Since many Oasis fans are drawn to the Gallagher brothers' story and dynamic, I wonder if any of you are also Delays fans?
If yous don’t know them, Delays were an indie rock band of the 00s, debut album came out in 2004, Faded Seaside Glamour. Slightly jangly, ethereal guitar indie, singer and guitarist Greg Gilbert genuinely has one of the most beautiful voices in rock music. In indie rock, I think him and Rufus Wainwright are probably the two most beautiful voices in the entire genre.
Greg’s younger brother Aaron was also in the band, he was their keyboardist. Greg had been writing his own music for a little while, and one day he could hear that Aaron had left some synth looping in his bedroom and went up to see what he was doing because the sound intrigued him, and the rest is band history.
Anyway, the brothers were close, Aaron fucking adored Greg. Their band got so big so quickly, and they both had histories of mental health issues: depression in their teens; so they both had bouts of bad anxiety during the band’s time, Aaron during the early days and Greg towards the end of the band. And they both helped each other through their mental health crises. There was no drama, no falling out like Oasis, but the band sort of wound down by about 2012, around when Greg’s anxieties were getting bad. They never really split up but needed the break, with plans to slowly work towards a new album eventually.
Greg was diagnosed with cancer in 2016, and obviously priorities in their lives completely shifted after that. Greg was in treatment a lot, so the band was really on back burner, though he posted some demos in 2018-2019. Greg was an artist too, he would idly sketch throughout Delays, but got more serious about it with time on his hands during treatment. He would post the artwork he was sketching and his poetry written while in chemotherapy on his Instagram, and it’s some of the most beautiful and haunting sketches and words you will ever see.
Greg put up a fucking fight, and there was a fundraiser for him to try some newer treatments that raised over £200k in 48 hours— which I remember was some sort of record, and just showed you how beloved a musician Greg was and how much Delays meant to people.
Five years he fought, and it was already more than he was initially expected to live. But this still haunts me.
I follow Aaron on Instagram, he still posts, beautiful and heartbreaking things about his older brother, who he clearly misses so fucking much and still adores and idolises. He posted on Greg’s birthday last week. The fifth one since he died. It’s still raw for Aaron. And still so much love.
Delays were a band of the CD era, so that first album never really got a release on vinyl, though it was one of the things that Greg really wanted to do. Aaron finally pushed through for that to happen, and for the album’s 20th anniversary in 2024, Faded Seaside Glamour was finally released on vinyl. That’s the interview from which this is taken, and I recommend going and reading the whole thing. It’s devastating to me.
