On May 6, 1995, Oasis had their first No. 1 hit in the U.K. charts with “Some Might Say”. This single received overwhelming critical acclaim, and the band’s trajectory took off like a shot. But while it was the start of something big for Oasis, it meant the end of the line for original drummer Tony McCarroll.
McCarroll co-founded Oasis originally as the Rain. He formed the group in 1990 with Paul McGuigan, Paul Arthurs, and original vocalist Chris Hutton. Shortly after they booted Hutton, Liam Gallagher joined. Liam brought Noel, and the rest was history. For a time, anyway.
“Some Might Say” was one of the earliest songs written for (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, with Noel recording a mellow, acoustic demo in 1994. The final version, released on April 24, 1995, was a rollicking rock tune that swept the nation. Pure, undiluted Oasis, like “Cigarettes & Alcohol” from Definitely Maybe, the year before.
Original Oasis Drummer Tony McCarroll Said He ‘Needed to Get Away From the Whole Thing’
This song’s popularity spelled disaster for McCarroll, however. In just 11 days, from release to No. 1 single, Oasis fired McCarroll as its drummer. Noel Gallagher explained it at the time, saying, “I like Tony as a geezer, but he wouldn’t have been able to drum the new songs.”
Producer Owen Morris seemed to feel similarly. “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,” he said in an interview posted to his website around 2015. He described McCarroll’s drumming as “extremely basic.” But he also felt McCarroll’s replacement, Alan White, “never actually hit his drums hard enough or actually understood the basic Oasis sound.”
Oasis went on to international success, broke up, made up, and reunited in 2025. But as Tony McCarroll recalled in 2019, it was hard for him to escape the onus of being Oasis’ original drummer.
Speaking with AP News, McCarroll reflected on his firing from Oasis, a band he co-founded in its earliest iteration. After his firing in 1995, he hit the bottle hard “for three whole years.” By 1999, he sued his former bandmates for £18 million ($24 million) on the grounds that he should still be owed the rest of his share from their five-album record deal.
“I couldn’t get myself out of a suitcase for the next few years,” McCarroll recalled in 2019. “The band were getting bigger, good on them, but I needed to get away from the whole thing. Really, I got drunk for three whole years.”
McCarroll and Oasis ultimately settled their legal dispute out of court
Then, there was the court case to contend with, which McCarroll felt wasn’t something he would usually do. “That just wasn’t me,” he said. “I was a young lad, I didn’t appreciate or care about law and litigation, and I was just gutted I had to go through that.”
In March 1999, McCarroll chose to settle out of court for £550,000 ($748,000). He also gave up all future royalties. But despite mending his friendship with Liam Gallagher in 2016, Oasis still followed him around like a shadow.
“You’re reminded every single f—ing day of Oasis,” he explained. “I’ll never get away from being the original Oasis drummer, and that’s something I’ve got to take on the chin.”
The post Despite Drumming Their First No. 1 Hit 31 Years Ago, This OG Britpop Drummer Was Fired After Bandmates Felt He Couldn’t Keep up With New Material appeared first on VICE.
