Thanks to the endless goading of his younger brother, the round of interviews to promote this new album, and the fact that Noel Gallagher has a divorce to pay for, talk of an Oasis reunion seems louder than ever at the moment. But the increasingly revered band’s chief songwriter has generally favoured an easy life, and you do wonder why he’d put himself through the inevitable aggro, lucrative though it would be, given that things are going very nicely for him the way they are.
Yes, Liam has promoted his own solo career more vociferously, and capped it in glorious style with a nostalgic return to Knebworth last summer, while Noel has summer 2023 mapped out with headlining slots at some pretty minor UK festivals. But in terms of album sales, Noel has consistently outsold his brother and gone platinum every time. If he seems more low-key – you may not have noticed that his High Flying Birds have now been going for over a decade – that’s because, aside from the traditional snipes at other bands here and there, there’s been very little drama. “Looking back on it, it has been a breeze,” he said recently.
