I've hung out with Oasis - the Gallagher brothers say Scots fans got them signed

Daily Record

2 days ago

Daily Record music editor and entertainment writer John Dingwall recalls meeting both Gallagher brothers before - and after - their infamous split.
Oasis may have been made in Madchester, but Liam Gallagher says Scots put them on the road to fame.
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Once the historic trio of Oasis 25 dates conclude at Edinburgh's Murrayfield Stadium they will have been seen by 200,000 ecstatic fans.
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But having rubbed shoulders with Liam and big brother Noel on numerous occasions, it's clear they never forget where it began.
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Before the reunion, Liam told me: 'It's all your fault that we got signed. Blame it on the Glaswegians.'
Liam and I met in Glasgow's Radisson Blu hotel in 2013. He referred to the 1993 King Tut's gig where Scots music mogul Alan McGee discovered Oasis and signed them to Creation Records.
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"All I know is that we were rehearsing with a girl band called Sister Lovers at the Boardwalk [in Manchester] and they said they were going up to support some band,' Liam said.
"I think it might have been 18 Wheeler. Sister Lovers suggested we come up and see if we could get a gig, so we were like, 'All right, cool'.
"We got a splitter van, jumped into it with a couple of mates and drove up to Scotland. We had a nice day."
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Oasis wanted a slot on the bottom of the bill but had to plead for the chance to play live.
Liam said: "As far as I can remember the geezer was going, 'Who the f*** are you lot? You're not going on'.
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"There was no fighting or us threatening to burn the building down or anything.
"We just said, 'Come on, mate, just let us go on as soon as the doors open'. That was it.
'I said, 'We're cool as f***'. There might have been a bit of an argument, but we weren't there telling him we were going to give him a paper cut or anything like that.
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"I said, 'Come on, man. We're doing I Am The Walrus, we can't be that bad'.
"That got said and he let us go on."
Having seen around a dozen Oasis shows from Irvine Beach to Loch Lomond to Maine Road and the infamous bust-up at Glasgow's SECC when Liam walked off due to a plastic bottle having been thrown onstage, Liam wasn't surprised I hadn't made it along to King Tut's.
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'It was like Knebworth, wasn't it?' Liam joked. 'In reality, there was nobody there when we played except for Alan McGee.
'There was nobody there for 18 Wheeler either.'
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He says he didn't even know McGee was in the audience to send their career trajectory supersonic.
"He was there, but I had never even heard of Alan McGee," he said.
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"I'd never even heard of Creation Records, because none of my favourite bands were on the label.
"When we came backstage, some guy with ginger hair asked us if we wanted a record deal.
"We were like, why not? We went down to London and did the deal."
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As far back as 2013, he knew Oasis would 'definitely maybe' reform despite not being on good terms with his big brother.
He was encouraged by the fact his idol, Stone Roses' singer Ian Brown had told me, 'If I was in the gutter and my kids lived on the kerb, I'd get a job in B&Q before I'd reform the Roses.'
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That quote went around the world, but the Roses subsequently got back together in 2011.
Liam said: "What the Stone Roses said about never reforming is what you say when you are still hurting.
"It's what Noel said, and is what I've said about Oasis.
"It's what you say when you are still p***ed off with someone, but you can change your mind."
Referring to the feud that led to Oasis splitting in 2009, he added: "It wasn't a big thing for me. I've had bigger arguments with my toenails.'