Oasis’ former record label boss Tim Abbot says warring brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher could instantly "switch on" a "tornado of madness".
The former managing director of Creation Records – which was co-founded by Alan McGee – spent much of the 90s on tour with the iconic Britpop group, and has revealed how the band’s former frontman and guitarist would go from getting along fine one minute to being at one another’s throats the next and back to "normal" in a short space of time.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk, Tim recalled: "They were just normal people – milk and two sugars please – and then all of a sudden they could just switch on this tornado of madness and then just switch it off.
"As I always say, it was organised chaos."
The ‘Oasis. Definitely’ author said the general running of the ‘Some Might Say’ group was like a "military operation" and described their brawls as "calculated, organised chaos".
He also revealed how the whole team would often be up all night and day "for days" amidst the madness.
He said: "Underneath, we ran like a proper military operation. It was calculated, organised chaos.
"Sometimes they wouldn’t go to sleep and that went for everybody.
"Sometimes we wouldn’t sleep for a couple of days. How we did it is pure imagination – better touring through chemistry."
Liam, 46, and Noel, 51, came to major blows after a backstage bust-up at their concert in Paris in 2009, which saw Liam throw a guitar around his sibling’s head, and led to the demise of the group as Noel quit immediately after the fight.
Tim doesn’t believe it was that one incident that caused the split, and claimed there is still a great amount of "love" between the pair to this day, despite the "tension" which has always been there.
He said: "They’re two very nice blokes at war with each other. There was tension all along, even from the early days.
"What people don’t see is there was still massive love there – they’re still in love with each other really.
"I personally think it was a gig too far."
Tim also thinks Noel – who went solo a year later – may have had other "ambitions" and no reason to stay in Oasis and suggested it all got too much for him.
He continued: "They’d been out on tour for two years, it just broke. I don’t think there was one thing. Noel couldn’t take it anymore and why should he?
"If you’ve got a family and that amount of money, probably got ambitions of your own…"
The writer said that Liam can be a stubborn "wind-up" merchant.
He added: "To this day, Liam is the king of the wind-up. You cannot go head-to-head with him, he will eventually wear you out."
Tim is still hopeful that the brothers – who still trade insults to this day and are now the biggest rivals after Liam made a comeback as a solo artist, with his platinum-selling debut LP ‘As You Were’ released in 2017 – will put their differences aside to reunite one day, as he admitted he doesn’t think there will be another rock ‘n’ roll group like them.
He said: "You’ll never grow a band like that again organically or through word of mouth.
"I don’t think there’ll ever be a herd effect or consensus in our country that this is ‘our band’. They’re iconic."
Oasis label boss Tim Abbot says Liam and Noel could ‘switch on a tornado of madness’
