look, let’s see if you can sing a couple of songs, and it was f...ing dreadful,” he said. But, with 2700-odd waiting fans, the show had to go on.

Fork in the Road

The brothers’ fractured relationship was quickly nearing a point of no return by the late noughties. Noel said in a 2005 interview with NME that Liam was “frightened to death of me”, saying their relationship was like the brainwashing session scene in The Manchurian Candidate.

Then, in an interview with Q magazine in 2009, he said this infamous quote of his baby brother: “He’s the angriest man you’ll ever meet. He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

A decade later, Liam, who clearly can hold a grudge, finally responded. He posted a video to social media showing him eating soup with a fork. In it, he thanked people for buying tickets to his tour.

“You’ve made a very happy so-called angry man, very very happy.”

It’s over: Rock en Seine, 2009

The Gallagher’s fraught relationship came to an explosive end backstage at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris on August 28, 2009.

Oasis was due to headline the festival, but moments before they took the stage, Noel and Liam got into a vicious fight after the former said he was quitting the band.

A witness told The Mail On Sunday at the time, the younger Gallagher was “goading” Noel constantly before the pair snapped.

Liam smashed one of his brother’s guitars in the fight and seemed “like a man possessed”, the witness said.

Medical staff and security were called to the scene before Noel confirmed the gig was off and left the venue.

Rival band Bloc Party, who had played a set earlier in the day and had been a war of words of their own with Liam Gallagher, told waiting fans that Oasis wouldn’t take the stage.

Lead singer Kele Okereke gleefully told the crowd: “Oasis have cancelled. So I’d like to take this moment to say: That’s a shame, isn’t it, guys?”

Many in the crowd thought it was a joke until screens confirmed the performance had been cancelled due to “an altercation within the band”.

Noel later posted a statement to the group’s official site announcing he had left the band “with some sadness and great relief.”

“People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer,” he famously wrote.

He expanded in another statement days later that “the level of verbal and violent intimidation towards me, my family, friends and comrades has become intolerable”.

“And the lack of support and understanding from my management and bandmates has left me with no other option than to get me cape and seek pastures new.”

Weeks before the Paris incident, Liam admitted the brothers no longer spoke and only saw each other on stage. That rift deepened in the years since, with the brothers rarely speaking — seemingly only in pointed jabs via social media or interviews.

Here’s hoping they at least make it to the stage in 2025. But at least if the conflict gets the best of them, fans will get a taste of the Oasis they’ve been begging to come back for 15 years.