He has become the most Googled person in the UK overnight despite being largely away from the public eye for the past 30 years. Tony McCarroll is the answer to the question millions were asking on Tuesday night as fans flocked to sign up for the Oasis comeback tour pre-sale.
In a bid to separate the casual fans from the die-hards, the band had insisted in a brainteaser, although all this information is little more than a click away these days. Hardcore fans will, of course, known the answer to the question of who Oasis's original drummer was - and some insist any proper reunion would have McCarroll, 53, battering away in the background.
That seems highly unlikely, especially given his acrimonious departure from the band in April 1995. The Manchester-born drummer had been a member of the band The Rain with guitarist Paul Arthurs, better known as Bonehead, and bassist Paul McGuigan, who he'd played football alongside.
McCarroll had known Liam Gallagher through childhood and he would later join the band as singer and change the name to Oasis. His brother Noel was drafted in and the band went 'Supersonic'.
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Despite getting on well with Noel on a personal level, the guitarist was less impressed with McCarroll's drumming skills. He appears on Definitely Maybe and his style was instrumental to songs like Supersonic, which McCarroll later insisted he had helped to write.
As the band progressed, McCarroll was said by some to be "out of his depth" when it came to the musicianship with producer Owen Morris calling his style "extremely basic" although he did praise his timing. In April 1995, McCarroll was sacked from the band and replaced by Alan White, although he appeared in one more Oasis song, Some Might Say, released as a single that same month. It means McCarroll will always be able to boast of playing on a chart-topping single.
After his removal, McCarroll tried to sue the band for £18 million, employing the same lawyer who won £2m for another famously rejected drummer - Pete Best, who was booted out of The Beatles just before they became the biggest band in the world. McCarroll argued he was due a part of the royalties from Oasis's five-album deal with Creation but eventually he settled for £550,000 in 1999.
He has continued to perform on and off over the years and released a memoir, Oasis: The Truth, and appeared in the 2016 documentary Oasis: Supersonic. In 2021 he revealed he had suffered a heart attack and was in hospital where he had coronary stent fitted although he later confirmed to fans he was "all good".
Earlier this month, it was announced he was to be honoured with a plaque in the Irish town of Kinnitty, where his mother was from. He lived there for two years in the 1980s with the plaque being placed at the Kinnitty Parish Hall, where he performed in his pre-Oasis days.
No bitterness at sacking anymore
Speaking in a recent interview about his Oasis career before this week's announcement, he revealed he had actually been at their last gig at the V Festival in 2009. He added: "I think it’s absolutely nuts that 30 years later there’s still such a hullabaloo around the band. I know they’re not together, and they’ve been split up, like what is it, 15 years? But they made a massive mark on the world, in musical terms, that is.
"So kudos to the band. But I don’t even know if we expected it to be that successful. But when I look back, we did work hard! There was a belief in us that something had to happen."
And on his own departure, he said: "I’m absolutely so proud that I was a part of it. It took a while, I think, for my input to be appreciated, and maybe I was quite sore that I did leave the band.
"But then as the years have rolled on, and it’s not me that says this but others now, I was an integral part of that album, especially the punk-rock feel to it all. Live, and I don’t like to blow my own trumpet in a way, but live we were so tight, it was astounding."
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