Oasis compared themselves to The Beatles in the way that a crazy person would convince you that they are the reincarnation of Napoleon or Jesus Christ. But the bold statement didn’t get them locked up or banned from ever visiting Liverpool. It made them Britain’s most successful group of the 90s. Yes, some people hate Oasis with a passion.
Fair is fair; I have championed the Oasis cause often on Alt77, even when I was number 300.459 in a queue to get tickets to a reunion that true fans of the Gallagher brothers know may end up in the brothers breaking guitars over each other’s head.
But the voices of discontent are nearly as loud as Liam and Noel’s backstage arguments. This is why it is vital to look today at the reasons why some people vehemently hate Oasis.
Getting Out of Manchester by Any Means Necessary
The only thing that Noel Gallagher hated more than former Champions League champions Manchester United was the city that they were from. This was also the city in which Noel and brother Liam had been born and raised.
Part of an Irish family, young Noel never saw the charm of walking on rain-soaked streets, carrying books of Oscar Wilde under his shoulder and listening to The Smiths. In fact, Gallagher described the city as “grey walls and a chippy.”
His opinion may have changed now that the city has seen massive infrastructure investments and Manchester City is running things in the Premier League and European competitions. But during the 90s, getting out of Manchester was vital.
Noel Gallagher settled on music as the vehicle to free him from Northern England. He auditioned for the singing position in The Inspiral Carpets but got so far as being their roadie. Later, he usurped bother Liam Gallagher’s influence over his hopeless band of school chums.
He announced that he’d be managing, writing their songs and getting them in a van to play at the local pub. The lads were confused but delighted to have the interest of such a well-travelled man.
Noel kept his promise. For the next few years, they played the same pub mercilessly while Noel wrote a handful of songs. The future looked bleak.
Oasis’ Tendency to Recycle Songs
But Noel Gallagher could chat his way into a seat in Parliament if needed. In 1993, those skills were finally put to good use when Oasis blagged their way into playing the third slot of a Glasgow pub gig.
The set included only a handful of songs and fewer attendees, but they impressed a highly inebriated Alan McGee, a man responsible for nearly every band in the U.K. on whom the distinction of “cool” could be cast. His Creation Records had released albums by Primal Scream, my bloody valentine, or Jesus & Mary Chain.
The drunken Scotsman demanded to speak to Oasis’ manager. Noel pointed to himself. The drunken man asked if the band had more songs like those four that he’d just heard. Noel lied and told him they had loads. The drunken promised they’d make a record.
The pressure was now on to come up with the tunes. But Noel Gallagher had always talked of “The Masterplan” to his bandmates, and for once, the predictions were coming true. The first step of it was to round up his favourite records. Armed with such ammunition, he would fashion his hit parade.
Wouldn’t the authors of the originals sue? They would, and they did. But dreams of having enough money to pay the lawyers off were still some distance away. Luxury problems would need to wait.
Besides, the pub gigs had taught Oasis a few things. You needed a cool-looking singer, and they had that in Liam. You needed a simple, muscular sound based on simple guitar chords and they had that too. And you needed songs that football hooligans could chant. They’d soon have those.
“Definitely Maybe” was the fastest-selling debut album in British music history. Most new fans were excited. Some new listeners weren’t and called Oasis rip-offs.
To his credit, Noel Gallagher never denied this unless he was facing a court judge. “Shakermaker” was the Coke song “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.” “Supersonic” lifted the melody from George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord.” “Cigarettes & Alcohol” blatantly ripped off the riff from “Get it On” by Marc Bolan & T-Rex.
Every other part whose origin you couldn’t name probably came from a reinterpretation of a song by The Beatles.
The Gallaghers’ Arrogance
Now, the Gallaghers earnestly adored The Beatles. Hearing Oasis didn’t leave much doubt of that. But by the release of the band’s debut, “Definitely Maybe”, they could see other similarities as well.
Oasis was just as good as The Beatles, maybe better. That was according to the Gallaghers. What did the surviving Beatles think? Paul McCartney was diplomatic, as per usual, and said he liked how he’d probably inspired the song “Slide Away.” George Harrison was more direct and said that if he’d been referred to as “The Quiet One,” Liam was surely “The Stupid One”. I wonder what John Lennon would’ve said.
The Gallaghers talked of their greatness to anyone who would listen. Noel said that people like Paul Weller and Johnny Marr, his great mates, secretly envied him because none made debut albums as good as his.
Every interview Oasis gave seemed to verge on drunken confrontation. The band members told reporters that they were, without a doubt, the greatest band in the world and were ready to smack in the mouth anyone who said otherwise.
Every interview the Gallaghers gave outside of Britain had to be dubbed and bleeped. Apart from Ozzy Osbourne, the modern Britons’ stumbling words are more famous.
Violence spread out into the band’s backstage activities, as well. Resembling a bunch of English football hooligans, the drunken band members were ejected from a ferry to Amsterdam. Noel and Liam physically fought, and the former frequently quit the band mid-tour. And one of their rambling arguments became a hit when it was released on record.
For now, a war was brewing, and the British press had started it. They dubbed it The War of Britpop. With so many great bands to choose from, the press opted to zero in on Blur and Oasis and their dislike of each other.
The war would be settled through record sales. Blur outsold Oasis in the short run, giving everyone who hated Oasis a reason to cheer. In the long term, though, it would be the working-class band earning more success than the private-school-educated Blur.
Diminishing Returns
But the party couldn’t last forever. Just like fellow Mancunians, The Stone Roses, Oasis was also about to wind up the world in expectation only to let them down.
Oasis’ second album “What’s the Story (Morning Glory)” was a colossal hit. Onwards and upwards, right? Everyone thought so, including Noel Gallagher, now traversing a cocaine stupor. It had made recording a new album a tense and paranoid affair. On one occasion a cricket bat was broken over Liam’s back, allegedly.
Millions bought “Be Here Now” on release day. Millions sent it back or sold in the used records bin.
It wasn’t exactly that all the songs were bad. They weren’t. But, just a few years into their career, Oasis sounded like the classic rock bands they’d picked a fight with earlier.
Guitar solos ran for minutes. Every single composition Noel had around made its way onto the album. And this didn’t sound like a groovy party no more, but the morning hours of one where the drunken cocaine addicts refuse to go home.
Oasis may have been familiar to millions still. But, according to their numerous critics, every single album released from this point onward was a step on down the ladder of success.
Everywhere outside of Great Britain, crowds got smaller. Liam’s voice got croakier. Critics said he yelled more than he sang now. That was a shame because his untrained singing had truly been great.
And songs got darker, too. There were no new ones about wanting to be a rock star and spending the evening drinking and smoking cigs. These were middle-aged crisis songs. The football hooligans understood them. They just didn’t want to chant them.
Famous Haters of Oasis
A lot of famous contemporaries of the band absolutely think Oasis sucks. Success is what creates haters, the Gallaghers would say to defend themselves.
Leaving my personal feelings aside, I’ll need to remind listeners of the so-called Battle of Britpop which Oasis, in the short term, lost to Blur. Damon Albarn once compared the Mancunians to a choir of plumbers.
However, some had called Oasis a mix of Sex Pistols and The Beatles. The Sex Pistols‘ singer Johnny “Rotten” Lydon wasn’t one of those people. He called Oasis a bunch of “karaoke Beatles.”
Michael Stipe called them arrogant, and the Gallaghers were quick to say he was right. In fact, they’d be seeing R.E.M. and all the other artsy, sensitive bands back in the charts.
Noel Gallagher dubbed fellow English pop star Robbie Williams “just a fat dancer.” Williams said that the Gallaghers treated everyone in the music industry with disrespect. Upon news of the reunion of Oasis in 2025, Williams said that he expects a great show from Liam and that, yes, Noel will also be standing on the stage.
By the 2000s, a new generation of indie-rock bands had stolen Oasis’ thunder. One of the artsier propositions was Franz Ferdinand. Singer Alex Kapranos insisted that younger musicians shouldn’t cover Oasis songs because they are “so dull.” So much for learning “Wonderwall.”
Further forward, rappers like Jay-Z and Eminem, hearing of Noel’s disdain for hip-hop music, dissed Oasis publicly. This, however, won’t make their walks down Manchester streets any safer.
Finally, when Noel Gallagher called Coldplay “bedwetters’ music,” Chris Martin responded by… complimenting Oasis and asking the brothers to perform live with them. Chris Martin doesn’t get into arguments with anyone, and maybe he should occasionally.
A Fabled Reunion Leaves Hundreds of Thousands Waiting for Overpriced Tickets
Oasis split up in brilliant fashion and as expected when Liam nearly broke a guitar over his brother’s head. That began a period of non-communication that lasted 15 years.
During this time, those who hated Oasis were treated to not just one album every few years, but multiple releases by Noel Gallagher & the Flying Birds, Liam Gallagher, Beady Eye, a reconvened version of Ride etc.
In September 2024, after many hilarious insults launched through the press over the past 15 years, Liam and Noel Gallagher announced that they’d reunite Oasis.
Reunion tickets for no more than 12 dates were put on sale. The demand was gigantic. It was soon made apparent that nobody had thought this through or assumed such interest.
Within minutes of the tickets going on sale, the Ticketmaster site tasked with selling them had crashed. Hours later, the servers announced queues of hundreds of thousands who wished to see Oasis perform live in England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales.
The Ticketmaster site, taking advantage of this, opted to introduce dynamic pricing. Those who could get a ticket often paid three times its original value.
How about those who wanted to sell it for a profit? They might’ve been able to get thousands of pounds for their tickets, but Ticketmaster announced that all tickets resold through third-party sites would be declared void.
I was happy to wait in the queue and disappointed not to get a ticket. I’m that kind of sentimental fool. My friends who aren’t merely asked me why I’d want to spend thousands of pounds on a band whose singer can’t produce the same vocals, whose guitarist is easily replaceable, and who will probably break up before they hit the stage at their first reunion show. Well, some people hate Oasis, but I am not one of them.
Since you’re here, take a look at our Spotify playlist of songs I wish Oasis would play during the reunion. Feel free to subscribe to our excellent Spotify playlists!
