#gallagher fights

and why the flipping fuck does this entire story get played for laughs?

listing each account to link after reblogging:

noel (1995: “i had a cricket bat” /2015:“broke his arm or something” + beatles belt buckle apology)

liam (arriving home with casts on arm and leg vs calling it a “proper laugh” and “top laugh”)

alan white (at the pub with liam, firsthand account of fight, drives noel back to london according to getting high, says noel climbed out his room window to escape liam banging his door down, has he spoken elsewhere about it?)

meg mathews (attests to noel's reaction when he returns to london according to getting high, has she spoken elsewhere?)

owen morris (asleep when it happens but claims to have locked up the studio before going to bed and runs into liam with a broken foot the next day; says they were working on supernova before the fight and it was the 5th day of recording (friday); another time said they were working on don’t look back in anger (on sunday) and noel returns with cast no shadow; full mg account)

daniella from monmouth (girl liam brought back to the studio from the pub, her account is printed by a tabloid)

rockfield studio owner and sound engineer (mg 25th retrospective: damages bill + broken door)

paolo hewitt (cricket bat with letter)

john robb (with the band cable recording at monnow valley who met liam at the pub, liam invites them back to rockfield but they start trouble; gives the date as saturday 13 may, not actually there for cricket bat itself claiming he took the band home before noel and owen came out of the studio)

michael spencer jones (says liam’s room was a nuclear explosion and that noel asked him for a ride to weller’s house after, at conflict with getting high account)

just looking at this list, the worst thing to me is how getting high has the most complete scene but the most important accounts to support this scene are by alan and meg which are not verified elsewhere. we just have to trust everything paolo says as accurate. the first account i read after supersonic was owen morris who questions it cause he missed the whole thing. so maybe that colored my entire thinking about it. but i've since read three different accounts from him which makes me question his honesty recall whatever. and he's not the only one. noel has mentioned hitting liam in the head with the bat, breaking his arm and breaking his leg, in separate accounts. could it be all three? maybe? liam saying he arrives home with casts on his arm and leg. but then they’re back recording one week or 10 days later. so is he returning to record with casts on? they are back at gigs in june (glastonbury is 23 june where liam’s dancing around with robbie williams) and there’s no pictures i can find of liam in a cast. no pictures doesn’t mean it didn’t happen but i’m a skeptical bitch about band mythmaking so it just adds to my questions. the cricket bat itself is the focal point of the myth with supersonic dramatizing the whole episode with a broken bat. yet rockfield studio owners show off an intact cricket bat when noel goes back for the wtsmg 25th and talk about a guitar that was busted up instead. yet paolo hewitt recovers an intact cricket bat. and then there’s daniella the girl at the center of all of this who sees the whole thing but never even mentions a cricket bat! one year later and listing it all i still feel like i have more questions than answers.

(update1: striking the above sentence cause i remembered wrong. paolo hewitt finds the cricket bat and the busted guitar was bhn sessions.)

(update2: added john robb account from his 2025 live forever book)

Oasis settled down in the bar with a gin and tonic or ten. There was merciless ribbing of any roadie with more than a passing interest in Manchester United - crowned champions earlier that evening, much to the disgust of the pro-City band. Then a bottle of champagne or two appeared on the table. Then the barman made the terrible mistake of abandoning his post. At this point, some drinkers would notice his departure and wonder how long he'd be, imagining wistfully all the alcohol they could purloin in the interim. Oasis don't imagine - they just do. Before you could say, "Bugger me, free booze!", two of the entourage were scrambling over the bar. Emptyin, the fridges and passing the bounty over the counter. One minute later, 50 bottles of beer were being stuffed under chairs and into innocent bags. Then things got really strange. Guitarist, Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs, decided to go for a dip in the horribly convenient pool next to the bar. The Gallagher brothers, Noel and Liam, decided to have a scrap about an ex-girlfriend. Allegedly. Expletives started flying. Then punches started flying. Then bottles of beer started flying. Then furniture started flying.

Bassist, Paul 'Guigsy' McGuigan, valiantly tried to separate the Gallaghers, receiving two knuckle sandwiches for his endeavours. Someone started throwing chairs at Bonehead in the pool. Then tables. Liam had Noel on the floor. Noel tore Liam's shirt off. Other residents, tiring of the mass brawl downstairs, started coming out onto their balconies and shouting abuse. One particularly aggrieved sort was accompanied by his girlfriend. While her lover's attention was focused on the mayhem below, she would calmly open her towel to show Oasis either Nothing Very Much At All or Everything, depending on your perspective. At this juncture, the pissed-up band would roar their encouragement, causing the baffled boyfriend to turn and find his demure-looking companion safely covered by the towel. Then he'd shout more abuse and she'd flash again.