#this usenet group is just full of americans crying over cancelled gigs in 96 which kinda shows the lost opportunities

[todays-just-a-daydream]

Saturday, November 16, 1996 Book looks for Oasis from press Invasive tabloid stories prompt third Gallagher brother to tell his own

By JANE STEVENSON Toronto Sun

Don't Look Back In Anger appears to have double meaning for British supergroup Oasis. It's not only the title of the band's current single, but also the mantra of Paul Gallagher, the older brother of notorious band members Noel and Liam. "I mean, if it helps one person, then it's done its job," says Gallagher of his book, Brothers: From Childhood To Oasis, which details the three siblings' violent childhood at the hands of their brutish, mean-spirited father. "There's other people growing up in the same environment -- the only difference is they haven't got two brothers who are the biggest rock and roll stars in the world." Brothers, which was only released in Canada two weeks ago, is already a huge success in England, where it's sold 45,000 copies since mid-September. It helped that the publishers (General Publishing in Canada), who had only expected it to sell about 10,000, moved up the release date to capitalize on the band's headline-making cancellation of the remainder of their U.S. tour. "I expected it to do more but I expect more than anyone else," says Gallagher, sounding a lot like his ambitious brother Noel, who has already layed down four tracks at Abbey Road Studios for the new Oasis album expected next April. Book sales will likely pick up again given the recent Group of the Year honors for Oasis at the MTV Europe music awards, not to mention Liam's arrest on suspicion of possession of cocaine. "It's just mass hysteria over here," Gallagher says. "I mean if Liam walked backwards in the street, they'd say he was retarded and make a story out of it. The press over here is just like scum, basically, and I'm not afraid of saying that. We get doorsteps every day of the week, which means the press just arrive on your door." In fact, Gallagher had just arrived back from London where he was visiting Liam, who has to report back to police on Dec. 30. "I've been doing my Highway To Heaven bit, which means angel of mercy sort of stuff," Gallagher jokes before adding that Liam is holding up well. "He's fine, he just doesn't want permanent press attention 'cause he hasn't really got a private life anymore -- and it's very, very sad that it has to come to this." Understandably, neither Liam nor Noel initially wanted their older brother writing Brothers, but it apparently had less to do with airing their dirty laundry in public than with Paul's choice of collaborator, Manchester-based journalist Terry Christian. "They still don't like him, probably because he's a Man United fan, but there you go." (Liam, Noel and Paul are supporters of Manchester City, the local soccer rivals of Manchester United.) But Gallagher decided to proceed, with the blessing of their mother, Peggy, and says the book has now brought the three siblings closer together. "I think Noel has read it, and he's behind it. Liam probably read the bits about himself 'cause his attention span isn't very large, and he says it's okay. "In the end, I don't really care, okay or not. I mean it was a book that was personal to me and everyone says, `Well, why share it with the world?' And I say, `Well, the world is on my nerves at the moment.' Cause the press was just digging up stories just for the fun of it, trying to disgrace us." There are actually nine books about Oasis currently in Britian, but, as Gallagher points out, "I'm the only one with the divine right to write one. "Brothers are brothers and they'll fight anyway but at the end of the day they still love each other. They've got a stronger bond than anyone on the outside could ever have. You can have lifetime friends until you're ninety-nine but your brothers are forever." As for their estranged father, who still lives in Manchester and has sold his own stories to the tabloids, Gallagher doesn't think he's read the book. Nor does he care. "He just thinks that nothing's happened. He thinks we're his three darling little sons. Well, we're not his sons, we're me mom's sons."

Toronto Sun on Paul Gallagher’s Brothers book release, as copied/transcribed by a fan and posted in the Oasis Usenet (24 November 1996)