The best description of Oasis to be found in the clutch of books arriving to coincide with their reunion tour comes courtesy of a teenage Pete Doherty. Yet to be a rock star himself with The Libertines, Doherty was interviewed as a television vox pop in 1997 on the day that the Manchester band’s third album Be Here Now came out. “I subscribe to the Umberto Eco view,” he said to camera, “that Noel Gallagher’s a poet and Liam’s a town crier.”

That was not actually Umberto Eco’s view. The celebrated Italian writer, who picked Bach’s Goldberg Variations No.22 as his favourite track on BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs, kept any thoughts about the Gallagher brothers to himself, so far as I can tell. But the observation itself is spot on.

Financial Times