Noel Gallagher: Liam Attacked Me With Guitar

Liam Gallagher with Noel Gallagher behind, sneering

Michel Linssen/Redferns

Former Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher has filed a series of claims against his brother and former bandmate Liam, accusing him of abusive and irresponsible behavior prior to the band breaking up in 2009. These claims counter charges from Liam accusing his brother of slandering his name after the band scrapped a headlining performance at the V Festival that year.

According to a 14-page writ acquired by the Daily Mail, the elder Gallagher is accusing Liam of disrupting gigs at least 12 times over between 1994 and 2005, aggravating a throat condition with unhealthy lifestyle decisions, attacking fans and leaving "offensive voicemail messages" on his brother's phone. In one particularly shocking passage, Liam is accused of entering Noel's dressing room, snatching his guitar, swinging it around and nearly hitting his brother in the face with the instrument.

In addition to these complaints, Noel clarifies that he never spoke to Liam about his clothing line Pretty Green, but insisted that the products not be advertised in the band's tour brochure. He also mentions that he believed that Liam was being "spiteful and childish" by dedicating songs to Pretty Green employees during gigs.

Related
• Liam Gallagher Open to Oasis Reunion
• Noel Gallagher on Mumford & Sons, Radiohead and His Brother
• Noel Gallagher: 'I'm Not Technically Proficient Enough to Attempt All Kinds of Music'
• Liam Gallagher Sues His Brother Over Oasis Split

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter