LIAM Gallagher, the unrelentingly laddish lead singer of the rock group, Oasis, has been cast as the tabloids' favourite anti hero since his band shot to fame two years ago.
In the past week, his notoriety has reached new heights, when Liam pulled out of a performance at the last minute after being diagnosed as having laryngitis and later flew to the States to join his brother.
The fate of Liam's vocal cords has important implications for the international music industry, since his voice has played a pivotal part in establishing Oasis as Britain's best selling rock group and one of the most promising acts in the $40 billion (£26 billion) global music market.
A few years ago, the five members of Oasis - without a GCSE pass among them - were grateful to be booked for a gig at the Jug of Ale, an unsalubrious Birmingham pub. In the past two years they have sold 15 million copies of their albums, 1994's Definitely Maybe and 1995's Morning Glory, and at least 5 million singles, generating global retail sales of about $250 million.
Earlier this month, Oasis sold 250,000 tickets at £22.50 sterling each for two concerts at Knebworth in Hertfordshire. Concerts in Cork were also sold out. The band seemed set to join the handful of global supergroups, such as REM and U2, which enjoy a happy combination of critical acclaim and commercial success.
Oasis's owners, Sony, acquired the band by accident in 1993 when the band signed to Creation Records, an independent British label in which Sony UK had a 49 per cent stake and automatic rights to distribute its acts outside Britain.
When Sony's initial agreement with Creation ended this spring, it began talks with Alan McGee and Dick Green, the label's cofounders, to acquire the remaining 51 per cent. They threatened to resign if Sony took control as it was entitled to do under the original deal. Anxious not to imperil its relations with Oasis, Sony agreed to pay the two Creation directors £12 million cash to extend the 49 per cent agreement for five years.
Last week, Oasis went on stage without the ailing Liam: his elder brother, Noel, sang lead vocals in addition to his usual duties of playing lead guitar, writing the music and co producing the records.
It is Noel's gift for composing songs that people enjoy singing along to in the suburbs of New Jersey and Yokohama, but that still yield rave reviews from cynical New Muskal Express critics, that is the foundation of Oasis's success. Yet his compositions never sound better than when sung by Liam whose voice combines perfect pitch with a punkish snarl.
The Gallaghers' musical talent is enhanced by the frisson of their fraternal rivalry, like that of Ray and Dave Davies of The Kinks, and by an apparently endless appetite for rock star excess. "They're hard drinking, groupie shagging, drug snorting louts," ran the headline in a recent Rolling Stone magazine cover story. "They're the Gallagher brothers. And they're huge."
