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Decoding the Net Worth and Legendary Musical Career of Oasis Vocalist Liam Gallagher

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Sep 10, 2024 / 1103 Views

Evan Walker

With the news of the Oasis reunion tour taking over the internet, fans have been wondering all about Liam Gallagher, the charismatic yet controversial music icon, who has built a high net worth with the band’s musical legacy — which stormed the music scene in the early 1990s. But it is also due to his Lifestyle and a costly divorce that he lost much of his fortune.

Back in 1991 in Manchester, Liam and his older brother, Noel Gallagher, formed what is known as Oasis with Paul Arthurs, Paul McGuigan and Tony McCarroll.

No one in contemporary UK music history rode the indie and Britpop wave of the 1990s like Oasis did. They delivered a string of major hits that have redefined the world of music. But it was also the frequent rifts between the two brothers that led to the band’s demise in 2009.

Now, almost 15 years later, the brothers decided to bury the hatchet and reunite in a long-overdue comeback in 2025. As part of the OASIS LIVE ’25 world tour, they are set to perform together in a series of concerts across the UK and Ireland.

“Plans are underway for OASIS LIVE ’25 to go to other continents outside of Europe later next year,” read a statement issued by the group.

The news is for fans because, only a few months ago in February 2024, the possibility of an Oasis reunion was thwarted when Noel, who was at the time going through a divorce, turned down an offer from Liam.

“I did call him! Well, my people called Noel’s management team,” Liam told MOJO magazine in an interview. “We put an offer on the table for an Oasis thing – because we got offered it – and he said no. It was a big tour, a lot of money. He turned it down. I get it, he’s got a divorce going down. I’ll do the Definitely Maybe thing and have a nice time without him.”

It is unclear if any of the original band members or those who joined later would be part of the tour. At the time of its disbandment, Oasis was composed of Liam, Noel, Gem Archer, Andy Bell and Chris Sharrock. Liam later formed a second band, Beady Eye, with Archer, Bell and Sharrock, which disbanded in 2014.

No matter who joins the brothers, the tour is truly something to look forward to because it marks the end of one of the biggest feuds in music History.

The Gallagher brothers know this and perhaps that’s why their Instagram post announcing the tour read: “The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised.”

Liam Gallagher: Tracking the music icon’s career and fortune

His success with Oasis

Liam Gallagher is considered one of the greatest English music icons of all time. In fact, he was voted the greatest frontman in History by readers of Q magazine in 2010. Liam achieved success both as a member of his two bands and as a solo artist. He has to his credit a series of UK Albums Chart No.1 hits, starting with the very first Oasis album — Definitely Maybe (1994).

As the album launched the band to immediate success, Oasis dropped six more hits one after the other. All of them ended up No.1 on the UK Albums Chart. They were:

(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)
Be Here Now (1997)
Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000)
Heathen Chemistry (2002)
Don’t Believe the Truth (2005)
Dig Out Your Soul (2008)

Even after Oasis disbanded, a compilation album, Time Flies – 1994-2009 (2010), hit No.1 on the UK Albums Chart. That was Liam’s eighth successive chart-topper, making him (along with Oasis) a historic name in the music History of the UK.

With Oasis, Liam has set several records. Definitely Maybe is the fastest-selling debut album in the UK’s history, and has to date recorded 5 million sales in the UK alone, according to Billboard. The third album, Be Here Now, remains the fastest-selling album of all time with 696,000 copies sold in just three days of its first chart week.

Definitely Maybe Oasis — A poster of *Definitely Maybe* showing the original band members. (Image credit: Oasis/@oasis via X)

Liam tasted similar success with Oasis on the UK Singles Chart. As the lead singer and frontman of the band, this was more of a personal achievement. In all, Oasis sent eight No.1 singles to the top of the UK Singles Chart. But the most notable exception is “Wonderwall” — the hit single from (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, their second album.

To most Oasis and Liam Gallagher fans, “Wonderwall” is the most definitive song by the English rock band and the singer, in their own respective histories. It is the most-streamed song in Oasis’ catalogue in the UK but peaked at No.2 on the weekly chart when it was released in 1995.

In 2005, 10 years after its release, Virgin Radio listeners voted “Wonderwall” as the best British song of all time ahead of iconic hits including “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin, and “Let It Be” by the legendary The Beatles.

But while the band was a phenomenon in the UK and Australia, it didn’t have a major impact in the US. “Wonderwall” is the only single in the top 10 of Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No.8 in 1996, and one of the only three songs that charted. However, 11 of their albums and compilations, found place in Billboard 200. Three of them ended up in the top 10, with Be Here Now the most successful at No.2 in 1997.

In 2009, Noel left Oasis citing “verbal and violent intimidation.” Though he did not offer details, it was well known that the brothers didn’t see eye to eye. Back in 2000, Noel had told the BBC that Liam was a “monkey boy” and “a bit of an idiot.” There were serious confrontations between the brothers during this period, too, which led to the cancellation of scheduled tours and brought Oasis close to disbandment.

New band and then it’s solo for Liam

Liam Gallagher net worth — Liam Gallagher in a post on his Instagram account. (Image credit: Liam Gallagher/@liamgallagher via Instagram)

Following the end of Oasis, Liam formed Beady Eye with the remaining band members. The new band would go on to produce two albums — a rather not-so-ironically named Different Gear, Still Speeding (2011) and BE (2013). Though both charted in the top 3 on the UK Albums Chart, neither was No.1. Beady Eye disbanded in 2014 and Liam went solo.

To date, Liam has released three solo albums and all three topped the UK Albums Chart upon release. His first was As You Were (2017). It was a massive critical and commercial success. According to Official Charts Company, the compiler of the UK Albums Chart, As You Were sold 103,000 units, including physical purchases and digital downloads, and outsold the rest of the Top 10 combined.

At the time of its release, it was the third fastest-selling of 2017 behind Ed Sheeran’s ÷ and Rag’n’Bone Man’s Human. It also sold 16,000 copies on vinyl — the biggest one-week vinyl sale in over 20 years.

His next two solo albums, Why Me? Why Not. (2019) and C’mon You Know (2022), were equally successful. Though not as phenomenally popular as his debut album, the third album’s lead single “Everything’s Electric” gave Liam his first solo Top 20 number on the UK Singles Chart.

He also has two live solo albums, MTV Unplugged (Live At Hull City Hall) and Down By The River Thames, released in 2020 and 2022, respectively.

In 2024, Liam released Liam Gallagher John Squire, a studio album with guitarist John Squire. It remains his most recent music work and is his 12th UK Albums Chart No.1.

How a costly divorce impacted the net worth of Liam Gallagher

Liam Gallagher has a net worth of USD 6 million, according to celebrity wealth tracker Celebrity Net Worth. Some reports suggest that he once had a fortune of around USD 50 million. But his own highly controversial lifestyle and one costly divorce brought it down drastically.

Despite his acknowledged talent in music, Liam has also been infamous for his controversies. He has been in the news for the wrong reasons involving everyone from a common fan to the renowned English footballer Paul Gascoigne.

In 1998, he was banned for life by Hong Kong’s flag carrier Cathay Pacific when he allegedly abused passengers and crew on a flight to Australia. He was fined EUR 50,000 for a 2002 brawl in a hotel in Munich in which he also ended up with broken teeth.

Above all, his years-long rift with his brother Noel, which led to the disbandment of Oasis, was also a factor that may have hit his net worth.

Yet, despite the numerous controversies, Liam was still worth about USD 15 million when his divorce proceedings with Canadian-British singer and TV presenter Nicole Appleton began. They were married from 2008 to 2014. By the time when they got married, they had been together for eight years and had a son.

Appleton was Liam’s second wife; his first being Patsy Kensit from 1997 to 2000. He has a son from each marriage. But he also had two notable relationships while he was in each of his marriages. The first was with singer Lisa Moorish, with whom he had a daughter, while still married to Kensit. The second was with The New York Times journalist Liza Ghorbani, who is the mother to his fourth and youngest child. His relationship with Ghorbani happened while he was still married to Appleton.

When his headline-grabbing divorce proceedings came up, a court ordered Liam to pay Appleton 50 per cent of his wealth. Therefore, he had to pay Appleton around USD 7.5 million and was left with the other half. Appleton and Liam also had to pay USD 1 million in legal fees. Thus, as reported in 2024, his net worth is now down to USD 6 million.

Liam is currently in a relationship with his manager and publicist Debbie Gwyther. They reportedly reside in London.

Is Noel Gallagher richer than Liam by net worth?

Liam and Noel Gallagher — Liam (L) and Noel Gallagher in the first official picture of the Oasis reunion announcement. (Image credit: Oasis/@oasis via X)

Noel is several times richer than his younger brother. Noel has a net worth of around USD 70 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. That is almost 11 times the net worth of Liam Gallagher.

However, it is believed that Noel’s recent divorce from his ex-wife Sara MacDonald may have affected his net worth, though the exact impact is not clear.

Nevertheless, Noel is richer primarily because he is the main songwriter of Oasis. In a report, Celebrity Net Worth noted that Noel receives a “lion’s share of royalties generated by the band’s music” and might also be the owner of a majority of Oasis’ publishing rights. This means that Noel gets to benefit the most if Oasis, which might have one of the most expensive music catalogues like those of Bob Dylan, David Bowie and Katy Perry, should decide to sell the rights.

Interestingly, both brothers had a combined net worth of around USD 78 million in 2009, according to The Sunday Times Rich List, which noted that they had increased their net worth by 16 per cent even as the fortunes of many other music icons suffered that year.

Real estate owned by Liam Gallagher

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Liam Gallagher has owned multiple properties in the UK and the US over the decades. Most of these were in London.

One of his earliest residences was a penthouse in Muswell Hill, London, where the band members of Oasis lived for five years from 1991 to 1996. It is not clear if this property was jointly owned by Liam with his brother or not.

Following his marriage to Patsy Kensit, he moved to an Elsworthy Road townhouse in Primrose Hill, London, in 1996. Primrose Hill was a famous celebrity hangout place in the 1990s, with visitors including Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Moss, Jude Law, and Johnny Depp. Liam lived there till 1999. The house was sold in 2005 for around USD 4 million.

Sometime after his marriage to Nicole Appleton, Liam paid around USD 3.5 million for a property in Hampstead Heath, London. The property caused Liam the most trouble as it was not very secure and fans would heckle him frequently. The property, apparently, went to Appleton following their divorce. She later sold it for close to USD 6 million.

In 2012, when he was in a relationship with Liza Ghorbani, he bought a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan, New York, for USD 2.5 million. The house, which was listed by Liam two years later for USD 4 million, is located in the 1930s building of Jumeirah Essex House (now JW Marriott Essex House) facing Central Park.

He bought at least two new properties between 2020 and 2023 — one in London and another in France. The London property was purchased for around USD 5.2 million. According to the Daily Mail, the five-bedroom property has a Tudor-style exterior with matching interiors and a large garden. The home has a huge office, a library room with floor-to-ceiling shelving, a kitchen with a wooden-topped island, fireplaces in most of the rooms and wooden beams throughout the house.

The one in France was reportedly bought by him in 2023 for around USD 4 million. It has six bedrooms, a brick exterior with windows covered by pale blue shutters, and trees all around that provide privacy.

(Hero and Featured images: Liam Gallagher/@liamgallagher via Instagram)

This story first appeared on Lifestyle Asia Singapore.