Oasis is regarded as one of the best British bands of all time – but Noel Gallagher believes that is the case because they broke up.

The musician has said splitting in 2009 helped cement their legacy. 

The band called it a day after Noel made an abrupt departure following a heated confrontation with brother Liam at the Rock en Seine festival near Paris.

Noel, who was Oasis’s primary songwriter, said towards the end of the band’s time together fans had grown bored of them.

Speaking on Sky Arts programme Noel Gallagher: Out Of The Now about his decision to leave, the rocker said, “It’s not a decision I took lightly.

“And I’d written every meaningful song that was ever recorded by Oasis. And it was my life, I directed it and creatively it was my thing. With the benefit of hindsight it was the best thing for me and for the band.

“Because the band now, Oasis back in 2009 were not lauded as one of the greats of all time. There was a kind of undercurrent of, ‘well they should really call it a day’. That’s what I felt anyway.

“And I felt that people had stopped listening to the records and were coming to see us trot out the hits and it’s a position I never wanted the band to be in. But now of course we’re seen as up there with all the greats.”

Noel also recalled the night Oasis split up, calling the incident in Paris “just the straw that broke the camel’s back”.

He said he was sitting in the back of a car outside the music festival in France when he made the decision to leave the group.

He said: “The driver pulled off and that was it. I didn’t feel a sense of relief because I knew there was a shitstorm coming. And there was going to be a lot of nonsense talked about it.

“One of the biggest bands ever imploded, finally. And I couldn’t go back to England because the press had descended on my house and my missus was there with my kids.

“So we had to kind of spirit her out in the middle of the night and they came to join me in France somewhere. And then when we eventually got back to England, of course all fucking hell broke loose.”

Since their break-up fans have desperately pleaded for the Gallagher brothers to reunite, but they have so far resisted working together again. 

The pair have both gone on to have success with separate projects in the music industry and have publicly traded blows in the media over the years. 

Last year, Liam called his brother “greedy” for supposedly turning down a huge amount of money to reform Oasis – something Noel later denied. 

Noel Gallagher: Out Of The Now airs on Sky Arts on Thursday at 9pm.