Oasis

For a few shining years in the '90s, Oasis was frequently named as England's greatest modern rock band-not least by the band itself. Battling Manchester brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher were the loose-cannon geniuses behind a band that had a white-hot streak of hit albums and singles between 1994-97, then stuck around for a sometimes contentious but often inspired decade-plus. Most of the original lineup-singer Liam Gallagher, guitarist Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs, bassist Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan, and drummer Tony McCarroll-worked together for two years as The Rain with little success, before older brother Noel joined in 1993, bringing a few handfuls of songs and a sharpened musical direction.

The final piece of the puzzle was Creation Records founder Alan McGee, a champion of psychedelically-inspired guitar bands, who signed Oasis later that year as part of a worldwide deal with CBS/Sony. The first three singles -- "Supersonic," "Shakermaker," and "Live Forever" -- were all UK hits (though the middle one got them sued due to its resemblance to the New Seekers' hit "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing"). Including all three advance singles and the next hit, the Faces-like "Cigarettes and Alcohol," the album Definitely Maybe topped the UK charts on release.

Thanks to some hard touring, regular singles and the band's tendency to make headlines, Oasis became a worldwide hit by with the 1995 release of (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, which had the hits "Wonderwall" and "Champagne Supernova" and established Britpop as an international trend. Frequent Beatles comparisons were perhaps overplayed, hinging mainly on Liam's Lennonesque voice (and their "I Am the Walrus" live encore)-but Oasis were more clearly rooted in '60s pop than contemporaries Blur, Pulp and Suede. The following year brought an eventful tour that found Liam quitting the band for a week (leaving Noel to do the lead vocals on their MTV Unplugged appearance), then Noel stomping off after an onstage fight with Liam at Radio City Music Hall. An unauthorized CD called Wibbling Rivalry, with 15 minutes' worth of the brothers cussing at each other in an interview, actually charted in the UK.

The third album Be Here Now arrived in another blaze of glory, topping both the UK and US charts. Yet the set was weightier than usual, with the last two songs totaling 18 minutes, and was ultimately seen as Oasis' first misstep. By 1998 the Gallaghers were the only original members, and they'd get a Beatle connection by recruiting drummer Zak Starkey in 2004. The squabbles continued, with Noel briefly quitting again in 2000 and Liam being arrested after tangling with Munich police in 2002.They remained cult heroes in the US and chart-toppers in the UK; the 2008 album Dig Out Your Soul harked back to the guitar-heavy sound of the first two albums and seemed to signal a new era for the band. Instead tensions flared up again as Liam missed a show at the UK's V Festival in August 2009; he claimed laryngitis and Noel said he was just hung over, a statement Liam wasn't pleased about. Five days later Noel declared that Oasis was over, because he couldn't bear working with Liam any longer.