Liam and Noel Gallagher Are Bringing Oasis Back, but Why Did They Split Up?

Few bands have had a more tumultuous existence than Oasis. The group, which first formed in the early 1990s, have been credited with helping to revive Britpop, and have now sold more than 75 million albums. The show had an ever-shifting lineup, but the only two constant presences were brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher.

After decades apart, Liam and Noel have decided to put aside their differences and get the band back together. Following the news that the band would be reuniting, many wanted to learn more about why Oasis had broken up in the first place. Here's what we know about their break up.

Liam and Noel were known to constantly battle, and that fighting came to a head when, on Aug. 28, 2009, the band broke up just minutes before they were set to take the stage at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris.

“People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer,” Noel said in a statement at the time. Noel also said that the two of them had an argument backstage that led Liam to take his guitar and "wield it like an axe."

Following the split, they both continued on in music, with Liam keeping a version of Oasis going under the name Beady Eye, while Noel formed his own band, High Flying Birds.

Their breakup was the culmination of years of feuding between the two brothers, including an incident in which Liam questioned the paternity of Noel's child, and another where Noel hit Liam over the head with a cricket bat because Liam had brought visitors to the studio.

In May of 1996, Liam pulled out of an MTV: Unplugged performance at the last minute because of a sore throat, and then proceeded to heckle his brother from the audience throughout the performance while drinking champagne.

Just a few weeks later, Liam pulled out of the band's U.S. tour only to join it several days in. A decade later in 2005, Noel gave an interview in which he said that his brother was "frightened to death" of him.

“I can read him and I can f--king play him like a slightly disused arcade game. I can make him make decisions that he thinks are his but really they’re mine," he said at the time.

Basically, the two of them didn't really like each other, and that makes it difficult to spend all your time with a person.

Oasis broke up for good 15 years ago, in August of 2009. It's fitting, then, that they would choose this time to reunite. Their reunion will reportedly include a headlining show at Glastonbury as well as an extended run at Wembley Stadium. It's fair to say that those tickets are going to be selling for pretty eye-popping amounts, and with good reason. You never know when they might break up again.