Battling
brother musical acts are certainly nothing new.
Think Phil and Don Everly, or Ray and Dave Davies.
In fact, when you really start to think about it, why did it take so long to
come up with the ironically-named Tour Of Brotherly Love? It hits the Molson
Amphitheatre tomorrow night as the venue's summer season opener.
Here's the concept: Take three rock acts with combustible siblings -- the
Black Crowes' Chris and Rich Robinson, Oasis' Noel and Liam Gallagher, and
Spacehog's Royston and Antony Langdon -- throw them on the road together,
and hope for the best.
"Well, it sounds kind of wild, but hopefully the wildness will come onstage
and not offstage, you know what I mean?" said Noel Gallagher in a recent
interview with The Sun just before a report surfaced about a blowout between
Liam and him during the May 11 tour launch in Las Vegas.
"But I think it's going to be fine. It's good for us because we actually
haven't got a record to promote, so we're not under pressure to do the major
promotional stuff. We're just coming over, because we can, really, and it
seemed like a good idea. So it's just like a busman's holiday for us."
Gallagher is talking about the fact that Oasis, currently working on their
next album, haven't released anything since last year's double live release,
Familiar To Millions.
Chris Robinson, meanwhile, told The Sun he expects the tour to be notable
for what's going on stage, not off. (Keep in mind, in addition to the
brother equation, there's plenty of famous women to choose from: Chris just
married actress Kate Hudson, Liam has impregnated girlfriend-popstar Nicole
Appleton and Royston is engaged to actress Liv Tyler.)
"If there are fireworks, it's going to be that that's the best gig to go see
all summer," insisted Robinson. "That's the three best bands that are going
out."
Early reports of set lists indicate the Black Crowes are favouring new
material from their latest album, Lions, while Oasis is offering up the hits
-- despite Gallagher's earlier claim they would focus on older, more obscure
songs.
Gallagher has also reportedly joined the Crowes' finale for such covers as
the Bee Gees' To Love Somebody, Fleetwood Mac's Oh Well and Pink Floyd's
Lucifer Sam.
"I think you're going to have a lot of that on this tour, you know, just
interchangeable brothers, and lead singers and guitar players," said
Robinson.
So what if the Tour of Brotherly Love implodes before its scheduled
conclusion? Is there any major insurance?
"I think we're actually probably approaching uninsurable, by now, my group,"
said Gallagher, who has seen more Oasis tours derail than he'd probably care
to remember. "So we're there on a wing and a prayer, and hopefully it'll all
stay together. If it doesn't, then we'll have to get the chequebook out --
'sorry.' "
Robinson claimed to know nothing about insurance issues, despite the fact
the Black Crowes tour with Jimmy Page last summer ended abruptly when Page
hurt his back. The Crowes have since launched a lawsuit with Lloyd's Of
London for not compensating them for lost profits.
"You know, to be honest, I'm not really up on the details," he said. "Except
that obviously there's some contractual dispute, some financial dispute
about our compensation about our tour that Jimmy cancelled, with the
insurance brokers. He's had a back problem, and after the first leg I guess
he couldn't continue. He didn't really discuss it with us too much."
