To millions of fans, Noel Gallagher is the face of the ­biggest band since The Beatles.

As lead guitarist and songwriter with Oasis, he portrayed himself as a booze-and-drug loving “Manc” who could be brawling with brother Liam one day while sipping champagne with Prime Minister Tony Blair the next.

But according to new revelations, Noel, 43, was a ­calculating late-comer who rewrote ­contracts to ensure he was in total control of the band that went on to make millions.

Drummer and founder member Tony McCarroll, 38, who played on the first Oasis hits ­including Some Might Say, discovered the shock truth as he and the band including Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan were leaving a hotel.

Angry

Tony, who was touring in Japan with the band as they began to hit the big-time, said: “We made our way through the huge hotel lobby towards a fleet of taxis that awaited us.

“Guigs stepped in front of me. He turned to me with an angry look.

“He said, ‘Noel added a three-month notice period to the record contract you signed. If he wants to sack you, he can. That’s you f****d. See you later’.

“This was the first time anyone had mentioned a change in the contract. We were all in serious trouble. Noel’s ­masterplan was ­exactly that. Noel’s.” Tony, who grew up in the same tough south Man-chester district as Noel, also claims in a new book that the star…

MADE SURE ­music journalists saw the so-called fights ­between him and Liam.

SNIFFED so much glue as a kid he was nicknamed Bostik.

BOTTLED OUT of a fight as a Manchester City supporter against rival fans.

TRIED to stop Tony and Guigsy ­escaping from a racist gang beating up kids of Irish descent. Tony says: “It’s funny to think how prevalent such prejudices were, even two decades ago.”

Tony claims they were confronted by Noel as they tried to ­escape the gang in a local park.

He says: “One of the two friends with me recognised Noel. My friend said ‘What the f*** are you doing trying to catch us? You’re as Irish as the rest of us, you ­nugget’.” Two years ago Noel claimed in an interview: “I am as Irish as the next person.”

Despite the confrontational start, Tony and Noel began meeting in the park to play football.

Tony said: “After some while, though, it became apparent that Noel was starting to spend time up the trees. A strange place to sniff glue, I thought. Surely there was a danger of falling out.

“Over the next three months, I would watch them all as slowly they fell out of the trees, one by one. It could be a ­dangerous spot for dog walkers.”

Tony recalls that Noel – nicknamed Bostik – played football high on glue-sniffing with “that vacant look that a glue-sniffer develops. I looked back at our first meeting and thought he was a confused fella”.

Noel was also part of the gang which followed Manchester City and scrapped with rival fans.

On one away trip, Noel, Tony and ­others were confronted by a mob of angry Nottingham Forest supporters. Tony said: “I looked at Noel, who looked back terrified. ‘F*** this,’ he shouted and was gone, a vanishing Mancunian flash.”

By the summer of 1990, Tony joined his three pals, Guigsy, Paul “Bonehead “ Arthurs and Chris “Huts” Hutton in a band called The Rain. Within a year, the band ditched Huts and brought in Noel’s brother Liam. Tony said: “He was a right handful. But if we were going to be a rock and roll band, that was exactly what we needed.

“Although Liam had started to style himself on Ian Brown (lead singer with the Stone Roses) he could never be accused of not being his own man.

“Liam had something about him. It might have been menacing and slightly evil but it was still something.”

And within weeks, Liam showed his muscle by deciding he didn’t like the name The Rain, telling the band: “It’s a s*** name. Any ideas? No? Right, we’ll call ourselves Oasis.”

The first outing of Oasis was at The Boardwalk club in Manchester in 1991 with Liam “extra menacing that evening”. Noel was in the ­audience and ­after the gig told his ­brother the band were “f*****g s***”. Liam decided to ­replace Guigsy with Noel.

Tony said: “My first reaction was surprise. My second was to get angry. I reminded Liam that it was Guigs who had set up this outfit.

“To Liam’s credit, he looked guilty and almost immediately backed down and apologised – unusual for him.”

Tony agreed to Noel becoming lead guitarist. He said: “I thought I had made the best decision of my life and good times lay ahead. It was the best of ­decisions, the worst of decisions.”

Most of the band were still ­having to clean cars to make ends meet when Liam was tricked into going to a house in posh Prestbury, Cheshire, thinking he was delivering an invoice. Manchester City fan Liam was unaware the home ­owner was the then-Manchester United player Mark Hughes – and the envelope contained a love letter.

Mark – now Fulham manager – opened the letter which read: “I think I love you, I’m going to make you mine.”

Tony said: “Mark Hughes laughed and turned the card to show him. Liam read the card in horror and then began to stammer that he had no feelings ­whatsoever for Mark.”

But as Oasis’s fame increased the laughs got fewer – and the band Tony helped start was moving away from him.

On the day he signed the first contract, he arrived drunk to read in “clear black ink” the names Noel Gallagher, Liam Gallagher, Paul McGuigan, Paul Arthurs – and Tony’s name added “in biro”.

He said: “I couldn’t tell anyone that I just had a bad feeling about this, so I reluctantly scrawled my moniker.”

Bad

Tony only later realised the name Oasis was now owned by Noel and Liam. He said: “What’s more, it had given Noel the power to fire any member of the band he thought unfit for purpose.”

Meanwhile Noel and Liam were ­becoming notorious for their drunken spats, including when they arrived at their first London gig in 1993.

Tony said: “Noel screamed at Liam and threw a plastic chair in his direction. It seemed that Liam had started a trend for hurling plastic chairs. Noel looked around afterwards though to make sure that all the relevant music journalists had recorded the altercation.”

As the band topped the charts in 1995 with Some Might Say, Tony was told he was being dropped. He denies the reason was a fight with Noel and says: “Noel was telling anyone who would listen how s*** I was at doing the thing I cared about so much. It was a cheap and easy shot and one that still hangs over me. Just lucky I’m not a sensitive soul.”

Tony sued the band for £18 million but accepted an out-of-court settlement of £600,000.

Oasis became one of the most successful acts in pop history with a string of hits including Wonderwall and Don’t Look Back In Anger. Last year Noel and Liam’s combined fortune was ­estimated at £52million.

features@people.co.uk