The story of two brothers

Childassault. Glue sniffing. Thefts. Cocaine. Street fights.
Brother Liam and Noel Gallaghers lives are a brutal story.
A story about a cruel father which they learned to hate.
But also a story about music as an oasis to run to, as a way out from the
pain.
The band has just started playing. The audience cheers. Noel is standing bent over
his guitar and plays the chords resolutely. In comes Liam swaggering, walks to the
front of the stage and stares out to the crowd as if he have met a fighter on the
street. The eyes says: "Give up, or I kick the shit out of you".
He stands there for a second, bitter, with his arms hanging beside him. Challenging.
In just one pose he shows the whole bands attitude.
An attitude that says: "Ok, we stand here and we play the best fucking rock music
and you should be damn happy that you even get the chance to listen."
It´s Oasis more than anything else.
It´s the Gallagher brothers against the world.
An attitude brought, gradually built, and totally logical if you look back on the
brothers roots. I am thinking about their youth in Manchester. A childhood that in
sharp contrast to todays journey of succes can be told as a truelly Cinderella story.
Although rawer than Disney´s. More chary.

Let us start from the beginning...
Noel David Thomas Gallagher was born on May the 29th 1967 in Burnage,
Manchester, England. He was the Irish Peggy Gallaghers second son.
Big brother Paul was then 16 months old. Peggy was a proud and happy mother, but
an un- happy wife.
The cause: Thomas "Tommy" Gallagher. Her husband.
"When I look back I can´s see what was good with Thomas Gallagher. He was
stingy. And he had a bad temper. Just before we were getting married he showed
his bad side, but then it was too late to cancel it all. I got married on March the
27th 1965", writes Peggy Gallagher in the biography:
"Brothers -from childhood to Oasis - the real story".
And sure, the marriage became disasterous. The Irish Thomas Gallagher had a
temper that soon started resulting in bruises and broken furniture. But Peggy
recieved and remained silent, because talking about a divorse was out of the
quesiton. Catholic irishmen got married and lived with it. End of story.

Thomas Gallagher worked with his construction firm, came home and ate, then went
out and partied. Some nights a week he was a DJ at different irish bars. The money
he got was his. And the children were just weight on his shoulders.
Peggy Gallagher: "Paul and Noel grew up without really knowing their father, they
were scared for him. If they cried, he hit them."
And if it wasn´t just slaps, it was with his fists.
"He hit them right in the face, on their mouths, he didn´t care. And he kicked them
with his boots on. And if they didn´t wanted to finsih their dinner, he forced it in
them. He pushed it down their throats. If they stuttered, he hit them." As a matter
of fact he literally tried to punsh the stuttering out of them. A thing that just made
it worse. It was after 4 years at an speech therapist that they finally got rid of it.
Brother Paul and Noel Gallagher learned to hate their father.
William John Paul Gallagher was born on September the 21th 1972. Liam, as he was
going to be called, had eczema and psoriasis and cried 24 hours a day for months.
Something that almost teased father Thomas to death.
Peggy Gallagher: "I had to take the bus to the doctors with new born Liam. Thomas
took the car and went to work, passed us at the bus stop without even looking at us.
He never gave his wife and child a ride."

When Liam was four years old, Peggy tried to end the marriage. She hired
lawyers but Thomas Gallagher refused to leave the house.
He kicked in the door if she locked it. Cut the telephone line and threatened to kill
her if she called the police. A devistating game that continued for years.
And little Liam, that wasn´t going to school yet, watched. Saw how the assault got
worse and mother Peggy´s situation more desperate.
Peggy Gallagher: "It went so far that Noel said to me that if we didn´t move he
would soon kill his father."

1984 took Peggy and the sons the final step. In secret she arranged a new house.
They moved when Thomas was out rumbeling, when he got home they were all gone.
The hell was over.
But Noel and Liam were marked for the rest of their lives.
Peggy Gallagher: "Their father left alot after him. Noel got silent and inwards.
And Liam got instable and messy. He was a pig in school, to say the least."
Young Liam carried on a very big need to get heard, to be seen. And he surely did
get seen.
He coloured his hair yellow, got sent home from school.
He pierced his ears and starting using ear rings, got sent home from school.
He came to school without his uniform, got sent home from school.
He beat three guys from another school after that they had beaten him bloody with
a hammer - and now he got expelled from school.
But mother Peggy managed yet again convience the headmaster not to expell the son.
And this time it went well, Liam went his last semester without any fights. Maybe
Liam had gotten the importance. Maybe he didn´t wanted to cause any more trouble
for his mom.

Musically Liam had fallen for hip hop. He learned breakdance. And he sang. Though
several attempts he never had the patience to learn any instrument. But the voice
was there. Peggy Gallagher: "He sang for his life on full volume on the stereo on his
room. "Turn that damn music down." I screamed. But he continued..."
After school Liam got a job as a caretaker, but that became short. When they asked
him to clean the toilets he turned his shoes and left.
"He always said to me, "Don´t worry mom, some day I will be famous, I will do
something big, I can feel it in my body." I told him to stop fantasising and get a job.
The older brother Noels escape roads became three: drugs, violence and thefts.
Opposite to Liam he turned his frustration inwards. He showed nothing. Just
emained silent. And took out his frustration on none Manchester City fans.
With his fists.
Noel Gallagher: "I lost all the trust in adults, authorities, like my father. He told
me to not hookey and steal stuff, then he went and beat up mom.
I mean: "Hello! Is there anybody home???"
The young Gallagher got sentenced for several break- ins and more or less
meaningless thefts. It could be some pocket money or some smoke in the store
around the corner.
Noel Gallagher: "I don´t understand how we could manage to do any thefts at all,
we were all stoned when we did it. We always sniffed glue before doing it. So
usually we were totally helpless, fumbeling, staggering..."

At one point Noel and a couple of friends got the genius idea to steal the milk
truck. A gang stoned guys in school uniforms in a milk truck with 20000 milk
bottles.
Noel Gallagher: "Suddenly it occured to us: "what should we have a milk truck
for?" And "Oh, isn´t that a police car?"
We tried, but we just couldn´t run. We fell. Giggeling. It must be the easiest
arrest a police man have done."
13 years old, goes Noel to his first ever rock concert. The Damned on Apollo in
Manchester. It becomes an overwhelming experience for Noel. The door to music
opens seriously. Here was the engery, the power, the force.
Noel got Dr Martens boots, a leather jacket and the "fuck you" attitude. The punk
fitted perfectly. It said all that he never had gotten the chance to say.
But the first song Noel Gallagher learned to play on his guitar was far away from
punk. It was the Animals House Of The Rising Sun.
Noel Gallagher: "I remember playing it for around two years. Until I could play it
through without any problems."
The guitar playing showed Noel that music could be more than just time killing.
Through his brother Pauls record collection he found the more poppier The Smiths.
A band he learned to love, for the melodies, for the lyrics.
Noel started slowly trying to write his own songs.
During this time Madchester was going on. Rave was born. Ecstasy was the new
popular drug. Noel was drown to the club Hacienda house by curiousity and
fascination of what he saw. The dance, the rythms, the drugs and the euforic feeling.
Ecstasy was the strongest drug he have ever tested.
Noel became an eager visitor to the rave clubs. During one period he even put away
the guitar. The rythms were more exciting.
Noel Gallagher: "We got arrested in Leeds by the police. We were four guys in a
truck on the way to a rave. We were stoned and had ecstasy and cocaine in the car.
We got busted. There were many in the jail, some from Happy Mondays were there.
And local DJ´s."
Noel just had to pay some fine.

He returned to the pop music, just to discover that Manchester had become a new
musical Mekka. On May 29th 1988 Stone Roses were playing on International Two.
Noel Gallagher was there, high on speed.
A guy in the crowd beside him stood and bootleged the concert, Noel went to him,
asked for a copy of the tape afterwards. The guy was Graham Lambert, guitarist in
Inspiral Carpets. They exchanged phone numbers.
Shortly after, Inspiral Carpets kicked their singer Stephen Holt, Noel wasn´t to
soon to suggest himself as the new front figure. He was invited to an auditon. But...
Graham Lambert: "We didn´t think his voice was powerful enough."
Noel Gallagher: "I couldn´t sing back then, so I didn´t get the job."
In May 1989 Inspiral Carpets hired Noel Gallagher anyway, as a roadie. Noel took
the chance, taking in everything he saw. Learned to play the drums and keyboards.
The touring fitted him perfectly, even if he was just on the side.
During the Inspiral Carpets USA tour 1991 is Noel reached by the news that Liam
has joined a group called the Rain, back home in Manchester. And that they have
changed the name to Oasis on Liams demands.
"Oasis is a better name than fucking Rain", as Liam so powerful have said.
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean is Noel sitting in an hotel room scratching
his head: Little brother having an own band!?
On the 18th August 1991 are Oasis playing on Boardwalk in Manchester. It´s their
first nervously live apperance. Noel is standing in the audience, just back from US.
He goes backstage after the concert and starts to yell at Liam due to the fact that
they sucked.
"Join the band and show that you can better then", yells Liam in defence.

A month later is Noel a member of the band, they starts to rehears Noels new
written song Live Forever.
The same song that gets the record company Creation Records boss Alan McGee on
the 9th August 1993 to call Noel from a sunny beach in Honolulu and scream:
"Noel! This song is absolutely fantastic. It´s a classic." Noel shakes his head and
looks out of the window at a rainy Manchester. Is the guy high or is he serious?
Eleven weeks later, Friday the 22th October, signs Noel, Liam and the rest of
Oasis a contract on six albums with Creation Records.
The Gallaghers brothers have fulfilled their own dreams.
And Thomas Gallaghers fists can no longer reach them.

                                                                        Written by Ronny Olovsson,
                                                 journalist on the swedish newspaper Aftonbladet

Translated to english by the webmaster, Mikael
*Due to this being first on swedish and then translated into
english can the quotes of Noel, Liam and Peggy not be word
by word exact. Live with it.