Chapter Text
Toronto, September 7th, 2008
“All your dreams are maaaade...”
The notes of 'Morning Glory' began to fill the venue at the V Fest, as the crowd followed Liam's voice religiously, singing with him at the top of their lungs and jumping wildly under the blue lights.
The year 2008 had marked a great return for the band: their new album had finally been completed after three years of work, their global tour had just started and now they had been chosen to be the headliner at one of the most important music festivals.
If, musically speaking, things were going well, the same couldn't be said about the cohesion of the band which was now at the absolute lowest point. Everyone was travelling separately: different planes, different hotels, different dressing rooms, all to limit the interactions and avoid any unneeded tension that could quickly escalate into one of their never ending fights. Even on stage, everybody was doing their part more like individuals than one group.
After all, the good old days when everybody was having fun were over, now it was just business.
“...Need a little time to wake up...”
The song continued while the crowd was getting madder and madder, screaming the 'Wake up' part in support of Liam's vocals.
Since the gig had started he and Noel had barely glanced at each other one time, as the tension between them was already spiking before they even got on stage. How long they could've gone on like this, only time would tell. For now, the only important thing was to do the job, finish the gig and pretend everything was fine. At least until it was still possible.
“...Need a little time to rest your mind, you know you should, so I guess you might as weeeeell...”
Then, the unthinkable happened.
A drunken man managed to avoid security and jumped on the rear part of the stage.
It was a moment.
The chorus began, the lights changed to orange, the crowd screamed even louder.
The man crossed the stage, came up behind Noel who was busy playing and singing, and knocked him violently to the ground.
After that, it was chaos.
One hour before
Liam opened the door and entered his dressing room, followed by his assistant.
He took a few steps and then stopped in front of the big mirror.
“Look at us! – he said while staring in the mirror, making a face – Fuckin' biblical as always.”
“You goddamn right!”, the woman replied, making a pose, amused.
They both laughed.
Liam picked up a beer, opened it and took a sip.
“Oh – she resumed speaking - Remember that Paul Weller wants to see you, would you rather meet him before or after the show?”
“Uhm, it's the same”, he replied taking another sip.
“Alright, then maybe after the gig it's better, since it's already a bit late.”
“Okay.”
Liam put down the beer and glanced at the piece of paper that was waiting for him on the dressing table.
As usual, he had skipped the soundcheck, dismissing it as a boring waste of time. This meant that only now would he discover the setlist they had decided to play tonight. Or rather, the one Noel had decided on.
As soon as he began to read, his expression changed drastically, anger quickly taking over him.
“What the fuck?!”, he exclaimed, fuming.
“What's up?”, his assistant asked while coming closer to him.
“That fucking cunt! He knew he shouldn't do this, but of course he fucking did it anyway!”
“What's going on??”, the woman insisted, more worried, peeking at the piece of paper.
Liam cursed again multiple times, then he headed for the door without bothering to answer.
He began to stride down the long hallway of the venue, each step gathering speed and rage.
While walking, he glanced at the names on the doors as he passed, like a hawk scanning for its prey. Then, after one final turn, he suddenly stopped. The letters on the paper pinned to the door spelled out the most familiar name. Noel Gallagher.
Liam flung the door open without even knocking.
Inside, Noel, his roadie and his assistant were seated at the dressing table, chatting. Immediately, they stopped talking and turned to the door, startled.
“What the fuck is this?!”, Liam asked his brother, waving the sheet of paper in his hand and then slammed it down on the dressing table.
Noel studied him for a second, confused by his reaction.
“It's the menu for the catering – he replied, sarcastically - What'd you think? It's the fucking setlist for tonight, dumbass!”
Liam glared at him, more annoyed.
“I know it's the fucking setlist, but why there's fucking 'Songbird' at number 9!”
Noel looked more perplexed.
“Because it's your song and people love it?”
“You know what I think about that. It may be good for an album but not for a fucking rock festival!”
“Why not?? If it's because it's acoustic, there's plenty of other songs like that, it can't be all 'Cigarettes and Alcohol' rock and roll all the time!”
“It's not that! I know it can't be all 'Cigarettes and Alcohol' all the time, but 'Songbird' is not good enough for this, it's just...fucking boring.”
“How can it be fucking boring?! That tune is 2 minutes and 10 seconds long, you can't even realise it has started that it's already finished!”
“I don't care if it's short, I'm not gonna sing it at a fucking festival and I'm not gonna sing it tonight, so you gotta cut it from the fucking setlist.”
“I'm not gonna cut it from the setlist.”
“Oh, yes, you will, 'cause I won't fuckin' sing it – Liam paused and took a breath - Unless you wanna sing it.”
“I'm not gonna sing your fucking tune!”
“THEN TAKE IT OUT!”
“I can't take it out now, it's too fucking late!”
“It's not too late, you just have to take a pen and cross it out like this – Liam took a pen from over the table - Done!”
“Are you serious?? That's not how it works! You know how many people have this sheet of paper? There's us, the rest of the band, the sound engineer, the director, the-”
“I don't give a shit! You just say that we changed our mind and send someone to tell everybody.”
“We can't do that now, the gig is about to start, there's no time to change it. End of story.”
“No fucking way end of story! I'm sick of you deciding everything, what we should play, what not, when we should play it and now even when we should decide what to fucking play! If you had talked to me about it before, you wouldn't have this fucking problem right now.”
“Maybe if you had bothered to show up at the soundcheck earlier we could've talked about it and now you wouldn't have this fucking problem either.”
“Again with the story of the soundcheck??”
“Yeah, because you're the fucking singer and if you started doing soundchecks, maybe you wouldn’t have to keep waving at the sound engineer during the gig to turn up the fucking monitor volume.”
“Fuck that! It's still not worth it.”
“Then 'Songbird' stays at its place.”
“Oh, FUCK OFF! Then I'm not gonna sing it anyway.”
Noel sighed, before resuming speaking more calmly.
“Listen, I don't know why you're being so insecure about this song you wrote, it's good and people wanna hear it.”
“I'm not insecure.”
“Oh, no, you're just fuckin' shitting your pants about singing it.”
“I am not!”
“Of course you are! But that's not what being a songwriter is. If you really wanna be a songwriter, you must believe in your songs and be willing to have them heard whenever possible. Imagine if I did like you right now, we wouldn't have a fucking tune to play!”
“That's different. Your songs are different. They're fuckin' good for festivals. 'Songbird' isn't. Anyway, I don't need to explain it to you, I just won't fucking do it.”
Liam turned around and headed for the door.
“You're just being a fucking baby throwing a fit! - Noel resumed, exasperated - Donovan is more mature than you and he's not even one year old.”
“Fuck you!”
Liam got out and slammed the door.
Noel exchanged a knowing glance with his staff.
“Fucking baby...”, he repeated, shaking his head.
Later, the band stepped onto the stage on the notes of 'Fuckin' in the bushes'.
The crowd roared loudly as everyone took their place.
“Hello Toronto!”, Liam greeted at the mic.
Then, he glanced down, quickly scanning the sheet of paper taped on the floor in front of him.
As soon as he read 'Songbird' at number 9, he turned to Noel who was busy setting up his guitar.
Liam stared at him for a few seconds with a visible glare on his face, but seeing that Noel was focused on his guitar and not once raised his eyes at him, he decided to let it go for now and turned back to the audience.
Noel started playing 'Rock & Roll star' intro and the gig began.
The first songs went on smoothly and the response of the crowd lived up to their expectations.
When Noel finished singing 'The Masterplan', song number 8 on the setlist, Liam returned on stage and started talking with someone in the audience who was asking for his tambourine, deliberately stalling. Noel waited patiently for a few moments, unsure of what his brother’s next move might have been.
Liam finally turned to him with a defiant look on his face, but Noel, once again, avoided his gaze and ignored him. Instead, he signalled the other musicians to start playing and 'Songbird' began.
Liam stood still, like frozen, for a few seconds, but then, seeing the enthusiasm of the crowd, he decided to go back to his microphone and start singing.
When the song ended, the audience applauded and yelled loudly, clearly satisfied. Liam glanced again at Noel, and, for the first time since the gig had started, he gazed back at him, even if for a brief moment, with a smug 'told you so' smile on his face. Liam sneered at him, mouthing a 'Fuck you' and then they went on with the show.
After 'Slide away', the notes of 'Morning Glory' began to fill the venue, as the crowd followed Liam's voice religiously, singing with him at the top of their lungs and jumping wildly under the blue lights.
“...Need a little time to rest your mind, you know you should, so I guess you might as weeeeell...”
Then, the unthinkable happened.
A drunken man managed to avoid security and jumped on the rear part of the stage.
It was a moment.
The chorus began, the lights changed to orange, the crowd screamed even louder.
The man crossed the stage, came up behind Noel who was busy playing and singing, and knocked him violently to the ground.
While falling, Noel instinctively twisted his body to protect his guitar, like a caring parent would do with his precious baby. Doing so, he crashed defencelessly on one of the sound monitors, hitting hard his back and his left flank.
After that, it was chaos.
The music stopped, the crowd screamed in shock and security guards rushed on stage to immobilize the assaulter and drag him out.
From the centre of the stage, Liam noticed Noel on the ground and the man tackled by security guards and immediately threw himself into the fray to kick the attacker, to the point that the guards had to restrain him too.
In the meantime, a member of the staff helped Noel to his feet and walked him backstage.
In the end, everyone left the stage, under the dismayed eyes of the audience who still couldn't believe what had just happened.