Legendary Britpop Beef Squashed as Blur and Oasis Members Share the Stage
The musical equivalent of the Hatfields and McCoys burying the hatchet (or Itchy and Scratchy burying the butcher knife) occurred Saturday night when Oasis' Noel Gallagher joined Blur's Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon onstage at London's Royal Albert Hall for the Teenage Cancer Trust benefit show. Rock legend Paul Weller (of the Jam, among things) and poet Michael Horovitz also shared the stage. They played Blur's 1999 single "Tender," one of the happiest sad songs ever written.
The bands infamously feuded in the '90s, at one point releasing dueling singles in a race to No. 1 (Blur's "Country House" beat Oasis' "Roll With It"). The rivalry was sometimes shockingly hostile for something so silly and in both bands' best interest. As NME recounts:
Former Oasis man Gallagher once famously claimed that he wished Blur's Albarn would "get AIDS and die", while Albarn had retorted: "I can't make up with Noel. Britpop would be over and heaven forbid that we'd ever admit we'd all grown up!"
Albarn and Gallagher seemed to be warming up to each other recently, hobnobbing at February's BRIT Awards and saying nice things about each other. See? World peace is possible.
Gallagher told NME before the gig that they'd be playing "Tender" because it's "easy," so there's at least some spunk left in him. Gallagher's former Oasis bandmate and brother Liam Gallagher played the role of incoherent hooligan as usual, tweeting:
Don’t know what’s worse RKID sipping champagne with a war criminal or them backing vocals you’ve just done for BLUE ! LG x
— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) March 25, 2013
Fun guy, that Liam.