Right here, right now. This is historeh!

"Life's magical when you have a think about it."

"What's all that about Liam walking off the stage today in one of the tabloids in one of the papers? Did you see that?"

their pre-oasis relationship and lives in general are probably the most nebulous part of it. it's very hard to tell how they went from normal brothers to allofthat. and they've said some things that make me think there's some very dark undisclosed trauma there.

their other brother's book is interesting because it's very revealing of the family dynamics, but when it comes to noel and liam's relationship there's this blind spot. in fact he barely talks about it in the book.

and the truth of their relationship seems to be constantly shifting based on its status. they're getting along? oh they always hanged out together. not getting along? oh they never hanged out together anyway.

their fights/acrimony are both very real and both very exaggerated, so it's hard to tell what's going on sometimes, especially in the estrangement period.

"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.

Gallagher, who's almost fully recovered from injuries suffered in an onstage assault Sept. 7 in Toronto, is also still planning to make a solo album but isn't sure where that will fit in the timetable, either. "I'm going to do one sooner or later -- hopefully sooner rather than later," he says. "I'm kind of hoping Liam might be arrested soon, and then I'll have time to see it through."