Noel Gallagher

Wednesday

Deborah Ross

I much preferred it when the Gallaghers hated each other

Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger is a music documentary covering the band’s live tour last year. Fans were ecstatic when Liam and Noel Gallagher finally called time on their 15-year feud, but speaking for those who have always enjoyed their insults – Noel on Liam: ‘He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup’ – it felt like the end of an era. Would this new-found brotherliness last? I had hoped not. Remember when Liam would post photos of Noel with the single-word caption: ‘POTATO!’? Those were the days.

Thursday

Michael Hann

The terrifying charisma of Liam Gallagher

You’d have thought Wembley Stadium was a sportswear convention, so ubiquitous were the three stripes down people’s arms from all the Adidas merch: veni, vidi, adi. Pints drunk: 250,000 a night, apparently. All along the Metropolitan line pubs noted an Oasis dividend. At a corner shop, I was sold an official Oasis Clipper lighter. It’s surprising Heinz hasn’t yet offered an Oasis soup; you get a roll with it. Plainly, an awful lot of people have missed Oasis. And an awful lot of people – Noel and Liam Gallagher included – saw the chance to make an awful lot of money from their reformation. I don’t think any of them – neither fans nor entrepreneurs – will have been disappointed. At Wembley, the atmosphere was remarkable.

Thursday

Julie Burchill

Have the Gallaghers suffered from ‘naked classism’?

Though I’d never read any books about Oasis before this one, I’d have bet it would be impossible to write boringly about the band – for two reasons: namely Noel and Liam Gallagher. As the most entertaining men in music, the former could be talking to a goldfish and still end up riffing in an entirely fresh, witty and profound way, while the latter is probably the greatest natural clown since Buster Keaton. I’ll put my cards on the table and admit that I’ve got a chronic crush on Noel. When I interviewed him for the Sunday Times nearly ten years ago, the simpering, gushing and giggling on the tape sounded as though a coachload of Japanese schoolgirls had joined us. He has spoken of how he enjoys the company of journalists – the mark of a reckless man with nothing to hide.

Thursday

Oliver Basciano

Why is the National Portrait Gallery’s collection so poor?

The recent announcement that the National Portrait Gallery has purchased two works by Sonia Boyce and Hew Locke for its collection came as something of a shock. The surprise? The art was actually good. Boyce’s quarterised collage ‘From Someone Else’s Fear Fantasy (A Case Of Mistaken Identity? Well This Is No Bed Of Roses) To Metamorphosis’ (1987), reminiscent of an enlarged and doodled upon set of passport photographs is a complex work of art made better the more attention you give it; Locke’s maximalist approach with the bust ‘Souvenir 17 (Albert Edward, Prince of Wales)’ (2024) may not be to everyone’s taste, but his sculpture is full of humour and pathos.