(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Mon 10 November 2025 8:00, UK
If there’s one thing that everyone knows about Noel Gallagher, it’s that he’s never afraid to share his opinion.
That’s half the reason why Oasis were in hot water with certain artists at the time, but it’s not like Noel was actively seeking to tear down the biggest names in music. He simply called things like he saw them, and while people like U2 were at the top of his list, the worst comments he ever made were always going to be the ones that made the major headlines.
And nothing was really off the table for him to cover, either. While Liam could be equally as cutthroat when talking about the biggest names in music, there was always a little bit more nuance in what Noel was saying. Not only could he tear someone down, but he could pick apart exactly what he didn’t like and make sure that everyone knew that whatever this person was doing was hurting the greater musical landscape.
Admittedly, sometimes he would be way off. For as much as he disliked Phil Collins, there’s a good chance that he wasn’t actually the antichrist, and while The Spice Girls may have been a major sore spot for anyone listening to rock circa 1997, it’s not like they were going to bring down the standards of the entire music industry when they started making Spiceworld or anything.
But if you look at how Noel saw music, it was always about integrity over everything. He may not have liked Blur all that much back in the day, but the premise behind good music in his mind was about giving a voice for people like him, and that didn’t exactly gel with anything that Robbie Williams had been doing around the time that he left Take That.
It was clear that Williams wanted to be friends with the Gallaghers when he showed up with them at Glastonbury, but as he started to become a permanent fixture on the charts back in the day, the falling-out that happened between him and Oasis was the stuff of legend. Williams may have been on the way up when he played his own shows at Knebworth, but given how much he revelled in being a celebrity, Noel felt that he needed professional help.
A lot of the animosity may have stemmed from the tension between Williams and Liam, but Noel said at the time that he would love to get in on the mudslinging as well, explaining, “I think Robbie is a very, very, very, very, very misguided, easily led, stupid, foolish young individual who’d definitely benefit from a slapping. I’d probably kick him down the stairs a couple of times myself, not that I’m a violent person.”
It’s not like Oasis didn’t have good reason to be upset. Williams was on the rise, but trying to become one of the biggest stars in the world while casually challenging Liam to a fight on live television wasn’t really going to earn him any favours, especially when they came face-to-face at an award show later that same year and the pop crooner graciously accepted his award with his tail between his legs.
Then again, now that both artists have played to the largest stadiums that anyone has ever seen, it’s not like there is that much bad blood there anymore. The feud with Liam is water under the bridge at this point, and given that Williams went so far as to name an album Britpop, perhaps he wanted to channel that same sense of swagger that he got from listening to the Manchester legends back in the day.
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