DISGRACELAND - Oasis Pt. 2: The Biggest Band on the Planet, Britop, Private Islands, A Drowning Rolls-Royce, Liam and Noel Off Their T*ts and at Each Other’s Throats

Episode Date: April 13, 2021

Oasis were the biggest band on the planet for a moment. They famously warred with Britpop rivals Blur, and the Brothers Gallagher feuded with each other in public and came to blows numerous times behind closed doors. The success of their massively popular second album skyrocketed the band to international fame and brought unwanted, intense pressure from the British tabloids, causing frontman Liam Gallagher to slide into a drunken stupor that would threaten to break up the band and distract Noel Gallagher from doing what he did best: write songs. All of the dysfunction, humor, hedonism and hooliganism that is Oasis comes to a head in this, the second part of the Oasis saga. This episode was originally published on April 13, 2021. To see the full list of contributors, see the show notes at ⁠www.disgracelandpod.com⁠. To listen to Disgraceland ad free and get access to a monthly exclusive episode, weekly bonus content and more, become a Disgraceland All Access member at ⁠disgracelandpod.com/membership⁠. Visit ⁠www.disgracelandpod.com/merch⁠ to see the latest Disgraceland merch! Sign up for our newsletter and get the inside dirt on events, merch and other awesomeness - ⁠GET THE NEWSLETTER⁠ Follow Jake and DISGRACELAND: ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠X⁠ (formerly Twitter)  ⁠Facebook Fan Group  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is exactly right. Double Elvis. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed. I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends.

Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This season on Dear Chelsea with me, Chelsea Handler, we have some fantastic guests like Amelia Clark. When like young people come up to me and they want to be an actor or whatever. My first thing is always, can you think of anything else that you can do? Rather be disappointed in. Do that.

David O'Yellowo. I love this podcast, whether it's therapy or relationships or religion or sex or addiction or you just go straight for the guts. Dennis Leary, Gaten Matarazzo from Stranger Things, Tana Monsu, Camilla Morone, Carrie Kenny Silver, and more. Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Movies can make you feel, make you dream. Sometimes they even make you appreciate architecture. Is there anybody who's been hotter in a doorway than Elizabeth Taylor? That's the kind of analysis you'll find every week on Dear Movies I Love You, the new podcast from the Exactly Right Network. Every Tuesday, we break down the films we're crushing on, from blockbusters to deep cuts. Listen to Dear Movies I Love You on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Disgrace Land is a production of Double Elvis. Oasis, their beginnings as a band, their commitment to becoming the greatest rock and roll band the world has ever seen. and the relationship between Noel and Liam Gallagher is so complex that two episodes were needed to properly tell this story. If you're just getting hip to this now, I suggest you hit pause and go back to Disgraceland, episode 73, or part one of the Oasis story, where we discuss the influence of Manchester,

football, and house music on Noel Gallagher's songwriting, as well as a riotous lunch in Munich, the band's breakthrough album in first trek across the pond to the United States. In this episode, we get into the band's explosion of international fame with the release of their second album and deeper into the rivalry between Noel and Liam Gallagher, as well as the rivalry between Oasis and Blur, and of course, more drugs, more alcohol, more British tabloid pressure, and more dysfunction and hilarity from the Brothers Gallagher.

We also, of course, get into the music oasis created, music that made fans across the world quote unquote, mad for it. Great music. Unlike that music I played for you at the top of the show, that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my Melotron called Big Bag of Charlie MK2. I played you that loop

because I can't afford the rights to fantasy by Mariah Carey. And why would I play you that specific slice of Tom Tom Genius cheese could I afford it? Because that was the number one song in America on October 2nd, 1995. And that was the day that Oasis's second album, What's the Story Morning Glory, was released,

making them, for a time anyway, the biggest band on the planet. A goal they set out to achieve back in their Manchester Council Flat days and that had come true a mere four years later. On this episode, sibling rivalry, pop star tabloid gold, a waning commitment,

big bags of Charlie and the biggest band on the planet. Oasis. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is disgrace land. Their set was so dismal. The band were the type of wasted, where it doesn't matter how hard you try, your efforts are no good. It didn't help matters that Liam Gallagher kept retreating to the back of the stage to snort more lines of crystal meth to keep him going. Not only was Oasis wasted, their crew was wasted, just as high and just as sleep-deprived unmetz as members of the band, save for Noel Gallagher, who was in slightly better shaped than the rest of them. Whichever member of the road crew wrote out the set list that night fucked up royally. Different set lists with a different sequence of songs to be played were distributed

to each band member. What happened was disastrous. Oasis, while on stage for the first time in America at the hallowed Whiskey-a-Go-Go-Go Club in Los Angeles, California, hailed by the UK press and their record label as the second coming of the Beatles, the next great English act since the Sex Pistols, supposed greatness incarnate, in front of a crowd of rabid fans, tastemakers, journalists, and record company executives were so high on crystal meth

that individual band members were literally performing different songs at the same time. It was a mess. The crowd was perplexed, if not pissed. Noel Gallagher was definitely pissed. He couldn't believe what his brother Liam was turning in, on stage, complete rubbish of a performance. Noel glared at him.

It was embarrassing. Liam caught that Big Brother smugness and was having none of it. He launched his tambourines straight at Noel on stage to signal to him that he was in no mood for his shit. Didn't matter if they were. The band lasted a couple more songs and mercifully left the stage. When they were odd, that's when the real spark started flying. The brothers had to physically be held apart from killing each other.

Noel was apoplectic, Liam was oblivious, anger, ignorance, two sides of the same coin spinning off the rails. Noel lost it and temporarily quit the band. He split to San Francisco, and then to Vegas and resurfaced in Austin, where the band was waiting for a previously scheduled recording session before resuming their American tour in Minneapolis. From there, once reconciled, after making the band feel the fear of not having the older, wiser brother in the picture, OASIS recommitted themselves and turned in a hell of a debut tour, laying waste to small the medium-sized rock clubs all over the country. By the time they finished the tour at Wetlands in New York City

to another pack club of American scenesters, tastemakers, journalists, and record executives, the band were on their game and the dust-up on stage in L.A. only served to add to the growing myth around them. Here was a true rock and roll band, capable of blowing your mind in one moment and blowing it all up in the other. You never knew what you were going to get, which made Oasis all the more appealing.

On the plane home, Liam read the press. He didn't get it. It was all portrayed as some sort of plan, some sort of preconceived thing. Oasis's rise to rock-stardom. He knew in his gut that it wasn't. It was just the way things were supposed to be because of the way they were, the way they'd always been.

It was at least the way he'd always been. Manchester, England, during the time Liam and Noel Gallagher were growing up in the 70s and 80s was bleak. A manufacturing town, with its best days behind it, the unemployment and crime rates soared. In the council estate or public housing, where the Gallagher's grew up, raised by their single mom with their violent absentee dad in the mix for a portion of time. Life was far from ideal. It was a hand-to-mouth, hard-scrabble life at best. And Liam hated school. What was the point? University wasn't in the works, and there were no jobs.

It was the dole and the dole alone. Cue up, sign on. In the meantime, there was weed, lots of it. Music, the Beatles, the Beatles, and more Beatles. Liam wasn't entirely unconvinced that John Lennon wasn't living inside of his body. There were girls, pretty boy that he was, he'd never had a hard time with the birds. Fighting, he was ready for it, always. He would not take any shit from anyone, not even his older brother Noel, who at the time Liam was navigating his teenage years

was off sniffing glue to get high and robbing houses to get by. And of course, football. Manchester City, of course. Like everyone in his family, Liam was a supporter. But not so loyal that after getting expelled from school at the age of 15, he wouldn't stoop to making extra cash working for Man City's cross-town rivals Manchester United. Liam served as a valet, parking cars for the players,

and along with Oasis's first drummer Tony McKeever, Carol, the two got up to executing serious payback for any and all man's city losses to United by taking a wirewell brush to the car of United player Paul Ince and stealing the door off the car of another player, it was the hooligan in him naturally finding its way out. Same as the music, the desire to sing, the realization that singing, that music offered him some sort of path forward, towards something other than the dole and crime, and that his mates, fellow hooligans, Quigsey, Bonehead, and McCarroll,

had the same intentions and had the same music in them as well. Once this became clear to Liam Gallagher, there was only one thing to do, become the greatest rock and roll frontman the world had ever seen. So that's exactly what he made. There's two golden rules that any man should live by.

Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never, mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends, oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care, so they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he just

Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your husband is not who you think he is. Your body is not what you thought it was. Your identity is formed by a secret history. I'm Danny Shapiro. And these are just a few of the stunning stories I'll be exploring on the 14th season of family secrets.

And just then, we felt the plain turn in the air. so much so that the bags that were under people's seats just kind of flew into the aisle. Each week, we dive headfirst into the complex power of secrecy, how it shapes our identities and relationships, and how it ultimately can reveal to us our truest selves. My daughter, she's pretending she doesn't know, but is trying to cook and feed me and keep me alive because I wasn't eating anything, and me pretending like everything was fine.

He kind of shoved me out of the way and said, move. And he went out the front door and he jumped in a car and drove off, and that was the last time I saw him. Listen to season 14 of Family Secrets, starting May 7th, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This season on Dear Chelsea, with me, Chelsea Handler, we have some fantastic guests like Amelia Clark. When, like, young people come up to me and they want to be an actor or whatever,

my first thing is always, can you think of anything else that you can do? You'd rather be disappointed in. Do that. Dennis Leary. I wake up and I'm hitting him in the head with a water bomb. And Bruce Jenner is on the aisle in a karate stance like he's about to attack me. Like making karate noises. And his entire the Kardashians family over there, everybody's going.

And the air marshal is trying to grab my arms and screaming. I immediately know that I've been asleep walking. David O'Yello-O. I love this podcast, whether it's therapy or relationships or relationships or religion or sex or addiction or you just go straight for the guts. Guy Branham. So anyway, Nicole Kidman broke up with Keith Thurban. Being half of a country couple was always a hat she was going to wear,

not like a life she was going to lead. Oh, interesting. I like that. Did you practice that on your way over? Gaten Moderato from Stranger Things. Tena, Mongeau, Camilla Morone, Carrie Kenny Silver, and more. Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Britain loves their pop stars.

They don't have a Hollywood gossip about, so musicians, along with the royals, are natural tabloid fodder. The British press loves pitting pop stars against one another. It sells newspapers, not to mention records. And frankly, makes everything loads more entertaining. And really isn't that why we're all in this in the first place? To be entertained if for nothing else? Nobody is plucking serious words of wisdom from Noel Gallagher's lyrics. We're in it for the gas.

And in 1995, there were no bigger pop stars in Britain than Oasis in Blur. Following the success of their debut, definitely maybe. Oasis had achieved even greater heights with their follow-up. What's the story, Morning Glory? For Oasis, their second album did for them what they'd known was a certainty. Made them, for a minute anyway. The biggest rock and roll band on the planet. That shine would last longer and burn hotter for more than a minute in England, though.

The Gallagher Brothers' commitment was paying off. What's the Story Morning Glory sold a record-breaking 347,000 copies in its first week. It went to number one on the UK charts and stayed there for 10 weeks. It went to number four on the U.S. charts and did for Oasis what so many other British bands had failed to do. Crossed the band over to mainstream success in America. The singles, Champagne Supernova and Wonderwall went to number one in the States, whereas Wonderwall only made it to number two in the UK alongside Roll with it. Though don't look back in anger and some might say,

both hit the coveted number one spot in the UK, and the band was on a tear. At the same time, the British band Blur was on their own high-flying trajectory, at least in the UK. Like Oasis, Blur was well acquainted with the concept of hit singles, And like What's the Story Morning Glory, Blur's 1994 album Park Life debuted at number one and featured four wildly infectious UK hit singles, Girls and Boys, End of a Century, to the end in the title track, Park Life.

Number one albums and hit singles are about where the similarities between Blur and Oasis end. Despite each being thought of as two parts of the same Brit Pop movement, they are vastly different groups, opposites really. Blur were at the vanguard of the newly coined Britpop genre, a genre that unabashedly celebrated with a well-placed winked or nod, all things British. Rather than picking up the snark and snarl of Britain's two most famous rock and roll Johns, Miser's Lennon and Rotten as Oasis did,

Blur took their cues from the kinks in XTC, two bands that were decidedly more niche comparatively to the Beatles and the sex pistols. In short, they were way more British. Blur's Damon Alburn vibed on the kinks are the village green preservation society album and used it as a jumping off point for what would become known as Britpot

by crafting indelible and infectious English character studies in his lyrics much as Ray Davies had done with the kinks prior. The approach suited Alburn and his bandmate Graham Coxson. Both were students at Essex Stanway School. Oasis were anything but studious. Liam was expelled.

Noel got into whatever Hooligan Antion. would help them pass the time. Blur were from the south, London, Oasis from the north, Manchester, Blur were Britpop, Oasis were rock and roll. Blur were a bit safe, you'd take them home to mum. Oasis were straight up, dangerous, bruisers. You wouldn't leave them in the same room with your mom, or your girl, or anyone really.

It was Beatles and Stones all over, and Britain ate it up. Other so-called Britpop band, Swade, pulp, they had their fans, and they mattered, sure, but compared to Blur and Oasis, they were also-rans. As far as Oasis were concerned, they were all also-rans. What the fuck was Britpop anyways? Oasis were a rock-and-roll band, one of the greatest rock-and-roll bands of all time. Problem with that?

Damon Alburn of Blur did indeed have a problem with that. With the rivalry firmly in place, the quote-unquote Battle of Britpop was on in 1995, with Blur and Oasis set to release competing singles on the same day. How both megabands bended up with competing singles set to be released simultaneously is still a hotly contested debate. But signs point to Alburn, sneakily orchestrating the coinciding releases, despite the fact that pitting singles against one another on the same day as a practice normally avoided by the music industry because it hamper sales. Didn't matter. Damon Alburn, like the Brothers Gallagher, knew how to drum up good press.

And nothing stoked the knights of the keyboard more than competing pop stars with highly-induced. anticipated singles from highly anticipated forthcoming albums, Park Life, and What's the Story Morning Glory? The chart battle was on. On August 14, 1995, Blur was set to release the single Country House. Oasis were set to release the single, Woolwind. N.M.E. dubbed the Showdown, the British Heavyweight Championship. It was North versus South, Upper Middle Class versus Lower Working Class, Students versus hooligans, mods versus rockers, Beatles versus stones, Chelsea versus Manchester City, Blur versus Oasis.

Blur reigns supreme. Country House sold 274,000 copies to Oasis's role with it, which sold 216,000 colorpiece. Oasis dismissed Blur as Chas and Dave chimney sweep music. Blur called the Gallagher Brothers band Oasis Quo. No Gallagher then brought a blowtorch to a knife fight and said publicly that he'd Hope Damon and Alex a blur would, quote, catch AIDS and die. At the Brit Awards, a couple months later in early 1996, the entire British music scene waited for sparks to fly between the two warring Brit pop bands,

and they weren't disappointed. Upon accepting the award for Best Album, members of Oasis wasted at the podium said they'd like to thank all the people, so many people, and then busted into an infest to an infest, impromptu Acapela version of Blur's park life at the mic, ending instead with the lyric, shite life. Liam Gallagher then proceeded to roll around on the stage attempting to sodomize

himself with his Brit Award. Oasis won three awards that night, beating out Blur who won none. Oasis also broke through in America a feat Blur wouldn't achieve until 1997 with the release of their fifth album, the self-titled Blur, a year later. And to do so, Blur would have to take a different, decidedly more American approach to their songwriting, leaning as much on the pixies and pavement for influence as they would the kinks in XTC. Whereas OASIS continued to dominate on both sides of the pond over the next few years by being, well, themselves, a glorious fucking mess in conquering England in the process. And that's spring, Oasis announced they would be performing two shows at Nedworth House

in Hedfordshire in August. The two shows sold out in minutes, approximately, approximately two and a half million people applied for tickets. Roughly 4% of the UK's total population. The gigs were the highlight in Oasis's career, which to that point was filled with highlights. They performed to 125,000 people each night, a total of a quarter million people.

To that point, the largest outdoor shows in Britain's history. It was clear. Blur may have won the Battle of Rip-Pod, but Oasis won the war, a war that was about to result in serious casualties. We'll be right back after this world, word, word. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl.

You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends, Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me?

The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe.

On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your husband is not who you think he is. Your body is not what you thought it was. Your identity is formed by a secret history. I'm Danny Shapiro. And these are just a few of the stunning stories I'll be exploring on the 14th season of Family Secrets. And just then, we felt the plain turn in the air,

so much so that the bags that were under people's seats just kind of flew into the aisle. Each week, we dive head first into the complex power of secrecy, how it shapes our identities and relationships, and how it ultimately can reveal to us our truest selves. My daughter, she's pretending she doesn't know, but is trying to cook and feed me and keep me alive because I wasn't eating anything,

and me pretending like everything was fine. He kind of shoved me out of the way and said, move. And he went out the front door, and he jumped in a car and drove off, and that was the last time I saw him. Listen to season 14 of Family Secrets, starting May 7th on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you.

you get your podcasts. This season on Dear Chelsea, with me, Chelsea Handler, we have some fantastic guests like Amelia Clark. When like young people come up to me and they want to be an act or whatever, and my first thing is always, can you think of anything else that you can do? Rather be disappointed in. Do that. Dennis Leary.

I wake up and I'm hitting him in the head with a water bomb. And Bruce Jenner is on the aisle in a karate stance like he's. He's about to attack me, like, making karate noises. And his entire the Kardashian family over there, everybody's going, and the air marshal is trying to grab my arms and screaming. I immediately know that I've been asleep walking. David O'Yellowo. I love this podcast, whether it's therapy or relationships or religion or sex or addiction

or you just go straight for the guts. Guy Branham. So anyway, Nicole Kidman broke up with Keith Thurban. Being half of a country couple was always a hat she was going to wear, not like a life she was going to lead. Oh, interesting. I like that. Did you practice that on your way over? Gaten Matarazzo from Stranger Things. Tena Monsu. Camilla Morone, Carrie Kenny Silver, and more. Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Nebworth made the band fucking legends cemented their names in glory and though the shows were the highest of highs hearing 125,000 people singing back every single word of Wonderwall full-throated, fucking committed so much so that the band

needn't even sing their parts was a trip to end all trips. But despite the adoration, the records flying off the shells, the songs themselves becoming their own British, national anthems, it was time to get back to work. That meant another American tour, the taping of some American TV specials for MTV, and then down to the serious business of making a follow-up album to What's the Story Morning

Glory. And it wasn't going to be easy. While Noel Gallagher was concentrating on putting together the songs that he had the unenviable task of trying to outdo the staggering success of the band's previous record with, his brother Liam Gallagher was sliding off. He was sliding off of the rails with his and the band's growing fame. Liam's commitment to his idealized chaotic vision of rock stardom was absolute. And the British tabloids were more than happy to binge on the feast of paparazzi fodder he provided. Earlier in the year, he was caught partying with the married and soon to be divorced Patsy Kansett, star of Lethal Weapon 2 and lead singer of 8th Wonder.

The two began a whirlwind or more accurately put hurricane romance. They stayed up all night, wore matching outfits out in public, lovebirds to a tea, but the rush of that loving feeling did nothing to slow down Liam's hooligan behavior. Patsy, starry-eyed as she was, looked the other way when Liam climbed onto the runway at a fashion show and called Mick Jagger a fucking dinosaur. She even let Liam get away with classic rock star womanizing on the road. But the endless stream of distractions from the actual music was grinding on Noel's nerves and fueling a growing rivalry between the Gallagher brothers.

In 95, the leaked audio from a print interview with NME made the rounds under the title, Whibbling Rivalry, exposing the clash between brothers for the world to see. As the interviewer asked about the band's growing reputation as rock star animals, Liam embraced their notoriety as just another part of the gig. But Noel called him out, citing the Amsterdam fight and describing Liam for preferring to be a football hooligan to an actual musician. Liam fired back, claiming Noel was just jealous because he was in bed fucking reading your fucking books.

Noel dragged Liam for costing the band of fine of a thousand pounds each, to which Liam responded, you can stick your thousand pounds right up your fucking arst till it comes out your fucking big toe. From that point on, even as their fame exploded, Oasis lived under the shadow of the public tensions between the brothers. Liam reveled in the attention. The irony was that the clash between he and Noel was because they were both so damned committed, to their own visions of what rock stardom was, that neither could give the other an inch. For Noel, it was about the music.

For Liam, it was about the lifestyle, the party. And in the week leading up to August 23, 1996, an oasis's planned televised MTV unplugged performance. For Liam Gallagher, the party did not end. Rehearsals began earlier in the week under tight security. The plan was for no distractions. Put in work, get it right. Liam showed up the first dance.

smashed, green shirt, green shorts. He barked out a couple tunes, pointed to his throat mid-song as if to say, I have no voice, and walked out. The band literally did not miss a beat. They kept playing with Noel singing Liam's parts. The next day at rehearsal, Liam showed up smashed again, and again in the same green shirt and green shorts. As the band got into it, backed by full horn and string sections,

Noel doing his damnedest to adapt the band's otherwise stripped down wall of sound into an acoustic performance with added orchestral elements, Liam again drunkenly barked into the microphone. By now, the television production crew on hand was getting nervous. Liam did nothing to quell their fears when he walked out of rehearsal for a second day in a row. Noel picked up his little brother slack again on the band continued rehearsal. The next day, the day before the gig, Liam made the scene and had replaced his drunk with a hangover and once more had no voice to sing with.

Still in the same green shirt and green shorts unshaven, his hair long and magy and far from camera ready, he gave a brief try at the mic and quickly bailed. The band, the crew, the TV production folks were counting on Noel to once again step up. And of course he did. August 23rd, 1996, the day of the show, London's Royal Festival Hall, MTV Unplugged. By 96, the program was already iconic, given the legendary performances turned in by the Living Music icons of the day, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen among them. The format called for the artist to turn in acoustic, stripped down, unplugged versions of their songs in an intimate setting, which for Oasis, who at the time were turning out shows for crowds of upwards of 100,000 people, was an interesting

proposition for their fans, particularly those who couldn't score tickets to Nebworth or to their legendary gig at Main Road or whichever other football stadium they were filling. With MTV on plugs, even if an Oasis fan couldn't make the gig in person, they could watch on television with millions of other fans across the globe, not just in the UK. For American fans of the band, the prospect of the show was especially exciting. I know because I was one of them.

Anticipation was high. Noel and the rest of the band, with the exception to Liam, of course, knew what was up. That day, while the band and crew set up in sound check, the same thing was on everyone's mind. Will Liam show up and be able to sing? He made it to soundcheck, still drunk, still on the same green shirt and the same green shorts with the same unshaven mug and the same mangy hair, and after pissing off some drunken drivel into the microphone during soundcheck,

the same excuse about not having a voice. Showtime. Ladies and gentlemen, Oasis. The band, All But Liam, walk on stage, ready to hit. Noel seated on a stool with an acoustic guitar on his lap in place of his usual Gibson remarks into the mic. Liam ain't going to be with us tonight, because he's got a sore throat, so you're stuck with the ugly form. He then launches into the band's opener, Hello. The song is an occasion for the band to get acclimated and for the audience to do so as well.

This is new. Oasis sounds Liam. New for the masses, perhaps, but not for the band or for diehards who'd seen Noel pull this trick before. Replacing his sauced brother on stage on vocals at gigs was long part of Oasis lore, but never with the stakes so high on television on such a big stage. And never with Noel trying to wrangle the band through a novel performance, having to replace the power of the band's distorted guitars with orchestral elements. And by the time the band kicks into the second song, some might say, complete with swelling B3 organ in a new heavy Northern soul riff to make the song work in the unplugged format.

Noel is fully delivering as the band's frontman. His commitment to his songs is, obvious and infectious. The rest of the band and the rest of the side men and women on stage are swept up in Noel's vibe. He's a different kind of cool than his cool as fuck little brother. More John Lennon than Johnny Rotten, and though Liam's voice is incomparable, Noel is bringing something different to the performance with his vocal. It's rough and it hues the songs into something new and unquestionably exciting. You can hear the songs as they were written and you can see with Noel behind the mic with your own eyes, the commitment that went into

crafting them. These are his songs, and he'll be damned if they're going to be held hostage by his brother or anyone else. By the time some might say hits the second verse, Noel Gallagher is in full hero mode, not in an overt James Bond kind of way, more laid back, far more Carrie Grant than Clint Eastwood. And as far as performances go, it is, as Noel would say, fucking brilliant. With millions of tuned-in people watching on television, and one turned-off person watching in the studio audience, hiding behind the cangle on his head and the pint of Guinness in his hand, pulling on it between drags of his smoke, no doubt to remedy his ailing voice, right? There, high above the stage in the balcony, the television camera cues in on Liam Gallagher,

still wasting, and not at home nursing his throat or sleeping off his drunk, which were the supposed reasons he was missing the gig, but at the gig, in the audience, incredibly drinking and smoking and heckling his brother and the rest of the band from his scene. See, fucking brilliant indeed, and a sign of much worse. By the time Noel Rap don't look back in anger at the MTV Unplug show, with the crowd firmly in his grasp, he looked up to Liam, clowning drunk in the balcony, and with a smirk, Noel asked Liam on the mic in front of everyone. You all right?

Total Big Brother move. As it to say, I care, but fuck's sake, I really don't need to now, do I? Look how well I'm pulling this shit off without you. The MTV on Plug Show, between the drama and the performance, went down as an instant classic, but there was no looking back. It was time for Oasis to hit the road, to America, do some shows, and then double back to England to begin recording their next album. When it came time for their flight to depart Heathrow,

Liam suddenly, and without warning, made a quick exit, explaining that he'd forgotten that he needed to go house shopping with his new wife, Patsy, and thus would not be able to make the tour. So the tour went on without him. Live commitments were honored with Noel on lead vocals for the first few shows. Liam then caught up with the band in Manhattan for a disaster's run of shows, where the frontman was either disinterested or too wasted on stage and quickly becoming a mockery of himself.

In Buffalo, Noel had had enough, and the two came to blows, hailing fist to the other's faces before being torn apart. And the gig was canceled that night, and so was the rest of the tour. The band returned to London, the tour cancellation, and the violent drama surrounding it was front page. news back home. Oasis decided, the only cure was to head straight into the studio to get their new record done and to work out their problems through song.

They booked time at Abbey Road Studios, fully aware that the last song the Beatles recorded in that space before breaking up was, I, me, my. The album, the band's third, was completed by spring of 1997 in Surrey at Ridge Farm Studios. Noel was calling it Be Here Now, but before it could be released, there is the matter of an album cover to shoot. In typical oasis fashion, the plan was to take their rightful seat at the table of Rock's giants. Their host for the afternoon was the spirit of the who's Keith Moon, who had long ago fulfilled his band's Hope I Die Before I Get Old Prophecy, and in doing so, had secured his own destructive legend. Moon had a knack for destroying, well, most anything, but most notably,

very expensive luxury automobiles by sinking them in a swimming pool for the fuck of it. And that was the inspiration for the album's cover. Noel had the old mansion rented, some swinging 70s Londoner with ties to the Playboy Empire owned it. It was perfect. It screamed hedonism and was an ideal rock and roll backdrop. Photographer Michael Spencer Jones went to town on props and laid them out around the backyard's swimming pool.

A clock with no arms, dolly-esque, beattel-esque, either-or, didn't matter, look cool. A scooter, quadrophenia, Czech, more random objects, a massive globe with Noel on the other end of an antique telescope staring at it from inches away. A shagodelic television set. Some well-placed, disinterested band members, Liam at the forefront, and then the money shot. The crane was steady, a beast of a machine, totally out of place in the backyard of the mansion.

It distributed its power judiciously as it lowered the $100,000 Rolls-Roy's ghost into the swimming pool. An homage to Keith Moon for sure, but Noel took it a step further and had the license plate switch to match the numbers of the license plate on the police wagon on the cover of the Beatles Abbey Road. The massive car was placed just so by the crane into the pool, submerged in water. Sunk. Do I even need to complete the metaphor?

You get it, right? Oasis's third album, Be Here Now, was by any measure a success, but it still failed to sell as much as what's the story Morning Glory. Noel claimed the album to be his party record, much as its cover suggests. It was written while he was vacationing on a private island with Kate Moss, Johnny Depp, Mick Jagger, and Jerry Hall, and has explained that the album can only be fully enjoyed with, quote, a crate of beer and a bag of fucking Charlie. To this day, fans love it, but Noel claims that it doesn't stand up,

and that he should know because he, quote, wrote the fucking thing and knows how much effort he put into it. He was, for the most part high when he wrote it, and avoiding the shit-show reality that his band had become in the frayed relationship with his brother. And Noel, just as his brother had, led his commitment to the music slip. That's the reason the album doesn't stack up,

and it's also the reason no OASIS album since has come close to the glory of those first two records. Noel Gallagher credits Oasis fans by saying that it wasn't him that made his songs great, and it wasn't the band that made their performances great. It was the commitment of the first. fans, the fans who bought those records, who wore those songs out, who committed them to memory and sang them back at Noel, his brother Liam and their bandmates on stage after they forked

over their hard-earned cash to see Oasis fill out their local football club stadiums. Noel didn't make the songs great, Noel didn't make Oasis great, and Liam for shit, sure, didn't either. No, as Noel Gallagher has said, it was the fans' commitment to Oasis that made them great. And once the band let go of their famous commitment to the music, their boastful commitment to themselves, their commitment to being the greatest fucking rock and roll band ever, they dried up and they faded away,

which is, of course, a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by yours truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on the show notes page at disgracelandpod.com. If you're listening as a disgrace land all-access member, thank you for supporting

the show. We really appreciate it. And if not, you can become a member right now by going to disgracelandpod.com slash membership. Members can listen to every episode of disgrace land ad-free. Plus, you'll get one brand new exclusive episode every month.

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Rock a roll. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed. I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that.

Trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This season on Dear Chelsea, with me, Chelsea Handler, we have some fantastic guests like Amelia Clark. When, like, young people come up to me

and they want to be an actor or whatever. My first thing is always, can you think of anything else that you can do? You'd rather be disappointed in. Do that. David O'Yelloo. I love this podcast, whether it's therapy or relationships or religion or sex or addiction or you just go straight for the guts. Dennis Leary, Gaten Moderato from Stranger Things, Tana Mangeau, Camilla Morone, Carrie Kenny Silver, and more.

Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just like great shoes, great books take you places. Through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance, it gives me this feeling of like butterflies. I'm Danielle Robay, and this is bookmarked by Reese's Book Club from Hello Sunshine and IHeart Podcast, where we dive into the stories that shape us on the page and off. Each week I'm joined by authors, celebs, book talk stars, and more. for conversations that will make you laugh, cry,

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