I was a guitarist on Oasis’ tumultuous US tour & it was chaos – ticket holders to reunion gigs must get insurance
A GUITARIST who supported Oasis on their tumultuous 1996 US tour that was cut short has urged fans to buy insurance with their tickets for the 2025 reunion shows – just in case history repeats itself.
Gary Lee Conner and his band Screaming Trees joined up with Oasis to support the Gallagher brothers on the final 13-show leg of their What's The Story? Morning Glory world tour.
Having witnessed first-hand the volatility of the Gallagher brother's relations, Conner offered fans buying tickets to the comeback gigs some advice.
"Definitely get that ticket cancellation insurance just in case, because you never know," Conner laughed.
So far, 17 gigs across the UK and Ireland have been announced with tickets going on sale from 3 am ET today.
Back in 1996 chaos ensued from the very start of the US tour when frontman Liam Gallagher failed to show up for the opening gig in Chicago, Illinois, because he was house hunting in London with his then-girlfriend, Patsy Kensit.
Liam's absence fueled rumors of an impending breakup and a furious Noel Gallagher was forced to take center stage and sing in his brother's place.
Conner told The U.S. Sun that Noel's anger was palpable from backstage and he expected the tour to be canceled before it had even really begun.
"When Liam didn't turn up in Chicago, we weren't even sure if the next show was going to happen," said Conner.
"I know there had been a lot of stuff in the news about them fighting before the tour and something about Noel not liking Liam's girlfriend [...] but not showing up for the first f**king show? That was something.
"There was definitely tension [...] We were about ready to go home.
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"But something happened, and they clearly realized there was too much money at stake to bow out. That's what tours always are."
The next show was slated to take place three days later in Auburn Hills, Michigan, and Liam arrived in the nick of time, touching down at Chicago O'Hare airport the night before, where he began sparring with gathered reporters.
Quizzed on his absence, a typically truculent Liam told reporters, "Two things: laryngitis, nowhere to live."
He denied rumors of a rift with Noel, insisting, "Me and R-Kid are sweet," stole one reporter's microphone, and called another a "cheeky b***h" for suggesting he'd let down thousands of fans.
But Liam's tardy arrival brought anything but a sense of calm to proceedings, Conner said.
Within minutes of joining up with the tour in Michigan, he'd managed to ignite a feud with Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan that would last for the remainder of the shows.
The late Lanegan recounted his first meeting with Liam in his memoir, Sing Backwards and Weep, writing how the enigmatic singer – in a thinly veiled attempt at intimidation – swanned over to where he was sitting and addressed Screaming Trees as "Howling Branches."
“I realized he was addressing me and attempting a weak joke with the over-the-top intensity of a put-down," wrote Lanegan.
"'F**k off, you stupid f**king idiot,’ was my brief, blasé retort."
Liam yelled, "What did you say? Are you Mad?" before launching "into a strange, lurching half-dance, lunging forward as though to physically attack, only to back up again while gesticulating crazily," Lanegan wrote.
"He intended for it to look intimidating. He looked f**king pathetic," added Lanegan.
ROLLING WITH IT
Conner was out of the room when the fight first erupted and encountered a fuming Lanegan who he said was ready to "beat the s**t" out of Liam.
"Mark was like, 'What the f**k is wrong with that guy?'" shared Conner.
"We'd all heard rumors about the kind of guy Liam was and we thought it all must be true.
"Mark was ready to fight him, and I don't know if they actually challenged one another to a fight, but he wanted to beat the s**t out of him."
Over the next few days, Conner says Liam continued to have run-ins with Lanegan and other band members, calling them names, taunting them with mocking and disparaging comments, and posturing in the green room after shows.
Conner called the spectacle "entertaining," insisting that on any given day it felt like a huge brawl could erupt between Lanegan and Liam at the drop of a pin.
"I remember one night, Liam came out and stood on the side of the stage. We weren't sure if he was watching us because he wanted to watch us or if he was trying to intimidate Mark of something," said Conner.
"Once or twice he'd also come into our dressing room and flip up some of Mark's s**t or something, but was mostly a verbal sort of one-upmanship.
"We didn't want a huge fight to break out in the middle of the tour, but at the same time, it was like watching a TV show.
"We were all like, 'Jesus, are they gonna fight today? Maybe it's gonna happen. Maybe it's not gonna happen."
It wasn't only Lanegan that Liam was feuding with.
Behind the scenes, Liam and Noel's relationship was growing increasingly fractured, mostly on account of the former's increasingly antagonistic antics.
We'd all heard rumors about the kind of guy Liam was and we thought it all must be true.
Gary Lee Conner
Conner said any fighting between the quarreling siblings occurred out of eyeshot and earshot of Screaming Trees but it was evident to all that a storm was brewing.
"Noel, I never really saw around too much. He would go on stage, do his thing, and then go back to his dressing room.
"While Liam was strutting around being Liam; he definitely made up for both of them in the personality department.
"But it was clear those guys didn't get on very well. I never saw any bust-ups between them, but obviously, there were serious problems."
'Oasis can never compete on an Eras level in the US' – as rumors of American tour dates swirl
By Luke Kenton
A veteran music journalist who was front row for Oasis's first-ever New York City show believes the Britpop band got as big as they possibly could in the US and Eras Tour-level fanfare is unlikely for their 2025 reunion, should they decide to perform this side of the Atlantic.
Oasis stunned fans worldwide earlier this week when Liam and Noel Gallagher announced they were reuniting for a string of shows across the UK and Ireland next summer – their first in 15 years.
Demand for the roughly 1.7 million tickets on offer has gone through the roof, with some industry experts in the UK tipping the demand to "absolutely dwarf" Taylor Swift's recent Eras Tour gigs in the region.
The Oasis Live '25 Tour has been billed as a world tour and additional dates across Europe and the US are expected to be announced soon.
But while Britpop pandemonium has been re-ignited on one side of the pond, across the other side of the Atlantic, the reaction to any US Oasis tour dates is likely to be markedly less feverish, journalist Jon Wiederman believes.
"I think they got as big in America as they probably could have, which was still pretty big," said Wiederman.
"Their albums sold well, but Britpop bands generally failed to really take off here. I think Americans were more excited at the time by aggressive, angry, and angst-laden music, like Smashing Pumpkins and Soundgarden.
"There's a real interest in nostalgia right now, which will work in Oasis's favor [...] and I think they'll draw enough of a crowd to do a night at Madison Square Garden and one night in other large venues in most major cities.
"They'll do well on tour in the States, and they'll make a whole lot more than they would just playing regular venues with their solo acts.
"But I don't think it will be on a Taylor Swift level of a claim," said Wiederman.
"But, then again, what is?"
A WIBBLING RIVALRY
Before arriving in the US for the What's The Story? tour, the Gallagher brother's penchant for quarreling was already the stuff of tabloid legend.
The first public sign of trouble came in 1994 during Oasis's first North American tour during a gig in Los Angeles at Whiskey a Go Go.
Having apparently mistaken a bag of crystal meth for cocaine before taking to the stage, an under-the-influence Liam threw a tambourine at Noel, causing the elder Gallagher to storm off and temporarily quit the band.
The following year, during recording sessions for their second album in Wales, tensions boiled over when Liam brought a group of friends into the studio while Noel was working.
Angered by his brother's antics, Noel reportedly hit Liam over the head with a cricket bat – and the bust-up that has since become a part of rock folklore.
Later the same year, a recording of the brothers arguing with one another during a heated interview with NME Magazine was released as a single under the name “Wibbling Rivalry" and became the highest-ever charting interview release in the UK.
And just days before arriving in the US for the last leg of their world tour, the Gallagher brothers were in the headlines for fighting again, this time over Liam's last-minute withdrawal from the band's MTV Unplugged session.
Minutes before he was meant to take to the stage, Liam pulled out citing a sore throat, leaving Noel alone at center stage.
The elder Gallagher delivered a memorable performance while Liam heckled him from a balcony and chain-smoked cigarettes.
Noel would later tell reporters Liam wasn't sick, but instead "s**tfaced."
When Liam failed to show up in Chicago, relations between the siblings appeared to be at an all-time low.
Conner said Oasis continued to put on incredible live performances once Liam arrived, but festering tensions between the siblings and other band members were becoming increasingly visible on stage.
I hope they can stick it out, but I don't know them personally to say for certain. I know Noel was saying some s**t about Liam only a few months ago.
Gary Lee Conner
Those tensions weren't helped by the band's now notorious performance at the 1996 MTV Music Awards, where, during a performance of Champagne Supernova, Liam made a series of crude hand gestures toward the crowd and to Noel.
The swaggering star also spat beer out all over the stage and changed the lyrics of the song's chorus to, "a champagne supernova up your bum."
By the time the tour reached New York's Jones Beach Amphitheatre, Noel and the rest of the band appeared to be at the end of their tether with Liam's rockstar bravado.
As noted of the show, "Noel Gallagher was positioned so far stage left that he might as well have been in a different zip code. Rarely lifting his head, his playing was the perfunctory performance of [a] man looking forward to the security of his hotel room.
"Similarly, drummer Alan White barely raised his eyes, while rhythm guitarist Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs and bassist Paul McGuigan simply went through the motions. And Liam? Roundly ignored by his bandmates, he made do with goading the audience to get some kind of reaction from someone.
"The evening felt like two arcs crossing over. Oasis, especially after the high of their two Knebworth gigs, had reached a peak and were beginning to crash back down to earth to nurse a hangover from which they’d never truly recover."
PLUG PULLED
Screaming Trees were enduring their own issues with their lead singer, Mark Lanegan, who was in the throes of a crippling heroin addiction and his health rapidly declining.
The band was no stranger to in-fighting themselves, but Lanegan's precarious condition prompted them to hold a meeting to decide whether they could continue on the tour any longer, following a show in Bristow, DC.
"Mark was really not doing well physically, and he ultimately decided we were going to cancel the rest of our shows," said Conner.
"He was worried he was going to have to tell our managers and stuff, and he did, and they weren't very happy.
"Then we got in the dressing room, I think it was right after a soundcheck where someone came in and told us, 'the Gallagher brothers have canceled the tour.'
"They really did Mark a favor on that. They saved our asses a bit."
Oasis abruptly canceled the remainder of its US tour after Bristow, with four more shows still to play.
In a statement at the time, the band's management said, "Oasis have hit internal differences on their 9th tour of the America which has resulted in the tour being pulled two-thirds of the way through."
Noel flew back to the US without Liam and rumors of a breakup swirled ferociously once more.
Oasis continued together for another 13 controversy-laden years until August 2009, when tensions between Noel and Liam finally reached boiling point.
The band was set to headline the Rock en Seine festival in Paris, but backstage, a full-blown fight erupted between the pair, with Liam bursting into Noel's dressing room swinging one of his guitars.
Later that night, Noel would release a short but damning statement that shocked the world.
"It’s with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight," said Noel.
“People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.”
The brothers went their separate ways, each pursuing solo careers, and have continued to exchange punches in the press back and forth as to who was to blame for the band breaking up.
LET THERE BE LOVE
Baseless rumors have periodically surfaced and hopeful optimism for an eventual Oasis reunion has often been shared in the last 15 years, but the Gallagher brothers' impasse always seemed too big of an obstacle to hurdle.
But, remarkably, the siblings appear to have finally reconciled their differences and on Tuesday announced the band will be reuniting for the string of shows in 2025.
The Oasis Live '25 comeback has been billed as a world tour, and more dates across Europe and America are expected to be unveiled soon.
Conner said he was delighted to see that Liam and Noel appeared to have buried the hatchet, though warned there may be bumps in the road ahead.
"I'm really hoping they have mellowed in their older age, because I don't like this whole thing at the moment of people saying, 'Oh they're gonna have a fight.'
"They're adults now, they should be able to get along for however long this tour is going to be.
"So I hope they can stick it out, but I don't know them personally to say for certain. I know Noel was saying some s**t about Liam only a few months ago.
"I'm not sure which one hated the other one more, but if it was Liam who hated Noel more before maybe it will work out."
Conner added that an Oasis return to the US will be incredibly well received but will pale in comparison to the fanfare that has erupted on the other side of the Atlantic.
"They never caught on here like they did in England," said Conner.
"Here they're a band you remember for one or two songs like Wonderwall, but in England, they were like The Beatles of the 90s.
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"I think they got about as big here as they were ever going to.
"To get big in the States you have to tour and tour and tour, and I just don't think they were willing to put in that work."