This Months Mogo Magazine Mojo Goes Behind The Scenes With Oasis

OASIS: “Bring it on, you little dicks! On the road and behind the scenes with the biggest band in the land, MOJO’s Pat Gilbert enters the inner sanctum of Oasis’s sold-out UK tour to discover the secret story at the heart of Dig Out Your Soul. “We’ve been to the dark side,” reveals a typically candid Noel Gallagher.

In the latest issue of MOJO magazine (on sale Tuesday) Oasis’s Gallagher brothers unveil the latest and possibly the strangest of their infamous spats.

Involving Liam’s sudden flit, in the middle of sessions for Dig Out Your Soul, to get married without warning, it would prove to have massive repercussions on the record they were making.

If nothing else, the contretemps illustrates that almost 15 years since Oasis began their triumphant march into British music history their fire burns as fiercely as ever. Band members have come and gone, decade-defining songs have been locked into the public consciousness, but that fractious relationship between Noel and Liam Gallagher remains the propellant force behind a seventh Number 1 album, a sold-out UK arena tour and the prospect of three sold-out nights at Wembley Stadium next summer.

MOJO magazine’s tour piece – for which writer Pat Gilbert was allowed unprecedented backstage access – is haunted by the after-effects of the September 7 attack on Noel Gallagher at Toronto’s V Festival which left the guitarist with three broken ribs and a reliance on powerful painkillers ("It's like walking on sand," he admits). But, as MOJO can exclusively reveal, the boat had already been rocked by a decision made earlier in the year.

At mixing sessions for Dig Out Your Soul in Los Angeles in February singer Liam Gallagher had yet to record a single vocal, and the atmosphere was edgy. Then, as Valentines Day loomed, the Oasis frontman split for London and a surprise wedding, splicing with partner Nicole Appleton after eight years and two children together. Yet he invited none of the band, and informed none of them of his plans.

“I was f**king furious about it,” Noel tells MOJO. “I don’t give a shit about the fact he didn’t invite me to the wedding; but when it affects our work it infuriates me.”

The impact was critical as two tracks slated for inclusion on the record – one described by Noel as “an epic Champagne-Supernova song with backwards Are You Experienced-type rhythms” – were left incomplete. Consequently, Dig Out Your Soul hit the shelves with reduced psychedelic potency, and two tracks – Get Off Your High Horse Lady and Ain’t Got Nothin’ – originally intended as B-sides.

As usual, Liam remains defiant. “It was private,” he tells MOJO. “Our Kid should get over it. I wouldn’t be upset, I wouldn’t want to go to his wedding anyway.”

With some observers concerned that Oasis had swopped inspirational mayhem for pipes and slippers, the palaver is strangely reassuring, and the revelation is unlikely to harm their revitalised career. Plus ça fookin’ change, say the experts, plus c’est la fookin’ même chose.

LIVE & DANGEROUS! To read our mammoth 13-page world exclusive Oasis tour report, be sure to pick up a copy of MOJO – on sale from Tuesday, November 25!

PLUS! Follow this link through to our Oasis online extravaganza where you’ll find video playlists, competitions, an exclusive gallery and much more!