If the headlines of the mid-1990s are to be believed, the age of Britpop was one of near constant competition, with rival bands battling it out in the singles charts and tabloid interviews. In reality, of course, the music scene of the day was a little more fraternal, even in the famously anarchic realm of Oasis.
Despite the fact that, in the modern age, both bands will wholeheartedly attest that they have a lot of respect for one another, and Noel Gallagher has even performed alongside Damon Albarn on a few occasions, the arguable defining moment of the Britpop age was the infamous chart battle between Oasis and Blur, which both groups certainly played up to back in the 1990s. Then again, there weren’t many bands out there that the Gallagher brothers wouldn’t slag off.
Over the years, everybody from Lewis Capaldi to the Kaiser Chiefs have come under fire from Noel Gallagher, who has never made an effort to hide his opinions on the state of the musical landscape. A lot of the time, in fact, it is difficult to tell whether the songwriter is voicing his genuine opinion on a group, or merely playing up to his endearingly outspoken persona. Either way, there is one group that neither of the Gallaghers have ever dared to denounce.
If the battle between Blur and Oasis really was rooted in the north-south divide, then it follows that Oasis would be more supportive of their fellow northerners; a hypothesis which certainly checks out when you examine the close, enduring relationship between the Gallaghers and their Wigan-based counterparts, The Verve.
With a connection going back to the pre-Definitely Maybe days of 1993, when Oasis supported Richard Ashcroft’s group for a series of gigs, there has always been a strong sense of brotherhood between the two bands – a brotherhood which was re-cemented just last year, when Ashcroft supported Oasis on their triumphant comeback tour. Rather than viewing them as rivals, Gallagher was seemingly elated when The Verve started to gain some mainstream attention.
During one 1997 interview with Radio One, Noel espoused the joys of The Verve wholeheartedly, declaring, “Richard is a genius. Nick McCabe is one of the best guitar players I’ve ever seen, and they’re a great band. Even when we supported them years and years and years ago, they were a great band then.”
He added, “I was the happiest man in the world when that band went to number one.”
Potentially remembering the tabloid storm that kicked up between Oasis and Blur, Gallagher was keen to make his feelings on The Verve crystal clear at that time. “People are going to build up this thing about The Verve and Oasis,” he theorised. “But we go back so far, from Manchester and Wigan, that they will never be able to touch the bond and the friendship that we have.”
Admittedly, there aren’t many intra-band bonds capable of surviving as many decades as Oasis’ with Ashcroft and The Verve, and it isn’t just about their early origins in Wigan and Manchester, either.
Both Oasis and The Verve were always writing and performing from the depths of their souls, rather than hopping on the Britpop bandwagon like so many other groups, many of which drew the ire of the Gallagher brothers in time.
