Tony McCarroll

McCarroll had met Paul McGuigan while playing for the local football team at a young age. Together with McGuigan's friend Bonehead, they formed a band called The Rain and hired Chris Hutton as their singer, but he was sacked and replaced by Liam Gallagher not so long after, whom McCarroll had also known through childhood. Liam decided to change the name to Oasis, inspired by a poster for Inspiral Carpets that was hanging in his room.

Soon after Liam's brother Noel joined. McCarroll has stated in his book that he was closely involved in the creation of several of Oasis's songs, including "Supersonic", despite Noel being given sole credit as songwriter.

Noel and McCarroll got on during childhood, but as Oasis gradually became famous, the relationship between the two faltered. Noel had repeatedly publicly slammed McCarroll's drumming ability, saying it was not good enough for a number one single.

On the last day of April 1995, McCarroll's departure was announced and soon the fight was abandoned as the main reason – instead, Oasis explained, his drumming just was not up to it. "I like Tony as a geezer but he wouldn't have been able to drum the new songs", explained Noel.[1] McCarroll was replaced by Alan White, who remained until 2004.

Oasis producer Owen Morris said of McCarroll, "Tony was quiet and always polite to me, but seemed out of his depth…so I think Tony did well to survive as long as he did in Oasis".[2] Morris described McCarroll's drumming style as "extremely basic", but with timing and tempo that were "almost autistically perfect".[2]

In 1999 McCarroll hired a solicitor Jens Hills – who had won Pete Best £2 million from The Beatles in 1995 – to sue Oasis for £18 million. Arguing McCarroll was owed his part of the band's five-album deal with Creation, the case hoped to set a legal precedent, as McCarroll would have claimed compensation for two LPs on which he had not played. Eventually, he accepted an out-of-court settlement of £550,000 in March 1999 and agreed to give up future royalties, which effectively severed all links to the band, with McCarroll's legal fees reported at £250,000. The settlement provoked considerable reaction (one headline questioned "Is this the most stupid man in showbiz?") and the reporter claimed "what Tony failed to realise was that he effectively held a lottery ticket which would mean he'd carry on winning every year."[3]

In an article building up to Oasis' seventh studio album Dig Out Your Soul in Q magazine in 2008, it was revealed that McCaroll was last seen in 2000 performing with the band Raika.[4]

McCarroll's biography about his time in Oasis, entitled Oasis: The Truth, was released in October 2010.[5]

McCarroll was also interviewed for the documentary entitled Oasis: Supersonic and the audio was included in the film.