As Oasis tour begins, how Liam and Noel Gallagher's oldest brother Paul shunned the spotlight for a 'lower middle class life'

Daily Mail​

20 hours ago

The ultimate Britpop band finally reunited on stage for the first time in almost two decades as they played their highly-anticipated sell-out show at Cardiff's Principality Stadium on Friday night.
While Liam, 52, and Noel, 58, are estimated to be making millions from the tour, there is a lesser known Gallagher brother who likely won't be seeing a penny of the Oasis fortune.
While his famous siblings may enjoy life under the glare of the public spotlight, Paul, 59, is said to crave a simple existence, preferring to be 'invisible' from media attention.
The eldest of the Gallagher brothers shares their creative talents - he is a London-based DJ and photographer who is believed to have a good singing voice. However, he appears to prefer to leave the attention to his younger brothers.
And he also seems to be somewhat of a diplomat: while Liam and Noel were engaged in a very spat for 15 years, Paul was said to remain a constant presence in both of their lives.
He reportedly enjoys a close relationship with Liam, and is rumoured to be the best man at his upcoming wedding. Liam proposed to his fiancee Debbie in 2019, but the couple were forced to postpone the nuptials multiple times for various reasons, including Covid and the upcoming tour.
However, while Paul's decision to live a quiet life may have kept him out of the headlines, it has potentially cost him millions, with his younger brothers set to bank £50million from their reunion tour.
But Paul is said to enjoy what he described as his 'lower middle class' lifestyle in an. interview with RGM Music.
'I live a regular life, I live amongst the lower middle classes,' he declared with pride during the interview.
Paul has been described as a dutiful older brother - playing a supportive role to his siblings long before they found fame in the 90s.
In fact, it's said it was Paul who gave Noel his first guitar aged seven - albeit a hand me down from his possessions.
Talking in Liam's 2019 documentary, As It Was, their mother, Peggy, who worked as a housekeeper, recalled that Paul would treat his younger siblings to 'trainers' and 'cigarettes' after working shifts completing manual labour.
'Paul would give you the money to go to the shops for cigarettes and buy your trainers and everything, he was very good to you both.'
It was a sentiment that Liam then reiterated, adding: 'Yeah, he's a good lad Paul'.
Despite being described as a 'good lad' by Liam, Paul by no means adopted a parental role that many older siblings often slip into - with him frequently finding himself at the butt of one of his brother's practical jokes.
Talking in the 2019 documentary, Liam recalled a time he attempted to take Paul's chair out of the window because he would block his position from the fireplace.
'He's come in from work and he'd lie there and take up f****** heat,' Liam recalled.
Peggy interjected, adding: 'But he was the only one that was working'.
'[I don't] give a s****, it's not my fault he was born first', the star responded in his trademark Mancunian deadpan manner.
In 1994, Liam and Noel found fame following the release of their debut album, Definitely Maybe, which entered the UK albums chart at number one week after its release.
It wasn't until 1997, when Paul released his book Brothers: Childhood to Oasis, that the eldest Gallagher brother revealed that his brothers did not want him involved with the band, according to the Mirror.
During an interview on the Michael Anthony Show in 2023, Paul revealed that he, too, boasts an impressive singing voice but chose to leave it to his brothers.
He said: 'I can sing. I don't sing anymore - when you have got two fellas in your family who can sing then what the f*** are you doing singing. Do something else.'
He added: 'I choose not to sing.'
Paul developed a number of offshoot ideas for the band - like merchandise and a fan club, but Noel is said to have seen the ideas as unnecessary.
However, the trio remained close, and Paul would travel with his brothers as they toured the country performing live, including at their first arena concert in Sheffield in 1994.
By 1996, Paul did get a job connected to his brothers' success, taking a job at their label Creation Records but found that the band's fame made it increasingly difficult to see his Liam and Noel.
Discussing his relationship with his brothers in 1996, during an interview on The Late Late Show, Paul said: 'Um, yeah, great, they're 300 miles away and I'm in Manchester. It's alright, I mean, we work for the same company, so we see each other now and again.'
He added that while he got 'instant self-worth' from gigs, fans often overwhelmed the experience for him, 'it's actually quite a lot of hassle to get in the gigs because there's so many people there around them now... you find yourself begging for a ticket,' he said.
Paul joked that fans make a beeline for him when they can't get their hands on Liam or Noel, 'but they don't offer me money,' he quipped.
Paul didn't even attend some of Oasis' biggest gigs - notably opting to go on holiday instead of watch the band play to 500,000 fans over two nights in a Hertfordshire stately home during their Knebworth gig.
'This year I went on holiday and didn't bother going to Knebworth... I couldn't be doing it,' he explained to host Gay Byrne.
Despite missing some gigs, Paul remained one of his brother's most avid supporters, believing they're the best rock band to come out of the UK.
It's a statement that many Britons agreed with throughout the early 2000s, leading Noel and Liam to dizzying heights, partying with A-Listers, and leading a true rock and roll booze-fuelled party lifestyle.
Once, when Paul was asked if he had ever felt it necessary to reel his brothers back in when they reached fame during an interview on the Michael Anthony Show, the eldest Gallagher said: 'No they don't care what I do and I don't care what they do'.
'Unless I overstep the mark, then they're f****** on your case... [if I] say something that the hangover didn't agree with.'
While Paul appears to have enjoyed good relationships with Liam and Noel, the same could not be said of his siblings - something that was made abundantly clear when Noel quit the band in 2009.
The singer and guitarist, then-42, published a statement on the group's official website, saying that a rift with his brother and fellow frontman Liam had become unbearable.
'It is with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight,' he wrote. 'People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.'
While Noel quitting the band may have been a shock, his statement may not have been a surprise to many.
Earlier that month, Liam, then 36, revealed relations with his brother were so bad they no longer spoke, and they travelled separately on tour, only seeing each other on stage.
'He doesn't like me, and I don't like him. That's it,' Liam said.
However, despite the animosity between Noel and Liam, Paul is said to have maintained an amicable relationship with them both.
This will have no doubt pleased their mother Peggy, who was open about her hopes of a reconciliation while speaking during Liam's 2019 As It Was documentary.
Peggy sat beside Liam as she bullishly declared how they [the three brothers] are all going to get along and 'that's it'.
Liam began to say how he gots on with his other brother Paul so 'two out of three ain't bad'.
But Peggy said: 'No, but the way I look at it, darling, life is very short and if anything happened to either one of you, you'd never…'
While he may not be as well known as his brothers, Paul has forged a successful, creative career himself.
He works as a DJ and photographer, often taking images of Liam's shows and sharing them with his some 60 thousand Instagram followers.
He admittedly lead a typical life, though Oasis fans sometimes interrupted his normality, asking him for pictures or singing Oasis lyrics to him on the streets.
Being recognised isn't a reality Paul is so fond of, saying it's always 'some d**** h*** at the bus stop,' on the Michael Anthony Show. He added that sometimes he's asked to take the picture, 'I'll look at them with a scowl,' he said.
On the same podcast, he discussed his relationship with Noel, saying: 'I do my own thing, I stay away from it as much as humanely possible.'
Meanwhile, Paul and Liam enjoyed a close relationship, with the pair often spotted out and about together. He said he sees Liam every other day and kept a relationship with Noel.
He told music project The Stage Left Podcast in 2017: 'I speak to the pair of them. I see Liam every other day.
'This is a big business. I'm sure [the Oasis reunion] will happen one day; there is too much money for it not to. They're a premier band. Regardless of what they say... money talks.'
It was a turn of events that Paul rightly predicted because, after weeks of speculation over a shock comeback, the Gallagher brothers confirmed they would be performing 14 shows across Cardiff, Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Dublin for a tour which could generate £400million.
Liam and Noel are expected to pocket about £50 million each, which will go a long way to raking back the money they lost during bitter divorce battles and reigniting their rock and roll lifestyle, which peaked in the 90s.
The 14-show tour will run from July 4 to August 17. It will kick off at Cardiff's Principality Stadium before the brothers pack out Heaton Park in Manchester, Wembley in London, Murrayfield in Edinburgh and Croke Park in Dublin.