‘Liam had been drinking all night. Noel was not in a great mood’: photographers pick their best Oasis shot

Lairy, drunk, fighting, laughing … five photographers who shot Oasis recall what it was like capturing them in depressing pre-fame hotels – and at their Champagne Supernova heights

I didn’t really know the Gallaghers then. I had only shot Oasis at the Q awards and live shows. In 2001, I was commissioned by a US publication for a feature about The US tour of Brotherly Love, with Oasis, the Black Crowes and Spacehog. All the bands had two brothers in them, and I had been asked to photograph the Gallaghers and the Robinsons from the Black Crowes together.

The shoot was at the Scala in King’s Cross, London. It was peak Oasis, but there was no entourage, nobody watching over my shoulder. There was also literally nowhere to shoot in the venue. I ended up finding a corridor with a white wall and I thought: “I’ll try and make this look as much like a studio as possible.”

I think Liam was holding a can of Red Stripe and they were smoking. I started taking shots of them all together and then, being a savvy photographer, made sure I did lots of the Gallaghers on their own. It is very rare that you see pictures of them laughing: Noel’s almost rolling his eyes. I wasn’t really tuned into what they were saying – and I might not have even been able to hear. I certainly wasn’t the one making them laugh.