Noel Gallagher is known for a lot of things, but what he’s popularly known for is his role in the famous English 90s rock band, Oasis. He played as the band’s lead guitarist and wrote most songs the band was known for. He had an influence on Britpop music during his generation as a songwriter and is still remembered till today for that. In fact, he has earned a huge amount of money from his songwriting skills, so that at this point, his net worth is estimated to be around $70 million.
His Oasis Career and Rise to Fame
Noel Gallagher was born in Manchester to an Irish family in 1967. He grew up witnessing his family with a lot of challenges, the tip of the iceberg being that his dad was an alcoholic. Gallagher had to bear watching this man physically abuse his family. Growing up wasn’t easy, but he started having a thing for music. That was where it all started.
Gallagher learned to play the guitar when he was just 12 years old. He was left-handed, but he had the passion.
A few years later, in the late 1980s, Gallagher worked as a roadie, working for his dad’s concrete firm and at a screen printer’s company. He also worked as a guitar technician for a band called Inspiral Carpets. In 1991, he left the band and joined his younger brother’s (Liam Gallagher’s) band as its lead guitarist and chief songwriter. Initially, the band used to be called The Rain, but Liam renamed it Oasis after a certain advertisement he had seen. Gallagher’s arrival changed the band for good and flipped their story over to the good side.
When Oasis released their debut album, ‘Definitely Maybe,’ it became the fastest-selling debut album in UK history in 1994. A year later, their next album, ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?’ made them international. The album featured famous songs, most of which were written by Noel Gallagher. He was the reason Oasis became a major influence on British rock music.
Gallagher Brothers’ Legendary Feud
The band Oasis was making a lot of money, with each member stacking up cash in his wallet. But one thing led to another, and they had to part ways. Why?
Noel and Liam started having some issues. One of the first recorded issues between them was in 1995, when the band was at the peak of its success.
In 1995, the band was set to perform in a live MTV Unplugged performance. Liam was supposed to be the lead singer, but he bailed, claiming that he had a sore throat. Noel had to fill that gap and sang instead. While he sang, Liam made fun of him from the balcony while drinking and smoking. That same year, they were scheduled to perform at the show, ‘Top of the Pops’, but the brothers got involved in a fight.
The fight seemed to increase vertically. Liam took things to a whole new level at the MTV Video Music Awards a year later. He sang directly in Noel’s face and spat beer on the stage. Noel also seemed to have a thing against Liam, or maybe he was just pissed. He wished Liam would “get AIDS and die.”
Noel later apologised, but that did nothing to fix their already broken relationship because in 2009, just before their concert in Paris, they had a fight that led to Liam swinging a guitar at Noel.
Noel Gallagher had had enough and parted ways with Oasis, saying that he simply couldn’t “go on working with Liam a day longer.”
He eventually went solo and formed a new band, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
Solo Career Success
This band was an entirely different musical force on its own. It gave Gallagher better control, plus he was still able to retain the same quality he had with the last band, Oasis.
In 2011, the band released an album that eventually became successful, which featured tracks like “The Death of You and Me” and “If I Had a Gun…” These songs proved how good Gallagher had adapted to his new role and showed how awesome a writer he still was.
Since then, Gallagher’s band has released several albums, including ‘Chasing Yesterday’ and ‘Who Built the Moon?’.
These albums led to his band’s success, and they started touring around the globe, attending various festivals. It wasn’t just the band that was getting recognised. Gallagher himself was thriving. He gained big returns from the band while still earning from royalties and publishing rights from his previous band, Oasis.
Source of his wealth?
We can’t discuss Noel Gallagher’s net worth without including its source.
Did you know that most of the songs he has written while he was with Oasis still generate royalties for him? Of course, and also, his solo work with his band, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, has given him the right as a publisher, through streaming and sales of his album.
And what is the band without tours? This is where Gallagher makes his money, by performing in several live shows. He has earned both during his Oasis years and his solo tours. He earns through ticket sales and merch. He usually gets high demand for those merchandise which include apparel and collectibles. This is also where he gets income.
Music aside, the songwriter has gotten endorsement deals and earns from the sales or licensing of parts of his music catalogue. These are the different streams in which he earns his money, in spite of his personal expenses and legal settlements related to family and business matters.
What Might’ve Affected His Finances?
Well, one of the biggest influences on Noel Gallagher’s finances was his personal life. Gallagher might’ve been all butterflies and roses out here, but his life back home was a messy one. He had to divorce his PR ex-wife, Sara MacDonald, in January 2023 and paid her off with a whopping amount of $33 million (that’s about $25 million for the settlement and another $8 million for their family house in Hampshire).
They married in June 2011 and were together for 22 years, but suddenly started losing that spark during the COVID-19 lockdown. It was because of these settlements that Gallagher’s finances were affected, but he seemed pretty chill about everything (It’s not like it reduced his net worth that badly anyway). That’s not all, he joked about how he would ride a bike past her house with a wave and scream out: “You didn’t take this from me!”
By the way, the fact that Noel Gallagher was able to get back with his brother, Liam, this year to work on the Oasis Live ‘25 Tour together speaks volumes. The tour is not done yet, but it is in its final weeks. According to sources, the tour will conclude on November 23, 2005, in São Paulo, Brazil, and the brothers might earn millions from it.
Still, nothing has changed the fact that Noel Gallagher remains a successful musician.
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