(Credits: Far Out / Drew de F Fawkes)
Mon 2 February 2026 12:00, UK
It’s hard to think of a better cheerleader for Oasis than Noel Gallagher.
Although his brother Liam may have looked the part as a rock and roll star and could turn any stadium inside out with his voice, Noel was the one writing all of the classic material and telling everyone within earshot that he could take on the world with the right tune in his head. But even during his highest moments, ‘The Chief’ could admit when other musicians could put him to shame whenever he got onstage.
Granted, it’s not like Noel was looked at as the greatest guitarist in the world or anything. He rarely left the main pentatonic scale that most people learn when they first pick up the guitar, but it was the way that he used it that made everything special. It wasn’t hard to pick up the lead guitar lines in a song like ‘Some Might Say’, but you weren’t going to find a more melodic solo in the Britpop canon, either.
And when the rest of the band came storming in behind him, it was one of the best jolts of energy anyone could have asked for. Even when they reformed in 2025, seeing the Gallaghers alongside Bonehead thrashing the place to the ground reminded everyone of why the band was so much more than ‘Wonderwall’ back in the day. But it was always going to be a different scenario when Noel went solo.
He never wanted to be a frontman to begin with, but when Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds came out, he took to it like a fish in water. His songs had become far more introspective in the second phase of the band’s career, so bringing in the lush orchestras for songs like ‘Everybody’s On the Run’ made up for the fact that he wasn’t yet comfortable with filling his brother’s iconic shoes at the lip of the stage.
Then again, Noel wasn’t the only one making songs by the time Oasis split. Liam had grown into a respectable songwriter by the end of the band, and both Gem Archer and Andy Bell had their own classics under their belt like ‘Keep the Dream Alive’, so when Beady Eye first launched onto the scene with tunes like ‘The Roller’, even Noel had to admit that they were going to outmatch him once they hit the tour circuit.
Noel wasn’t used to putting on a standard rock and roll show by himself, and to him, Beady Eye was far more ready for primetime than he was, saying, “They’re into their rock’n’roll thing. Their live shows will be far better than mine. They’ve got more power than I have. I don’t feel any competition because they’re on their way to being a stadium-rock thing. We’re playing two different kinds of music. I don’t want to limit myself to being one thing or another anymore.”
But as much as the band hit the ground running, the momentum that they had stalled out pretty quickly. Different Gear Still Speeding still had a few tunes with that Oasis sheen to them, but even with all of the fashion that they flaunted onstage, there wasn’t a soul that went to one of their concerts that didn’t want to hear tunes like ‘Rock and Roll Star’ and ‘Live Forever’ more than ‘Four Letter Word’.
Noel did eventually turn into a decent live performer and even had the chance to have special guests like Johnny Marr and Paul Weller onstage with him, but everyone who went to one of his gigs knew what they were getting. This was a far more intimate show than what Oasis was used to, but that didn’t mean that people couldn’t sing their hearts out whenever he kicked into ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’.
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