Suede respond to Liam Gallagher ‘stirring things up’ after savage comments

Suede might not be enamoured with the Britpop label but being one of the ‘big four’ means they’re never safe from a Liam Gallagher dressing down.

The Oasis singer took to his X account in April to let fans know he thought the Suede bandmates ‘dressed like estate agents’.

‘F**k them,’ he wrote about the Beautiful Ones singers, declaring they and the Manic Street Preachers were ‘s**t’ and ‘lack attitude, swagger and style.’

Mat Osman, Suede’s bassist, wasn’t concerned by Liam’s cutting remarks, especially after their latest album was nominated for the 2026 Mercury Prize.

Laughing, he told Metro: ‘I think he said we were dressed s**t. I mean, I’ve met Liam many times, and he’s always been lovely.’

‘What he says in the press is always designed to stir things up,’ Mat, who is also Richard Osman’s brother, added with a glint of amusement in his eye.

Bandmate Neil Codling added that Liam had said their song It Starts And Ends With You was an ‘effing tune’ when it first came out.

‘I will take that,’ he quipped, grinning, clearly unbothered by a man they’ve now been rivals of for over three decades.

While the early rivalry and genre interest was real, the band has never enjoyed being lumped into the Britpop bucket with Oasis, Blur, Pulp and the rest.

‘[The genre] is something for other people to deal with,’ Mat explained. ‘It’s a useful way to put you in a record bin, but it doesn’t really mean anything to us.’

Perhaps that’s because Suede’s music has always been at home in prestigious critics’ circles rather than the wider mainstream awards.

They previously took home the Mercury Prize for their self-titled album in 1993, as well as being nominated in 1997 for Coming Up.

If we’re keeping score, Oasis have been nominated twice with no wins, although they swept up at the Brits in 1996.

Suede told us that their previous Mercury win would likely keep them off the top spot this year too, with only one person – PJ Harvey – having won twice in the award’s 34-year history.

‘I think it’s probably a disadvantage,’ Mat said as Neil admitted ‘statistically’ this year might not go in their favour.

Metro notes their win rate is 50%, which the guitarist takes some heart in before Mat reminds us both they were also nominated for the original War Child Help album.

Unfortunately for Suede’s stats, the collaborative charity record – which also featured Oasis and Blur – lost out to Pulp’s Different Class.

In a twist of fate, Pulp are featured on the anniversary album Help 2, which is also nominated for this year’s Mercury. Maybe there’s some cosmic karma coming Suede’s way.

Getting on the shortlist itself is prestigious and something that has alluded Suede for 28 years, despite releasing plenty of albums.

Reflecting on why Antidepressants has managed to cut through critically and with fans, Mat explained: ‘I think the message of it, the openness of it, and the mix of tension and community.

‘As soon as we started playing it, people just reacted to it. Sometimes you don’t really know, we’ve made a lot of record but sometimes the audience tell you “this is pretty good”.’

Neil added he believes the ‘confessional’ elements have just resonated with people, sharing: ‘That’s very de rigueur at the moment.

‘People really appreciate people being honest. They look for that in singer-songwriters, that confessional nature of the lyrics and giving more of yourself, which this album seems to have.’

While the band are no strangers to writing hits, Mat points out it all comes from ‘hard work’ and intentional songwriting.

‘We have to sit down and say, “let’s try to do something that’s different”, but a lot of it comes from the experience of touring, meeting people, and playing shows.

‘Our gigs are so life-affirming, you have to deal with it, you have to try and express how it feels.’

Neil and Mat are planning to head up to Newcastle on Thursday, October 22 for a relatively low-key ceremony as the band are heading on tour just two days later.

Also nominated are the likes of Knats, Jade, Kojey Radical, Florence and the Machine, Dave, Olivia Dean, and Nia Archives – the latter of which the pair said they’d be keen to work with.

They called the ceremony a ‘rehearsal’ for their gigs but definitely concluded: ‘We’re not going to win’.

To be fair to them, if we were up against Paul McCartney for a music award, we probably wouldn’t count our chickens either.

The Mercury Prize ceremony will be held at Newcastle’s Utilita Arena on Thursday, October 22, 2026.