"Oasis To Pay Sacked Drummer £600,000"

by Joanna Bale

Alongside the article in colour a picture of Tony with arms aloft outside the High Court in Strand, London

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picture by Adrian Sherratt

Fear of huge fees forced musician to drop £18m claim and settle out of court.

The drummer sacked by Oasis as the group achieved success in 1995 won a £600,000 settlement yesterday. Tony McCarroll, who lost his place in the band after a fight in a Paris bar with Liam Gallagher, the lead singer, had sought up to £18 million, but legal sources said that he accepted the much smaller offer under the pressure of mounting legal fees. His lawyers negotiated the deal minutes before the case was due to be heard in the High Court.

The trial attracted hundreds of fans who packed the public gallery of Court 17 in the hope of hearing Liam and his brother Noel, who are notorious for their liberal use of expletives, giving evidence. Lawyers on both sides were said to be taking bets on who would say the "f-word" first. By 10.30am, the diminutive Mr McCarroll, in a grey suit, had taken his place at the front of the court, but there was no sign of the brothers Gallagher and it became clear that negotiations were going on behind the scenes.

Shortly before 11am, Mr Justice Rattee appeared and was told by Jonathan Rayner James, QC, for Mr McCarroll: "The parties have come to terms and that will resolve all matters between the parties." The settlement will go before the judge for approval today.

Mr McCarroll had claimed that he had a five-album contract with the band, and had been "unlawfully expelled from the partnership". He had sought a one-off payment of 20 per cent of the band's annual royalties. Such a settlement would have been worth between £10 million and 18 million. As well as the Gallaghers, he was suing two other members of the band, Paul McGuigan and Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs, who was arrested last week after allegedly being drunk and abusive at a party for the opening of Tommy Hilfiger's new London fashion store. Neither was in court. After the hearing, Mr McCarroll said: "I'm glad it is all over." Asked if he had made up with his former colleagues, he said: "No. I don't talk to them any more." He then left with friends, saying that he wanted to celebrate.

Mr McCarroll, 27, played on the band's critically acclaimed debut album, Definitely Maybe, and on Some Might Say, the Number One single from the second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, before being sacked over the telephone.

Oasis, led by the guitarist and songwriter Noel Gallagher, said that Mr McCarroll had shown no interest in improving his allegedly poor drumming. Before Mr McCarroll's departure, Liam told a magazine that the band's ambition was to "find a new drummer".

When Mr McCarroll's place was taken by Alan White, he enlisted the services of the music industry solicitor Jens Hills. Mr Hills, who in 1995 secured £2 million for Pete Best, the drummer sacked by the Beatles before they became famous, yesterday declined to comment on the settlement.

Mr McCarroll's fight with Liam Gallagher in Paris was the culmination of months of bullying by the brothers, according to Ian Robertson, Oasis's former road manager. He said last night that Noel Gallagher was so dissatisfied with Mr McCarroll's drumming that the Oasis songwriter played the drums himself on parts of the debut album: "Tony just wasn't doing it in the way Noel wanted it to be done." He said he deserved the cash. "He might have become the drummer they wanted him to be. His straightforward style was a large part of the appeal of the early singles."

Mr McCarroll, who now works at rehearsal studios in Manchester and teaches drumming, is one of a long line of musicians, including Robbie Williams, The Smiths and Spandau Ballet, whose financial battles have taken them to the High Court.

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c 1998 Andrew Turner

aturner@interalpha.co.uk

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