Paul wasn’t impressed but he and Noel have since made up
Sir Paul McCartney pictured in Liverpool earlier this year(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
Oasis fever has swept the nation this summer. The Gallagher brothers’ reunion tour is in full swing, having played to sell-out crowds in Cardiff, Manchester, London and Edinburgh.
Liam and Noel will play two nights in Dublin later this week before moving on to North America. It has marked a triumphant return for the Manchester band, 16 years after a row between the Gallaghers brought the first chapter of Oasis to an end.
In their heyday, Oasis were never afraid to ruffle a few feathers and get into wars of words. Even their Liverpool-born idols The Beatles were not safe.
As the ECHO has reported, Oasis spent a lot of time in Merseyside in their early days – recording their demo in the Northern Docks and then making their first single “Supersonic” at the Pink Museum recording studio off Lark Lane, having been taken under the wings of Bootle band The Real People.
Oasis also drew on our city’s most famous sons for inspiration. Liam and Noel certainly did not hide how much they admired The Beatles, with the Fab Four’s music and style rubbing off on them.
However, as the Mancunian band got bigger, comparisons were drawn between them and The Beatles. And it was a comparison that Noel lent into.
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On the back of their first two albums – 1994’s “Definitely Maybe” and 1995’s “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory”, Noel declared Oasis were “bigger” than The Beatles.
Oasis performing at Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle, during their “Be Here Now” tour in 1997. Noel Gallagher performing on stage(Image: Mirrorpix)
That comment didn’t sit particularly well with Paul McCartney. On a 2001 appearance on the Howard Stern show, he said he wished the band well but took issue with them creating a rivalry.
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Howard suggested that Paul badmouthed the band but he disagreed, instead saying he felt he had to respond to what Oasis had said about The Beatles.
Paul said: “The trouble was I was asked, because they’re so Beatle-y, everyone asks, ‘What do you think about Oasis?’ I got fed up of being asked.
“I started off saying, ‘They’re okay, I wish them good luck, they’re young guys, it’s difficult out there’, just trying to help, kind of thing.
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“But then they started to badmouth us, saying stuff like, ‘We’re much better, man’.”
He added: “In the end, I didn’t really badmouth them too much, I just said I think they’re slightly derivative. They thought they were better.”
It was a comment that Noel came to regret. In 2021 at a preview screening of Peter Jackson’s documentary “Get Back”, the songwriter said: “When Oasis started, we were so big we were compared to (The Beatles) size-wise and musically, embarrassingly, compared to them as well.
The songwriter said it was embarrassing, explaining: “Because we weren’t as good as them.” In that same interview, Paul was sure to compliment the band, saying they “mean everything to me”.
He added: “They’ve definitely got the best tunes, hands down,” he added. “In my record collection, they’ve got the greatest tunes by far.”
It seems Paul and Noel are on good terms these days, however. The two played a duet at Paul’s daughter Stella’s 50th birthday party in 2021.
The two performed Beatles songs “Birthday” and “I Saw Her Standing There”, following a set by Noel.
