elmo james got nothing on this, baby!

From The Rise and Fall of Madchester (BBC):

"Hulme during the eighties was economically broken but socially mixed, and The Kitchen became its heart and its soul. Ravers, students, punks, artists, musicians, gangsters, men, women — gay and straight — they learned to disappear into the music together."

Noel: "When we used to go to the Haçienda in the eighties back in Manchester, afterwards there used to be, if you were brave enough to go, there used to be an afterhours kind of— what was it? ‘Cause they used to have DJs in there and it was very very shifty, y’know, and it would go on till seven-eight o’clock in the morning. And they would play kind of acid house music. But as the night would draw to a close, the older DJs would get on at like six o’clock in the morning and they’d start playing old, kind of soul stuff that you’d never heard. And I remember the sun coming up, and I was just stood beside a guy, and we were kinda dancing, and it was Mani from The Stone Roses, who I’d never met, but I was a massive fan! [...] That was the first night I met him, in 1988 at seven o’clock in the morning."

Matt: Do you know, in text you come across as a sort of camp glamour puss sitting on a throne.

Noel: ..In what way?

"Yeah, your bitch."

Patrick Kielty Almost Live (February 7, 2003) (x)

Liam's into it:

Something that I as a singer am continuously frustrated by is this general assumption that singing is not a skill in the same way that playing a guitar or other instrument is. Many people truly believe that some people are born with an innate singing talent and some aren't, and that any training or practice is superfluous or unnecessary- that singers only need to open their mouths and let the sound come out. Of course, this is ridiculous and untrue, especially for singers performing at an elite level, such as in an internationally renowned touring rock band. While "training" in a traditional sense isn't exactly a requirement as long as you have good instincts, it's just ridiculous to think that Liam never practiced or personally evaluated his voice in any way, particularly towards the beginning of his career when he was focused on developing that trademark Liam Gallagher sound.

While I’m hesitant to use classical music terms like “baritone” and “tenor” to describe their voices, I think it’s evidently clear that Liam’s voice sits lower than Noel’s and has a naturally fuller and clearer tone quality to it. The difference in where their voices comfortably sit is what I think provides the biggest tension, but also conversely the biggest advantage, in the songwriting process. Noel has even said that he used to purposefully write songs right at the top edge of Liam’s range, and when Liam would protest that he couldn’t hit the notes, he would threaten to take over the vocals instead. Liam would go on to hit the notes anyway, but with obvious effort, which gave those top notes in particular this magical, raw, heartfelt quality that Noel couldn’t replicate simply because they sat at a different and more comfortable place in his range. 

However, even as this effect is part of what gave Liam’s voice its star quality, it is also dangerously unsustainable if you don’t have a foundation of technique and knowledge of how to navigate singing in this vocally taxing way on a heavy tour schedule. And when you combine that with the development of an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid, which likely started showing symptoms in his mid to late 20s, the natural vocal development and deepening that also occurs throughout someone’s 20s, and a rock and roll lifestyle of late-night partying, drinking, and doing drugs, it’s no wonder he started having problems. It’s actually a testament to his innate talent and good instincts that these problems didn’t really become a major issue until almost 10 years into their career. 

One of the best examples of an Oasis song that is very vocally challenging to sing, but creates an incredible emotional payoff when sung well, is "Some Might Say." The most difficult thing about this song is the relentlessly high tessitura in the chorus. (For those unfamiliar with the term, think of it as the average vocal range of a song. So a song with a high tessitura, particularly one that's at the upper end of the singer's vocal range, will be harder and more vocally tiring to sing.) The chorus includes multiple belted high A5's (only a half step below Liam's highest recorded/performed note with Oasis, a belted Bb on "Cum on Feel the Noize"), and the energy stays pretty much full out the entire time. Oasis dropped the song from their live set after 2002, once Liam started struggling to sing it in a major way, and it didn't appear in Liam's setlists again until 2017. Now though, it's a featured part and imo a highlight of the Live '25 Tour, and one of the clearest indications of how much Liam's voice has recovered from its worst moments in the mid 2000s.

Below the cut I'll talk about some specific performances of the song throughout the years and comment on the change in Liam's vocalisms and overall sound. This is all speculation and analysis, since I'm only able to comment on what I can physically observe and hear through these recordings, but I think it still provides a really interesting timeline of his vocal progression/regression and subsequent recovery.

HONEST WE'RE IN AMERICA live at G-Mex / TOTP (1998)

"I find it very sad... This is the guy who hid from the public for 20 years, now he's got something to say about the world? He's a liar and he's a fake." -Noel on George Michael in 2002

The above gif is Noel in the middle of his infamous quote about George Michael. Noel has delightfully sassy mannerisms in this interview that make a great gif set, but as it's Pride month, it seems crazy to ignore the context. So let's talk.

While many consider this criticism to be overly harsh and tantamount to homophobia, the following quote of his from 1999 adds some crucial nuance.

"The thing that annoys me about those people, like that bloke from Boyzone and George Michael, suddenly they're very proud to be gay; ... And I always think, 'I wonder what the gay community think of that? 'They must think, 'You fucking shit.' George Michael, for instance, from 1981 onwards... he could have made it a lot easier for gay people in England, because he was the biggest pop star there was for six or seven years. But he chose to put the shuttlecock down his trousers and play up to that and deny who he actually is. I've got a lot of friends who are gay and they just think he's a fucking disgrace. They're not proud of him, or the geezer from Boyzone, they just think they're pathetic because you should be proud of what you are."

Yes, I realize that he comes off as dismissive and out of touch regarding the difficulty and danger of a man coming out as gay in the 80s and 90s. Yes, I realize to some it may sound like he is speaking out of turn. Yes, I realize it might seem in poor taste for him to pull the "I have gay friends card" (unless you're fully pilled and realize he's probably deflecting attention from himself). Yes I realize he does hate on artists for being generally phony and this may seem like an ill-informed example of that. But here's my hot take:

The anger he has at George Michael for staying closeted is very genuine. It's very apparent in the 2002 interview how frustrated and frankly disgusted he is about it, and I always found this kind of odd, and wondered why, until I encountered the quote from 1999. To me this suggests that he was personally suffering a large amount of distress about the perception of homosexuality in the 80s and 90s. Maybe it was just on behalf of friends and loved ones- the scene he was involved in before Oasis was very queer coded and sexually diverse- but I find it highly suggestive of an internal struggle with his own sexual identity.

"I suppose in the Seventies and Eighties it was a big deal to some parents. But now, it's the most unshocking thing in the world to be gay."

This is what Noel said when asked to expound on Liam's alleged distress "If you ever mention [John Lennon and Brian Epstein's relationship] in a conversation." The discussion was about sexual ambiguity in rockstars, not about parent-child relationships, not about coming out, but those were clearly the things that were brought up in Noel's mind. Why?

In this interview we have a classic Noelism- he expresses in one breath two diametrically opposed notions: that George Michael could've made it easier for gay people in 90s to come out, and that coming out in the 90s was no big deal at all. It's up to speculation which of those two things he truly believes, and what's actually being expressed within this contradiction. But I think it shows, at bare minimum, a strong sense of allyship and defensive, protective stance towards the gay community. (I will not be using this post trying to make the case that Noel is queer, he has done that pretty explicitly on his own and there are countless amazing posts amassing said instances). This protective urge is one of the primary (and only) ways Noel expresses love, and deep love at that. Most often it is how he expresses his love for Liam.

I know this man is problematic, and has said all manner of problematic things about gender and sexuality. I know he himself could potentially be eschewing the same opportunity he accuses George Michael of eschewing. But I don't think I need to spell out how internalized homophobia works, or how a person could feel comfortable supporting others in their identity while not expressing their own. You know the culture he grew up in. You know what toxic masculinity is. You know Noel's insecure nature and profound fear of vulnerability.

Extreme speculation incoming:

You know that Noel was abused by his father, a hypermasculine misogynist who's perhaps a bit sex-obsessed and enthusiastically identifies with Liam's heterosexual appeal and exploits. To me it seems very likely that, whether or not he actually clocked Noel as gay, some of the verbal abuse that accompanied the violence would have targeted his masculinity and sexuality. This was simply a common way for men to berate each other in northern England at the time.

I think Noel's anger at George Michael at the time offered a rare glimpse into his relationship with sexuality and queerness, and demonstrated it to be an issue that he cares about quite a bit. This is just my personal opinion, I do not mean to offend. I hope this gives you a chance to consider an alternate narrative, and at the very very least, can serve as a reminder that complexity and humanity underlie even the most flippant sounding quotes, and things are rarely as black and white as they seem.

Thanks for reading, full gifset minus my unsolicited ramblings to follow.