The Truth About Oasis' Lost Demo Song
Rock 'n' Roll is a volatile business, and it's not uncommon for musician feuds to emerge, even within your own band. This arguably applies double when your band contains siblings, and triple when their last name is Gallagher. Oasis may be the shining star of nineties Brit-pop, but the many interesting squabbles between brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher eventually (and perhaps inevitably) made the band disband. As Mark Savage of the BBC notes, however, Oasis still appears to have a few tricks up its sleeve.
In April 2020, Noel Gallagher surprised the world by releasing a hitherto unheard Oasis demo of a ballad called "Don't Stop." The song, which features Noel on the vocals, never made it to an album, and the only known recorded version before Gallagher's track surfaced was from a soundcheck at a concert 15 or so years ago. It's all pretty awesome, but is that all there is to "Don't Stop?"
Another Oasis story, another Gallagher disagreement
Noel Gallagher thought the "Don't Stop" demo was "lost forever," until he randomly rediscovered it in a pile of mystery CDs that he was going through. "I'm not sure whether the sound-check version pre-dates the demo as there's no date on the CD," he compared the demo version of the song to the old concert bootleg in a tweet. "I know some of you love this tune so we thought we'd put it 'out there' for you to enjoy/argue over."
As longtime students of Oasis physics know, every Noel Gallagher action risks an equal and opposite Liam Gallagher reaction, so it was just a matter of time when the younger of the sibling musicians commented on the lost demo. According to Martin Kielty of Ultimate Classic Rock, Liam soon took to Twitter to voice his grievances about the demo. "Well, there's something missing in this God-almighty stew, and it's your brother," the singer lamented, before going on to needle Noel about the demo's questionable worth as an Oasis tune, due to the absence of Liam's vocals and Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs' guitar.
All in all, it's pretty neat to have a surprise "new" Oasis song out of nowhere, but judging by the younger Gallagher's antagonistic reaction to "Don't Stop," we're guessing that the much-awaited comeback for these bandmates isn't exactly waiting around the corner ... despite the fact that it is, in fact, Liam who has been campaigning for an Oasis reunion recently.