William John Paul Gallagher (born September 21, 1972, Longsight, Manchester) is the lead vocalist for Britpop band Oasis. He is famous for his erratic behaviour, distinctive singing style and abrasive attitude. Although his brother Noel Gallagher writes the majority of the band's songs, in recent years Liam has increasingly developed himself as a songwriter, and has contributed songs for the most recent albums of the band.
Despite differing opinions on his antics, Liam was one of the figureheads of the britpop movement in the 1990s and remains one of the most recognisable and charismatic characters in modern British music.
[Noel & Liam]
(1972-1993) Childhood and early years
Liam was born in 1972, to Irish parents Tommy and Peggy Gallagher. He is the youngest of three sons, his brothers being Paul (b. 11th January 1966) and Noel (b. 29th May 1967), to whom he is affectionately known as "our kid". When Gallagher was a child, he was often called "Peggy's Shadow" as he regularly clung to his mother, or "The Weetabix Kid" due to his fondness of the breakfast cereal. Tommy was an alcoholic and was often violently abusive to his family. As the youngest family member, Liam took the abuse paticularly badly. At the age of 14, Peggy took the boys and moved away from Tommy. Noel Gallagher claims they left him with "nothing but the carpets".
Liam, a big fan of football, supports Manchester City and Glasgow Celtic.
Paul and Noel often contend that even from a young age, Gallagher had gone out of his way to antagonise people, especially Noel, with whom he shared a room. When he was around 8 years old, he went through a stage in which he claimed that he hated music and would often insult people walking down the street with guitars in their hands. Noel has made much of the fact that at the point he was becoming quite proficient with guitars. Because they shared a bedroom, they often fought with each other. The Gallagher brothers were regular truants and in their teens were often in trouble with the police - they allegedly broke into cars and courtyards, stealing bicycles, clothes and lawn-mowers, which they sold for cannabis.
Brothers Paul and Noel claim that, as a child, Liam had never really shown an interest in music aside from a period in which he liked rap. Indeed, Gallagher admits he did not care about music until he was eighteen when he went to see a benefit gig for AIDS awareness at the "International Two" club in Manchester. Though James were headlining, it was The Stone Roses who caught Gallagher's attention (in fact the band forged posters and delayed their set so it would appear they were headlining). By sheer coincidence, Noel was also in the crowd. Gallagher was captivated and began listening to other bands like The Beatles, The Kinks, The Jam and T.Rex, forging a life-long obsession with John Lennon, which would later lead to him claiming he was Lennon re-incarnated. However, when the Stone Roses failed to follow up their eponymous debut album, Gallagher became frustrated and decided he wanted to form a band and when school friend Paul McGuigan, nicknamed Guigsy, invited Gallagher to join his band, "The Rain" as a vocalist, he was pleased to offered his services. When he joined, he suggested the band's name be changed from "The Rain" (which was the name of a Beatles b-side) to "Oasis".
Gallagher became the band's co-song writer, along with Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs (who was the also band's guitarist). Noel Gallagher has since openly mocked this writing partnership, whose output was not strong. The band only rehearsed one day a week and didn't get many gigs. It was after one of their rare gigs in 1992, that Noel, having recently returned from touring America as a roadie with the Inspiral Carpets, saw them perform. He was highly critical of his younger brother's band, describing them as "utter shite". However, Liam had realised the potential of his brother's songwriting skills and asked him to join. Noel agreed on the condition that he was given complete control of the band and wrote all of their songs.
(1994-1998) Rock & Roll
Under Noel's guidance, Oasis acquired a record contract and recorded the album Definitely Maybe, which became the fastest selling British debut album ever. Gallagher was praised for his vocal contributions to the album, and his presence made Oasis a popular live act. However, his attitude also won him much attention from the British tabloid press who often ran stories concerning his alleged drug use and sexual promiscuity. Various reports for his sexual life surfaced in the media and some female fans complained that after concerts, Liam, drunk or under the influence of cocaine, tried to verbally and sexually assault them.[citation needed] It was also around this time that Gallagher met his longterm girlfriend Patsy Kensit. The two shared a turbulent relationship and were regularly unfaithful to one another.[citation needed]
During their first American tour in 1994, Gallagher took to changing the words of Noel's songs so that they were offensive to both Americans and Noel. A confrontation after the show led to a chair being thrown and Noel leaving the tour and heading for Las Vegas (the song "Talk Tonight" is supposedly about the events that led Noel to rejoining the band). During recording sessions for Oasis second album (What's The Story) Morning Glory? they had a violent fight involving a cricket bat, when a drunken Liam invited everyone from a local pub back into the studio whilst Noel was trying to work. Also in 1995, drummer Tony McCaroll was asked to leave Oasis after an alleged fight with Gallagher.
Oasis' second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory? was even more successful, becoming the second-best selling album in British history. Around this time, Oasis became embroiled in a well documented media fuelled fued with fellow britpop band Blur. The differing styles of the bands now leading the Britpop movement - Oasis a gritty, working class, northern band and Blur an art-rock, middle class, southern band - made them natural rivals. Whilst Noel was the most vitriolic of the band (famously telling The Observer that he hoped Damon Albarn and Alex James would "catch AIDS and die"), Liam played along, with the Gallaghers taunting Blur at the 1996 Brit Awards by singing a rendition of "Parklife" when they collected their "Best British Band" award, with Liam changing the lyrics to "Shite-life". At the same ceremony, Oasis received the award from Michael Hutchence, prompting Noel Gallagher to declare "has-beens shouldnt be presenting awards to gonna-bes".
On Monday, 14 August, 1995, Blur and Oasis released new singles on the same day, setting up a "Battle of the Bands" that dominated the week's music news. Blur's "Country House" outsold Morning Glory's second single, "Roll With It" 274,000 copies to 216,000 during the week.
When Oasis played "Roll With It" on British chart show Top of the Pops they were forced to mime. The Gallagher brothers used the opportunity to switch roles with Liam pretending to play guitar, while Noel pretended to sing (equipped with Liam's tambourine). The set ended with the band erupting in laughter at the Gallagher's impressions of each other.
The success of Oasis and his newfound fame and fortune were not lost on Gallagher and both he and his brother became famous for their "rock and roll lifestyle". They drank heavily, abused drugs, fought fans, critics and each other and made celebrity friends such as Ian Brown and Richard Ashcroft.
In March 1996, a British newspaper paid Thomas Gallagher to go to the Gallagher's hotel during a tour. Noel left for his room, but Liam took the opportunity to confront his father and threaten him, leading to a two page story in the newspaper, with the headline "I thought Liam would kill me".
Also in 1996 Oasis sold out two nights at Knebworth, playing to over 250,000 fans. These shows represented the largest crowds ever to see a single act in British history, a feat only topped by Robbie Williams' three night gig at the same venue some years later. However, tension mounted between the Gallaghers when Liam backed out on Oasis' MTV Unplugged set minutes before it was due to start. Noel was forced to fill in at the last minute. Liam claimed to have been struck down with a "sore throat" and that he doesn't like performing acoustically, though Noel claims he was hungover. Noel was further angered when Liam proceeded to heckle him from the balcony while the band performed. Four days later, Noel was again forced to fill in for Liam on the first gig of their American tour when Gallagher refused to travel to America with the rest of the band, claiming he needed time to buy a house. He was back on stage with Oasis for their next show three days later, but tension between Noel and the rest of Oasis mounted and on 11 September Noel left the tour, causing many to question the future of the band.
In January 1997, Blur released the first single from their self titled fifth album. The title of the song, "Beetlebum", and to a certain extent the lyric, is said to be a stab at Gallagher, for his over-idolising The Beatles.
