More Aussie interviews
Online Link (Sydney Morning Herald)Noel Gallagher is his own worst critic and biggest fan, he tells Bernard Zuel.
There is not a lot of Noel Gallagher under that mop of Beatles-gone-shaggy hair which, since Gallagher and his brother, Liam, arrived in the early 1990s with their band Oasis, has been the do of choice for a generation of British rockers.
Slimly built, of barely average height and no fan of the gym, he is not made for any kind of fighting, though he is famous for rucking with his brother and inciting all kinds of passion and aggression in friends and foe alike.
You could say Noel Gallagher is all mouth and trousers - faded black ones tonight in Melbourne, worn with a dark brown pinstriped jacket. You could add he's a walking opinion who shovelled too much Colombian up his nose for a few years, a mouthy git and an egomaniac whose best years were a decade ago. He'd almost certainly agree.
"All the bad things that have been written about me, I've thought worse of myself; all the great things that have been written about me, I've thought better than them," Gallagher says equably, rocking back and forth on his tilted chair with the relaxed air of the lord of the manor.
"I'm my own worst critic and my own biggest fan."
He laughs, his eyes lighting up with amusement under the shag. "I seriously am a big fan of myself."
And there you have the conundrum of Noel Gallagher. He is a man who is verging on the insufferable but simultaneously charming and amusing. A man whose band has been bombastic and dull very often but whose best moments have always been the small and personal. A man whose Australian tours with that band have been patchy at best but who later on the day of our interview plays a wholly captivating solo set, at the renovated church home to the Live at the Chapel series, backed only by a guitarist and a drummer playing snare and bells.
"On the one hand, I don't actually think as a person, if you were to take away my songwriting, I am anything special. But luckily for me, I'm a f---ing awesome songwriter. And," Gallagher smiles broadly, daring you to take offence, "that makes me more f---ing special than [other modern songwriters], all right?"
Well, you are mouthier than the rest, I can't help but add.
"I guess, I guess. I certainly don't censor myself but I know for a fact that most of my peers, before you get to interview them, you are handed a list of what you can and can't ask. Ask me anything, anything, I've got an opinion on most things.
"However ill-informed my opinion is," he chuckles, "at least I've got one."
You couldn't ask for a better example of this truth than the recent brouhaha over Gallagher's comments to a London tabloid about Iraq, which incensed all the usual suspects. Essentially he said the war was messier for the Iraqis than the soldiers who had signed up for battle and that's where his sympathies lay.
"If you've got a problem with flying bullets, here's the thing - and call me old-fashioned - don't join the f---ing army. The way I see it, if f---ing idiots didn't join the army, there would be no war because there would be no soldiers, hence the world being a better place."
He pauses and says, his thick Mancunian accent adding an extra layer of self-mockery and self-amusement: "There, my Nobel Peace Prize is on its f---ing way, I think."
Gallagher's comments echo one he made a few years ago, originally directed at Radiohead (the more intellectual, esoteric flipside of British rock in the '90s to Gallagher's Oasis) but applicable to many others who say they hate the attention their careers give them. It boiled down to this for Gallagher: if you don't want to be famous, if you don't want the attention, don't join a rock band and sell records.
He tells a story about being in the supermarket once "when I was doing the shopping with the missus" and he knocked back a request to have a photo taken but the fan persisted, sneaking shots from the next aisle. There were raised voices among the juice bottles and cleaning products and, when Gallagher left, the store's security staff insisted on accompanying him out - not to punish him but to protect the by now seriously embarrassed musician from the stalker fan and his angry mates. It's a small price to pay, he reckons.
The most salient point in that tale, though, is that he does the shopping. Recently he suggested the likes of Elton John and Robbie Williams had lost touch with reality precisely because they never did things like buying groceries.
"He [Elton John] got really upset when I said that but I'm just assuming that a man who wears Versace underpants, spends a hundred grand a year on flowers, doesn't do his own shopping," Gallagher says. "I could be wrong. But I bet he couldn't tell you how much a pint of milk is."
Can Gallagher?
"Well they don't do pints any more, they do litres, but it's 79 pence a litre."
He goes on: "I think doing your own shopping is pretty good therapy. I know all the ladies who work the checkout in the supermarket on my high street and it kind of reminds you that life is pretty shit for some people. It kind of brings you back down to earth a little bit, if one was ever getting ideas above your station."
Did he ever get ideas above his station? Get a bit carried away for a while when the money and adulation rolled in? "Yeah, but you are supposed to get ideas above your station, you are a f---ing rock star, for crying out loud. Of course I did."
Noel Gallagher, rock star, laughs and shakes his shaggy hair. We are amused.
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Online Link (The Courier Mail)Always quotable, Oasis singer/guitarist Noel Gallagher played a rare solo show in Brisbane last night. Patrick Lion heard the swear jar rattle 17 times in the space of just 14 questions backstage at the Tivoli Theatre.
Q: This is a solo tour to promote Stop The Clocks, your new 'best of' album. What is it like touring by yourself, without the band and particularly your brother Liam?
A: It's a lot calmer and lot more peaceful. Oasis are a big f--king band and there's a lot more people involved with it. There's only six of us on the road here. There's usually about 50-odd so in that respect it's a lot calmer. I've never actually toured without Liam. This is the first time I'm doing it. It's different. Liam would be doing his usual whingeing his f--ken arse off. It would be a pain in the arse if he was here. He doesn't do interviews because no one wants to talk to him anyway. He doesn't like acoustic. In his words: `He's in a f--ken rock `n' roll band'.
Q: What sort of show can we expect tonight?
A: We're doing a cover of The Beatles' Strawberry Fields Forever but that won't be a surprise to anyone who has a computer because they no doubt f--ken heard it on the internet. I don't see these sort of shows as nostalgic. The reason I'm doing these gigs is they wanted me to come all the way over here and do the promotion. That's like being on tour without the good bits. My manager said, ``well, what's the good bits?''. I said, ``doing some gigs'' and he said we'd do that then. I'm really enjoying it and being here and the gigs have been great. It's just nice to get out of England. It's just freezing f--ken cold.
Q: You're a big Beatles fan. What do you think of Love, their new remix album done by Sir George Martin and his son Giles?A: It's f--ken ridiculous. I don't like it and it annoys the shit out of me. I hate everything about it: the cover, the sleeve notes, the way the tunes are mixed and sound. Why would you do that? God forbid that ever happens with our music, although we would be powerless to stop it.
Q: Why didn't you want Stop The Clocks to be released?A: It wouldn't have been my choice to put it out but I am powerless to stop it (due to their contract with Sony BMG). If we were to disown it, we wouldn't have been involved in the artwork and seeing as we're only going to do one best of we thought it was better to be involved. There's 11 hits not on this one. I'm sure that Sony will be putting together a singles album in the near future. I would if I was them. It would sell. I'm powerless to stop it. There's nothing I can do about that.
Q: You put the track listing together. Would it have been different had Liam done it?A: You'd have to talk to Liam but he would probably tell you some f--ken crap about it being completely different to what I came up with. It would have been the same. If he wanted to, he would have got involved.
Q: Most of the songs are from the first three years in the mid 1990s. Has Oasis got another big album left in the can?
A: If he could tell you that, young man, I wouldn't be in the f--ken music business, I'd be in the gambling business and I'd make a f--ken fortune.
Q: Apart from them all, what was the best song you've written?
A: It's not for me to say what my best song is but I will tell you what my most important song was. Live Forever because it announced us to the world. Before that we were a very British phenomenon and then after that it kind of exploded. I dare say, that was the first song you heard by Oasis.
Q: You've spoken a lot over the years about who is the biggest band in the world. Who is right now and is that title still important?A: I think U2 has consistently been in the biggest band in the world over the past 20 years. Red Hot Chili Peppers. Green Day this year, too. It was only important before we were the biggest band in the world (in the mid 90s) because that was something we set out to achieve. As preposterous as that sounded when we were all on the dole in Manchester, and as mad as people thought I was, we got there in the end, albeit briefly for about six months. I've got to say it was a lot of f--ken hard work to get there, to be honest. It's not something I think about now.
Q: Is it harder to hold the title, then?A: So it would seem (smirks).
Q: Oasis and Brisbane have a bit of a history. In 1998, there was the biffo on the plane flight when Liam was arrested. Then you came back for Livid 2002 just 100 metres around the corner from here and blitzed it. Did you feel you had point to prove after the disappointment, on and off the stage, of 1998?
A: In a way, yes. That Australian tour in 1998 was an aberration. We weren't in the right place mentally. We were all high and taking a lot of f--king drugs at the time. We George Best'd it really. We kind of did have a point to prove but not that that made us play any better because we are a great f--ken band anyway. We wouldn't be going so long if we weren't. There's not been many gigs like that 1998 one.
Q: Robbie Williams is in town, staying at the same hotel as you. Any chance of a reconciliation beer after the gig to smooth over your past differences?A: Unfortunately he is an alcoholic and doesn't drink. A mineral water? I wouldn't have thought so. There is a bit of history there. I don't like his music. No (I won't be going to the concert and) I shall be flying out tomorrow and going to Sydney.
Q: How hard has it been watching the Ashes cricket series?A: I find it incredible England lost that last Test in Adelaide. How did they stuff that up? If Australia win the toss in Perth, then it is all over. To be honest I'm not a massive cricket fan, and I find it hard to get excited about a contest over a trophy which is that big (small gesture with fingers). That's just stupid. I'm disappointed for the team because finally we have decent cricketers in Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff. Australia are the best cricket team in the world so there is no shame in losing to them.
Q: You had a swipe at our Socceroos a while ago, suggesting they stop trying to win the World Cup because it was pointless? England didn't go to well and neither did Manchester City on the weekend.
A: Don't get me wrong. Don't forget England are f--ken dreadful, too. The Socceroos as a name is f--ken ridiculous. It's like a cartoon for kids. It's just ridiculous. And as for Manchester City, that was lame. All my sporting allegiances are shite. It's a good job I'm brilliant at music otherwise I'd be a miserable old bastard.
Q: But we see the soccer World Cup as the last frontier in world sport to conquer?A: (Leans back into couch, belly laughing) Win the World Cup? F--king hell. You've got more f--king chance of having a champion skier. F--king hell.
December Australian press interviews
http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=340420Long gone are the days of cocaine-fuelled drug binges for Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher.
But he's far from mellowed and is still quick to fire up with little provocation.
"I was fuelled on some of the finest cocaine known to man back in the early days so that would make me a little more edgy, shall we say," he said.
"But I am not like that any more.
"I haven't taken any proper big boys drugs for eight and a half years now.
"I am sticking to the ... I won't tell you what I stick to ... but no I haven't taken any proper hard drugs for years now."
Gallagher was in Australia this week, performing a number of acoustic shows with Oasis guitarist Gem Archer.
He's also been promoting the new Oasis album, Stop the Clocks.
Gallagher is quick to point out that it isn't a greatest hits offering - it's a best of.
"Your greatest hits are the hit singles that are most popular ... your best of is what is considered your best work," the Brit said.
"Thereby lies the difference."
The double CD features a selection of what Gallagher considers the band's best work, including such hits as Wonderwall, Champagne Supernova, Don't Look Back in Anger and Morning Glory.
"It could easily have stretched to three CDs, but that doesn't really appeal to me, do you know what I mean?" Gallagher said.
"Three CDs is a bit much, seeing how the Beatles only had two on their best of. It would be taking the piss to have three I think."
Gallagher, 39, put the album together, with little help from brother, Liam, who is also in the band.
"I done all that," he said.
"I get to pick the songs, that is my right as the oldest living member of Oasis."
The Gallagher brothers, famed for their thick Manchester accents and bitter sibling rivalry, burst onto the British music scene more than a decade ago before going on to sell millions of albums worldwide.
Their volatile relationship, fights, drug problems, celebrity relationships - and their prodigious talent for producing catchy pop songs - have filled thousands of news pages around the world.
It seems the brothers are going through a rough patch at the moment.
"We are not on the best of terms," Gallagher said.
"I haven't seen him for a couple of months. I am not interested.
"I am generally not interested because he is generally not doing anything interesting."
They're not fighting though, he said.
"We aren't fighting at the minute ... but there could well be the next time I see him though."
Gallagher has never shied away from saying what he thinks.
He's not a fan of pop musicians, particularly Kylie Minogue, Madonna and Robbie Williams.
He hates the Australian soccer team, but he likes Melbourne rockers Jet.
His acerbic tongue has often gotten Gallagher into trouble, most famously in a 1995 interview when he expressed a wish for Blur's Damon Albarn and Alex James to "catch AIDS and die", a comment which he quickly publicly apologised for.
"I hate Kylie Minogue ... I hate Madonna ... I hate Robbie Williams," he said.
Gallagher doesn't care what is written about him in the press.
In fact, he finds it funny.
"I find that quite amusing," he said.
"It was written once in the newspaper that I was going out with Naomi Campbell. Have you seen Naomi Campbell? Have you seen me? It is preposterous.
"It is like one of the Seven Dwarfs going for it with Snow White - a ridiculous story."
Despite his frequent controversial outbursts, British music news website NME.com once labelled Gallagher the wisest man in rock.
"I have a lot of experience at these things - whether I am wise or not, I don't know," he said.
"It must mean my opinion counts for something I think - does it make me like Yoda then?
"Are you saying I am like a Jedi, cause I can live with that. I am right up for it, light sabres and karate moves, that is my bag mate."
Having completed their six-album deal with Sony Music, Gallagher is keen to take a break because for the first time since 1994, Oasis are without a recording contract.
"We only got back off the Don't Believe The Truth tour in March, that is only seven months ago," he said.
"I don't want to earn any more money just yet - I have got too much."
Brotherly feuds and record label contracts aside, Oasis have enough material to release another album in 2007.
"There is this project going on that will probably take us to spring next year," he said.
"We have got most of our next album already recorded, stuff that was left over from the last one - we could start mixing it tomorrow."
Stop the Clocks is out now.
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Online Link (The Age)It was literally in a matter of days that Noel Gallagher went from being unable to pay for a round of pints at his local, to receiving a phone call informing him that a £1 million royalty cheque was to be deposited in his bank account.
"With hindsight, they were crazy times," he said in a room upstairs at the Forum Theatre this week where he was preparing for the first of two Melbourne shows. "You suddenly just waste a lot of money on shit, utter rubbish. God knows how much money I've blown on drugs, shit cars I can't drive, and daft houses I've never lived in.
"It takes you ages to get back on an even keel. I went mad with it for a good three and a bit years before I started to come around. You forget who you are."
Gallagher, now 39, is in town as part of a three-month world tour for Oasis' new best-of album, Stop the Clocks. The jaunt has been an outstanding success - tickets sold out in less than an hour.
On this tour, in which Gallagher is accompanied by Oasis guitarist Gem Archer, brother Liam Gallagher is a conspicuous absentee. On stage on Sunday, when a punter inquired of Liam's whereabouts, Noel was typically candid. "He couldn't be with us," he declared. "He was washing his hair . . . Actually, truth is, he couldn't be f---ed."
Offstage, he was a tad more decorous.
"Liam lives in Disneyland, y'know what I mean?" he said. "He's started to carry a man bag, which is very disturbing. Apart from that, he's the usual him. I kind of give him the wide berth. Liam doesn't do acoustic shows or interviews, anyway."
The best-of campaign has hardly lacked controversy. Two weeks ago, a widely reported tirade about troops in Iraq landed Gallagher in hot water with veterans' associations.
"I'm regularly grossly misquoted in the press," he said. "They made it sound like I was saying British soldiers deserved to get shot at. I was talking about soldiers in general in America, and I was just, like, 'If you don't like getting shot at, don't join the army.' "
Gallagher was also bemused by the storm that surrounded his sarcastic remark about the Socceroos.
"All things like that I've said very tongue-in-cheek," he said, with a grin. "But I'm yet to master the art of making my quotes look good in print. My point was, Australians are that good at cricket and rugby, why do you bother about football? Please leave football to the rest of us."
Last night, after a show at Vodafone Live at the Chapel, Gallagher also participated in a Q&A session at the Kino cinema for a screening of the band's new documentary film, Lord Don't Slow Me Down. He will also take in the Ashes Test in Perth.
Gallagher says that after spending more than two years recording and touring their last album Don't Believe the Truth, the band agreed to take a year off. They plan to reconvene in June. Gallagher has spent most of his time in his eight-bedroom mansion in Buckinghamshire. He also took his daughter to Sea World in Florida.
"I took my little daughter to see the killer whale," he said. "She was more underwhelmed than I was."
The band has experienced an odd history in Australia. Due to various internal calamities, the band never made it out here in their mid-1990s heyday. It was a tension-filled, bleary-eyed 1998 tour that introduced Australian fans to the band's live show.
"I wouldn't like to think I'm apologising to the Australian nation," Gallagher says, "but we let ourselves down on that tour. I was here for about a month and was out of it every day. We almost had to start from scratch when we came back again. We've only really had a career here for the last five years. I do like coming here, though."
Next year they will be honoured at the Brit Awards, the UK equivalent of the Grammys.
"We've been gently pushed into all this," he says. "Let's get this out of the way before I'm 40. I don't want to be like Pink Floyd going up there as an old fella. I might as well do it while I can still look good in a leather jacket."
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Online Line (News.com.au)WANT to know the Ten Commandments of Rock? I can't reveal them to you unless you're a rock star. Oh, all right. Here are a few:
• Thou must wear shades at all times (especially indoors).
• Thou must own at least one black leather jacket.
• Thou must have a taste for the finest wines and the hardest drugs.
These were given to me by that learned older brother in rock, Oasis guitarist-songwriter-everything-man Noel Gallagher, 39.
It's what he tells young bands when they meet him for the first time, he says.
"What, when they come up shaking, going, 'You're, like, the coolest man in the history of all the world.' I just go, (adopts super-cool, calm, God-like voice) 'I know. Stop shaking. What can I do for you?' And they go, 'Please tell us how to be better rock stars!'
"And I say, 'Well, you have to follow the 10 commandments I've set out for myself'. And they go, 'Wow, you're like a Jedi!' And I say, 'Well, yes I am.' "
Australian Oasis fans will share space with the Cool One when he performs at Brisbane's Tivoli with Oasis rhythm guitarist Gem Archer this week.
After more than a decade leading one of Britain's biggest bands, Gallagher can indeed claim Jedi status. He has weathered the storms caused by his tempestuous younger brother, Liam, as well as various musical feuds and the ups and downs of a fickle industry. Somehow, he's managed to stay down-to-earth and funny. British music mag NME dubbed him "the wisest man in rock".
He's on the phone to promote Oasis's new (whisper it) "best of". But didn't Noel say he wasn't going to release one until the band split? What's the story? Oasis are jumping ship from record label SonyBMG. Sony decided to release a "best of" and the band had the choice to be involved or not. So Noel got involved.
He chose the 18 tracks on the collection, entitled Stop the Clocks, which begins with Rock 'n' Roll Star and ends with Don't Look Back in Anger. The other members didn't get a say.
"Well, they're all my songs! I can't have (bassist) Andy Bell telling me that Rocking Chair is better than f---ing Half a World Away."
What about Liam, the band's singer?
"F--- him. He's an idiot," he says, almost to order.
Liam recently turned 34. Noel didn't get him a gift. "We don't have that kind of a relationship. I'm not even interested in how old he is. 'Cos I know deep down he's still acting like a f---ing 14-year-old."
The highlight of his career, Noel says, has been meeting his own idols, such as Paul Weller, Neil Young, Morrissey and Johnny Marr. In his 15 years in the band he's learned "nothing and everything".
"When you start off, it's all magic. To be in a band and 'in the music scene, man', it's all magic. I guess you learn cynicism as you go along. You learn a lot of things that you thought were true, they're not true at all."
So what's a day in the life of a Jedi-cum-rock star like?
"I haven't got like a fireman's pole running down through my house; I don't descend from the heavens into my kitchen in a catsuit and eat breakfast and then go maraud around London and act like a rock star. Underneath it all, we're kind of all the same. I get up in the morning. I eat breakfast. I watch the news. I smoke some cigarettes. I have some tea and the phone will start ringing in the office and they'll tell me what I've got to do today, and if I don't have to do anything, I just go and annoy my girlfriend."
I tell him that Oasis have been nominated for the British Q Magazine Award for Best Act in the World Today. He says: "Well, what can I say? We've won that award quite a few times, so the novelty has worn off."
There will be more Oasis albums. But he's in no rush. He has slowed down, but his ego is as big as ever.
"It was pretty f---ing big to start with, I've got to say. And I have mellowed a great deal and it's still huge."
Would you expect anything less from the Best Band in the World Today? You might like to know that Oasis did win the award.
Noel Gallagher plays the Tivoli, Fortitude Valley, on Tuesday. Stop the Clocks is out now.
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Online Link (Sydney Morning Herald)When Noel Gallagher was growing up, rock stars didn't come from Manchester. At least not until a band called the Stone Roses emerged in the 1980s.
"I'd always been interested in music, but the idea of what Oasis eventually became came from seeing the Stone Roses live," Gallagher says. "Rock stars then looked different to us. We were normal lads who went to the football, took drugs and hung out on the street. When the Stone Roses came along, they looked like us and made the goal seem nearer."
Oasis, with Noel and brother Liam out front, would become the biggest-selling band in Britain. Twelve years on from their debut, Definitely Maybe, the band are in hiatus. A two-disc best-of, Stop the Clocks, is released this week and Noel Gallagher holds court in his Buckinghamshire home.
After several patchy releases, the band was reinvigorated last year by strong sales and reviews of their sixth studio album, Don't Believe the Truth. A well-received world tour followed.
Sadly, neither success has served to mend fragile relations between band members. Noel says that with the exception of rhythm guitarist Gem Archer, he has not spoken to any of his bandmates, including brother Liam, since March.
"The minute of the last gig of the tour ends that's me f---ing gone," he says, cheerfully. "I don't speak to any of those geezers. It keeps it interesting for me. I wouldn't want to come back off the road and then go straight back into the studio."
From the band's infancy, the tension between Noel and frontman Liam saw them develop into something of a caricature. There were fearful public shouting matches, fist fights, bust-ups and walk-outs. Noel, 39, who was raised with Liam and elder brother Paul by his mother after their father walked out, is philosophical about their relationship.
"A lot of the negative stuff in this band has been very unnecessary and a lot of it caused by Liam," he says, matter of factly. "He's a very antagonistic young chap."
It was during his mid-1990s songwriting purple patch that he conceived Definitely Maybe and (What's the Story) Morning Glory - 27 million copies sold worldwide - and some of the best B-sides recorded in the past 15 years such as Talk Tonight, Acquiesce and The Masterplan.
Gallagher places Talk Tonight among his favorite vocal performances. It was written on Oasis' first American tour in 1994 after a "massive row" with Liam in LA.
"I took all the tour money and a big bag of drugs and went to stay with a young lady friend of mine," he recalls. "I wrote it about brief experiences of running around America for a week. At least something positive came out of it: a great f---ing song."
In spite of the band's inner turmoil, Gallagher still fondly recalls Oasis' early days, so vividly captured in the artwork for Definitely Maybe. The cover was shot in former guitarist Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs' front room and captures the band as they were, drinking wine, smoking cigarettes and playing guitar.
"The only thing manufactured about that was the drummer was there," Gallagher says. "I'd always be around at Bonehead's house playing guitar. They were f---ing great days. I'd love to relive them, but they really can't be relived."
The mid-1990s saw an embarrassment of musical riches concluded by the release of 1998's cocaine-plastered Be Here Now.
Mercilessly panned on its release, Gallagher considers the album's main flaw was that it wasn't Morning Glory. "But I'd ran out of gas. In hindsight it could have been better, but it's an expression of its time."
Live Forever, a recent documentary featuring the Gallagher brothers at their amusing best, focused on the rise of Oasis and Britpop in general. Gallagher says that those involved (including his former nemesis, Blur leader Damon Albarn) are portrayed "as we are".
"Damon come across how I know him, as a confused individual," he says. "He always wanted to be the man, the voice of that generation, but what he failed to understand is that that's a mantle you can't take yourself, it's given to you."
On Oasis' last Australian tour just under 12 months ago, Noel noted the band had arrived at the end of their contract with Sony, and were not going to re-sign with them. He also suggested his own life had taken a re-signing.
These days Noel uses the services of a personal trainer and the hedonistic lifestyle of the 1990s is a distant memory. So, we have to ask, what's the better high, drugs or stepping out on a stage?
"I'd say being on stage, that's just incredible. Drugs are a very personal and selfish thing; stepping out on stage is a very communal thing that involves you and thousands of people. I'm more about others now," he says, with a knowing chuckle. "I'm not that selfish any more."
"I took all the tour money and a big bag of drugs and went to stay with a young lady friend of mine," he recalls. "I wrote it about brief experiences of running around America for a week. At least something positive came out of it: a great f---ing song."
In spite of the band's inner turmoil, Gallagher still fondly recalls Oasis' early days, so vividly captured in the artwork for Definitely Maybe. The cover was shot in former guitarist Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs' front room and captures the band as they were, drinking wine, smoking cigarettes and playing guitar.
"The only thing manufactured about that was the drummer was there," Gallagher says. "I'd always be around at Bonehead's house playing guitar. They were f---ing great days. I'd love to relive them, but they really can't be relived."
The mid-1990s saw an embarrassment of musical riches concluded by the release of 1998's cocaine-plastered Be Here Now.
Mercilessly panned on its release, Gallagher considers the album's main flaw was that it wasn't Morning Glory. "But I'd ran out of gas. In hindsight it could have been better, but it's an expression of its time."
Live Forever, a recent documentary featuring the Gallagher brothers at their amusing best, focused on the rise of Oasis and Britpop in general. Gallagher says that those involved (including his former nemesis, Blur leader Damon Albarn) are portrayed "as we are".
"Damon come across how I know him, as a confused individual," he says. "He always wanted to be the man, the voice of that generation, but what he failed to understand is that that's a mantle you can't take yourself, it's given to you."
On Oasis' last Australian tour just under 12 months ago, Noel noted the band had arrived at the end of their contract with Sony, and were not going to re-sign with them. He also suggested his own life had taken a re-signing.
These days Noel uses the services of a personal trainer and the hedonistic lifestyle of the 1990s is a distant memory. So, we have to ask, what's the better high, drugs or stepping out on a stage?
"I'd say being on stage, that's just incredible. Drugs are a very personal and selfish thing; stepping out on stage is a very communal thing that involves you and thousands of people. I'm more about others now," he says, with a knowing chuckle. "I'm not that selfish any more."
The Sun interview Part 2 + News round-up
Online LinkHERE’S the second part of our exclusive in which Sun readers quiz Oasis.
Liam, Noel, Andy and Gem reveal their proudest moments, whether the future of the band lies with Liam or Noel’s songwriting and if the song Stop The Clocks — the title of the new compilation album — will ever surface.
YOU are set to receive the award for Outstanding Contribution To Music at the Brits in February. What has Oasis contributed to the British music scene that other bands haven’t?SAM LAVIN, Luton
Liam: The music for a start, decent tunes and not comedy music. We brought rock ‘n’ roll vibes back.
Gem: Belief. I remember when we all heard Slide Away and Rock‘n’Roll Star and it was like a revelation. We’ve given bands like Razorlight, Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian a sense of ambition. We showed them it could be done. We came from f*** all to the biggest band in the world in five years. When I drive up to my house in Buckinghamshire I think “Wow, where did it all go right?”
WHAT is your proudest moment since joining Oasis?GARY BOOTH, by email
Liam: Getting a record deal — someone believing in us to go and see if we were any good.
Gem: Going on tour with my son — he’s ten. And I was very proud because he held his own.
Noel: Hearing “That’s Supersonic by Oasis” on daytime Radio 1 was mindblowing at the time. We get a bit blasé about it now. Making my mam proud, I think. When we first had a single she never really understood what we were up to. My mam is colossal.
LIAM, how do you present a new song to Noel? How critical has he been? PAUL LEAHY, Ireland
Liam: I don’t present them to him, he just sort of hears them. Even if it’s good he’ll walk out the room. He doesn’t encourage anyone, all he cares about is his f***ing self. He does his thing and I do mine — Gem’s more of an encouragement than Noel.
ANDY and Gem, how nervous were you the first time you played for Noel and Liam? WES GERRARD, Leicester
Andy: There was definitely some nerves going on. Noel called me and said he needed a bass player but I was a guitar player so I had to learn that. But as soon as I walked through the door they were very welcoming and chilled me out.
Gem: I got my nerves out of the way before I even put my guitar in the case. You can’t be nervous or else you price yourself out of the game. I think anticipation is the word.
EVERY Oasis fan knows the existence of the song Stop The Clocks. Noel even said it was the best track he’d ever written. When will we hear it?MATT ROGERS, Welling
Liam: I don’t think Our Kid can get it right. I don’t think it’s the best he’s written — it’s a tune but not his best. He’s done about four versions but he’s not happy with it so it’s a bit of a nightmare.
Andy: It is an amazing tune. It has quite a heavy theme to it and we’ve had a few goes at it. We’ll get it right one day.
Noel: Every time I write a new song I say it’s the best ever! But it’s not the best thing I’ve ever written. There are about ten different versions and I can’t decide on which one. It’s a good song, the lyrics are great.
WHAT’S your favourite Oasis video?STEVE SMITH, by email
Liam: I think all our videos are sh*t. It’s not that I don’t like doing them, just that they’re always sh*t.
Noel: The Importance of Being Idle because I’m not in it. I f***ing hate doing videos.
WHAT is the craziest night you have had with another band?BOBBY CORRIGAN, Paisley
Liam: New York with Kasabian and Jet. It was mental. We were jumping off the bar and just acting like three-year-olds. It was a top night.
Gem: Liam’s birthday in America with Jet and Kasabian. We had a massive party. Half the people there were on acid. We were in the middle of the desert and midgets gave Liam his birthday cake and made up their own midget rap! They were stood on a table, rapping to Liam. It was one of those moments that you join a band for.
Noel: With Kasabian — every night on the American tour we kissed the sky. I’d tour with them the rest of my days. Tom Meighan is a colossal geezer. There are similarities between Tom and Liam, and me and Serge. I love that band. It reminds me of when I first met The Verve.
FOLLOWING Liam’s success as a song writer, does Noel see Oasis’s future in the hands of the younger brother?JOE BIRCHLEY, Nottingham
Liam: I don’t think I’m a songwriter; I just do what I do. I just do my little thing with my guitar in a room I think it’s the b******s of course but if Noel thinks it’s all right to go on the record then it goes on. I’m not arsed either way because I get my kicks from singing songs. I’d never do my own records as it’s got to be Oasis.
Noel: Maybe yes. He said: “No” because he’s a lightweight but in the studio he’s always giving how good he is. But when it comes down to it he’s a sh** arse. He could carry it but he won’t because he hasn’t got the nerve.
RAZORLIGHT, Kasabian and the Arctic Monkeys all say they wouldn’t be in bands today if it hadn’t been for Oasis. How proud does it make you feel?KEVIN QUINN, Edinburgh
Liam: It makes me proud when it comes from Kasabian but not f****** Razorlight.
Noel: It makes me proud as I love all those groups and The Coral too.
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I'd like to point you all to an excellent blog with uploads of many of the latest TV and radio performances by the band.
http://seethewhiteofmyeyes.blogspot.com/-----
Next Monday's show in Melbourne will be streamed live online at
http://www.liveatthechapel.com-----
Noel's recent interviews for CBCs 'The Hour' are available to view at
http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php?mode=w&save=1&id=1203-----
A new interview with Noel from the Q Awards is in the new issue of Q. In it, Noel reveals the title of another songs from the DBTT sessions, 'Let It Come Down Over Me'.
