According to Noel Gallagher, estranged brother Liam refused to sign off the release of their band's music for a special compilation after the two clashed with each other.
- May 30, 2021
AceShowbiz - Noel Gallagher had to abandon plans to release a collection of Oasis rarities after failing to reach an agreement with his estranged brother and former bandmate Liam.
The singer and guitarist gave fans a taste of the kinds of tracks he had envisioned for the special compilation last year (20), when he shared unfinished song "Don't Stop", but Liam Gallagher attacked Noel for sharing the tune and then apparently refused to sign off on the project's release.
"We had planned to do an Oasis best-of-the-2000s (album), because it's a period of Oasis that the masses are not interested in, but for the actual fans, there's some great tunes," Noel explained to Record Collector. "The bonus disc was gonna be all these unreleased songs."
He decided to post "Don't Stop" online to help fans "floundering" at the start of the COVID crisis, but his hopes of following that up with further previously-unreleased songs had to be scrapped.
"Unfortunately we couldn't agree on something, and it got dropped by the wayside," he shared.
The bonus material would have included covers of The Beatles tracks "Eleanor Rigby" and "It's All Too Much", all of which Noel found on old CDs in a box stashed away at his home.
"I went, 'Right, today I'm going to f**king take that,'" he recalled of the unexpected find. "I'm putting on these CDs, and I found a load of old Oasis stuff, like songs I'd never recorded but demoed. I'm going, 'No f**king way!' "
After failing to get Liam's approval for the rarities release, Noel decided to revisit his earlier days as a solo artist and put together his own compilation.
"I was like, 'Well, hang on a minute, it's 10 years since I went solo... why don't we just do a best of?' " he shared of his upcoming Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds album, "Back the Way We Came: Vol 1".
Oasis split in 2009 due to tensions between the brawling brothers and, although they are still estranged, Noel recently admitted he would reform the "Wonderwall" hitmakers for $140 million (£100 million) if such an offer ever came his way.
