“Drummers are really smelly, useless, talentless losers, man…” So says songwriter, guitarist, quote machine and…drummer, Noel Gallagher in archive footage used in Oasis’s Supersonic documentary.
However, when it comes to keeping time for some of the biggest anthems to come from the UK in the last 30 years, Noel Gallagher also knows exactly what is required. Oasis had four mainstay drummers during the band’s career, and with a reunion impending, we’re asking the question ‘Who’ll be on drums if Oasis reform?’. Join us as we detail the four most-obvious candidates to pick up the sticks for the reunion that music fans have been begging for near-constantly since the band abruptly imploded in 2009.
Tony McCarroll (1991-1995)
The original drummer in Oasis, Tony McCarroll’s tenure in the band began with the pre-Noel Gallagher line-up of The Rain. Tony’s drum tracks feature on Definitely Maybe, as well as Some Might Say from second album, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?. Prior to this, he also played on pre-Definitely Maybe single, Whatever.
While McCarroll’s drumming style is somewhat simplistic (with Noel Gallagher rumoured to have performed drum tracks in place of McCarroll at times), there’s no denying that it served the required purpose. It’s hard to imagine the instantly-recognisable drum intro on Supersonic played with a busier beat, similarly, McCarroll’s meat-and-potatoes approach provides a solid backdrop for the snarling attitude of Cigarettes & Alcohol and Rock ‘n’ Roll Star.
But, it wasn’t to last. After coming to loggerheads with The Chief one too many times, McCarroll was shown the door, with Noel told the Associated Press, “I like Tony as a geezer, but he wouldn’t have been able to drum the new songs’. Following his ejection from Oasis, McCarroll filed a lawsuit against the band, employing the services of Jens Hills – who famously secured former Beatles drummer, Pete Best £2,000,000 in his case against the Fab Four in 1995. McCarroll alleged that he was owed royalties totalling £18 million from the then-unfulfilled five-album deal with Creation. The suit was later settled out-of-court for an estimated £550,000.
Since leaving Oasis, McCarroll has lived largely outside of the spotlight, however in 2010 he released Oasis: The Truth, a memoir of his time in the band. In 2021, McCarroll was hospitalised after suffering a heart attack.
In 2023, his Pearl Export kit, originally purchased from Jonny Roadhouse Music in Manchester, was put on sale with an asking price of £41,000. While it’s possible that McCarroll could make a cameo appearance for an Oasis reunion (McCarroll contributed to the 2016 documentary, Supersonic), we can’t see the original drummer taking the throne full-time.
Alan White (1995-2004)
In April 1995, Alan White not only took up the enviable position as the drummer in Oasis, but also found himself in the slightly less enviable and more vulnerable position of being the sole cockney amid a band full of Mancunians.
Despite the north/south divide, Whitey – brother of long-standing The Style Council/Paul Weller drummer, and UK drumming institution, Steve White – soon made his mark with a much more orthodox, technique-heavy, jazz-influenced approach. His ability to apply swing when required, coupled with skipping ghost-notes and the occasional touch of Moon-like bombast made him the perfect fit for Oasis’ song-driven style, forming prominent backbones to some of the band’s biggest hits. Check out the busy, displaced grooves of Wonderwall or that iconic fill in Don’t Look Back in Anger for the proof.
White’s output with Oasis includes WTSMG?, Be Here Now, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants and Heathen Chemistry. He left the band abruptly in 2004, with a spokesperson for Oasis telling NME, “Alan White has been asked to leave Oasis by the other band members. There are no plans to replace Alan. The band’s scheduled recording sessions remain unaffected.”
Alan White remains the longest-serving Oasis timekeeper, and would certainly be one of the strongest candidates of the four Oasis drummers to be present for a reunion. While the reasons for his departure from Oasis remain slightly vague, the band’s choice of replacement likely tells us pretty much all we need to know…
Zak Starkey (2004-2008)
Oasis’ early years were plagued with (in fairness, often justified) accusations of being mere ‘Beatles rip-offs’ both in terms of aesthetic and musical style. So, what better way, then, to stick two fingers up at the critics than hiring the son of a Beatle? While Starkey was never an official member of the band, he performed the role of a hired gun for four years between 2004 and 2008.
Zak Starkey’s appointment was – as always – masterful trolling on the part of the Gallagher brothers, but make no mistake, Starkey’s drumming abilities are the real deal. As well as being part of the bloodline of the biggest band of all time (yet only receiving one drum lesson from Ringo), Starkey grew-up referring to his godfather, Keith Moon as ‘Uncle Keith’.
Prior to his time in Oasis, Starkey had already forged a successful career as a drummer, replacing fellow future Oasis drummer Chris Sharrock in The Icicle Works, backing Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith on his solo album, Silver and Gold, putting in a stint with the family business in Ringo Starr’s Allstar Band, and filling Moon’s spot in The Who (a gig he still holds to this day).
Starkey’s induction with Oasis included a Glastonbury headline slot, and his recorded debut came with Don’t Believe The Truth, where he drummed on every track – including hits The Importance of Being Idle and Lyla – with the exception of Let There Be Love, which featured Noel Gallagher on drums. Starkey returned for Oasis’s (at the time of writing) final studio album, Dig Out Your Soul in 2008. The album yielded three singles, including the garage-rock groove of The Shock Of The Lightning, the ‘Day In The Life–inspired I’m Outta Time (which includes a speech sample of John Lennon) and Falling Down, featuring Starkey’s Tomorrow Never Knows-esque displaced backbeat.
Dig Out Your Soul was well received both critically and commercially, however by the time it was released, Starkey’s tenure with Oasis had come to an end. Today, he still holds the position of drummer in The Who, and earlier in 2023 he teamed up with Happy Mondays members Shaun Ryder and Bez along with Oasis’s Andy Bell for The Mantra of The Cosmos. We’re not sure we’ll see Zak back in the Oasis saddle, but with The Who’s schedule currently clear, there’s a chance.
Chris Sharrock (2008-2009)
Pre-Oasis, you’d probably have recognised Chris Sharrock as the drummer for Robbie Williams (subject of one of the Gallagher brothers’ many beefs) during the height of the former Take That star’s solo success. However, Sharrock is British indie-rock drumming royalty. As previously noted, he was a member of The Cherry Boys, The Icicle Works and Liverpool songsmiths The Las (Sharrock played drums on proto-Britpop anthem, There She Goes). As well as this, Sharrock’s intertwining with Zak Starkey saw them fill the same role in The Lightning Seeds at different times.
As with Starkey, Sharrock was a touring member, rather than an official part of the band, and his time in Oasis was short. He joined in mid-2008 in support of Dig Out Your Soul, and just over a year later it was all over when Oasis famously split just hours before they were due to take the stage at Paris’ Rock en Seine festival.
Sharrock went on to join the Oasis-without-Noel line-up of Beady Eye, releasing two albums (2011’s Different Gear, Still Speeding and 2013’s BE). Sharrock holds the unique position as being the only drummer to collaborate with both Liam and Noel Gallagher in their post-Oasis careers, having joined Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds in 2016 following the departure of Jeremy Stacey from the touring line-up.
Sharrock and Stacey shared the drum tracking duties on High Flying Bird’s most recent album, Council Skies, and given his connection to both Gallaghers in their respective projects, we’d put Sharrock as the favourite to drum in a reformed Oasis line-up.
