Bright young… Liam Gallagher in 1996 at a celebrity football match in east London. Photo: Brian Rasic/REX Shutterstock
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He once got into trouble for “throwing stones [Jamie Oliver’s] the windows pissed off, asking him to throw in some bacon rolls.’
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His love affair with guitar music began at the age of 15, when some boys from a rival school “hit” him on the head with a hammer while he had a doll.
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Oasis’ 1994 Top of the Pops debut with Shakermaker featured Liam at his rawest. Wearing a corduroy jacket and hanging from the microphone with one hand, he stands back and to the left in a formation that mirrors the Jam’s last performance in 1982. Even in this fetal state, he stepped forward into the story with an effortless composure and immortal accent of the phrase “driving in my KAAAAA”.
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Tim Burgess “I first saw Liam after I got a tip to go and see a new band called Oasis at The Boardwalk in Manchester, way back in 1992. From that moment, I knew he was a superstar. And it continues to be. The Charlatans have supported him in a few shows recently and the atmosphere is unique and amazing. May you be biblical for many years to come, Liam!”
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Despite his legendary status, a large part of Liam’s appeal comes from how little he has strayed from his roots. In his own words: “I’m an average lad born in Bernage who played conker. Conkers, man. Conkers. The lot. And now I’m in a band and nothing has changed.”
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He believes that “shit music comes from boring lives” and good music comes from an “interesting, varied” or “uncomfortable” life.
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He rates other artists for the same reason. He once said of Charlotte Church: “She could be the next Liam. She has a great voice and she has it. He knows how to get hammered and he freaks people out.” Unlikely lifestyle guru… Liam Gallagher in 2011. Photo: Anthony Devlin/PA
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Laura Snapes, acting music editor of the Guardian ‘Parts of Liam still cling to his tough persona: you know he’d verbally mince you and his stage presence is all about being aggressive. But in his personal life, as an excellent Q magazine cover revealed a few years ago, he has acquired a very peculiar Zen mastery: on a typical day off, he’ll go for a run on Hampstead Heath and then climb a tree (why not?) and end up pissing in the back of his local butchers. An unlikely lifestyle guru.”
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Chardine Taylor-Stone, Big Joanie “If I’ve learned anything from Liam, it’s that I’m not ashamed to be a working-class voice in an industry that’s often full of people who aren’t. Plus, the man has a dedicated Instagram account for every outfit he’s ever worn. A great northern spirit and the last great character of rock’n’roll.”
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As a singer, Liam communicates through soul rather than technique. A clip from the 2016 documentary Supersonic shows him belting out Champagne Supernova, a seven-and-a-half-minute epic and one of the most moving ballads in British history, and its clarity makes it almost better than the album version.
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His delivery in general is second to none. There’s no other singer on earth who could make the word “maybe” feel like it’s etched on stone tablets.
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Dave Simpson, author “Besides the voice, the attitude, the songs, the impact on a generation and so on, it’s hard not to admire a 50-year-old man who can dress like he’s on a fishing trip, stand almost immobile on a microphone and yet exude more presence and charisma than any other rock star of the past 30 years. A special talent.”
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J Mascis “Great look, great vibe, great voice. Our A&R man left my band Dinosaur Jr one day, but not before he said, “Maybe if you had Liam as a singer, the band would have gone somewhere and had some hits.”
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Nathan Stephens-Griffin, Martha “Oasis were the first punk band I ever loved – in attitude, if not in sound. If I had to pick one track I would probably say Cast No Shadow. Compared to some of the more classic Britpoppy, it has a really cool melancholic, dark, epic vibe. Liam’s vocal performance is amazing and the blood harmonies between the brothers on the choruses are so good. Even their deep tracks there are big, big songs.”
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He opens almost every show with the same song. On a news show, he explained: “You have to start a Rock’n’Roll Star concert, let everyone know what’s going on.” Cosmic Path … Liam Gallagher in 2004. Photo: Rex Features
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His destiny as a rock legend was confirmed when he had an out-of-body experience climbing down mushrooms and bumping into John Lennon on the ‘cosmic path’. We may never know what message John Lennon sent him, but one choice Liam made is “don’t go to Australia because it’s raining”.
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Throughout Oasis’ show at Knebworth in 1996, Liam dedicated songs to various people. Before cigarettes and alcohol, he said – chin out, hands in pockets – “this is for me”.
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Simon Hattenstone, The Guardian features the author “I spent some time on the road interviewing Noel on Oasis’ last tour before they broke up in 2009. I ate alone in the canteen. Liam came up with his tray of food, placed it on the table. ‘Okay?’ he said. He ate his meal in silence and left. “Good,” he said at last. It made me like him.”
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Todd Andrews, This New South Whales “It doesn’t get much better than Supersonic. It makes me feel like a fucking rock star listening to it.”
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Little attention is paid to this, but Liam actually has a very impressive pair of eyes. Soft, a little sad, blue like the Adriatic. The kind of eyes that always look like they can see too much. No wonder he always wears glasses.
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He is such a staunch Manchester City supporter that, in an interview in 2016, he said the first word his fiancee’s sister’s son ever learned was “city”. She was also in the process of encouraging her youngest child’s first word to be “man” – that way, all their dad heard was “man” “city” over and over again. (“It’ll make him mental. I like it.”)
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A mission for Winklepickers: “You know those shoes that fit like a fucking snooker? It’s like, “Give it up, man!” Did you get a license for these bastards or what?’ Brotherly love… Noel and Liam before Oasis’ gigs at Wembley Stadium in 2008. Photo: Dave Hogan/Getty Images
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One of the high points in his ongoing encounter with Noel was when he posted some photos of his brother on Twitter with the caption, simply, “potato”.
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As recently revealed to the Guardian, he has an irrational fear of mice.
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There’s a moment in a Qinterview from 2016 when he goes off on a tangent and does an Espresso Martini impression of Sleaford Mods singer Jason Williamson – whose energy he likes but also thinks sounds like one of those old Cillit Bang adverts : “I left my bag in the tea / And the pussy simmered / It takes out my fucking bags / It puts me in a fucking mood / CILLIT BANG! / CILLIT BANG!”
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He once shared a driver in London with Damian Marley, prompting the line: “If the double pulls us, I get all the ganja. The car smells nice though.”
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Joel Golby, writer “My main concern is what would Liam Gallagher do if he wasn’t locked in the cage of fame, why would he still be out there, like that. There’s a universe where he hasn’t channeled his pure Liam Gallagherness into a fancy rock band, and in this timeline it’s causing heralded problems.”
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When asked about the Mancunian walk on Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Britpop, he explains: “I just think we’ve got longer arms than anyone else. We wear big coats and I think it pulls on our arms a bit, like Shaggy and Scooby Doo. The Patron Saints of Manchester”.
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Alexis Petridis, Guardian head rock and pop critic “Oasis’ July 2000 concert at Wembley Stadium was either a disaster or a hilarious, utterly fascinating psychodrama. A heroically pissed off Liam treated the song merely as a distraction from delivering an angry, surreal monologue, changing lyrics – “I’m feeling supersonic… I’m Bruce Forsyth” – and protesting at length about his recent divorce in middle of songs. Best line, to a busty fan: “put your shirt back on, Tarzan.”
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The following three tweets, posted consecutively between August 24 and 27, 2022: “BUMBACLARTS”. “GUINS”. “GUINNESS and a lot of fucking for Bumbaclarts”. “All the world’s a stage” … Liam Gallagher. Photo: Cathal McNaughton/PA
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Tess Parks “One of the most important and formative memories of my life was seeing Oasis live for the first time at the age of 11 in Toronto, and I managed to see Oasis about 16 times before they broke up. When I was 21 I was working at The Old Blue Last in London and Liam came in to watch the LA show. I really didn’t want to be at work that day and then I walked in and Liam was there. He said he actually remembered meeting me when I was a kid in Toronto and I told him how much I hated this job and wanted to be a singer, like him, and he said, “All the…
