Getting High (47 page)

That night was also when more battle-lines started being drawn up and the tension between the brothers became truly palpable.

It began when Noel played Liam both ‘Wonderwall' and ‘Don't Look Back In Anger' and told him he had to make a choice as to which song he wanted to sing: ‘Because, believe me, I'm taking lead vocal on one of these tunes.'

According to Owen, Noel wanted to sing ‘Wonderwall', which makes perfect sense. He had written the song with Meg in mind. It was the only way he knew to properly express his love for her, with the song detailing her struggle to find work but celebrating her ability to bounce back against the odds.

‘So we finished 'Wonderwall”,' Owen continues, ‘and Liam's, “Right, I'm singing that one.” And he did a blinding vocal, a brilliant vocal.'

Then it was on to ‘Champagne Supernova', the intended centre-piece of the album. Again, the music was put down at an astonishing pace, Noel recording something like twenty different guitar parts in one day. But the vocals weren't right. Liam's voice was now starting to strain for the notes.

‘He had been singing for three days,' Owen notes, ‘And he'd also started drinking quite heavily.'

They moved on, sweet irony, to ‘Don't Look Back In Anger'.

It was Friday night now and sleeve designer Brian Cannon arrived to celebrate Owen's imminent birthday, 13 May, the next day.

The music for ‘Don't Look Back in Anger' was recorded that night and then Noel, Owen and Brian got utterly wasted. They finished up about three the next afternoon, so Saturday was ruled out.

The others didn't care too much. Guigsy had brought along various items to while away the hours. These included air rifles and a cricket bat.

On Sunday, Noel went back to the studio to put down his vocal and Liam went off to the pub. He was now intensely annoyed and frustrated. At this juncture, he was surplus to Oasis's requirements, and that hurt.

At the pub, he was instantly recognised and started drinking heavily. Owen and Noel were back in the studio and Owen recalls getting aggressive drunken phonecalls from Liam, going, ‘You old wankers, come on, I'll get you later on.' So there was aggro in the air.

Alan was at the pub with Liam. ‘Then we came back and I went down to the studio to see Noel,' he remembers, “'cos I wanted to see how everything was going. And then we came back after about an hour and a half to the house and the place was mobbed with hundreds of kids. Liam had invited everyone back.'

Noel took one look at the scene and exploded with rage. he ordered everyone to leave, insulting a girl who Liam wanted to stay. That seriously upset the singer who now started upending tables, chairs, plants, anything he could get his hands on.

Absolute mayhem broke out. Guigsy was threatening to punch out a guy who had walked into his bedroom, Bonehead and Alan had grabbed the air rifles so that Liam couldn't get to them, and objects were flying everywhere as people departed. One girl locked herself in Alan's room, frightened to death.

‘When Liam loses it,' Owen points out, ‘it's scary.'

That night Liam lost control and lashed out at everyone and everything around him. Among other things, he headed for the studio, determined to smash up Noel's guitars. He was frustrated by iron bars on the windows and heavy doors that were firmly locked.

According to Owen, he later traded punches with Bonehead.

At some point, he also started in on Noel, who promptly picked up the small cricket bat that Guigsy had bought and started viciously smashing his brother with it.

After he was finished, Noel went back to his room, but Liam wasn't finished. He then tried to kick down Noel's door, badly hurting his foot in the process. It was a ground-floor room so Noel climbed out of the window, came round the front, and asked if anyone could drive.

‘I said, I can drive,' Alan recalls. ‘And Noel said, “Right, take me home.” So I got in the car with him, didn't even get anything, just the keys out of my pocket.'

Liam, now realising what was happening rushed out on to the drive as Alan's car started to move away and started chucking heavy black plastic rubbish bins at them, the dustbins bouncing off the bonnet.

In that one night, Liam had vented all his anger and pain, and had done so on the people closest to him. For Noel, it must have been like watching his father again.

In the car on the way back to London, sensing that Noel had calmed down a bit, Alan said, ‘Fucking hell, I didn't realise I had joined The Troggs.' That put a smile on Noel's lips, but in reality he was deeply worried by his brother.

‘Later, in the car,' Alan reveals, ‘Noel was saying that he couldn't believe Liam could do such a thing. He [Noel] was freaking out, saying, “I don't want to do this anymore, I just can't be arsed. I'm gonna fuck off and do my own thing.” I thought great, I've only just joined and it's back to the dole.'

So Noel Gallagher quit the band for the second time in eighteen months. It was typical Oasis. In a week they had gone from an absolute high to a crashing low. It was as if they couldn't do anything without some kind of turbulence to validate their actions.

‘It's the worst one I've seen,' Alan says, ‘and I'm quite sure it's probably the worst any of them have seen because it was horrible. Some of it was funny, but at the end of the day it wasn't very nice at all.'

Noel retreated to his flat in London, and Brian took Liam over to Wigan to chill him out. The next day at the studio, Owen and the rest of the band received a call from Marcus Russell telling them to pack their bags. Noel had left the band.

Incredibly, the damage to the room wasn't too bad. After Guigsy had cleaned up, the result was a door off its hinges, a smashed television, the table was wrecked and so was the drinks machine. The studio had seen it all before. They billed the band for the damage.

Meanwhile, Noel spent some of the week alone in his Camden flat. Meg had gone off on holiday to Portugal and he was left pondering his future while feeling both guilty and worried by his brother's outburst and their subsequent fight. They had fought before but he had never ever seen Liam so violent. It worried the shit out of him.

Meg returned on the day that Go! Discs held a party to celebrate the release of Paul Weller's
Stanley Road
album.

Paul had agreed to play a set prior to the party at the Nomis rehearsal studio where he keeps an office. Noel showed up with a tape of the songs they had recorded and played them to Weller and his band before the gig started. ‘Don't Look Back In Anger' and ‘Champagne Supernova' were instantly singled out for praise.

After the mini-gig everyone went over to the album launch where Meg, who was unaware of what had happened, had arranged to meet Noel.

‘When I came over,' she recalls, ‘He grabbed me and hugged me, and I was going, “Tell me you love me, I haven't seen you for ages.” He was going, “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” but I could see in his eyes that something was up.

‘Then we went home and he was pacing the flat and I let him pace around for a bit and then he told me what he'd done to his brother and it was like a massive kick in the teeth to him that had affected him really badly.

‘It really fucked him up. He was so gutted at what he'd done to Liam. The next day he got word that Liam was all right, but he was still thinking, I've kicked the shit out of my own flesh and blood.'

On the day that Everton beat Manchester United in the 1995 Cup Final, Noel took off to Guernsey to meet Meg who had invited him over to a family reunion. Two hours before he left the flat, Meg called and said, ‘Don't bring anything with you. When I told customs you were coming over they searched everything.'

But Noel wasn't too interested in bringing cocaine anyway. He had more pressing things to think about. Like, should he really leave Oasis, and what was to become of Liam?

After staying in Guernsey, he and Meg then travelled to Jersey where he played her a tape of the songs, including ‘Wonderwall'.

Meg suspected it might be about her but didn't like to ask. She only found out for sure when Noel revealed all in the interviews he undertook to support the album.

That was a good couple of months later.

While Noel was in Jersey, Marcus called Owen and asked him to go back into the studio and mix the songs already laid down. Owen complied and worked on ‘Roll With It' and ‘Hello'.

‘They were shit mixes,' he states, ‘I was properly not in the mood.'

At the start of the fourth week, Marcus rang him again. Good news. Noel was thinking of coming back. Soon after, Liam showed up at the studio. He and Owen spent their time going to the pub, the singer insisting that the band wasn't finished but doing so in a very low-key way.

Liam now says, ‘I was a cunt, he was a cunt, and it had to be dealt with. That's all.'

One by one the rest of the band returned to the studio, and a chastened Liam apologised to them all. But there was still no sign of Noel. Then on the Sunday, casual as you like, as they were eating their roast dinner, Noel walked in.

‘The same thing as in Austin, Texas,' Owen recalls. ‘Liam's like, “Hi, brother, I fucked up, I'm sorry.” Noel's like, “You dickhead”. Then he gave him a Beatles' belt that he had bought him.'

Now, they had two weeks left to finish the album.

‘I can't remember what order we did things in that week,' Owen says. ‘But we did, “Morning Glory', “Hey Now”, “She's Electric”, “Bonehead's Bank Holiday”, “Step Out”, which didn't go on the album, and “Cast No Shadow”.'

Noel had started to write this last song on the train back to Rockfield. The train had drawn to a halt under a bridge, so Noel got out his guitar and started writing a song about the nature of songwriting. As ever, the music came quickly, but he was still working on the words when he and Liam went in to record it.

‘It was the only time I've seen Noel and Liam stood together in the studio,' Owen recalls. ‘Noel was still writing the words as Liam was singing it and they were both stood there really close to each other. Liam would sing and then Noel would say “Hang on”, and then change the words and say, “Okay, sing this”. It was beautiful and Liam's vocal on that song is amazing. Liam is fantastic vocally, he's got a real soul to him.'

As ever, music had healed and brought the brothers together.

Noel also cut a solo version of the song written by Lennon, ‘You've Got To Hide Your Love Away', and late at night, alone with Owen in the studio, he would run through some of his unrecorded pieces, tunes he was saving for the right time, the right album.

‘I've got endless DAT tapes of Noel's songs,' Owen says. ‘I've got about twenty to thirty songs that have never been out, and they're all outrageous songs and he's progressing, the songs are getting deeper and deeper.'

The last album track recorded at Rockfield was ‘Swamp Song', a tune that would be inserted at various point throughout the album, Noel probably getting the idea from Paul Weller's
Wildwood
album.

But they couldn't use the mix.

‘Noel started too fast again,' sighs Owen glumly.

News of Tony McCarroll's sacking was swiftly reported by all the media. MTV news added that Oasis had also turned down proposed support slots for both Bon Jovi and David Bowie, but would support REM at their Huddersfield show on 25 July. Oasis later pulled out of that one as well.

‘The Bon Jovi show,' Noel was quoted as saying, ‘It's not worth the humiliation, and as far as David Bowie goes, twenty years ago maybe, but not now. He's an old git.'

Noel now spent his time mixing
Morning Glory
with Owen Morris in the Orinoco Studios in South London. During these sessions, which went smoothly, Weller arrived to play lead guitar and add backing vocals to ‘Champagne Supernova'. he also contributed harmonica and guitar to ‘Swamp Song'.

‘I noticed a harmonica in his bag,' Noel reported, ‘and said to him, “What key is it in?” He said, “D.” I said, “Right into the studio, we've got a song here for you.”'

Noel had originally entitled this track ‘The Jam', but now with Weller playing on it, he thought the title too corny, and changed it to ‘Swamp Song'. Later on, Paul told him he should have kept the original title. It was far funnier.

On ‘Supernova', Weller's expressive guitar solo ends just as a deliberate Beatles-style backing chant of ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah' enters. Meanwhile, Noel sat at the mixing desk and weaved these elements into the fabric of his own song. It wouldn't be the last time that such connections would be made.

In early June that year, both Oasis and Weller were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize Best Album Of The Year award. Neither would win, the prize instead going to the Portishead album
Dummy
.

Meanwhile, in an astute piece of marketing, Creation offered all six Oasis singles on a three-for-£10 basis. It was also revealed that sales for both ‘Whatever' and ‘Some Might Say' had now reached a quarter of a million.

Pop music was big business again. In the early 1990s, the industry had hit a slump. Only the introduction of CDs into the market, allowing companies to re-sell their back catalogue, had managed to disguise the impending crisis. Most pundits pointed to the rapid growth of computer games as proof positive that pop no longer swayed the young.

Sega over songs, Gameboy over gigs. But it was a bad call. By 1995 the UK music industry wasn't only reporting their best domestic figures ever, but the success of Oasis, Bush and perennial artists such as The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton, gave the business over £1.25 billion in overseas sales. If nothing else, it was desirable once more to be in a band. Music really mattered again.

‘That's all I want from this,' Noel recently commented. ‘If Oasis means that five years after we've finished there's 1,000 new bands out there, then we've done our job.'