"Noel Gallagher is the lead songwriter, guitarist and sometime lead-singer with the English rock band Oasis. He is the older brother of Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher. The two are often pigeon-holed as squabbling siblings.
In the 1990s, Gallagher was centre-stage of what the media coined the Britpop movement. Oasis' first album, Definitely Maybe (1994), became the fastest selling British debut ever, and along with the follow-up (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995), enjoyed much critical and commercial success. However, critical success on this scale has largely escaped the band since the release of 1997's Be Here Now.
Gallagher is often criticised for the praise he gives to his own songs. Though many consider this to be intense arrogance, he himself maintains that it is merely self-confidence and points out "If you'd written "Live Forever", you'd be walking to a different tune the next day too".
His outspoken opinions on other bands and modern culture have, more recently, earned him something of an "elder statesman" reputation, leading NME to dub him "The wisest man in rock"."
"Gallagher is well known for his controversial, outspoken statements in the press. He acknowledged his tendency for "faux pas" in the song "My Big Mouth" on Be Here Now. Perhaps the most infamous of these was in a 1995 interview with The Observer, where he expressed a wish for Damon Albarn and Alex James of rivals Blur to "catch AIDS and die", a comment which he quickly publicly apologised for. After a well-publicised fallout with former Oasis-hanger-on Robbie Williams, Gallagher refused to recognise him as anything but "the fat dancer from Take That". This fueled a feud between Oasis and Williams. In 2000, following the poor critical reception to Shoulder of Giants, Williams sent Gallagher a funeral wreath with "To Noel Gallagher, RIP. Heard your latest album — with deepest sympathy, Robbie Williams" written on it. From here, Liam took over from his brother heading up the feud, leading Williams to challenge the younger Gallagher to a fight for a charity purse. In recent years, Williams — now largely ignored by Oasis — has expressed his desire to fight Noel.
However, Gallagher's barbed comments have not just been limited to his Britpop contemporaries. When George Michael released the politically charged single "Shoot the Dog", Gallagher observed "He's... trying to make social comment, this is the guy who hid who he actually was from the public for twenty years, now, all of a sudden, he's got something to say about the way of the world. I find it laughable. That's even before you get to the song, which is diabolical".
His musical tastes lead to him regularly attack "pop" acts. He said of Kylie Minogue: "I don't hate Kylie but I hate her music with a passion — it's just unbridled filth, it's disgusting". In early 2001 he was criticised for saying that the Backstreet Boys "should be shot" and when asked about American youngsters' taste in music, he stated "[They] shouldn't be able to buy records until [they are] 16. You'll buy any old nonsense — fucking Britney and Eminem".
Gallagher is not shy about slating his idols either. When George Harrison accused Oasis of being little more than a "passing" fad, Gallagher replied "George was always the quiet Beatle, maybe he should keep that up" (this however, was not as threatening as his brother's promise to play golf off Harrison's head). However, when Gallagher and Harrison actually met, they got on well.
Noel at a concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, California, September 11, 2005His political views have sometimes been controversial. He described the protests against the second Gulf War in London as "a bloody waste of time" and in the same interview he said of the British "We are a nation of moaning sissies, regardless of who governs. The British get on my nerves. They moan about the weather, about the French, about the Germans. They moan about cricket, football — they should just keep their mouths shut." He expressed his sympathy for Tony Blair, saying, "Whoever is the British Prime Minister is tied to America. It's been that way since the Second World War, and even Tony Blair can't change that." Politically, he says "politics is like football for me. Labour is my team and even if you don't like a striker you don't give up supporting the whole team... Labour is the lesser of two evils. What else should we have? Anarchy? Someone has to be responsible". However, Gallagher was mocked in 1997 when, whilst defending East 17 singer Brian Harvey — who admitted taking ecstasy — he claimed most members of Parliament were on heroin and cocaine, before likening drugs to a cup of tea. He was condemned by Paul Betts, whose daughter Leah died after taking ecstasy. He has since laughed off his own comments as he was clearly inebriated during the interview : "One of my bad moments, I have to say."
The resurgence of British indie music in recent years has seen the Gallagher brothers lash out again. Noel has recently told Australian press his dislike of up-and-coming British bands, describing the band Bloc Party as "indie shit". He went on to say "Every time I read an interview by them, they're talking about their favourite music; 'Yeah, I heard a Bjork B-side that was interesting'...It's either good or it's bad. So it either makes sense to your brain or it doesn't...There's no such thing as interesting". Gallagher mocked the Kaiser Chiefs for wearing makeup, with Liam calling them "a bad Blur". When asked to comment on Keane, a band comprising a singer, keyboardist and drummer, Gallagher said "Traditionally speaking, the three biggest twats in any band are the singer, the keyboardist and the drummer. I don't need to say anything else." Keane pianist Tim Rice-Oxley replied saying "The biggest twats in a band? We don't really care. I think he's a cunt to be honest. He was in a band that was very brilliant in the mid-nineties and now they're just not important anymore. No one really cares." The Kaiser Chiefs' singer Ricky Wilson, however, claimed he "was chuffed to bits" to be on the end of one of the Gallagher's famous insults. The same can be said for Sum 41, who printed Gallagher's comments regarding them — "I'm just glad I lived long enough to hear the shittiest band ever" — on their official website. In 2005 Noel criticized the White Stripes for announcing they would write a song for a Coca-Cola advertising campaign. Although Oasis tracks have appeared on commercials, they were not specifically written for that purpose."
