"Mine's half a Guinness on a Tuesday. Liam's is ten shots of tequila on a Friday night": Noel Gallagher on Oasis vocals
That's a condensed version of the full MusicRadar headline below. The article and the interview it's about are from August 2024, but I missed them until late last night. The interview was done by John Robb, a rock journalist who's also a musician and record producer, and who wrote one of the best books about Oasis. He and Noel did this interview in Sifters, the Gallagher brothers' favorite record store since their childhood, and it covered a lot of different topics related to their first album, whose 30th anniversary reissue was two years ago. Those topics including how Oasis ended up with two lead singers.
Which worked for them. I'm adding some of my favorite examples.
https://www.musicradar.com/news/mines-half-a-guinness-on-a-tuesday-liams-is-ten-shots-of-tequila-on-a-friday-night-noel-gallagher-on-how-oasis-decided-who-would-sing-lead-vocals
By Rob Laing published 22 August 2024
"I'd like to think I was clever enough to say we should have two frontmen, but I wasn't – in hindsight it was great"
The forthcoming Definitely Maybe 30th anniversary reissue is mana for nostalgic Oasis fans. And in addition to the outtakes that will feature on the deluxe version we now have Noel Gallagher looking back on the halcyon days of the band with Manchester music luminary John Robb.
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"How it would work is he would sing them all and then I'd be like, 'Maybe you're not getting that one, maybe I'd try that one'", adds Noel. Aside from Supersonic b-side Take Me Away, that only happened on one song in the Definitely Maybe era though – the album bonus track Sad Song, originally sung by Liam (though Noel claims in the interview that he can't actually remember Liam tracking them). Elsewhere, the album's songs were simply better suited to the younger Gallagher's voice. But as the band released more records and singles, Noel's songs widened their live show experience.
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"It's got something else," admits Noel. "If songs were drinks – Liam's is a shot of tequila and mine's half a Guinness. Mine's half a Guinness on a Tuesday. Liam's is ten shots of tequila on a f***ing Friday night.
"I can't sing Slide Away, Cigarettes And Alcohol, Rock N' Roll Star and Columbia and all that," he notes. "I mean, I could do it, but it's not the same. It's the delivery and the tone of his voice and the attitude. I don't have the same attitude as him."
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The interview:
A fan-loved outtake of a song from their first album, with Liam very much in 10-shots-of-tequila-on-a-Friday-night mode.
My favorite Oasis song with Noel taking the lead vocal. Liam was originally going to take it, leaving the lead vocal on Wonderwall to Noel, who just wanted one of the two songs. The interview above explains why that changed.
Two of my favorite Oasis songs with both of them singing.