Post by Rob on Dec 31, 2005 16:47:30 GMT -5
In Smash Hits magazine issue dated 28.2.96-12.3.96 with pictures of Noel, Paul, Liam and Peggy in the mid-'70s, Liam and Noel now, an old pic of Tommy, a current pic of Peggy, another of her and Paul now, the Gallagher home, and one of Alvin Stardust!
"BOYS TO MEN. Life before Oasis: Noel and Liam's family talk to Ben Knowles.
The Gallagher brothers may be pop's most notorious hellraisers, but they have shameful secret pasts they would rather you didn't know about (ie. they both idolised Alvin Stardust, and Liam dressed up as a fluffy sheep in his school play!). We talk to the people who know them best. Here's their story, starring Mother Gallagher -Peggy; Father Gallagher - Tommy: and Big Brother Gallagher - Paul...
I'm drinking tea with Tommy Gallagher in his ex-council house out in rainy, run-down Burnage, Manchester. I'm standing on the brown and blue swirly living room carpet Noel helped his father lay in 1974, being shown to the bedroom Liam and Noel shared as children. This is their childhood home. It was here that the men behind Britain's biggest band took their first steps, spoke their first words and laid plans for their dreams of international stardom. This is the bedroom the brothers first fought in - and behind the girly floral wallpaper liesa pop legend. "They called it their wonderwall," explains Tommy, pointing over to the far wall. "It's what they named the single after." "In 1983 they both started writing on the wall. Bits of songs, poems, favourite bands, football teams. In one corner Noel wrote 'I Love Diane Jones' and underneath, in the same writing, 'Liam is a puff.' "They'd fight terribly about who had the most writing space," he continues, adding thoughtfully: "I didn't touch it for years, but I wallpapered it before Christmas (damn!) - I had people coming to stay and the room looked a mess. A man from a daily paper offered me �2,000 to strip it, but I wouldn't do that for any money. I've only just papered it!" I arrive at the Gallagher house in a taxi. Tommy opens the door wearing his slippers, halfway through hoovering the stairs. He looks very much like Noel, less like Liam, slightly greying and significantly balding. He puts the heater on and offers me a beef sandwich. Like Noel, he chats non-stop and reveals that Liam used to be shy around girls (are you sure!!) "Up until he was 14, he used to say, 'I hate girls, they do my head in.' Noel was the champ with girls. He had a good few girlfriends. Diane Jones was one of the nicest, really respectable. I think she caught him with someone else, though. He used to sneak girls into the house. If I found them misbehavingin the front bedroom, I'd throw them out," laughs Tommy. "Our Noel usually took girls upstairs - but only because that was where the record player was. He'd play music to them all night." Liam overcame his reluctance to mix with chicks during a weekend break in Tommy's native Ireland in 1989. "He was good at pool and getting good at the pull, too," recalls Tommy. "All the girls in the village were mad for him. I made a man out of him - he was drinking pints of lager in Big Tom's pub, winning games of pool for a fiver and being a hit with the birds." Liam, though a 'little bugger' from an early age, gained a reputation as a Mummy's boy and became known as 'peggy's shadow'. "It wasn't liam's fault," says Tommy. "All the lads round here were Noel's age and all the kids Liam's age were girls. So he'd play with the big lads, he'd come in with a bloody nose, a knock or a cut. When Peggy went out, Liam went with her to keep out of trouble. But he was a tough little kid. A teacher came to the house one day and said she couldn't handle him because he was so lively." The Gallagher house is in a rough part of Manchester, in the sort of place where scouts burned down their scout huts. "There were plenty of lads who were a bad influence," scowls Tommy, who often caught Noel messing about in local parks when he should have been at school. "There was a group of lads who robbed a house and I got to know Noel was involved. He told me he was only doing look-out, but I made him tell me where the stuff was and then I took it back to the police. He didn't do it again."
Noel, Liam, their older brother Paul and mother Peggy left Tommy and the family home in April 1986 - they haven't spoken since. Noel reportedly punched his Dad and put him in hospital. Neither brother mentions their dad in interviews - and Tommy hasn't seen them for years. "I haven't changed the locks," he says wistfully. "They've still got keys, if they want to come back." But Mum, Dad and Big Brother all share happy memories of the lads' childhoods. Peggy fondly remembers Noel's early musical love. "He was always banging my knitting needles along to The Beatles or the Sex Pistols. Liam was obsessed with John Lennon. He bought every Beatles record," says Peggy, a Take That fan herself. But The Beatles weren't their only idols: both Noel and Liam were big fans of sequinned '70s crooner Alvin Stardust (the old bloke in Hollyoaks)! "Oh aye, when he came on telly they'd mime along and pretend to be Alvin. And I'd always catch them singing into hairbrushes and playing air guitar," laughs Tommy.
Paul Gallagher, the eldest, who manages local Manchester bands, was always confident his brothers would become stars. "I knew Liam had it in him. He'd go upstairs, put a tape on and go for it. Noel could have got a deal on his own years ago, but decided to wait and get a band together." I used to despair of the boys at times, especially liam," admits Peggy. "I used to go on at him to get a proper job. He never did. But he's more than made up for it now." Pictures of Oasis take pride of place in Peggy's living room, and Paul keeps a scrapbook full of press cuttings, as does Tommy. He opens a cupboard filled with magazines and papers and proudly shows off articles on the band. The, from upstairs, he fetches Noel's first guitar. "I thought if I bought it and put it there, Noel's inquisitiveness would do the rest." It has never been cleaned; the strings have never been changed. "It's Noel's guitar," Tommy says, "and I'd like him to have it." Even more interestingly, Tommy produces a tattered sketch pad full of doodles; it was Noel's at age 15. Like the hidden wonderwall, it contains the thoughts and ideas of the young Gallagher. Along with lists of his favourite bands and poems are doodlings; large drawings of nuclear-bomb mushroom clouds and slogans like: 'Why must we destroy this planet?', 'This whole world is rather huppity-tuppity', 'The hand that rocks the cradle is mine' and the word N-O-E-L, standing for 'No-One Ever Loves'.
Noel had many Saturday jobs - he was a sign writer for an estate agents, worked in a bed factory, a bakery and he'd work with his Dad on building jobs for �10. Liam used to wash the vans for pocket money. Spare time was spent in the park because the lads were sports-mad. Tommy formed his own local under-14 Gaelic football team so his sons could get a game. As soon as they were in from school, they'd head off to practice. They were cub scouts, too - and rather embarrassingly, the lads made their debut stage appearances in their annual school nativity plays! Yes, Liam Gallagher, the hard man of pop, once donned a little fluffy suit for his primary school play. "I think he was a sheep or a lamb," recalls Tommy. Peggy too dismisses the boys' wild-boy reputations. "Privately, they've got a great admiration for each other," she says. "Liam looks up to Noel because of his song-writing ability, and Noel looks up to Liam because of his voice." It is their close relationship and working-class values that all three are sure will keep Noel and Liam on the straight and narrow. "They always look out for each other. It's been a struggle, but they're very close," smiles Peggy. "They've not changed at all," echoes Paul. "They think they're the best band in the world - and that's what has made them." Tommy doesn't worry that tehy'll become casualties of rock either. "They keep together, and aren't easily swayed. Noel finds it hard to make friends - he's a nice lad, but won't enjoy meeting all the famous people. Liam's worse - he'd much rather be back in Manchester going round the pubs with his mates." Seven cups of tea later, Tommy recounts a dream he had in 1982 - that he had a band , with Paul on guitar and Noel singing and playing guitar. Suddenly, a tambourine sounded. Behind the drums was a 10-year old Liam, playing it. He'd sneaked out of the house so as not to miss the fun. But in 1982, Noel had never sung in a band and was learning the guitar - and Liam had never touched a tambourine. "They were destined for this," says Tommy. "They deserve it. They've done amazingly. More than any dad could ask of his own..."
Thanks to Andrew Turner
"BOYS TO MEN. Life before Oasis: Noel and Liam's family talk to Ben Knowles.
The Gallagher brothers may be pop's most notorious hellraisers, but they have shameful secret pasts they would rather you didn't know about (ie. they both idolised Alvin Stardust, and Liam dressed up as a fluffy sheep in his school play!). We talk to the people who know them best. Here's their story, starring Mother Gallagher -Peggy; Father Gallagher - Tommy: and Big Brother Gallagher - Paul...
I'm drinking tea with Tommy Gallagher in his ex-council house out in rainy, run-down Burnage, Manchester. I'm standing on the brown and blue swirly living room carpet Noel helped his father lay in 1974, being shown to the bedroom Liam and Noel shared as children. This is their childhood home. It was here that the men behind Britain's biggest band took their first steps, spoke their first words and laid plans for their dreams of international stardom. This is the bedroom the brothers first fought in - and behind the girly floral wallpaper liesa pop legend. "They called it their wonderwall," explains Tommy, pointing over to the far wall. "It's what they named the single after." "In 1983 they both started writing on the wall. Bits of songs, poems, favourite bands, football teams. In one corner Noel wrote 'I Love Diane Jones' and underneath, in the same writing, 'Liam is a puff.' "They'd fight terribly about who had the most writing space," he continues, adding thoughtfully: "I didn't touch it for years, but I wallpapered it before Christmas (damn!) - I had people coming to stay and the room looked a mess. A man from a daily paper offered me �2,000 to strip it, but I wouldn't do that for any money. I've only just papered it!" I arrive at the Gallagher house in a taxi. Tommy opens the door wearing his slippers, halfway through hoovering the stairs. He looks very much like Noel, less like Liam, slightly greying and significantly balding. He puts the heater on and offers me a beef sandwich. Like Noel, he chats non-stop and reveals that Liam used to be shy around girls (are you sure!!) "Up until he was 14, he used to say, 'I hate girls, they do my head in.' Noel was the champ with girls. He had a good few girlfriends. Diane Jones was one of the nicest, really respectable. I think she caught him with someone else, though. He used to sneak girls into the house. If I found them misbehavingin the front bedroom, I'd throw them out," laughs Tommy. "Our Noel usually took girls upstairs - but only because that was where the record player was. He'd play music to them all night." Liam overcame his reluctance to mix with chicks during a weekend break in Tommy's native Ireland in 1989. "He was good at pool and getting good at the pull, too," recalls Tommy. "All the girls in the village were mad for him. I made a man out of him - he was drinking pints of lager in Big Tom's pub, winning games of pool for a fiver and being a hit with the birds." Liam, though a 'little bugger' from an early age, gained a reputation as a Mummy's boy and became known as 'peggy's shadow'. "It wasn't liam's fault," says Tommy. "All the lads round here were Noel's age and all the kids Liam's age were girls. So he'd play with the big lads, he'd come in with a bloody nose, a knock or a cut. When Peggy went out, Liam went with her to keep out of trouble. But he was a tough little kid. A teacher came to the house one day and said she couldn't handle him because he was so lively." The Gallagher house is in a rough part of Manchester, in the sort of place where scouts burned down their scout huts. "There were plenty of lads who were a bad influence," scowls Tommy, who often caught Noel messing about in local parks when he should have been at school. "There was a group of lads who robbed a house and I got to know Noel was involved. He told me he was only doing look-out, but I made him tell me where the stuff was and then I took it back to the police. He didn't do it again."
Noel, Liam, their older brother Paul and mother Peggy left Tommy and the family home in April 1986 - they haven't spoken since. Noel reportedly punched his Dad and put him in hospital. Neither brother mentions their dad in interviews - and Tommy hasn't seen them for years. "I haven't changed the locks," he says wistfully. "They've still got keys, if they want to come back." But Mum, Dad and Big Brother all share happy memories of the lads' childhoods. Peggy fondly remembers Noel's early musical love. "He was always banging my knitting needles along to The Beatles or the Sex Pistols. Liam was obsessed with John Lennon. He bought every Beatles record," says Peggy, a Take That fan herself. But The Beatles weren't their only idols: both Noel and Liam were big fans of sequinned '70s crooner Alvin Stardust (the old bloke in Hollyoaks)! "Oh aye, when he came on telly they'd mime along and pretend to be Alvin. And I'd always catch them singing into hairbrushes and playing air guitar," laughs Tommy.
Paul Gallagher, the eldest, who manages local Manchester bands, was always confident his brothers would become stars. "I knew Liam had it in him. He'd go upstairs, put a tape on and go for it. Noel could have got a deal on his own years ago, but decided to wait and get a band together." I used to despair of the boys at times, especially liam," admits Peggy. "I used to go on at him to get a proper job. He never did. But he's more than made up for it now." Pictures of Oasis take pride of place in Peggy's living room, and Paul keeps a scrapbook full of press cuttings, as does Tommy. He opens a cupboard filled with magazines and papers and proudly shows off articles on the band. The, from upstairs, he fetches Noel's first guitar. "I thought if I bought it and put it there, Noel's inquisitiveness would do the rest." It has never been cleaned; the strings have never been changed. "It's Noel's guitar," Tommy says, "and I'd like him to have it." Even more interestingly, Tommy produces a tattered sketch pad full of doodles; it was Noel's at age 15. Like the hidden wonderwall, it contains the thoughts and ideas of the young Gallagher. Along with lists of his favourite bands and poems are doodlings; large drawings of nuclear-bomb mushroom clouds and slogans like: 'Why must we destroy this planet?', 'This whole world is rather huppity-tuppity', 'The hand that rocks the cradle is mine' and the word N-O-E-L, standing for 'No-One Ever Loves'.
Noel had many Saturday jobs - he was a sign writer for an estate agents, worked in a bed factory, a bakery and he'd work with his Dad on building jobs for �10. Liam used to wash the vans for pocket money. Spare time was spent in the park because the lads were sports-mad. Tommy formed his own local under-14 Gaelic football team so his sons could get a game. As soon as they were in from school, they'd head off to practice. They were cub scouts, too - and rather embarrassingly, the lads made their debut stage appearances in their annual school nativity plays! Yes, Liam Gallagher, the hard man of pop, once donned a little fluffy suit for his primary school play. "I think he was a sheep or a lamb," recalls Tommy. Peggy too dismisses the boys' wild-boy reputations. "Privately, they've got a great admiration for each other," she says. "Liam looks up to Noel because of his song-writing ability, and Noel looks up to Liam because of his voice." It is their close relationship and working-class values that all three are sure will keep Noel and Liam on the straight and narrow. "They always look out for each other. It's been a struggle, but they're very close," smiles Peggy. "They've not changed at all," echoes Paul. "They think they're the best band in the world - and that's what has made them." Tommy doesn't worry that tehy'll become casualties of rock either. "They keep together, and aren't easily swayed. Noel finds it hard to make friends - he's a nice lad, but won't enjoy meeting all the famous people. Liam's worse - he'd much rather be back in Manchester going round the pubs with his mates." Seven cups of tea later, Tommy recounts a dream he had in 1982 - that he had a band , with Paul on guitar and Noel singing and playing guitar. Suddenly, a tambourine sounded. Behind the drums was a 10-year old Liam, playing it. He'd sneaked out of the house so as not to miss the fun. But in 1982, Noel had never sung in a band and was learning the guitar - and Liam had never touched a tambourine. "They were destined for this," says Tommy. "They deserve it. They've done amazingly. More than any dad could ask of his own..."
Thanks to Andrew Turner
