Liam Gallagher: Freddie Mercury was the only frontman who could have matched my Knebworth achievement

8 December 2022, 11:32 | Updated: 8 December 2022, 12:09

Liam Gallagher and Queen legend Freddie Mercury
Liam Gallagher thinks only Queen legend Freddie Mercury would have been able to match him. Picture: 1. Jaime Nogales/Medios y Media/Getty Images 2. Steve Jennings/WireImage/Getty

By Jenny Mensah

The former Oasis rocker believes the late Queen legend was the only frontman of a rock band that could have done Knebworth solo.

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Liam Gallagher says he's the only frontman, other than the late Freddie Mercury, who could perform a solo gig as big as Knebworth.

The Manchester rocker, who fronted Oasis between 1991 and 2009, documented his return to Knebworth as a solo artist this summer 26 years after the band played their iconic 1996 shows at the Hertfordshire grounds.

And, as reported by Bang Showbiz, speaking in the film Knebworth 22, the Wall Of Glass singer insisted he's one of the only former frontmen who would pull it off.

“Mick Jagger wouldn’t be able to do this on his own," he says in the documentary. “Bono wouldn’t be able to do this on his own.

“Robert Plant wouldn’t be able to do this on his own. Maybe Freddie Mercury might be, but he’s not here, is he?’”

Discussing the project, Liam said: "I'm still in shock that I got to play Knebworth two nights, 26 years after I played it with Oasis. I'm still trying to get my head around it. To have played to multiple generations at the same venue so many years apart was beyond Biblical. I'm so glad that we documented it.

"Knebworth for me was and always will be a celebration of the fans as well as the music. Enjoy the film and let's do it again in another 26 years. LG x."

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Despite being able to go it alone, Liam Gallagher isn't one to distance himself from his past and has hit out at at those criticising him for singing Oasis songs at his gigs.

Taking to Twitter, the Manchester rocker declared: "Anyone who got a problem with me singing oasis tunes ain’t real oasis fans there just massive C***Z".

He added: "Oasis till I die."

Liam might feel prouder of his Oasis past than ever, but his estranged brother wasn't letting him remember his history so easily.

Taking to Twitter, Liam revealed that his older sibling didn't give him the right to use the Manchester band's songs in his latest doc.

Asked by a fan on Twitter if Oasis songs would feature, Liam replied: "No Oasis songs as the angry squirt has blocked them.

"also blocked the Oasis I sang for Taylor Hawkins tribute, he's a horrible little man."

However, Knebworth '22 director Toby L. Smith explained why he thinks not having Oasis songs in the documentary was a good thing.

"It's a bold thing to say, but I didn't miss those massive, amazing songs, he told Sky News,. It felt like this film works in its own complete form, and I was just really relieved because I felt like if we were looking back too much, it wouldn't have been as contemporary a story as it needs to be in order to differentiate itself to the prior documentary."

He went on: "I was struggling to find a way, while were building such personal stories around Liam, how we were going to put the Oasis music in, in a way that felt contextually sound and also in the context of the fact that there was another Oasis Knebworth documentary only a year ago."

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Chris and the team go to see Liam Gallagher at Knebworth!

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