Pop music
Sibling rivalries
Marcus Berkmann
It's strange, almost eerie how often this column seems to return to the subject of Oasis, although the Gallagher brothers' capacity to generate headlines has long exceeded their ability to make serviceable records. The latest development in this fas- cinating saga has been the decision by Noel (guitarist, songwriter, the clever one) to withdraw from all but a few British gigs on the current lumbering world tour, to be replaced by a session guitarist. Film crews have followed the beetle-browed one as he has brooded his way through a succession of airports looking as thoroughly pissed off as a multi-millionaire Mancunian scally has a right to be, while other film crews have dogged the steps of Liam (singer, younger sibling, the thick one) desperately hoping he would lose his cool and chin someone. Everybody else has been wondering whether this finally means the end for the self-styled Biggest Band Of The Nineties.
The basic problem, as thousands of newspaper psychiatrists have exhaustively concluded, is that Noel can't stand Liam. Moreover, he wants to spend some time with his family. He doesn't want to waste his life wandering around the world on lucrative but essentially tedious tours. He prefers sitting in studios painstakingly com- piling his useless albums. Whereas Liam, who is mad for it, likes to pass his days between performances drooling helplessly in the corner, while teams of expert masseurs ease the strain on his neck mus- cles from always singing at that stupid angle. Acas would be hard pushed to settle this one over beer and sandwiches.
The rest of the band, of course, don't really count, most of them having already left and been replaced by people with names like 'Gem' (hard `g9 if you please). No, it's only Noel and Liam whose feelings count here and, if one can't bear to spend any length of time with the other, that should surely be it for the band. And yet I think we all know it won't be. For one thing they are brothers, and there's no escaping that relationship. (The symbiotic nature of their talents, such as they are, only strengthens the bond.) For another, Noel obviously fancies the example of Brian Wil- son, who stopped touring with the Beach Boys in the mid-1960s to sit at home in sandboxes recording works of timeless genius like Pet Sounds. The dim singer and the hired backing musicians can do the dull work on the road, but I'm staying right here.
Let's ignore for a moment the probabili- ty of Noel Gallagher writing and recording anything half as good as Pet Sounds.
(Roughly equivalent to the chance you have of being killed by a toasted tea cake before 5 o'clock this evening.) The problem is a genuine one. By all accounts touring is impossibly boring. You may travel the world, but all you ever see are airports, hotels, tour buses and more chemical toi- lets than the senses can process. If touring didn't deaden the mind, why would even quite intelligent rock stars say 'Hello, Lon- don!' when they greet the audience at the Wembley Arena? They're only relieved they can remember where they are. Pop musicians complain constantly of the album-tour-album-tour treadmill, and only the most successful ones manage to find some way around it. George Michael sulks for long periods, then appears in a moody video. Bono of U2 decides to vanquish Third World debt. Some make awful films (C. Rea, D. Stewart), others stop working at all (E. Clapton) or throw huge parties (E. John). But for most working bands, album-tour-album-tour is the only realistic option. It's what most young musicians came into the business to do. It's what the audience expects. It's why the Rolling Stones are so fantastically rich. Oasis, though, do not have the Stones back catalogue or their canny eye for the main chance. In most pop careers you can identify three stages: the years of proMise't the years of achievement, the years 0.1 decline. Oasis zoomed through promise. and achievement at top speed, and so Mus,' try to stretch out the rest of their career for as long as possible (`decline management is, I believe, the technical term). It maY be that Noel Gallagher believes that, relieved of the burdens of touring, he has the talent t and application to record a truly grea,, album. The irony is that, live, his band ar. apparently better than ever. If only they can find a decent singer, they might actual" ly be worth seeing . . .
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