Did being “whacked” over the head with a hammer turn Liam Gallagher into a singer?
In the 1990s, Oasis were among the biggest bands in the world and undoubtedly the most popular British rock act. With Liam Gallagher front and centre, the group rose to prominence in 1994 following the release of their successful debut album Definitely Maybe and consolidated their position the following year with (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? The two albums established Oasis’ anthemic style that they continued to develop until their dissolution in 2009.
Beyond Liam Gallagher’s distinctively raspy and nasal vocal style, the music arranged by Noel was notably derivative. If Liam’s round-tinted shades and first-born son’s name aren’t enough of a giveaway, The Beatles had the biggest impact on the Gallagher brothers’ sound – that is, once Liam started taking an interest in music.
When quizzed on Oasis in the 1990s, Paul McCartney famously said: “They’re derivative, and they think too much of themselves. They mean nothing to me”. However, the Beatle backtracked on those comments in a 2016 conversation with GQ. “Oasis were young, fresh and writing good tunes. I thought the biggest mistake they made was when they said, ‘We’re going to be bigger than The Beatles’. I thought, ‘So many people have said that, and it’s the kiss of death.'”
Oasis’ rule came to an end in 2009 after the Gallagher brothers had one fight too many. In the 2016 Oasis documentary, Supersonic, Liam recalled one of his and Noel’s earliest fights from the 1980s. “One night, I come in pissed, and I couldn’t find the light switch, so I pissed all over [Noel’s] new stereo,” he said. “I think it basically boils down to that,” he added, noting the premise for all future spats.
Although the pair’s rivalry infamously boiled over on a near-constant basis thereafter, it appears Liam would have thought twice about urinating on his brother’s stereo following a strange yet pivotal moment in his young life.
“I was 14, 15, having a cigarette with my mates, and a few lads came down from another school, hoods up, and one of them whacked me on the head with a hammer,” Liam once detailed in a conversation with The Guardian. “Not a big, massive mallet – one of those little small ones. I ended up in hospital and, after that, I just started hearing music differently.”
In an interview with Howard Stern in 2017, Liam reaffirmed this old rumour that he had been totally immune to the lure of music until he was hit in the head with a hammer. “I thought music was for weirdos, man!” Liam asserted.
“Right, you never sat there in your room and listened to Beatles and Stones, and sort of became one of those record nerds or anything like that? Noel was off learning the guitar, trying to get his shit together. You’re off doing your thing, this kid hits you in the head with a hammer, and you say you wake up and suddenly, what, you heard music?” Stern sceptically probed.
“No, it wasn’t instantly,” Liam explained. “I had just always gone… I think it was Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’. I was going, ‘That’s a fucking tune, actually, man.’ So, a week before, I’d be going like that [disdainful look]. It wouldn’t have even got close, you know what I mean?”
“How do you explain that?” Stern asked.
“Who knows? But whoever he was, ‘Thank you for it,'” Liam replied. “It’s like when people come out of comas, and you start speaking Japanese or Russian.”
“All of a sudden, I heard ‘Like a Virgin’ by Madonna, and I was going, ‘That’s a fucking tune,'” Liam reiterated to a gobsmacked Stern.