ARENA HOMME PLUS Magazine OASIS Liam & Noel Gallagher S/S 1996

That time Noel car chased Liam to stress that Wonderwall’s indeed about a girl

So... this was supposed to be Wonderwall's single cover:

The photographer (Michael Spencer Jones) had brought Liam to Primrose Hill in London to take that shot but both were interrupted by what he described as a "black cab that came to a screeching halt". From that said running cab, came out Noel, allegedly shouting that Liam - "our kid" - was not to be on that cover as Wonderwall is a love song, about a girl. According to Michael, Noel downward hated the thought of Liam being on the cover.

The girl on the actual cover was a Creation Records employee in the exact same pose:

So, being incredibly grateful for the mental image this article gifted me with, I decided to make a post summing up the many Wonderwall meanings according to Noel.

Disclaimer : I think Wonderwall's about Liam, just putting it out there.

My own thought is that Noel can't say this because, and to quote him "it would look bad" see this interview excerpt about the song dirty shirt in 1997:

"Meg is the girl in the dirty shirt. (...) Liam will read this and say, You fucking wanker! Because he thinks all the songs are about him. He even thinks Wonderwall is about him. So he'll be telling me it's a geezer in a dirty shirt really, except I couldn't say that because it would look bad."

Apart from the absolute chaotic reaction of having the lead singer star on the cover of the lead single, Noel, I think, obviously wanted Liam to sing it, initially.

Liam had been given a choice between this and Don't look back in anger by Noel, who stressed many, many, times throughout the years that Liam didn't like the song when he first heard it (I'd say covertly disappointed). Also he gave different versions of whatever Liam said about it : 

But Liam, first time he heard "Wonderwall" he said, "That's puff's music, I'm not sing that." For weeks and weeks and weeks he wouldn't sing it, and then he heard me singing it and then he knew. in 1996  "(pissy voice) Wonderwall, it's fucking dance record, innit? All that hip hop drum beat - we're not a fucking dance group. Of course, once he's sung on it it was the best record ever made." "I said, ‘You’re singing one or the other, but not both.’ He hated Wonderwall. He said it was trip-hop. There speaks a man who’s never heard trip-hop." In a recent interview "Everyone in the band went, 'I'm sorry but I don't f*****g think so," "I remember Our Kid saying, and I'll never forget this, 'Why are you writing reggae songs?' And I was like, there speaks a man that has never heard reggae."

In 2023, Liam confirmed that as he first heard Wonderwall being played “I didn’t like it at first, I thought it was a little funky.” And Bonehead, added, “It sounded like a reggae song to me. The first time [Noel] came in, I was like, ‘What the hell’s that?”. (Far Out Magazine).

Which I get as Noel's acoustic version is very different from Oasis version with Liam on vocal. But anyway, Noel often mentioned that when Liam's reluctant to sing one of the songs he pretends he will sing it himself and this way Liam like clockwork jumps on it, and that's exactly what he said for Wonderwall + told Liam it will be a hit, and immediately, Liam wouldn't let go of it.

So my guess is that the 'choice' was just a snare to make Liam do what he wants, as Noel likes to do.  And also a bit of power play at hand there in an attempt to ground 1995 firework Liam and as Noel said again in 2023 "to have a song on his own" as he was getting annoyed by Liam walking out on him.

"The only time I laid down the law was Wonderwall and Don’t Look Back In Anger. "I was so fucked off with him walking off stage and me having to take over and do the gig. I remember thinking, if I’m going to do this, I want a big fucking song to sing." + "I said, ‘You’re singing one or the other, but not both.’

Liam said between 1995-96 “When Our Kid went, ‘Right, you’ve got a choice, “Wonderwall” or “Don’t Look Back In Anger,” ’ it done me head in,” the singer told NME. “I said, ‘I wanna sing both, you dick.’ But I chose ‘Wonderwall’ ’cos it was right and it happened. But I don’t think I could have sung ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ the way he sung it. And when I hear it I think it’s great.”

Additionally in 2023, Noel kinda slipped and said "I'm glad I chose that one" after saying Liam chose it when a record label person said it would be their big hit.

But what is interesting is as their relation deteriorated Noel changed the Wonderwall story:

Around 1996-1997 "I wanted to sing Wonderwall because the guitars are accoustic but our kid insisted that he wanted to sing it. So I said Alright im going to do DLBIA"

In 1997, in the book Getting High: The Adventures of Oasis by Paolo Hewitt, he wrote "according to Owen Noel wanted to sing wonderwall which makes perfect sense, he had written the song with Meg in mind, it was the only way he knew how to properly express his love for her with the song detailing her struggle to find work but celebrating her ability to bounce back against the odds. So we finished Wonderwall, and Liam's Right I'm singing this one. And he did a blinding vocal a brilliant vocal."

in 1998  Noel went "I always wanted to sing "Wonderwall", but I'm glad he sang it 'cos he sings it better than I do."

or when asked on a TV show in 2000 'If I wrote wonderwall I wouldn't want to give that to my brother to sing', Noel said that he did not but they had a long heated debate on who will sing it and in the end, he didn't have a choice because Liam's 'bottom lip went too far down towards his kneecaps' 'he looked very very sad' and he said alright he will sing the other one don't look back in anger.

And only recently in 2021, he went back to the original story:

“He wanted to sing ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, but it became apparent during the recording that ‘Wonderwall’ was going to be the tune. If I’m being honest, I shouldn’t have sung either of them because I wasn’t really a singer then.”

I mean every critic agrees that Liam gave one of his most impressive vocals singing that song "both cuttingly sharp and heartbreakingly warm at the same time" Noel said he '"had no idea, even after the first album, that Liam could sing like he did on 'Wonderwall,'" and that he did " a sterling job (...) ‘Wonderwall, ‘Hey Now’ and ‘Cast No Shadow’ were literally one take. He delivers my songs spot-on. He knows." So it's a bit strange that he didn't just go on saying that like other songs such as Slide Away Liam's delivery gave it a special edge.

Personally I think it has to do with the meaning of the song for their relationship. There is a lot of hope and commitment in that song all while acknowledging the anger and difficulties of a relationship.

An other thing that struck me as important was, in an oasis book it was reported that while watching Wonderwall win some chart thing on TV Noel turned to the person writing and started going on about how high the wibbling rivalry was on the charts in comparison to the oasis tracks. So what came up to his mind was the 'Liam fight track' while listening to the song, weirdly enough.

And about the meaning --->

Originally, Noel attributed this song to his then girlfriend Meg Matthews as we know. She was compared to a schoolboy's wall to which posters of footballers and pop stars are attached, Noel told Select magazine

"It's about my girlfriend. She was out of work, and that, a bit down on her luck, so it's just saying, 'Cheer up and f---in get on with it.'" After Liam's and Noel's infamous interaction with their Father, he even told her directly as much albeit gave it a a more romantic meaning "Fucking hell Meg, you're meant to be my wonderwall and you were fast asleep when it all went off. What kind of Wonderwall are you?" or when a cover of the song came out and she thought Noel had plagiarized the song he wrote for her he told her " 'No, honestly, I did write about you...!"

Now, idk how reliable he is but their father said that the wall actually existed and it was Noel's and Liam's :

"both Noel and Liam's original ‘wonderwall’ was actually the wall of the bedroom they used to _ share as children in their — ex-council house. ‘They called it their wonderwall" "in 1983 they both started writing on the wall, bits of songs, poems, favourite bands, football teams. In one corder Noel wrote 'I love Diane Jones’ and underneath in the same writing, “Liam _ is a puff”. They'd fight terribly about who had the most writing space. | didn't touch it for years but | wallpapered - it before Christmas."

Meg has been written at the time as "The only girl he had met who came close to being as important as his music and the one who understood him better than almost everyone else."

But Noel then stuck to the following version about the song's name, that it came from Wonderwall Music the debut solo album by George Harrison and the soundtrack to the 1968 film Wonderwall, (She lives next door to a man who becomes fascinated with her, so he slowly makes holes in his wall so he can watch her through it. This is the "Wonderwall.").

Meg said that "George Harrison wrote the music to the film Wonderwall, so that's the reference, but to me it's about being his wall of strength. His solidity." She never asked him directly and found out the meaning in the papers months later. So idk if this is her interpretation or if Noel said something about the actual meaning.

Then in 2003, in Q magazine's 1001 Best Songs Ever, Noel backtracked, "The meaning of that song was taken away from me by the media who jumped on it. And how do you tell your Mrs. it's not about her once she's read it is? It's about an imaginary friend who's going to come and save you from yourself."

and In 2023 Noel pinned him saying the song was about Meg on this specific cover "We did the cover and there's a girl on the front, She had long blonde hair, she looked like my then-wife, Meg Matthews. Doing the interviews for the thing [later], and they say, 'Is this about your wife?', and what do you say? No? So you say yes but it's not about anyone in particular"

Yet Noel admitted it was a romantic song in 1998 : You don't write a song like Wonderwall if you're not romantic. I am. I'm a dreamer and a romantic. Liam is too.

and later

First of all, “Outside of England, it’s the one we’re famous for all over the world, and it annoys the fuck out of me,” Noel Gallagher once said. “It’s not a fucking rock and roll tune. There’s quite a vulnerable statement to it.”

So while I don't think this song is about Meg, it is definitely an emotional song that strips him bear.

More importantly, years later after hell broke loose in Oasis, Noel praised Ryan Adams's version and declared he is the only person who ever got the song “Wonderwall” right. Ryan Adams played it as part of his album "love is hell" and said that "It occurred to me that I was singing it from the perspective of someone in danger of committing suicide. (...) It's someone saying, you're my last hope. But in the second verse, that hope it's not happening, and I'm singing like that".

I don't think it's coincidence that after all the issues they had Noel was the one who mainly sung that song himself live in the late 90s and then gave it a tone of devastation and sorrow as he switched to playing it Ryan Adams way for a long time. The collapsing of their relationships brought out the frustration rather than the hope in the song.

As to Liam and Noel's thoughts on the songs, while around 95 they weren't critical of it, seemed quite proud of it, and Noel even said it was part of his favorite/best songs with Live forever, they changed their tunes years later, that said it could only be due to the reluctance and irritation of being seldom seen as 'that band that did Wonderwall'.

For example Noel claimed in 2006 "I don't much like 'Wonderwall,' but the effect that song has on people, I can't deny it," he said. "Great music is in the ear of the beholder." and that it's one of his least favourite Oasis songs because it's "unfinished". If I could somehow twist time and go back there, I’d probably pick a different song for our calling card. Probably Some Might Say."

But one comment from Liam struck me as extreme even for him, In 2008, Liam said during the press run for Dig Out Your Soul, “At least there’s no ‘Wonderwall’ on there. I can’t fucking stand that fucking song! Every time I have to sing it, I want to gag." So it could be its popularity or the fact Liam had lost his voice, but I've never heard him talk so critically about an Oasis song, it sounded personal. Just like when Noel recently said he's glad he's singing that one as it's a better song.

So I still think that while they're honest saying they don't want Oasis to be summed up to one tune, but their uneasiness playing the song live was due to its meaning. Noel even stressed the band couldn't find a way to play it right live, which is not exactly true, considering the famous live where Liam stares at Noel during the chorus.

So there's that.

liam sweaty ↳ oasis at the white room

noel telling matt about the code names he and liam would use in the 90s when oasis was checking into hotels

If you need any convincing that Noel and Liam Gallagher are incestuous freaks (affectionate), here's the basic information you need

First of all. The kisses

Loch Lomond kiss, where they just... made out on stage in front of cameras. Cool. There's a gif with every photo from every angle.

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In My Mind My Dreams are Real

guess this is the closest we can get to an actual loch lomond video (not my work i found this masterpiece on the almighty internet)

Another kiss, this time in Japan. Here's the actual video.

And here's the same video but together with nice quotes from their 2016 documentary:

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Oasis: Supersonic (2016) dir. Mat Whitecross

Here's a 2005 award event where they kiss again and also look quite in love

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Storyshark2005

😘

And here's Liam straight up groping Noel during concerts:

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... E Outras Manias

Liam couldn’t get enough of Noels bum

General stage antics and more groping:

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... E Outras Manias

Me and Liam are head over heels in love at the moment. It’s illegal in some countries but while you’re on the road, it’s fine. - Noel Gallag

Just one more groping

Ok. Let's talk about the music, then

Oasis has a song that Noel wrote called "My Sister Lover". The title speaks for itself, really. It includes amazing lyrics such as "You're my lover, I'm your brother"

But there's more! Noel used the same chorus of this song (with different lyrics) for a song he released in his solo album, 20 years later. It's called "Lock All the Doors". The very first line says: "She wore a star-shaped tambourine, prettiest girl I’d ever seen". And guess... guess who famously played a star-shaped tambourine? Liam! And Noel was the one that gifted him the fucking tambourine!!

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... E Outras Manias

”She wore a star-shaped tambourine, prettiest girl I’d ever seen was standing lost and lonely on the shore I tried to catch her every night

Liam wrote a song for Oasis called Guess God Thinks I'm Abel

I'll just link everything that's been said about this song, because it really is batshit insane that this song exists

(It's common in the north of England to refer to things and people as "our". When either Liam or Noel say "our kid", they're talking about each other)

Liam has the tendency of thinking every song Noel writes is about him, including the love songs

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melody maker, april 96

Here he says "I'm his muse", along with some other interesting quotes

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We fight and call each other every name under the sun, but at the end of the day, we’d die for each other -Noel Gallagher.

Ok, now we're on to suspicious quotes!

They had sex last night, according to Liam

This one is my favorite:

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... E Outras Manias

"Me and Liam are head over heels in love at the moment" - Noel Gallagher (Gurten Festival 2002 Interview)

Of course this one is just all the weird quotes jammed in one post, you can feel yourself going crazy as you read it

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I think I have two more quotes One is Liam saying “I adore him”, about Noel. In this link: https://www.tumblr.com/lovecomedy/73806542380595

Noel assures us that Liam knows about his arse

Other people confirming that they act like a couple. And them being fucking weird about each other’s marriages.

This one has Noel saying Liam is deeply in love with him. At the bottom, Liam's tweet.

Actually Liam always tweets things that basically confirm they're relationship. Like when somebody asked him if he ever rimmed Noel. Yeah.

This radio interview is where the most lovely quotes come from. Only Noel was supposed to be interviewed but then they both showed up PISSED DRUNK. Transcription in the same post

Even More weird quotes

This one involves the word impregnate

Noel making a suspicious comment about his daughter and son, Anais and Donovan

I think to be convinced you really just need that, but I'd like to add some niceties.

Just genuinely enjoying each other’s company

This is from the Oasis; 10 Minutes Of Noise and Confusion documentary. As Noel is kissing Liam's cheek, Liam is saying "He’s a fucking cunt and I hate him and I love him and he twists my melon, man. He’s the best songwriter in the fucking world.”

Some sweet quotes, and some less sweet ones as well

From the Supersonic documentary

Hugging after playing football

Just being silly

To finish off, two wonderful video edits with endearing moments

please talk about the molested theory, I’m dying to know why you think so, I always felt that there’s something more horrific behind the vagueness

Just to preface I am a psychology student, I work as a mental health support worker and have worked heavily with people from CSA and abusive backgrounds and CSA is in my family so I’m pulling from a few areas when I say some alarm bells go off.

Liam - “I’ve been hurt by men”

Oasis Interviews Archive: Noel & Liam Gallagher - Unknown - 1997 I thought this quote was earlier than it was. In the early days they seemed to be more open.

HOWEVER this is around the time Noel started having psychosis from drug use. One other idea I had was that Noel started having flashbacks, one thing about trauma is that when your brain finally recognises that you are safe it can start releasing blocked memories. This tends to happen around 10-15 years after someone has gotten away from the threat and the brain accepts that.

Noel Gallagher admits he felt lonely during Oasis and experienced psychosis and a debilitating anxiety disorder due to drug addiction. - Carlisle Eden Mind He writes Untitled and If We Shadows, he's sober for the first time since he was like 12, 10-15 years after they left his father. He for sure was remembering some really repressed shit

I found a quote from Liam in an interview with him and Patsy where he mentions having flashbacks in the evenings, more related to the physical abuse.

Hyper sexuality - Liam champaign supernova performance https://youtu.be/PAtU-TSG4qc?si=1L-weZEFXzlpppop

He is so blank faced for a majority of the performance and then randomly starts doing these aggressive sexual gestures. Its spooky

He’s a little dissociated and odd in between the sexual mimicking, he’s like blank in this not kinda relaxed way, he’s angry for sure.

https://youtu.be/3P-GPutiA90?si=mHYtcr-f-gRpjKBB He has a very similar vibe in this interview where he makes an odd joke about being a sex worker as a teen.

Liam - Paula Yates - Liam jumping out of the car to be with her.

Liam has access to a plethora of groupies but something about the Paula Yates story kind of creeps me out. A few people were sexually aggressive with Liam and she was one. It kind of sounds like she overwhelmed him and he almost forced himself to be with her. Then he gets so overwhelmed and out of control he jumps out a car window.

Liam - Robbie Williams

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhkay8MC6P0 Minute 6:20 in

My little theory about what happened here is that Liam was testing some sexual boundaries. Robbie who has said he believes he is on the spectrum and has some overt sexualityin the media. Bites on it in the above way, this freaks Liam the fuck out who then called Noel (or Noel picked up on something here and took charge) in to get him out of it.

Noel - Alan Mcgee relationship

From Tony McCaroll’s book.

(that last bit is a normal joke to make under the circumstances but you know, why not include it)

Liam’s groping of Noel so aggressively, vs the playful ones

The lyrics to Take Me are fucked in the head.

The lyrics to Untitled could mean anything. BUT it could be his perspective of it all. It's vague and more subtle than hinting than Liam’s style of writing so I could make the argument.

Only for the young is the things we might not know Only for the young is the things we won't remember And long ago I said to myself that I feel inside I know Only for the young is the things I don't remember Sitting here, I'm waiting A cause without a name Sitting here, I'm waiting And I will feel And down I will kneel You were the one I never know Living in sin Is somewhere within You were the one I never know And I remember Life without a name And I remember My life without a name, woo The woo is interesting; he's relieved the song is over, maybe?

Impulsivity

Noel - dogs comment

I can’t find the bloody recording of it but it's out there on Tumblr. Noel and Matt on the podcast were making these jokes about fingering dogs.

This might sound like, and very well be, boy-joke style stuff. HOWEVER the reason it stayed with me is that I supported a woman who was a CSA surviour and one of the things she would often compulsively do is hyper fixate on her pets 'bums and fingering them. So when I heard Noel say this is the cadence and phrasing it reminded me of her.

Performance sexuality:

Both brothers do it but you can see examples from Noel where it feels very much like a put on https://youtu.be/t56eLQ9fQL4

Here for instance, Liam is angry and trying to punish Patsy and Noel almost sounds uncomfortable. He’s saying the right Lad thing to think towards breast, but something is off. He doesn't like it, and you could argue that Noel has little opposite sex attraction because of this but I don’t think so.

Liam’s cheating, in general, was done so brazenly and with little regard for Patsy and Nicole. Coming home in women's sunglasses, for instance, that Patsy would then rip off and break, his disregard for her sounds borderline cruel. In ethical terms, he was cruising for a bruising.

Noel however sounds more subdued and careful about his on-tour affairs, at least till Sara which most likely had an overlap. We know Meg was worried about this because of her ‘bag of tricks’ comment.

"I truly don't think Noel was ever unfaithful to me. No one's ever been unfaithful to me in fact. Not that I've ever known of, anyway. That's because I'm so good in bed. It's possible to be in a long-term relationship and be monogamous if you've got a bag of tricks up your sleeve for the bedroom." ----Meg Matthews in the guardian's column "What I know about men" Sun 12 Feb 2006

Liam also seems to use sex as a weapon against people. Like with Justine-Damon, Kate Moss -Lisa Moorish-Peter Doherty (Noel???) Situation’s.

Speaking of which, this interview with Liam talking about being better looking is weird. He seems anxious (could be because of the interview but I think it's odd his tone and what he says, maybe all to do with Lisa) Liam Gallagher & Alan White Interview - 1995 - Paris, France at around 8:10 in

https://youtu.be/2kmWPPGI70g?si=EozG1tnkfGG-5MxB Noel is the only one of the three, or four, if I include Peggy, who has ever said anything remotely neutral about Tommy. He is the one most conflicted about his feelings for him, as evident in numerous quotes and videos from Noel.

Liam’s tweets are a misnomer, it's all performance now. Not initially but for the first 5 years it was more genuine.

But this one freaked me out. I had like a visceral physical reaction to the first tweet before he must have felt better and turned it into a joke. I don’t know, could be a reach. He may have been joking; he may have been referring to the overall attention from the media that he's been pretty vocal about disliking.

https://www.tumblr.com/oacest/770045711791292417?source=share This could mean anything, I suppose. Liam was often left alone as a small child, and so when that happens, children learn to self-soothe through rocking and other calming motions. So, it could be stimming (we have strong evidence he has ADHD, or maybe is on the autistic spectrum), or it could be self-soothing behaviour, but the motion is odd.

Side note this quote from Paul Gallagher's book

Kinda sounds like the three of them created their own little family/parenting structure. I imagine Noel picked that up from Peggy

soulmates (acquiesce, oasis / the lover's dictionary, david levithan / soulmate, wikipedia)

sometimes soulmates are born from the same mother and thats awesome

Joining the war on incest allegations on the side of incest allegations

my sister lover / if we shadows / ballroom figured / born on a different cloud / slide away / you know we can't go back / guess god thinks i'm abel / lock all the doors / it's a crime / shout it out loud