Noel Gallagher dismisses 'Angels' by Robbie Williams as just "Oasis by numbers"

29 April 2022, 14:45

Robbie Williams interview: "It's a miracle if I make the charts now"

By Mayer Nissim

Robbie Williams and Noel Gallagher have had a simmering feud for over two decades.

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In the mid-1990s, two of the biggest bands in the world were Manchester's Take That and Oasis.

While Take That were very much on the poppier side of the divide, when Robbie Williams quit the group in 1995, he sparked up a brief and unlikely friendship with Liam Gallagher.

Things went sour quickly though, with a war of words between Noel and Robbie sparking a simmering resentment that's lingered for the last two decades.

And while Noel kissed and made up with Britpop rival Damon Albarn, even collaborating with him a couple of times over the last ten years, he and Robbie are still throwing barbs at each other.

On one of his regular visits to The Matt Morgan Podcast, Noel was asked about Robbie Williams's massive signature song 'Angels'.

Robbie Williams and Noel Gallagher in 1995. Picture: Alamy

"I've heard it. And thought, 'I wish I'd written that'," Noel admitted, charitably.

But then he added: "'Angels' is Oasis by numbers.

"Add a f**king electric guitar on it and it would be."

The ongoing feud first seemed to start in 2000 Noel Gallagher was quizzed about how Oasis had gone from their working-class roots to hanging out with cool celebrities like Robbie.

Robbie Williams | Wonderwall | Live in Dublin 1999

Noel noted that when Robbie cavorted on stage with Oasis in 1995, he wasn't seen as being all that cool, only as "the fat dancer from Take That", a comment that Williams took to heart.

Robbie called Noel "a mean-spirited nasty little dwarf" and when Oasis released their poorly received album Standing on the Shoulder of Giants that year, Robbie sent the band a funeral wreath.

The wreath bore the message "To Noel Gallagher, RIP. Heard your latest album - with deepest sympathy. Robbie Williams." Ouch.

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That took the feud to the next level, which probably wasn't helped when Liam started dating All Saints singer Nicole Appleton, who used to go out with Robbie.

Liam publicly threatened to break Robbie's nose, prompting Williams to issue a charity boxing match challenge from the stage at the 2000 Brit Awards.

Since then the insults have gone in both directions over the years, with Robbie accusing Oasis of taking a "13-year lap of honour" and claiming Liam Gallagher's band Beady Eye didn't have any choruses.

For their part, both Noel and Liam have also kept on intermittently insulting Robbie and his music over the years.