Brotherly Love
Manchester Returns to Normal as Liam and Noel Gallagher Trade Insults
Liam Gallagher has renewed his war of words with his brother Noel, accusing him of insensitivity after the Manchester bombing. But is Liam using the tragedy to promote himself?
In a reassuring sign that Manchester is returning to normal after the bomb attack there three weeks ago, the Gallagher brothers are at each other’s throats again.
Liam Gallagher, the onetime frontman of Oasis who performed at the One Love gig, used social media to slam his brother Noel for not showing up at the event. But Noel’s camp has now hit back with stories appearing in the press accusing Liam of demanding a private jet to fly him to the gig and using the event—and the controversy—to promote his rather unexciting new solo single, “Wall of Glass.”
In a series of vitriolic tweets earlier this week, Liam, not apparently feeding into the positive energies of the occasion, slammed his brother for not breaking off a foreign holiday to perform.
Liam has been blatantly using the long-simmering feud with his brother to generate publicity for his new work, calling his brother a “cunt” in a recent interview.
A picture of the Noel nursing a glass of rosé wine on a speedboat in Italy, where he is celebrating his 50th birthday, is doing the rounds on social media, and Liam was among the first to pile in.
“Noel’s out of the fucking country, weren’t we all love, get on a fucking plane and play your tunes for the kids you sad fuck,” wrote Liam in one angry message directed at his brother.
Liam performed “Don’t Look Back in Anger” with Chris Martin of Coldplay instead of his brother.
Martin has also come in for criticism from Noel’s camp, who have accused him of mendacious two-facedness after he posted a message saying, “Thank you @noelgallagher for giving your blessing and encouragement to play Don’t Look Back In Anger and Live Forever on Sunday.”
Martin added: “Everyone knew in advance you couldn’t be there physically, so thank you for being there in spirit.”
However, The Sun says Wednesday that Noel feels he has been “thrown under the bus by Chris” as he was never invited to attend the gig in the first place (although, let’s be honest, one phone call and he’d have been guest of honor).
“From the outside, Chris looks like the nice guy who’s stepped in to replace Noel for the Oasis reunion,” the source told The Sun, adding, “Not once did he publicly clarify why Noel wasn’t there.”
In an apparent effort to quietly rebut Liam’s hate-filled messages, Noel simply retweeted a story that said he was donating all new royalties from “Don’t Look Back in Anger” to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund.
Noel was far from the only Manchester icon not to attend. Johnny Marr, the Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays, Morrissey… the list goes on.
In a recent interview, when asked if he regrets any of his abrasive comments about his brother in the past, Liam replied: “No. Not at fucking all. I think he’s had it easy off me. It’s only sticks and stones, they won’t break his bones. Wait till I bump into the cunt. Everything I say is the fucking truth. I’ve not even dug that deep yet.
“I don’t know what world he lives in, and I wouldn’t want to live in it, believe you me, because it seems very bland, naff, and contrived and just... ‘What? He’s like the new Robbie Williams or something.’ It’s fucking weird.”