‘Tough Sh-t’: All the Times Oasis’ Gallagher Brothers Said They Aren’t Reuniting
“Oasis is done,” Liam Gallagher told us in 2019. “If you missed them, that’s fucking tough luck.” Five years later, it seems that luck is on the side of Oasis fans, with brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher planning a reunion tour for next year. It’s huge news for a band that’s been defunct since 2009 — and one whose two most important members have emphatically denied any chance of reuniting more often than Robert Plant has uttered the words “Led Zeppelin.” (The brothers, while making lots of great music together during the band’s run, have beef that essentially dates back to Liam’s birth.)
While we still have some burning questions about the reunion, here’s a brief timeline of all the times Noel and Liam have said that Oasis are never, ever getting back together.
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[Note: Well, not ALL the times, because that list would potentially approach infinity and tax the server capacity of the Internet. The Gallagher brothers have spoken about this constantly in interviews and on social media over the years, with Liam frequently referring to his brother as a potato. “[I’m asked] every day of the week,” Noel told us in 2016. “People say, ‘You’ll definitely re-form — you will,’ and I’m just like, ‘That’s so fucking rude.’ They try to Jedi-mind-trick me.” Consider this a best-of, and definitely not a Jedi mind trick.]
August 2011: According to Noel, the Very Idea of Reuniting Makes His Brother Nauseous
“Liam has said that the idea makes him vomit, and it would never happen, so I don’t need to add anything to that,” he tells Rolling Stone. “I don’t need the fucking money, but I think it’s a shame that songs like ‘Champagne Supernova,’ ‘Rock and Roll Star,’ ‘The Importance of Being Idle,’ and ‘The Shock of the Lightning’ will never be played again,” he adds. “In a stadium. That kind of fills me with sadness. The money is kind of irrelevant.”
October 2011: Liam Claims He’s Not Desperate
“He’s the one that keeps mentioning it,” Liam tells RS. “I want to put him out of his misery. But I think he needs to do his solo thing first and realize he’s not that good without his brother. He’s got to find out for himself. I’m up for it — I’m not desperate for it. If it doesn’t work out, I don’t give a shit.”
December 2011: Liam Would Rather Eat His Own Shit
Still fresh from the bitter split, Liam tells LA Weekly, “I’d rather eat my own shit than be in a band with him again. He’s a miserable little fuck, if you know what I mean.”
November 2013: Noel Says, ‘If There Is a Reunion, I Won’t Be In it’
In an interview with RS, Noel is adamant that an Oasis reunion is absolutely not happening. “I don’t think there’s any unfinished business,” he says. “I don’t think that we left anything unsaid, do you know what I mean? It’s like, if you’ve seen [Oasis], then good for you. If you didn’t, then that’s fucking tough shit. I’ve never seen the Beatles. So there you go.”
January 2015: Noel Claims He’d Only Do It for the Money
“If I was ever going to do it, it would only be for the money,” he observes in an interview with Q. “This isn’t me putting it out there, by the way. Would I do it for charity? No way. We’re not that kind of people. For Glastonbury? I don’t think [organizer] Michael Eavis has got enough money. But would we get back together one day? As long as everybody is still alive and still has their hair, it’s always a possibility. But only for the money.”
In that same interview, he also expresses a common concern many bands contemplating a reunion face: What if they aren’t as good as they used to be? “I think it’s ingrained in the English psyche — this idea that the glory days, the Empire, are behind us,” he says. “Led Zeppelin! The Smiths! The Jam! They should all reform! Why? So a load of middle-aged people can stand in the O2 and go, ‘They’re not as good as they used to be.’ It’d be the same with Oasis.”
May 2015: Noel Blames Liam for Giving Oasis Fans False Hope
“He’s being a bit disingenuous to Oasis fans in the sense that he always gets their hopes up,” he tells RS. “There was a rumor last week that we’ve had a gentleman’s agreement [to reunite], but that rumor’s come from his people. It’s a ‘source close to him,’ and I’ll tell you how close it is: She probably wakes up with him every morning. It’s always left to me in an interview to let the kids down. People say, ‘You’re breaking these kids’ hearts.’ Well, what the fuck, man?”
May 2015: A Beatle Intervenes
Their hero Paul McCartney speaks out amid the Gallagher Brothers’ public feud: “My advice to them? Just get together and make some good music.” Nice try, but still no.
September 2016: Noel Says Actually, Forget the Money
“Look, to be honest, I don’t need the money,” Noel tells RS. But that might change if they get offered $50 million 10 years from now: “Oh, I’m in. I’m fucking in.”
February 2020: Noel Denies Liam’s Claim That He Turned Down ￡100 Million
“To whoever might be arsed: I am not aware of any offer from anybody for any amount of money to reform the legendary Mancunian Rock’n’Roll group Oasis,” he tweets. “I am fully aware though that someone has a single to promote, so that’s maybe where the confusion lies.”
February 2020: Liam Says They Wouldn’t Last Through the First Chorus of ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Star’
“I think for us to get back together just for money and just to do a tour… we’ve got to become mates again, you know what I mean?” he tells RS. “If we become mates again, then it’ll be the best thing since sliced bread. But if we do it without becoming mates again, I think it would be a fucking waste of time. I don’t think we’d last the first chorus of fucking ‘Rock N’ Roll Star.’ I think I’d end up sticking it on him.”
May 2021: Noel Just Doesn’t Feel Like It, OK?
“People ask me that question on a daily basis and I can only say to you that, I just don’t feel like it,” Noel tells Australian TV show The Project. “When you’re in a band, it’s an absolute compromise, so no, I don’t think I could come up with an idea and then run it by four people and then six weeks later, somebody knocks it back because their cat’s got a cough. So I like to march to the beat of my own drum. Oasis is done I’m afraid.”
April 2022: Liam Says Sure, But Not Right Now
“I like to think Oasis will get back together, but not this week,” he tells Esquire, revealing he hasn’t seen his brother in 10 years. “The door is ajar on everything. I wouldn’t be surprised if space aliens landed tomorrow. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were already here. I wouldn’t be surprised if God walks among us. I wouldn’t be surprised by all sorts.”
October 2022: Noel Rhetorically Asks, ‘Would You Go on Holiday With Your Ex-Missus?’
“As funny as this sounds, Oasis sell as many records now per year as we did when we were together,” he said on the podcast Pub Talk. “We’re as popular now in the eyes of the people as we ever were. And I’m happy with it. If we got back together, there would be a circus — and there’s no point. Just leave it as it is.”
February 2023: Matty Healy Enters the Chat
The 1975 frontman goes on Q With Tom Power and asks, “What are Oasis doing? Can you imagine being in potentially — right now, still — the coolest band in the world and not doing it because you’re in a mard with your brother?” And he doesn’t stop there: “Grow up. Headline Glastonbury …do me a favor, get back together. Stop messing around.” Did his tough-love approach work? Well, no. A few months later, Noel tells Spin that Healy is a “fucking slack-jawed fuckwit” who “needs to go over how shit his band is and split up.” Liam takes a gentler approach, writing, “It’s our time to waste. Who made him the boss of time?”
April 2023: Noel Denies ‘Definitely Maybe’ Anniversary Tour
Noel tells the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera that they’ll commemorate the 30th anniversary of Definitely Maybe in August 2024 with a reissue, but no tour. “There are some wonderful versions of those songs, some in acoustic version,” he says. “But there will be no tour, we will not return to play them together.”
May 2023: Noel Says Liam Has to Be the One to Call
Speaking to the U.K. radio station Talk Sport, Noel says that Liam is the one who should call him to reunite. “Well, I put it out there,” he says. “He won’t call …I mean, he should call me, because he’s like, he’s forever going on about it. You’d have thought by now, he’d have some kind of plan …. He doesn’t have to speak to me. He won’t speak to me, he’s a coward. So he should get some of his people, his agent, to call my people and say, ‘Look, this is what we’re thinking.’ And then we’ll have a conversation about it. Until then, he’s being a little bit disingenuous.”
June 2023: Noel Compares Liam to ‘The Little Fucking Cat From Fucking Shrek‘
On the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, Noel debunks the notion that Liam is game to reunite. “I’ve accepted now that this is never gonna go away,” he says. “I’ve put it out there that if Liam really wants to do it, he should fucking call me, and he hasn’t called me, so I’m just assuming that he doesn’t want it either. Well, I know for a fact he doesn’t want it either, but he likes to paint this picture of, you know, this little fucking guy who’s sitting with his suitcase packed by the door, you know, like the little fucking cat from fucking Shrek, you know, the little fucking Spanish cat with these big fucking teary eyes. ‘I’m [gonna] go and do it now for you fans. I love you.’ It’s like, well, fucking call me then. And he hasn’t called me. And until he does, it’s fucking going nowhere.”
June 2023: Noel Claims They’ve Never Gotten a ‘Serious’ Offer
When NME asks Noel if he’d ever been offered a joint Britpop tour with Blur and Pulp, he says, “There’s never really been a serious offer about ‘The Big O’ getting back together, but there you go.”
Though Blur and Pulp have reunited — with former rival Damon Albarn even encouraging Oasis to do the same — Noel says the case with his band is different. “Blur never split up, did they? Pulp never split up, they just went and did other things, which is the adult way of doing it,” he says. “Sadly my fucking band were very far from adult about it. It was a bit more crash and burn.”
August 2023: Noel Says a Reunion Depends on Hair Loss
During a live Q&A, Noel is asked who exactly would be involved in an Oasis reunion. “So me… Liam… Well, it’s a funny thing because we’re all at a certain age now,” he says. “Hair was a thing in Oasis, so we’ll have to see what everybody’s hair is looking like.” Pointing to his own hair, he said, “I’m in no matter what. This is not fucking going anywhere.”
February 2024: Liam Asks His Brother for a Box of Chocolates
“He knows I’m not going to call him,” Liam tells The Sunday Times regarding a reunion with Noel. “He’s the one who split the band up, so he’ll be doing the calling, and if there is no calling, we won’t be getting back together. To be fair, though, I can see it happening. Now things have changed in his personal life, I can see him looking back, not looking back in anger, and going, ‘Do you know what? I was really mean to my little brother. Now it is time for me to send him a box of chocolates.’”
February 2024: Liam Swears He Called Noel
“I did call him!” Liam tells MOJO. “Well, my people called Noel’s management team. We put an offer on the table for an Oasis thing — because we got offered it — and he said no. It was a big tour, a lot of money. He turned it down. I get it, he’s got a divorce going down. I’ll do the Definitely Maybe thing and have a nice time without him.”
April 2024: Liam Says It’s Time to Move On
Liam tweets in response to Andy Bell’s comments that Oasis will “probably” reunite. (Bell, who fronts the British shoegaze band Ride, played bass in Oasis from 1999 to 2009.) When a fan gently suggests that Bell merely said what Liam himself has repeatedly said over the last 15 years, he denies it. “I’ve never mentioned [an] Oasis reunion,” he says. “It’s over. We must all really move [on] for our own mental health.”
June 2024: Liam Wonders If Oasis Hired Their Own Adam Lambert
Over on X, Liam claims that he hasn’t heard anything about a reunion. “Nobody’s told me,” he says. “Maybe they’re getting a new singer like the dude out of Queen.”
August 2024: Noel Says Definitely… Maybe… Not
At a recent show with the High Flying Birds, Noel responds to a fan in the crowd asking for a reunion: “When are we going to see you? In 2025 or 2026? The answer is neither. I’ll take the fact that you’re booing as a fucking compliment!”
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