THE FATHER of feuding British pop stars Liam and Noel Gallagher said yesterday he did not believe their Oasis supergroup had split up. Mr Tommy Gallagher is in Ireland for tomorrow's All Ireland senior football final between Mayo and Meath.
Meanwhile, the band's record company also announced the group was not splitting up. In the hope of ending a hectic 24 hours of rumour and speculation, Creation records said: "Oasis will continue to exist and function as a band."
Snubbed by his famous sons for years since parting from their mother, Peggy, Mr Gallagher told RTE's News At One: "Noel is clever enough to know that they've got to stay together.
Speaking from the Co Meath village of Duleek, Mr Gallagher blamed the bust up between the brothers on Liam's affair with actress Patsy Kensit. "The trouble in America was more to do with two men falling out," he said.
"Liam is a fabulous singer, a fabulous showman, frontman and Noel is one clever guy, he knows exactly what he's doing.
"Liam had a bit of a problem about Noel getting a lot of the glory for the song writing but Elvis Presley never wrote a song and he had millions of records, money, albums, so there's no requirement for Liam to have to write songs. He does his thing well and Noel does his thing well and, if they both accept that, the problem should go away.
Mr Gallagher is originally from Meath.
Oasis, whose first two albums have sold 20 million copies, enjoyed a meteoric rise to tame. Their summer concert at Knebworth drew a record crowd of 250,000, an audience record for Britain, while tens of thousands attended the band's two Irish concerts in August.
Meanwhile, the troubled brothers were believed to be discussing the band's plight with management at a secret location yesterday. Their management denied the group had split up, but said no tours were planned at the moment.
Neither man had anything to say to reporters as they flew back separately into the country from Atlanta. Noel arrived on Concorde on Thursday night, and Liam and the rest of the band arrived at Gatwick on a dawn flight yesterday.
Music journalist Andrew Male of Select magazine said: "Liam clearly needs a rest they both do. They need to have a holiday and then go into the studio, and think everybody will be totally happy if they do that."