Tony McCarroll
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Anthony "Tony" McCarroll was one of the founding members of English rock group Oasis, as their drummer from 1991 to May 1995.
Born in Levenshulme, Manchester, England, McCarroll joined pre-Oasis incarnation The Rain in 1990, replacing their drum machine, and linking up with rhythm guitarist Paul Arthurs, bassist Paul McGuigan and singer Chris Hutton. Hutton was later sacked, and replaced by Liam Gallagher. Liam's brother Noel soon joined with a bag full of songs that were to make Oasis famous.
Perhaps McCarroll should have noticed the growing tensions between himself and the rest of the band when they buried him alive in the 1994 video for "Live Forever." This tension soon grew greatly between himself and Noel. McCarroll had been angered by the "£1,000 incident", as the band called it, which occurred after Creation advanced them that sum to purchase new equipment. Having already spent £600 of his own money on drums, McCarroll found that Noel refused to spend any of the cash on drum skins and instead bought a new guitar. He felt Gallagher was intimidated by him. For his part, Gallagher made his feelings clear with his favoured trick of pretending to forget McCarroll's name during interviews. Noel has since been blatantly derogatory about McCarroll's skills as a drummer.
McCarroll was asked to leave the band in 1995 after rumours of a punch-up with Liam. McCarroll has since denied this. His last job with the band was their first performance of Some Might Say (the last Oasis song he played on) on Top of the Pops.
On the last day of April 1995, McCarroll's departure was announced and soon the fight was abandoned as the main reason - instead, Oasis explained, his drumming just wasn't up to it. "I like Tony as a geezer but he wouldn't have been able to drum the new songs," explained Noel. McCarroll was replaced by Alan White.
After leaving the band, McCarroll travelled over the world for some years.
In 1999 McCarroll hired a lawyer Jens Hills - who had won Pete Best £2m from the Beatles in 1995 - to sue Oasis for £18m. Arguing McCarroll was owed his part of the band's five-album deal with Creation, the case hoped to set a legal precedent, as McCarroll would have claimed compensation for two LPs on which he had not played. Eventually, he accepted an out-of-court settlement of £600,000 in March 1999, which effectively severed all links to the band, with McCarroll's legal fees reported at £250,000. The settlement provoked considerable reaction (one headline questioned "Is this the most stupid man in showbiz?". The reporter claimed "what Tony failed to realise was that he effectively held a lottery ticket which would mean he'd carry on winning every year.")
When Guigsy left Oasis later that year, McCarroll was one of many who offered to take over the role as bass player, but Noel did not consider him.
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