Four days ago, Oasis opened pre-sale tickets for their 2025 tour, which sold out yesterday in about ten hours. To access the pre-sale, users had to answer a simple question: who was the first drummer of Oasis?
The answer is Tony McCarroll, the Oasis member forgotten by history. Drummer of the group called The Rain that was joined first by Liam and then Noel Gallagher, thus giving rise to the first line-up of Oasis, McCarroll played on the debut album Definitely Maybe and appears in Some Might Saythe single from the second album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?.
Disagreements with Noel Gallagher, who said he wasn't a drummer fit for a band with a number one hit, led to the end of his relationship with Oasis, which was made official in the spring of 1995, shortly before the start of the sessions for Morning Glory. He was replaced by Alan White.
Relations worsened in 1999, when McCarroll sued Oasis for £15 million. The drummer argued that, as an active party to the contract with the Creation label, he was entitled to compensation for the proceeds of the albums from which he was excluded. An out-of-court settlement was reached: McCarroll received £550,000 and in return waived all claims to future royalties.
In a new interview published by Mail Online and made after the announcement of the reunion, the “forgotten man of Oasis” says he is «happy for Noel and Liam, very happy for them. And very happy especially for the fans and for the generations that have not seen Oasis».
While we wonder who the musicians will be who will accompany Gallagher, knowing full well that there are drummers who have played in Oasis more than him, McCarroll explains that “they haven't contacted me yet, but I'm not holding my breath”. And if they asked him to participate in the reunion? “I don't know, after all I'm not the only former member”.
McCarroll hasn't decided whether he'll go see them in 2025. “I was at their last concert in the UK, at the V Festival. How ironic and strange: I was at their first and last concert” in England.
He says he was always convinced that they would get back together. “They are brothers … maybe it was their mother Peggy who put them together and said: work it out.” The announcement did not therefore take him by surprise, “I have been saying for years that it would happen, but I thought it would happen in 2024, for the 30th anniversary of Definitely Maybe».
The drummer considers Liam “one of the last greats of rock, my nephew wants to be like him, he copies his pose while he sings with his arms behind his back” and does not rule out that Oasis could also record new music. “They should do it if they still have the energy” of the past. “And then Noel probably has eight albums ready, who knows?” For him, there would be a need for it in this era in which “some bands are so constructed at the table that they are insipid and it is something that you hear in the music”.
As for the relationship with the brothers, “I saw Liam just before Christmas, it was all hugs and kisses. It's not like we talk on the phone, but the relationship is friendly, everything is ok. With Noel instead I haven't spoken for a while, but I would love to see all of them again. It would be nice if something good happened, but I don't expect anything. If it did happen, then it would be fantastic, it would be a nice ending.”
