The Clash Between Oasis and Blur: The Rivalry Explained

Published in

The Rise to Fame

16 min readJan 10, 2021

Writer’s Note

If you are an American, then you have probably felt embarrassed and fueled by rage for the past couple of days as you have watched fellow Americans threaten our very democracy, the beams on which our country stands. But, sometimes I personally need a reminder that other countries have problems too. (I’m only partly kidding). The Top of the Pops Battle of 1995 might seem insignificant, and in the grand scheme of history, it is. But by looking at examples of media distortion and class rivalry on a smaller scale, from an era separated from the present by time, the perspective we need to gain might be in something that people hold no stake in at the moment. America has agreed for a long time that all presidential parties, politicians, and movements have their flaws, but it’s time to agree that the media needs to stop hustling the American public, as if our fear isn’t dirty money — that they don’t monetize the views from scared Americans that they receive checking into their site and that they themselves are not responsible for shifting elections by spreading false information. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “You’re entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts.” This is the last sentence that I’ll write regarding the election because we all need a break from the topic and we all need to shake our heads of tunnel vison. So enjoy the read, and God bless America.

Below, I have outlined the Table of Contents for the following article.
1. What is Britpop?
2. Who is Oasis? (Three Parts)
* Part One: Quick Facts
*Part Two: Their Story
*Part Three: Fun Facts
3. Who is Blur? (Three Parts)
* Part One: Quick Facts
*Part Two: Their Story
*Part Three: Fun Facts
4. The Clash Between Oasis and Blur: The Rivalry Explained
5. References and Sources

What is Britpop?

“A painter paints pictures on Canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.” ~Leopold Stokowski.

Even though many still consider Britpop to be a genre, it’s more associated with a movement during the 1990s that was known for bringing the sound of alternative rock mainstream, as Wikipedia says. Most will also agree that the term was only a marketing tool to attract more listeners to what was seen as a fringe cultural movement, not a new genre.

The ‘big four’ were the most popular bands that defined the brand — Blur, Oasis, Suede, and Pulp — although, Suede and Pulp broke apart from the movement, leaving Blur and Oasis as the only notable figures.

Teen Pop later overtook the short and weak “genre” and envelopes some of the most popular singers and bands of the modern era (1990-present) such as the Spice Girls, Britney Spears, Snow Patrol, and Coldplay. Today, Britpop is mostly a history term for undergraduates studying Ethnomusicology, or “the study of music in terms of itself and within the context of its society” as Mantle Hood said.

Who is Oasis: Quick Facts

Place and Date Founded: Manchester (1991)
Years Active: (1991–2009)

Members:

Liam Gallagher- Lead singer (1991-2009)
Noel Gallagher- Lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist (1991–2009)
Paul Arthurs (Bonehead)- Rhythm guitarist and occasional keyboardist (1991-1999)
Paul McGuigan- Bassist (1991–1999)
Tony McCarroll- Drummer (1991–1995)
Alan White- Drummer (1995-2004)
Gem Archer- Rhythm guitarist and occasional lead guitarist (1999–2009)
Zak Starkey- Drummer (2004–2008)
Andy Bell- Bassist(1999–2009)

Awards Won

1995
* British Breakthrough Act
1996
* British Group
* British Album of the Year
* British Video of the Year
2007
* Outstanding Contribution to Music
2010
* British Album of 30 Year

Top Three Best Selling Songs:

Wonderwall (2.4 million copies)
Don’t Look Back In Anger (1.8 million copies)
D’You Know What I Mean (745,000 copies)

Who Influenced Oasis:

The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
The Kinks
The Move
The Who

What Bands Did They Inspire:

Arctic Monkeys
Catfish and the Bottlemen
Deafheaven
The Killers
Coldplay

Who is Oasis: Their Story

The evolution of Oasis goes as so: they started out as the Rain and then formed Oasis. In 1991, when Noel Gallagher returned to Manchester, he discovered that his brother, Liam, had formed a band. Liam asked his brother to become a member, but Noel agreed to join only under the condition that he would have to have complete control over the group’s image and artistic decisions, contributing to the friction that he and his brother would continuously carry throughout their personal and professional careers. The brothers couldn’t even be interviewed together because they would constantly fight. One of the only things that they seemed to agree on was the band’s name, Oasis, adopted because of a tour poster in the Gallagher brother’s bedroom. But even then, Noel was skeptical of the name because he said it sounded more like a Reggae band name.

After attending intensive practices and preforming locally, the band finally found and begged Allen McGee, the head of Creation Records, to listen to their demo. Impressed with their work, he signed the band, helping them to produce their debut album. Then, in 1994, their album Definitely Maybe became “the fastest-selling debut in British history” according to All Music. (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? was then released in 1995 and became the “fastest-selling album in the U.K. since Michael Jackson’s Bad,” also according to All Music, making a huge splash in the music industry. This was the album that included “Wonderwall,” “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” and “Champagne Supernova,” some of the band’s most successful songs.

The band had small hiatuses throughout their career, with Bonehead and Alan White both departing. However, White was actually replaced by the Beatle’s drummer, Ringo Starr’s son, Zak Starkey.

The band later split in 2009 after a heated argument between the Gallagher brothers. Noel left the band permanently afterwards, and even though Liam stayed behind with the fragmented band, the bandmates agreed to change the name to Beady Eye. Noel went on to form the band Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.

Click here to see a timeline of the band.

Who is Oasis: Fun Facts

“I don’t live to work; I work to live.” ~Noel Gallagher

Oasis was Deported from the Netherlands

When Oasis was riding a ferry to Amsterdam on their way to play their first international concert, the Oasis bandmembers got into a fight with a group of Chelsea F.C supporters, fans of a football club. Afterwards, they were deported.

The Band Mistook Crystal Meth for Cocaine Right Before a Show

Apparently, outside of England, Oasis turns from endearingly British to a very, very small and terribly stupid gang. Backstage, before their first U.S. show, the members somehow mixed up Crystal Meth for Cocaine. In short, the show was a disaster. Noel had a breakdown and ended the tour promptly.

Liam Lost Two Teeth in a Barfight

In 2002, while Oasis was touring Germany (yet again, during one of their international adventures) Alan and Liam were involved in a bar fight which left Liam missing two teeth and Alan with a small head injury after an ashtray struck him.

Noel Hit Liam with a Cricket Bat

In 1995, Liam had brought over a group of people to the studio that Noel was working in at the time. Noel decided that the appropriate approach to telling his brother to go away was to hit him with a cricket bat. Express Co UK says that “This bat was later sold at auction for its involvement in the feud.”

Noel Commented in an Interview One of My Favorite Lines of All Time

Referring to Liam, he states, “He’s the angriest man you’ll ever meet. He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Liam and Noel Gallagher Were Abused At the Hands of Their Father

The boys’ father, an alcoholic who his mother later left in 1982, beat his three sons.

Who is Blur: Quick Facts

Place and Date Founded: London (1988)
Years Active: (1988-present)

Members:

Damon Albarn- Lead singer and lyricist
Graham Coxon- Lead guitarist and secondary vocalist
Alex James- Bassist
Dave Rowntree- Drummer

Awards Won:

Blur accumulated 43 awards. Click here to see the full list.

Top Three Most Streamed Songs on Spotify (As of 2021):

Song 2- 2012 Remaster (382,244,498)
Girls & Boys (98,163,339)
Coffee and TV (69,683,115)

Who Influenced Blur:

The Kinks
The Beatles
XTC
Pavement

What Bands Did They Inspire:

Vampire Weekend
Speedy Ortiz
Peanut Butter Wolf

Who is Blur: Their Story

An early version of Blur was formed in the college years of the bandmembers lives at Goldsmith’s College in London. The band was originally named Seymour after J. D. Salinger’s Seymour: An Introduction, however the label that they signed with rejected the name and the members chose the name Blur out of a list of alternatives brought to them. The band produced “There’s No Other Way,” a single which peaked at number eight early in their career but had trouble matching it later on, producing a few flops. Leisure, their first full album did well, peaking at number seven on the UK Albums Chart; although, as John Harris wrote, he “could not shake off the odour of anti-climax,” and the reviews were controversial.

The band later discovered that they were £60,000 in debt, prompting an American tour to regain financial stability. They released “Popscene,” a pivot in their style, which was deemed to be quintessentially British. They claimed to be homesick while touring in the US, missing England, but when they returned home, they were upset to have found that another alternative rock group, Suede, had started to replace them as the rising stars. Later though, in 1994, Blur released “Girls & Boys” which is their highest charted single, reaching number five in the UK and number fifty-nine in America.

The bandmates started to fall apart after the Britpop battle with Oasis was over, and Graham Coxon specifically started to find comfort in drinking alcohol, unhappy with the image that Blur held as the ingenuine basic pop group compared to Oasis. He was also upset with Damon Albarn controlling the image of the band, so he started to listen to American punk and grudge bands, such as Pavement, which at first the rest of the band found distasteful, but they later embraced parts of the style, and the band grew in another direction.

After the mania of the Top of the Pops battle subsided, Blur continued to record and produce music but has not managed to regain the attention of the media. In short, they lost the spotlight while Oasis continued to grow more popular and even struck a number of hits in America, something that Blur could never accomplish.

They have only produced two albums in the 2000s and 2010s, Think Tank (2003) and The Magic Whip (2015).

Who is Blur: Fun Facts

“I’m not a monarchist. But I’m English. And I have an irrational emotion for my country. “~Damon Albarn

In a 1996 Italian TV performance, Graham Coxon was M.I.A and replaced by a cardboard cut-out.
Damon’s full name is Damon N.M.N Albarn. His middle name stands for “no middle name.” The idea of giving Albarn no middle name was, in a way, an impasse.
A candlestick that was featured in the music video for “Country House” was sold via an eBay auction for £92. The candlestick is worth £500.
Damon’s parents rented an apartment next to John Lennon when they first moved to London.
Blur Was Not the Band’s Original Name. As stated previously, the original name of the band was Seymour. Other names that the band was presented with were Sensitize, Whirlpool, and The Shining Path. NME says that Sensitize and Whirlpool were actually later picked by other bands. Ironically, Oasis member Gem Archer chose Whirlpool to use for a project before joining the Oasis-made band, Beady Eye.

The Clash Between Oasis and Blur: The Rivalry Explained

The tale as old as time goes as so: The North against the South, the rich against poor, the educated verses the ignorant, OR all of the above.

When Oasis and Blur started to grow into their styles, a new fridge movement called Britpop (a ‘pseudogenre’ mostly reported as a marketing tool and/or cultural movement) was new and was classified as sounding like a typical British, alternative rock-type sound. It was mostly combative to American punk and grudge styles.

From this movement, four bands, commonly called the “big four” arose, Blur, Oasis, Suede, and Pulp, although today, Blur and Oasis are seen as the genuine ‘big two’ per say.

Oasis was a band that had a simple and uncomplicated sound, one that seemed to speak to the British masses. Noel Gallagher is often referred to as the mastermind even though Liam was the out-spoken, outlandish bandmember often taken to be “the leader.” When Noel joined the band in 1991, he noticed that the band’s members had unrefined skills, and to combat this, he created rhythms and melodies that were not complex or difficult to play. This proved to be a genius move, and they grew to be beloved for their simplistic style.

At the same time that Oasis was gaining traction, Blur also started to become a mainstream band. They, hence the term Britpop, were a quintessential British band, and they started to rub shoulders with Oasis.

During the Brit Awards of 1995, Damon Albarn, after Blur had received four awards, which was unheard of at the time said “I think this should’ve been shared with Oasis.” Graham Coxon then said, “Yeah, much love and respect to them.”

But when Oasis produced “Some Might Say,” a single that reached number one on the charts, Damon attended their celebration, he says, to congratulate them. Liam reportedly came over to him and said, “Number fucking one,” right in his face. Albarn remembers thinking, “OK, we’ll see…”

At this point, Oasis and Blur both had their latest albums scheduled for a release date in Autumn of 1995, Blur’s in September and Oasis’s in October. This was not a problem because the albums could be released and would not interfere with the progress of one another. It was the release date of their singles that clashed. Oasis had their single scheduled to be released one week before Blur’s single “Country House.” The problem with this is explained by Andy Ross. He states, “We thought they were mad. But the thing is, a number one record tends to have a better-than-evens chance of being one the week after, just because it’s on Top of the Pops, and all the kids hear it.” This means that because Oasis had scheduled their single one week before Blur’s, it would most likely stay as number one, not giving Blur a chance to compete. This is why the release date had to be moved. So, the decision was to release Oasis’s Roll With It the same day as Blur released Country House. The date of both releases was now set for August 14 and the atmosphere was tense. Both bands were ready to claim the prize that they thought was rightfully theirs.

The thing about the rivalry was that it was about more than a title or even music — it was a battle between the British class systems. Blur was from the South, which, by stereotypes, meant that the bandmates were better educated and more financially stable than Oasis, who were from the North. None of Oasis’s bandmates went to college, and before their musical career they spent time as construction workers. Oasis dubbed Blur as “Art school wankers” while the press deemed Oasis to be working class heroes. The problem was not that either statement was more or less true but that the public seemed to be invested in this one-dimensional view of the bands.

By this point, Blur was seen as inauthentic and ingenuine. Oasis was almost guaranteed to win with “Bookmaker even giving the band odds of 6–4, in their favor” as Trash Theory states. But when the time came, Blur won by 58,000 copies, wining the battle of Top of the Pops. They then preformed at TOTP’s concert, bathing in their sweet victory. Alex James even wore an Oasis shirt, further antagonizing their archrivals.

But not all of the bandmates were enjoying their win. Guitarist of Blur, Graham Coxon, after not appearing to be enjoying the performance, almost jumped out of the window while drinking later that night. Alex James commented the following:

“I think Graham just thought ‘Oh my god, this isn’t what I wanted when I was listening to the Pixies and Pete Townsend. I didn’t want to be sitting in a pouncey club Soho club with an oomph record at number one. What have I done?”

But the truth is often described as so: “Blur won the battle, but Oasis won the war.”

When the two band’s albums came out, Blur’s The Great Escape hit number one on the charts, naturally, but never received the same recognition as Oasis’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? complete with the hit song “Wonderwall.” It became the fourth best selling album of all time in the UK, and even became beloved in America, a nation that Blur had repeatedly failed to be recognized by. Then, in the 1995 Brit Awards, Oasis won three albums, leaving Blur with nothing. In their speech, Oasis mocked Blur by singing the lyrics of one of their songs, saying, “All the people, all the people, so many people…”

Later, in 1996, Oasis sold out two concerts at Knebworth, “the two largest concerts in British history” as Trash Theory states. In fact, four-percent of the British population (2.5 million people) applied for tickets.

After the clear victory of Oasis, the Britpop movement slowed and then stopped altogether with Blur finally getting a hit in America. After they had started to drift into styles more connected with American bands such as Pavement and Beck, they finally produced their most popular song in America, “Song Two,” which is still widely acclaimed. Ironically, this also happens to be the song that is most unlike any of their other songs.

Blur, although Google says they are still active, are largely dormant, and have come out very little to preform. 2003 was their ending. Oasis continued until 2009.

History repeated itself a short time after, when a dispute between Oasis and Albarn broke out in 2005 when the Oasis song “The Importance of Being Idle” was knocked off the number one spot in the charts by Albarn’s song “Dare.” The dispute was not a hot topic as the Top of the Pops battle had been in 1995, but it was noted in several reputable newspapers.

But while Blur has retreated into the dark corner of history, the Gallagher brothers and their infamous fights are still very much in the media. Although, there might be something different about their relationship as the year starts off in 2021.

In 2017, Damon and Noel preformed on the same track, “We Got the Power,” and they even shared the stage. Liam was unhappy with this and took to tweeting.

But only three years later, as the 2021 year starts off, the two brothers, Noel and Liam Gallagher, try to patch their relationship. MSN says, “Oasis star Liam Gallagher started 2021 by attempting to end his long-running feud with brother Noel, telling him he loves him and that this is their year.” It’s a hopeful start to a new year and the end of bad blood. The only fight between Oasis and Blur was to make better music, and their contributions to the evolution of modern rock are undeniable. It seems that the only genuine problem that was that of the media and false stereotypes.

Comment your thoughts below and share your perspective.

References
Look through the list below to find quizzes and links that will send you to other articles that discuss specific albums and songs of the two bands.

Sources
Look through the list below to find the resources that I used to write this article.

References:

Band Quizzes

— Blur

— Oasis

A Close Look at Musical Style

— Blur

— Oasis

The Clash Between Oasis and Blur: The Rivalry Explained

Writer’s Note

What is Britpop?

Who is Oasis: Quick Facts

Members:

Awards Won

Who is Oasis: Their Story

Who is Oasis: Fun Facts

Who is Blur: Quick Facts

Members:

Awards Won:

Top Three Most Streamed Songs on Spotify (As of 2021):

Who Influenced Blur:

What Bands Did They Inspire:

Who is Blur: Their Story

Who is Blur: Fun Facts

References:

Sources:

Written by Rose Harmon