One could argue that Ariana Grande’s triumphant One Love Manchester concert wouldn’t have been a truly Manchester event without some family feuding from Oasis’ eternally squabbling Gallagher brothers.
Twenty-plus years after they soared to superstardom, Manchester is still the brothers’ town, and their influence casts a huge shadow over the city’s musical history. And while the group was heavily represented at the concert — their hit “Don’t Look Back in Anger” was performed by Coldplay’s Chris Martin and “Live Forever” was part of a three-song set from Liam Gallagher’s solo band — the famously fractious brothers did not reunite onstage for this historic concert. The pair have not performed in public together since 2009.
A few hours after the show wrapped, Liam took to Twitter to take his older sibling to task.
“Manchester I’d like to apologise for my brother’s absence last night,” he wrote at 3:20 a.m. BST. “Very disappointed, stay beautiful stay safe LG x.” (Punctuation added.)
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Manchester id like to apologise for my brothers absence last night very disappointed stay beautiful stay safe LG x
— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) June 5, 2017
Nine minutes later, apparently replying to fans pointing out that Noel had said days earlier he’d be out of the country, Liam tweeted again: “Noel’s out of the f—ing country, weren’t we all love. Get on a f—ing plane and play your tunes for the kids you sad f—.”
Last week, a rep for Noel issued a statement saying: “Sadly, Noel will not be at the concert this weekend. He’s been out of the country on a longstanding family trip since before the concert was announced and is unable to attend. Needless to say he is very supportive of the event and wishes everyone huge success on the day.”
Liam’s rough but rapturously received three-song set with his solo band — which features a guitarist who does faintly resemble Noel, causing confusion among many viewers — also included Oasis’ “Rock and Roll Star,” the first track on their 1994 debut album, as well as a lukewarm reading of his new single, “Wall of Glass.”
His twitter stream Sunday night started off positively. “What an amazing night last night. Pure love vibrations. Nobody comes close to Manchester.” He donated the proceeds from a solo concert last week to the fund benefiting victims’ families.
