Some big news and some even bigger tunes. Liam Gallagher has just been announced to play Friday night at Meredith 2019.
There’s no one else like Liam Gallagher – not even his brother. Mercurial. Mouthy. Monobrow-ed. Mad for it.
Born William John Paul Gallagher. Raised by his mum, Peggy, in a Manchester housing estate. Life started small for one of music’s most quotable.
“I believe in paralleled dimensions, mate. People always say there's two sides of the coin, but what about the third side? The bit in the middle? That's what I'm into. The width. I believe in angels. God? I do and I don't believe in Him. Or Her. I dig science, too. But the big-bang theory? Not really a theory, is it? What, one explosion and that was it? Bit f---ing boring, if you ask me."
Even before he could sing, before the term ‘Britpop’ entered our lexicon, before bucket hats and anoraks, Liam dreamt big.
“I always felt I was destined for more than digging f---ing holes”.
After playing one of their first ever shows – a four-song set at Glasgow’s infamous King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut – the Gallagher brothers’ new band was spotted by Creation Records head Alan McGee. The guy behind The Jesus & Mary Chain. Primal Scream. My Bloody Valentine.
What came next will likely never be repeated.
Definitely Maybe. What’s The Story Morning Glory. Records that changed Britain and radiated out across the world. After decades of austerity, unemployment and conservative rule under Thatcher, the Brits were desperate for an escape. And it just happened to come in the form of two working-class, Mancunian brothers with a penchant for The Beatles and the gift of the gab.
The rest, as they say, is rock ’n’ roll history.
"How many special people change
How many lives are living strange
Where were you while we were getting high?"
Such was the hysteria surrounding Oasis that a bootleg recording of an argument between Liam and his brother Noel actually made the charts.
"Need a little time to wake up, wake up"
Ten years on from all that, Gallagher is older, wiser, funnier, with a new lease on life and a highly-tuned sense of the absurd. More likely to be up at 5am for a jog than a joint, Liam, some might say, has softened, just a little. His debut solo album, 2017’s “As You Were” was a hit, commercially and critically. There’s a brand new album coming this year too, called Why Me? Why Not, from which so far we have The River and Shockwave.
“I still do Oasis songs, because...I sang ‘em...and I feel like, they’re a big part of me, you know what I mean?...”
Online Sales for Meredith 2019 open tomorrow, Wednesday 28 August, at 11am, from mmf.com.au.
