I was the original Oasis drummer, and here's what happened when I ran into Liam after 20 years
When Tony McCarroll decided to start a band with a group of childhood friends, he could never have imagined just how big it would become.
For young lads from working class Manchester, the name they chose for themselves was apt - The Rain. But the moniker wouldn't last long.
Unimpressed with their original singer, one of the band members suggested auditioning his pal instead. Liam Gallagher showed up and passed with flying colours. After joining, he suggested they change the name to Oasis, and later recruited his brother Noel to the ranks - but there was a condition.
Noel would become the songwriter and leader.
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They would go on to become one of the biggest bands of all time. Now, almost 30 years since Tony left Oasis, he has been thrust back into the spotlight.
Yesterday (August 27), the legendary band announced that they would be reuniting for a run of 14 shows across the UK and Ireland next summer.
To register for the presale ballot for tickets, fans were required to answer a number of questions to confirm they are not bots. One question asks fans the name of the band’s original drummer.
The answer, of course, is Tony McCarroll. Back in 2019, he spoke to the Manchester Evening News about how he coped with life after his Oasis fame.
In 1995, he endured a bitter breakup with the band before they recorded their iconic second album, What's the Story Morning Glory? As the relationship broke down amid arguments with Noel, Tony found himself being 'blanked' about his status in the band.
He recalled frantically running around pubs in Heaton Moor where he'd heard the band were drinking, trying to resolve the issues and find a way forward - or at least get some kind of an explanation. But there was none to be given.
And, as the years have gone on, things have been said, 'tell all' books have been written and there was even a high-profile court case. But it would be more than 20 years until Tony came face-to-face with Liam Gallagher.
Of course, he'd seen the rock star, his childhood friend, plastered all over TV and radio for the past two decades as Oasis conquered the world - who hadn't? But having had a few beers, this was now his chance to say his piece.
Tony was with Brian Cannon, the graphic designer who thought up the iconic front cover for Definitely Maybe, the band's first and possibly greatest album. Brian had invited him back to an after party where Liam was present, but Tony wasn't so sure about going.
"I can't. What will happen if it all kicks off?"
Tony told the M.E.N.: "We were all drunk and I just thought f*** it, I'll take the bull by the horns. I basically walked straight in and said to someone 'where's Liam?' Marched straight up to him and said 'oi'."
Tony wasn't sure what would happen next. Liam is known for being somewhat confrontational at the best of times, too, and the rock n'roll after-party they were all attending - for the screening of the documentary Supersonic at Manchester's Hotel Gotham - would have been the perfect setting for one of the frontman's legendary outbursts.
But not that night - instead it became a moment Tony looks back on fondly.
"It was hugs, kisses, 'bloody hell, how are you?' and all that," he said. "He really made the time, and his partner Debbie got us a table so we could sit down and have a catch up. 'How's your mum? How's this, how's that?'
"Nothing deep, or anything serious - it was just back to the Liam I initially met. I was so relieved really."
The relief for Tony, 47, from Levenshulme, was welcome because he didn't just leave a band in 1995. He left Oasis.
This was the biggest band the world had seen since The Beatles, comprised solely of childhood friends from Irish Catholic working class Manchester backgrounds, from a city which had been for so long looked down on and neglected by Tory governments.
Their rise went hand in hand with Manchester's cultural awakening in the 90s, where it would be renowned around the world for its musical and sporting achievements. Everyone wanted a piece of it, including Tony Blair.
Tony McCarroll founded the band in 1991 with Bonehead and Guigsy, before the Gallagher brothers joined. But his part in this tale was cut short. His final Oasis performance marked their first number one hit, Some Might Say, on Top of the Pops.
The reason for him being axed depends on who you speak to. Noel claims he wasn't good enough to play the hits he was writing for the second album, which included Don't Look Back In Anger and Wonderwall.
Tony claims he was kicked out because he stood up to a dictatorial and detached Noel one too many times.
Whoever you believe, what followed was a court case in which Tony tried to sue Oasis for £18m, citing what he felt he was owed for his part of the band's five-album deal with Creation records.
In 1999, it was settled out of court for a six-figure sum. It should never have ended like that. Tony grew up with the band, played football with them, lived within two miles of each other and as he told the M.E.N: "Our mums made f***ing biscuits together at McVities."
However, that is how it ended. And Tony needed to get away.
"I couldn't get myself out of a suitcase for the next few years," he said. "With the band I was used to travelling, touring. I just needed to get away.
"The band were getting bigger, good on them, but I needed to get away from the whole thing. So I began to ignore and neglect a few things and got away.
"I lived in the States, Tenerife. Really I got drunk for three whole years. But at the same time the court case was all ongoing, so I'm trying to get away from it all but I'm also dealing with questions from solicitors round the clock.
"And that just wasn't me. I was a young lad, I didn't appreciate or care about law and litigation and I was just gutted I had to go through that.
"It dragged and it dragged and it dragged when it should have been dealt with in a much better way.
"When that court case settled there was a bit of a release, it was kind of like 'OK you're going to be safe a while' so great, but I never wanted to be in the position ever and I had to endure it.
"If you're asking when I got back to normality... maybe I'm not normal. You're reminded every single f***ing day of Oasis.
"On the radio, one of your mates, someone you work with. I'll never get away from being the original Oasis drummer and that's something I've got to take on the chin."
Eventually, once the court case did conclude, Tony accepted that he did need to readjust to a 'normal' lifestyle, so he set up a music studio in Denton, Tameside, where he worked with latchkey kids - encouraging them to embrace a musical instrument to inspire a positive change in their lives.
Tony wanted to give them 'a bit of direction', much in the same way that Liverpool band The Real People guided Oasis in their early years, when recording their demo takes of future hits such as Colombia.
He would teach drums, guitar and offer advice. Today, he's back in 'regular employment', which he says 'keeps you sane'.
And, while sanity is all well and good, when he speaks about those 'magic' days leading up to the release of Definitely Maybe - which is 30 years old this month - those memories bring out an excitement in Tony's voice.
"There was always a belief, a massive massive belief that we couldn't fail," he says.
"The rehearsal room at The Boardwalk was our own little bubble. We came out that door and into the outside world and it was like stepping off of a f***ing spaceship. It was like we were all looking at each other thinking 'what the hell happened in there?'
"You'd have the neighbours from the other rehearsal rooms coming up to me saying 'Christ, what was that? It sounded great'.
"None of us were thinking about super stardom or money, it was more about getting away from regular life and regular jobs. Oasis went from a tiny room in The Boardwalk to Knebworth. What a journey.
"Within such a short space of time, too. That's why when you look back now I'm not bitter. Yes, I'm disappointed in certain ways with how it ended, but also very proud."
There's a huge sense of pride in Tony's voice when asked about how the song that started it all - Supersonic - was crafted. The band had booked studio time to record Bring It On Down, which was set to be their first single, but as Tony puts it 'it wasn't quite happening or coming together'.
"So I was doing a sound check on the drums and got something going and the door kicks open all of a sudden and someone shouts 'keep that going, keep that going'.
"And within bloody minutes we had Supersonic. You just thought right away 'oh my God that's f***ing brilliant."
The disappointment Tony felt on being ditched from such a special group early on was eventually laid bare for all to read when he wrote his book 'Oasis: The Truth: My Life as Oasis's Drummer' in 2010.
The book tells how as Noel's grip on the band tightened, the drummer was increasingly sidelined. Bassist Paul McGuigan, known as Guigsy, was among the targets of Tony's ire in the book.
Given Tony met Guigsy as a young boy playing football, their fall out during the band's rise hurt him the most. Looking back now, though, he is open to reconciliation.
"I would love to go and see him," Tony said. "I knew him the longest and he did change with that super stardom, you do - it happens - and all of a sudden you don't see eye to eye.
"There were things that were said that I won't go into, but maybe in the book I was a bit harsh, I take some of that back without a doubt. I'd love to meet him."
To mark the anniversary of Definitely Maybe, Tony is travelling across the UK and Ireland to host Q+A and DJ sessions for fans in the coming weeks and months, organised by AMA Music Agency.
Preparing for them has seen the drummer, who now lives in Trafford, revisit the album that means so much to fans - and to him. And he admits that he hasn't got tired of it, even after all these years.
"You put it on and I do say, 'f***ing hell that is special'. At the time we were aware of the songs and how good they were, Live Forever, Slide Away, Supersonic, they're hard-hitting rock songs, love songs, it's just an eclectic mix.
"There was just a magic. We were well-gelled. We knew what to do. That wall of sound we had with me, Guigsy and Bonehead, that power, it was all there.
"Then Liam and Noel come along and what happened next was inevitable."
The band called it quits in 2009 and although Noel and Liam have been musically active as solo acts ever since, there was no love lost between the brothers.
As they remained at war, it seemed as there was little to no prospect of an Oasis reunion. But after 15 years, the dreams of millions of fans came true yesterday when the band announced it will be heading out on the road for 14 dates in July and August of next year.
It is not yet clear who will join the Gallagher brothers on tour. But back in 2019, Tony made his position crystal clear.
"I would love that," he told the M.E.N. "If I got the phone call, that would be a nice way to round things off.
"End it where it started."