He knew Noel Gallagher before Oasis had even formed, and his book on the band is now a number one best-seller. This is John Robb’s verdict on the spectacular comeback of the band
08:24, 19 Jul 2025Updated 08:41, 19 Jul 2025
Noel Gallagher with John Robb at Mr Sifter’s in 2024. John has written a new book about Oasis, called Live Forever, the Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Oasis(Image: John Robb)
Writer and rocker John Robb knew Noel Gallagher before even a note had been struck in the Oasis songbook, bumping into him out and about watching gigs as a “music nerd” around Manchester in the late 80s and early 90s.
John was there when Noel would go on to join brother Liam on stage, watching the earliest gigs of Oasis before their supersonic rise to fame, before it all imploded in 2009 amid the bitter fallout between the seething siblings.
And it was John’s interview with Noel last year, back at Mr Sifter’s record shop in Burnage, where Noel’s conciliatory comments about Liam teased the first signs that an Oasis comeback was about to explode into the world.
Their huge reunion has sparked unprecedented levels of interest in the band, and led to John now writing his own book about the band’s history that has shot to the top of the music book charts.
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And now that John has watched the Oasis Live 25 show – on two consecutive nights at Heaton Park in Manchester at the weekend – he reckons there’s only one big problem for the rebooted band.
John says: “Oasis ’25 are a band at the peak of their game. Stripped away of being a phenomenon, never have they sounded better.
“The three guitar line up is a powerhouse and Liam’s vocals are the best I’ve ever heard them.
“They could have got away with a singalong but they want to leave with their best ever version…the only problem they have now is how do they put the breaks on this?”
Oasis have made a triumphant return(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
John has a very good point. The momentum continues to build here in Manchester, at times feeling like the entire world has been watching what Liam, Noel, Bonehead and co have been up to on stage.
And after their final two gigs at the weekend they will march on to the capital for five hugely anticipated Wembley gigs.
But recalling how it all started for the band, John believes the reason they’ve retained their hold over their fans is the universal themes of the music.
He says: “It’s brlliant how they’ve transcended the generations. They’re eternal songs – they’re songs about escape from a crap life really. About that dream.
“I know they’re not politicial, but there’s a pop politic to that, one of the greatest things that music does is providing an escape and making you feel bigger than you are. Rock ‘n’ Roll Star is a fantastic song isn’t it – when you hear that, it’s like every kid, from every part of Manchester, going to town on a Saturday night and they feel like a rock ‘n’ roll star.
“They’ve got their best shirt on, they’re off their heads, the boys chase the girls, the girls chase the boys, for about 18 months in your life you feel like that – before you have to get responsible and grown up.
“That moment lives forever – and that’s what’s great about them – their songs did make you feel like you can live forever, and when you’re a teenager, the band that soundtracks that will live with you forever.
“They’re such eternal themes that teeangers listening to those records now can go ‘wow I feel that as well’.”
Noel Gallagher and Liam Gallagher of Oasis, at a photoshoot in a hotel in Tokyo, September 1994(Image: Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images)
John, frontman and bassist of punk bands The Membranes and Goldblade, first encountered Noel when “he was just this guy who turned up at gigs in Manchester.”
Known as the “Manchester 50” it would be the same 50 people going to every gig in Manchester – or at least that’s how it felt for those in that group.
John laughs: “It sounds really VIP but it wasn’t, it was just 50 music nerds who went to everything. There was only about three venues back then and about four gigs a week so everywhere you’d go you’d see the same people.
“It wasn’t like a big deal, I’d just say to Noel what have you seen this week where are you going next week, music conversations really.”
Noel then began to work as a roadie with The Inspiral Carpets, while partying at the Hacienda and then heading on to the “kitchen party” raves in Hulme which John says: “was like the maddest scene ever, two flats knocked together with a sledgehammer where the rave went on for another 30 hours in the old Hulme when it was all a bit crazy”.
But what John said is most incredible about Noel, and the Oasis story, is the songwriter’s single-minded belief in where the band was heading.
(Image: Joshua Halling/ Big Brother Recordings)
John says: “With Oasis for the first year and a half it was just Noel, it was his vision of what the band should be, and the first two albums, that’s his vision – he’d come up with all that in a bedroom in a council house in Burnage.
“I think some people are just born with talent. Noel is one of the smartest people I’ve met, and I’ve met thousands of people, but he’s also really savvy and smart and he knows exactly what he’s doing all the time.
“The other fortuitous thing of course is the bedroom he shared with his younger brother for 16 years, his younger brother happens to be the most important, charismatic frontman of his generation.
“The core of Oasis is Noel writes and Liam sings, that’s the core of their genius.”
John has “super rare demos” that the young Noel gave to him back when he was dreaming of music success. “It’s not fully formed but they did have that Roses thing going on at that time, and even a bit of the Inspiral Carpets, as obviously Noel had been working with them at that time.
“Even at that point, it was that very loud guitar, that wall of sound thing that was very different. People lump them in with Britpop, but often I think Nirvana is the closest band in a way to Oasis, even though Oasis vibes are Live Forever, and Nirvana vibes are hate myself I want to die, but musically they’re quite close, it’s like the Sex Pistols tunes with The Beatles wall of sound.”
John’s book follows the band’s journey from Manchester to meteoric success and on to the big split.
He vividly remembers the early Oasis gigs he saw in 1992, when at that point the young Liam still cut a fairly “shy” figure.
Oasis in 1993(Image: Getty Images)
He says: “We knew Noel had two brothers, and Liam would sometimes turn up to help Noel out, it’s like a lot of people say, Liam he was very shy at that point.
“But when I saw some early gigs it was totally obvious he had it – he looked really good but that thing of just hanging on the mic, staring at the crowds, you’ve got to be special to do that. He looked like he owned the room, which is quite rare when you go to see what ostensibly at the time was just a local band.”
John adds: “They were around for about 18 months and people in town liked them cos they liked Noel, he was super charming, he was funny, people always really supported his band. But you couldn’t really see where it would go – this is the bit that everyone forgets now, but Manchester bands were dead then. After the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses there was this massive hangover.
“Oasis were seen as this retro bad version of the Roses, what chance have they got – that was the vibe of the music industry.”
Oasis backstage at Glasgow King Tut’s 31 May 1993 supporting 18 Wheeler BW (c) Big Brother Recordings(Image: Daily Record)
But in a fateful moment for the band, they would head for an impromptu gig at King Tuts Wah Wah in Glasgow in May 1993, where Creation Records’ founder Alan McGee just happened to be.
John says: “It took the genius of Alan McGee to turn up at that gig and sign them on the spot, which I think is one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll stories ever really. No other big indie label, goes to a gig, the boss sees the first band, gatecrashes the stage and says ‘this is the f***ing greatest band I’ve ever seen I’m going to sign them now’.
He adds: “I saw Noel a couple of days later on Whitworth Street and he says: “What do you reckon, Alan McGee wants to sign us to Creation?” And I said ‘oh that’s perfect’. Alan had always been into punk and 60s, and there it was, a band that combined the two. He’s also fantastically crazy so the band can’t out-crazy him. I couldn’t think of anything more perfect. They had been talking about Factory before that, but that wouldn’t have worked I don’t think.”
From that point, it was impossible to stop Oasis going simply supersonic. John says: “They always looked like gatecrashers, Noel says that in the book, that the London scene was all set up for Blur and Britpop and then they turned up.
Liam Gallagher at The Brits in 1997
“When you saw them on TV they looked like someone who had wandered in from the local pub and somehow ended up in the eye of the hurricane, but also really cool at the same time.
“They had the air of someone who walked in with no permission at all.”
When John met up with Noel for his exclusive interview back at Mr Sifter’s Record shop last year, he insists there was “no inkling” of the reunion that was already believed to be bubbling away in the background.
John says he’s since heard that promoters were “already booking venues for them in January”. He adds: “I think how it works is you pencil in venues and then hope the band will come.”
Oasis mural at Mr Sifter’s in Burnage(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
But Noel’s comments in the interview, calling Liam “a great rocker” and waxing lyrical about the unique sound of two brothers singing together signalled a seismic shift in relations between the warring Gallaghers, and sent the rumour mill whirling.
Just a week later, the Oasis Live 25 tour was announced to the world – sparking the most desperate clamour for gig tickets the world has ever seen.
So what does John think the future now holds for the band? Their on-stage relationship seems better than ever so far on the tour, dispelling some fears that they might not even last out the first few gigs together.
John said: “You have to remember they actually went for 16 years and made seven albums which is more than most bands. There’s always this sense that they imploded after two years and had a massive fight, but there was actually quite long periods of time when they didn’t fight at all.
Liam, Noel and Bonehead share a laugh before going on stage at Heaton Park (Image: Joshua Halling/Big Brother Recordings)
“When they bust up in Paris, it was three days before the end of an 18-month world tour, I don’t think there’s a band on the planet who are getting on after 18 months on a world tour. Especially when you’re brothers, because you can’t get away.
“They shared a bedroom in Burnage, even 10 years old he’s got his five year old brother in the bedroom, they can’t get away from each other. Then they join a band together and for another 16 years they’re stuck together…
“They’ll get to the end of the tour, of course they will. The minute they all walked into a rehearsal room they were having a laugh, especially blokes, when blokes fall out, three years later they bump into each other they’ve no idea why they fell out, let’s put the emotional stuff over there. I think you work out your roles within a band. Liam has always wanted to do this, Noel for a long time has been in two minds, but has worked out a way to do this, it’s the buzz of doing this.”
John says Noel will undoubtedly be writing new songs, but whether they’re Oasis songs is another matter. But you wouldn’t bet against a new Oasis record after this triumphant tour surely.
John says: “Part way through this tour Noel may come up with a song and think, this would sound good with Liam singing it. With bands you should never say never, no band should have a complete five year plan.”
John Robb: Live Forever, the Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Oasis, is on sale now at all good book shops.
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