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'.
Oasis 'The Sun' interview + News round-up
WE asked you to send in YOUR questions for OASIS, and you did – in your thousands.
In an exclusive interview with SFTW, Liam, Noel, Gem and Andy answer what you wanted to know.
In the first part of our chat with the band (the second follows next week) read what they have to say about Oasis members past and present, why they will never tour when they are as old as the Stones and whether Noel will ever make a solo album.
A FEW years ago Noel said Oasis would never release a greatest hits album unless it was the end of the road for the band.MALCOLM WEARING, Dumfries
Liam: I think you say that when you’re just starting out. We haven’t made the greatest hits — they’re all songs that we made ages ago.I’m proud of it. It’s got some of our best tunes and I wouldn’t have done it unless the record company forced us to do it. I’d rather be involved in it rather than not involved. But I prefer to be doing the new record, to tell the truth.
Noel: We didn’t have to get involved with any of it but we’re never going to do another “best of”. I was trying to be as hardcore as possible but there are about 10 more songs that should have been on there.
Andy: A lot of tunes were left off. My personal favourite would have been Whatever but it was Noel who picked the tunes. This is his baby.
Gem: I would have had Listen Up, D’You Know What I Mean? and Let There Be Love on there. But there you go. I totally understand the way Noel’s done it. It’s not meant to be the box set, it’s meant to run like a good gig — and everyone knows about all the other tunes not on there anyway.
WHY are there no tracks from Be Here Now? Has Noel missed off any tracks, do you think?TINA HALLADAY, Liverpool
Liam: Yes, I think he’s missed a few. I’d have put on Rockin’ Chair, D’You Know What I Mean? I would have put some off Be Here Now. If he didn’t like the record that much, he shouldn’t have put the f***ing record out in the first place. I don’t know what’s up with him but it’s a top record, man, and I’m proud of it — it’s just a little bit long.
Andy: Noel has purged Be Here Now from his mind — I don’t think he even remembers it. I’d like to play some of the songs live. I tried to get us to rehearse My Big Mouth but Noel doesn’t like these songs as they are all too long and take up two tracks in the set and the same for the “best of”. He probably associates it with a time he doesn’t want to go back to.
Noel: D’You Know What I Mean? was on it right up to the day before it was mastered. But it’s just too long. It upset the flow of the album. When we recorded Be Here Now I thought it was the greatest thing ever but the novelty of that record wore off pretty soon. Andy’s wrong. It was a great period. The money had just come in from Morning Glory so we had become very, very wealthy overnight. Sony had given us a private jet, I was given a Rolls-Royce but, unfortunately, the music suffered. I don’t know why Liam is saying that because, when it comes to playing them live, he won’t sing them!
LIAM, if John Lennon was still alive and you had 24 hours with him, what would you do?TRACY WHINNETT, St Albans, Herts
Liam: Good f***ing question, man, but I haven’t a clue. I’d freak him out by looking at him, stare him out — but I don’t know. I’d probably b*m him.
ACQUIESCE is a great record. Is it true it was written while the band were on a train – and that the title totally confused Liam?TANJA BENDER, by email
Liam: I can’t remember, man, I don’t know when it was written as I was too busy having a f***ing good time. Yes, the title did confuse me. It still confuses me — I haven’t got a clue what it means. I’ve never asked Noel what it means either. The less I have to talk to him, the better.
Noel: It was written going to a studio in Wales to record Some Might Say. The train broke down and I was stuck for four hours and I wrote that song. Someone had said “Acquiesce” on the phone and I’d written it down. Liam still doesn’t know what it means. People have the misconception that song is about me and Liam, which annoys me to f***, as the lyrics in the second verse are, “To sing my soul to sleep, And take me back to bed.” It’s absolutely not about me and Our Kid and we’ve never shared a bed — and if I was looking for someone to take me to bed it wouldn’t be Liam!
HOW close did the band ever come to breaking up? MARTIN MACDONALD, KidderminsterLiam: Never. We just needed a couple of days off instead of going into another country. I don’t think it’s ever come close really. We’ve had some serious arguments but as you get older you think, nah, f***. Ask Noel.
Noel: The real low point was Barcelona for the Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants tour. In that period we were all drinking a lot and taking drugs.
IS it true Noel wants to make a solo album but never seems to have time. Would Liam let him?MICHELLE GEMMELL, Ayr
Noel: I’ll do one eventually as life’s too short and none of us is getting any younger. I’d like to make one while I still look good and before I look like Phil Collins, which, eventually, I will. It’s nothing to do with Liam. I’ve got the songs — I could do four solo albums.
LIAM once said he was John Lennon reincarnated. So who does he think Noel could be? KEV HOLMES, by email
Liam: He’s f***ing Buzz Lightyear.
Noel: Buzz Lightyear? So I’m a superhero, then? Liam is Arthur Mullard.
WITH all the band members that have left over the years, if you had to pick one of them to rejoin Oasis, who would it be? CLIVE KEARNS, by email
Noel: None of them — and I don’t say that with any malice towards them as they were all f***ing brilliant and I wish they’d never left. But it led to better things.
WHO do you believe is the most talented member of the band? WAYNE BURTON, Rotherham
Liam: I’d say it’s Noel but we’re all talented in our different ways. He’s good at writing songs and I’m better at singing them. We’re all the same man. If it’s about f***ing looks, then it’s totally me.
Noel: Everyone’s got their own individual talent. Liam’s got many subtle little talents. 99 per cent of them I can’t see but he must be talented as everyone keeps telling me. Gem is a brilliant producer, Andy is a whizz at everything and a great songwriter. Obviously, everyone else will say me.
Andy: We are a band of equals. That’s the feeling that I got when I started to play with this lot. We’re all super good at what we’re doing.
Gem: I think we’re all really talented in different ways but Liam’s voice is an absolute gift from the gods. But I think Andy is the best musician in the band, and Noel’s songs — he’s one of the all-time greats.
WOULD Oasis have ever been as successful if you were all bald? ENDA BURKE, Galway
Liam: No chance. I wouldn’t go and see a band with a load of bald f***ers. You’ve got to have a barnet or it doesn’t work.
Andy: The hair’s getting a little thinner but we’re stapling it together.
Gem: In my world it goes hand in hand — shoes, guitars, hair. That’s the triangle.
Noel: Absolutely not. The way Liam looks is a big part of it. Back in the day I didn’t look that great as I was too busy getting off my head, Bonehead was bald, Guigs looked like an average man. And shoes are always good as we’re Mancunians. We dress from the feet upwards.
AFTER 12 years at the top, how long do you think you will continue? Will you be like the Rolling Stones or go gracefully? DARREN MUGFORD, by email
Liam: I dunno. I didn’t join the band to split up. I joined the band because I like being in a band and I like to make music. If the tunes are f***ing good and we all look half-decent, then people will want to buy the records. I still love everything about it. This is what I like doing and it never gets boring. So who knows, man? All those bands that split up after a couple of records, well, they can suck my ****!I love singing Our Kid’s songs and I love doing the gigs. I like the way our band’s perceived and we’ve got the best fans in the world. So why would you not like it? I’ve got nothing in common with other bands — wearing their tight kecks and pointy shoes.
Noel: We just take everything one step at a time. I don’t know how long it will go on. As long as we’re all still into it. I’d say longer after the last tour, as I’ve seen a new generation of Oasis fans.
IF Tony Blair told the Queen to give Noel a knighthood as his parting gesture before stepping down, would you accept it?RICHARD JONES, Australia
Noel: I’d initially accept it and not turn up. I’m not a big fan of the monarchy.
YOU’VE got one bullet. Who do you shoot, Robbie Williams or Phil Collins?STEPHEN BAILEY, by email
Noel: It always comes out wrong about Phil. I don’t give a f*** about Phil Collins. I wouldn’t shoot him. I think he’s bit of a knob though. As for Robbie, I’d load the gun for him as he’s eventually going to do it himself as he is a grossly unhappy person.
MORRISSEY used his celebrity to reform the New York Dolls. What about using your power to get The Smiths back together.CRAIG WELLS, by email
Noel: Well if The Smiths announced a gig anywhere in the world tomorrow I’d be there and the same goes for The Stone Roses. But they properly fell out. As bad as things get in Oasis there’s always this sibling thing that draws us back together or my Mam gets involved. So it’s a pipe dream.
THE Beatles have had their music adapted for Cirque Du Soleil and Queen have had their songs turned into a musical. Any plans for Madferit: The Story Of Oasis?JAMES, by email
Liam: Nah, I wouldn’t be up for it. Not sure what Noel would say as he’s getting weirder the older he gets — especially as he’s coming up to 40. I bet he’ll have a yellow f***ing Ferrari next, so who knows where his head will be at in a couple of years’ time? But it’s not my cuppa tea. It’s not rock ’n’ roll is it?
Andy: The Cirque De Soleil is a mad one. I’ve heard some of the music and it’s amazing. I’ll see it next time I’m in Vegas.
Gem: I sincerely hope not. I really do. I think it’s an un-Beatles thing to do.
Noel: I bought the album and I had to switch it off. I thought it was ridiculous and I didn’t get it. It was like Stars On 45. A musical? I don’t know. It sounds that f***ing ridiculous that I’m kind of getting into it.
WAS Songbird included just to stop Liam whingeing?BEN GOULSON, London
Liam: Our Kid put it on! It’s a f***ing tune! And I don’t f***ing whinge. Who asked that? Tell Ben he’ll be whingeing when I take my foot off his head.
Noel: No, because it’s a bona fide good Oasis song and I wish I’d written it as I f***ing love it.
DOES your success and commitment to touring and promotion interfere with your creativity?GARY STANFORD, by email
Noel: I’d say yes it does. I used to aggressively pursue creativity. Ten years ago if I wasn’t writing a song every day I’d panic. But now I’ve nothing left to prove and I don’t mean that in a defeatist way. The only things I’ve got to prove are to myself. So even if I go four months I don’t stress. I used to chase after my creativity but now I let it find me.
ANDY/GEM, if you could have played on any songs before your time which would they be? Do you ever regret not being a part of Definitely Maybe?SARAH DYSON, Wigan
Andy: I would’ve liked to have played on all my favourites like Slide Away, Champagne Supernova, Live Forever — all those kind of tunes. But it doesn’t really matter as I play them live now anyway. I don’t have any regrets in life as everything led me to where I am now. When they did Definitely Maybe I was seeing Liam and Noel as we were in the same studios a few weeks apart as I was making Ride’s third album.
Gem: It’s all what it was, what it is. It’s carved in stone. Now they’ve got a different life in my head played live. Champagne Supernova is a different record when I play it live.
DO you envisage a time when the band no longer tour?BRENDAN FINNEGAN, by email
Liam: I hope not because sitting in the studio all day is great but I’ve got to see people’s reactions. It’s a top day out at an Oasis gig, whether you’re on the stage or in the crowd so why would you want to cut that stuff short?
Andy: Yes I can, well maybe not tour so much. I can look forward to a day when we do tone it down but right now we’re still in our prime and none of us want to stop now.
Gem: No I think you’ve got to tour and that’s why all the great bands, us included, have our fans because we go and play to them. Simple as that.
Noel: Me and Andy look at things more objectively. I’m not going on the road when I’m 50! And it depends on how I look. We’ll still be touring in five years but I don’t ever want to end up like Pink Floyd. Now I f***ing love Pink Floyd but on stage at Live 8, well I’m not going out like that. I want our last photo shoot to look good. I don’t see an end to it yet but we’re not going to be like the Rolling Stones, no f***ing way — all that macrobiotic food and tights? No way.
NOEL and Gem, will you make an acoustic album after your tour?SIMON MANGERS, Luton
Gem: Who knows? We’ve done loads of stuff, radio sessions and everything so all they need is for someone to put them in a sleeve. It’s weird as everything with Oasis is this rock ’n’ roll lad thing but this shows a really tender and quiet side of us.
Noel: We had a good laugh doing that tour but I wouldn’t like to make it a bigger tour. Doing the acoustic tour I was centre of attention and I’m not sure I like that. It’s weird.
YOU’VE got a docu coming out, but if Hollywood was to make the Oasis film, who would play who?NEIL RENTON, Edinburgh
Noel: Nobody really looks like Liam and fortunately no one looks like me. We’re pretty unplayable I guess. Rhys Ifans would do a good Liam if he could get the accent right.
WAS it difficult for the band to adjust to being musical celebs?ALEX MacGREGOR-DEVLIN, by email
Liam: Nah, if people ask for an autograph, sign it and move on. I don’t like it if there’s a load of people mithering me but apart from that it’s not hard.
Andy: I haven’t the same profile as the brothers so I can go down Woolworths, do my shopping and I don’t get bothered.
NOEL featured on the Radio 2 superstar line-up telly advert. Who would you have in your fantasy line-up?DAVE MYERS, Liverpool
Liam: I wouldn’t have had Sheryl Crow. I would have had Keith Moon for a start. I would have f***ed Our Kid off and got Jimi Hendrix in. Elvis would go and I would have been in there. For backing singers, The Supremes.
Andy: I’d keep Keith Moon on drums, Noel on guitar. I’d get rid of Sheryl Crow and get John Power from The LA’s in and yes, maybe Elvis on vocals.
Noel: I’d go for Reni from the Stone Roses. Lee Mavers from The LA’s singing and playing guitar and me on another guitar. On lead guitar Johnny Marr and on bass Mani.
I SAW Oasis in Colorado and it was amazing. Do they still care about breaking the US?RICH JONES, Denver
Liam: What’s breaking it? We tour there. I would never want to be that huge that you’re on Oprah. I’d never want to be that big in America as they’re all f***ing weirdos. If it means going out there all the time then I’d rather be big here. The money would be nice but if that’s the only reason, then nah.
Andy: Last time we played Red Rocks, Hollywood Bowl and Madison Square Garden so have we not made it playing those places? I feel like we have, though I feel we should be bigger. Americans would like it if they heard us more on the radio.
Noel: Our US label is conservative, Celine Dion’s on it. They’re ultra-professional and we weren’t bothered about the meet-and-greet side of it but the older I get the more I like going there. It would be great to have a No1 American album but I know what it takes to get that. The reason we didn’t break America wasn’t anything to do with the music — how can it be, our music is f***ing great. A lot of it has to do with mine and Liam’s personalities — they just don’t get it. Our record company never really got us, but I can live with that.
SO, will there be another record?MARTIN PETERS, Manchester
Liam: We’ve done stuff for the next record. When we recorded the last one, we recorded about 50 tunes and I think there’s an album there definitely. We’ve just got to wait for Our Kid to decide what he wants to do. If he wants to make a new record let’s go. I’m ready to go. If Noel wants to take a f***ing break then I’ll be doing the f***ing record with Gem as I don’t take breaks. He always says: “Our Kid loves the limelight, he can’t relax” Well where were you last week? In Tokyo you f***ing knobhead.
Noel: Is that right Liam? Liam sees things very differently to the rest of us. After The Brits I don’t know. Liam needs to go to anger management classes and get some manners and then maybe we’ll make another record.
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Noel was interviewed over the week on the Ken Bruce show on BBC Radio 2. He was choosing his favourite 10 tracks by other artists and finsihed off by saying a few words about 'Stop The Clocks'. You can listen to the interviews by going to
www.bbc.co.uk/radio2-----
Noel done an interview and a short acoustic set (Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger) for Italian radio station Radio Deejay. Download the set and interview at
AnotherOasis-----
Noel's planned acoustic set for MTV Italy on Saturday 25th was postponed to the 30th.
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Liam gave an interview to celebrity gossip magazine 'Now'. Read it here.
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Noel was on Russell Brand's BBC Radio 2 on Saturday night for one of his regular chats. In it he spoke about the big Oasis/Westlife chart battle. Listen to this at
www.bbc.co.uk/radio2-----
Next week is littered with Noel acoustic broadcasts. On Tuesday is a live video stream of Noel and Gem's Paris show on
www.msn.com . On Thursday is their MTV Italy interview and acoustic set. On Friday, Noel will be doing a couple of songs from a BBC Radio 1 listeners living room and on Sunday XFM will be broadcasting Noel and Gem's show in Manchester.
New Noel Australian press interviews + News
The Age.comWHEN 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."
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Adelaide NowNoel Gallagher isn't backward in sharing his opinions about, well, everything. Here's what's been on his mind.
We're talking about the new best-of Stop the Clocks. Have you got a favourite Oasis song?
Not really a favourite, no. If I was to pick one I was to listen to right this very second it would be either The Importance of Being Idle or Supersonic.
Have you got a song then that you think is the best song you've written?
You can't . . . I don't think you can really say that. Fifty million people would say Wonderwall, I would say Live Forever but then again Liam would say something else. It's all opinion and conjecture, isn't it.
When you write a song like Wonderwall or Supersonic do you have that feeling once you get to the end of it, `Yeah, that's pretty good'?I did with Live Forever. Supersonic was done in such a rush I still . . . when I listen to that song now I still think it's amazing. The Importance of Being Idle, when I finished that I thought it was amazing. I went out and celebrated that night.
You can feel it?I've written many, many great songs, obviously but I've also written a few stinkers, you know what I mean so when the good ones come along I know. Some of the songs take you by suprise. Some songs you write and you think, "Hmm, that's alright'" and then loads of people go, "Wow, that's amazing." Like Lyla for instance, I thought, `well that's pretty good and then when people heard it they were going, `F***ing hell that's incredible' and I'm like, `Really?'... of course it is, I wrote it.
But that must be part of the fun as well. To take albums on the road and see which songs people really respond to live?
That's all part of the creative process. I've written some things that I thought were monumental and then people have heard it and gone, "Gnah, that's alright". You never quite know. But there certain songs that come along where you go, `F***in' hell. That is fantastic.'
Was it always frustrating that Acquiesce never got onto an album?
Not really. Frustrating for other people. Not me. I never understood what people were, "Oh this should have been a single." Well, why wasn't it then? I don't remember people at the time clambering for it to be a single. It's a great song and all that, but it's not like it's been brushed under the carpet and forgotten about. The cream always rises to the top.
Because a lot of the talk at the minute is going to be about the best-of, is it difficult or interesting for you to start thinking about the early days all over again?
You know it's not difficult because everytime we put an album out people always compare it to Definitely Maybe and Morning Glory so it seems to be I've been talking about the past forever. It's like same sh**, different day for me.
Does it feel then that the best-of might get rid of a bit of that then? Once the best-of is out you will be able to start again.
I don't know. Oasis and particularly Definitely Maybe and Morning Glory had such an impact on people around the world that maybe I wouldn't want people to stop talking about that. I don't know.
The best-of is the end of your contract with Sony BMG. So now you're looking for another record company?
My manager deals with all that kind of thing. We don't have to deal with any of that sh**. Far too complicated for me. I remember looking at a record contract once and it just looked like what I imagine the script for Lord of the Rings would have looked like. I was reading it, going, "What does...? What? What the...? What does that word mean?" It was like one of those scenes from Star Wars where an android is reading out the technical difficulties on one of the space ships in the desert. And you're just like, "I don't know what that means." I thought this is all about making records, isn't it? It's all forthwith and hereforth and I hereby degree that those forsooth, "What?"
So people just need to tell you when to start writing songs and when to book into the studio.
I'm a huge rockstar, point me in the way of the drum riser. That'll do me.
I read an interview where you said the 90 seconds where you walk from the backstage of a stadium to the stage are the best moments you can get.Walking from the wings to your microphone is an incredible high, and it's an incredible re-affirmation of what you do. It's such a communal... people have said to me, "Well, is it better than drugs?". Well, it is because drugs is a selfish personal thing. If you're taking drugs with a whole lot of people, you can all take the same drug but it effects you in different ways. But when you experience something like that, this very communal thing with 60,000 or 70,000 people it's quite special. It's not something to be taken lightly. If you're going into it thinking it's a f***ing walk in the park...
The more you do it, the more you learn how to handle it. To me, I never used to get nervous, do you know what I mean? I was always a little on edge before going onstage. But now I just love it. It's almost like you can conduct an orchestra when you're up there.
What a lot of people don't understand, when they're starting up, they go, "Oh, I'd be petrified to get up there" and I always say to them, "The thing about it is ... all the people looking at you, they want you to be there. You should never go out on a stage and feel I'm not worthy to be in this stadium. The state of mind you've always got to be in is I'm bigger than this stadium and these people want me to be bigger than this stadium. So even if I don't feel like I'm bigger than this stadium I've got to act like I'm bigger than this stadium or let somebody else do it. I've never understood these wimpy rockstars who get stage fright. Go and get another job then.
When you can command an audience of that size elsewhere in the world, why come to Australia when the reality is you'll only play to 5000-10,000 people when you could be playing to 60,000 elsewhere?That's a good question ... the weather?
The first time we came to Australia we didn't have a very good time at all, we were in the wrong place mentally and we were all heavily into drugs. It was a f***in' crazy time. We were having a great time but the music and all that suffered so we didn't go back for a while. I guess ever since then ... well, let's put it this way. You speak English. We've kind of got the same cultural references. I can order room service pretty easy in Australia. It gets a bit difficult in Japan. You say, `No, I asked for sugar, man. Not lobster.' That kind of thing.
Australia traditionally has loved it's music, it's rock'n'roll. Who wouldn't want to go there? My very good friend Paul Weller, I keep saying to him, "Everytime I go there, man, they keep asking me when you're going to go there.' And he's like, `Well, it's a bit far isn't it?" And I'm like, "Well, f***ing hell, it's a bit far. They do have airplanes now you know. No-one's requiring you to drive there."
Are you worried about the reception you're going to get next time you come down here after your comments about the Socceroos?What did I say?
I believe you said, you wanted to "kick Tim Cahill in the bollocks" and that the Socceroos had a "sh*t name."That's rubbish. Socceroos. That's f****n' nonsense. And explain to me this ... you know Tim Cahill? Everytime he scores a goal he goes and boxes the corner flag, that's ridiculous.
He's being the Boxing Kangaroo.
F***ing boxing Socceroo. What a tit.
It's no different to British players DJing when they score goals.
Yes it is. Well, they're idiots as well. Listen... can you print this? All footballers are f***ing idiots. Start from that rationale. They're all idiots. All of them. They're moronic. They can't dress, they're into shit music, they've got sh*t hairdos, they've got ugly wives and they've got stupid kids.
That's alright then, if you're bagging all footballers.
Oh, totally. I do think Australians are that good at cricket and rugby, what are you playing football for?
You'll never win the world cup. That's for sure. But then neither will England so I don't know what I'm going on about.
England are shit and all. And don't get me wrong, I went to the World Cup in summer and all those English footballers are f***in' knobheads.
Are you going to come out here to catch some of the Ashes?No, cause I'm kind of busy doing the promotion for this.
It'll be interesting, very, very interesting. You ... you lot have to win it really, don't you? Cause it was bad last time. Old f***ing Glenn McGrath saying you were going to whip us five-nil but it didn't quite turn out like that, did it.
I'm looking forward to that and the Rugby World Cup. It's going to be good man. Do you think you'll win the Rugby World Cup?
I'm from the Southern States so we don't really play Rubgy down here.
Oh really, Do you play boomerangs and all that lot?
We play Australian Rules Football.
* See, now that's f***in' insane. That is insane.
It's a great spectator sport.
It's stupid. Men in really tight shorts and vests, c'mon.
Have you been to a live game?
Are you insane? How would I have been to an Australian Rules ... do you know why it's called Australian Rules?
Because we only play it in Australia.Because you only f***ing play it in Australia.
What about when you've been out here on tour?
Listen, I'm too busy getting drunk and talking about the Beatles.
You can do that at the football
Nooooo. I'm not having that. That's wrong. That's like saying Sumo wrestling, ain't it brilliant... if you're Japanese it is. It bears no relation to the rest of the planet. It's like baseball. What a load of sh** that is. Each to their own I guess.
No plans to tour here any time soon, then?I guess when we put a new record out whenever that'll be. It'll be on the map.
Have you started thinking about a new record?
Not really. We only really got back off that tour, it only finished in March. And I don't really need to be hanging out with my brother. Once every three years and only for one year at a time.
You also have another brother Paul, what does he do?
He gets on my nerves, is what he does.
You're the oldest?
No, I'm the middle. Our Paul, what does our Paul do? He keeps the Oasis archive. If you asked him where were the band playing on the 29th of August 1992? He could tell you in an instant. He could even tell you what clothes I was wearing. He's an encyclopedia of all that irrelevant bullsh**. Good lad though.
Thanks for your time, Noel. I think you need to check out a bit of Australian Rules Football next time you're in Australia.
And you need to get a life, love. See you in a bit.
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Noel appeared on BBC Radio 4's 'Front Row' on Wednesday evening talking about the album. You can listen to the show (Noel is first on) by going to
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4-----
Noel gives an interview to the new issue of American magazine Spin.
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When Noel was in Japan, he gave an interview to the 'School Of Lock!'. Listen to the interview by clicking
HERE.
Noel interview for The Sun + XFM live broadcast
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,4-2006540086,00.htmlNOEL GALLAGHER has seen RED over the current mania for all things GREEN. The OASIS legend has given a landmark interview in which he passes judgement on modern Britain, politics, music and the celebrity culture which he despises. Noel gave off enough of his own hot air to bring down the ozone layer in one interview session.
What makes Mancunian Noel most angry is the fad for Green politics and do-gooders trying to save the planet. Guitarist Gallagher, 39, fumed: “Greens are f***ing hippies with no place in the world. “They’ve been telling us for the last 50 years not to use aerosols or the sky’s going to fall in. “Well - you’re the scientists, do something about it. “How do you suggest we get 50million Chinese not to have a fridge? “Or get 700million Americans to stop using their big stupid cars.
“The only way its going to happen is if the sky falls in. “Until is does, these Greens are wasting their time. “I’m glad - because in 50 years time I’ll be dead.”
Finding a rock star with such strong opinions is a rare thing these days. But Noel more than makes up for the rest of them during this exclusive interview to promote Oasis new Greatest Hits album Stop The Clocks. His Green opinions - like all of his thoughts - are more than just hot air. He tries to get a rise with a controversial statement - but then backs it up.
Noel is convinced that even if the world does change for the worse, kids of tomorrow will simply adapt. He explained: “They won't be sitting there going: ‘Dad, you shouldn't have brought me into this world.’ “Kids adapt. “Our parents are horrified about the society we built for ourselves - drugs and sex and drink and rock'n'roll and television. “But to us that's normal. “So - we'll be horrified with what follows. “By the time I'm on my deathbed my daughter ANAIS will be some mental axe-wielding cyber punk lunatic. And I'll be horrified. “I'll be glad to get out of the place! She'll have adapted quite well, I would have thought. “The world in which we live - they always say: we have to leave a safer planet for our children. “Well - I haven't got a car. So I'm doing my bit for the environment. “I walk everywhere. I only live round the corner from Central London and I walk everywhere. “That's my bit. I take public transport and I walk. So I don't clog up the roads with petrol fumes and all that stuff. That's what I'm doing.”
And Noel has utter contempt for celebrities who lock themselves away from the rest of us and refuse to ever get on the bus or just walk. He maintains that he still goes to buy his own groceries - and people like ROBBIE WILLIAMS and ELTON JOHN who don’t, come in for a tongue lashing. Noel said: “If I run out of milk, I go to the supermarket. And I queue up like everybody else. “Can you imagine Elton John queuing up to by milk? “The thing is - these stars like Robbie Williams and Elton John and all the rest of that lot - what are they afraid of? “Are they actually afraid somebody might actually say hello to them in the street? “There ain’t no axe-wielding celebrity murderers out there. It's not like that. “It p*sses me off that they lock themselves off from humanity. “And then you see these people on telly and you wonder why they're a**eholes. “Cause they're surrounded by a**eholes who treat them like they're something special when they're not. “Whereas the likes of me, when I want a taxi I queue up.”
But it does not mean that Noel will always pause to speak to people.In fact he loathes signing autographs. He added: “I don't give a f** about autographs. Just say no! “I take great pleasure in that sometimes. “People think they're slaves to their fans. No. People stop you in the street, sign this - no piss off! “"Could you sign this, please?" No. "Why not?" Cause I'm not in the fu**ing mood, that's why. Dead simple.”
Noel - who has been described as “the wisest man in rock” is on great form. He is celebrating a complete rebirth of Oasis since their last studio album Don’t Believe The Truth. New bands like ARCTIC MONKEYS and KASABIAN honour him as the godfather of modern music. It is now taken as a given that Oasis are the most influential British band of the last 20 years - probably since The Clash or Sex Pistols.And Noel is relishing his new-found status of the elder statesman during the 11th anniversary of his own band.
The former hellraiser has calmed down on all fronts - and relaxed into a life of quiet enjoyment.
He is blissfully happy with his girlfriend SARA MACDONALD - and refuses to do anything he doesn’t enjoy. That includes making music when it doesn’t take his fancy.
He explained: “In the early days if I wasn't writing songs I was in the studio recording songs. If I wasn't in the studio I was rehearsing. I was aggressively being creative. Cause I had goals to achieve. You won't get to be the biggest band in the world sitting on your arse watching telly all day. “Soon as we were the biggest band in the world in 1996/7 I took the foot off the gas. “You can keep re-inventing yourself, like U2 But then - look at the clothes they wear. It's not very graceful. So - I don't get up every day and go, right, pass me the guitar. “I really do enjoy being lazy. “Let me see what I've done this summer. I went to Ibiza for 6 weeks. I went to Miami for 2 weeks. World Cup. Moved house. Went to Republic of Ireland to visit my mother. Been to New York. I just get around. I enjoy doing nothing.”
When Oasis blew up in 1996 at the centre of Britpop they were linked in with the rise of the Labour government. Noel was famously photographed attending a function at No10 Downing Street and shaking Tony Blair’s hand. It is an image he does NOT regret. Noel recalled: “I don't feel any shame about that. The picture's a bit sh*t, cause I have a glass of champagne in my hand. And I was wearing a cheap suit, and that's not f**king like me. But I have no regrets about going. "I was only in my twenties at the time, and I thought - "wants to meet ME? Well, f**ing bring it ON!" And I can't remember the mindset I was in. But looking back now I think I probably would have just been fascinated by it all.”
Noel is no fan of Blair - but he has an interesting take on the Iraq War.Soldiers come in for a bashing from him - for complaining about having to fight. He continued: “Blair made an almighty cock-up about going to war in Iraq. “But when people go on about that it's like they're suggesting that if anybody else had been in power they wouldn't have gone in with the Americans. “Because after WW2 we always have sided with the Americans.“Don't think for one moment David Cameron wouldn't have sent the troops in, or the other guy from the Liberals.
“And another thing annoys me. “You get a million people walking through Hyde Park, "don't send the troops", and all that. “The troops they wanna go, all they want to do is fight! They're soldiers! They're lunatics! They're loving it until they get shot - and then they're claiming compensation. “If you're bothered about getting shot - here's a thing - don't join the Army!”
Despite calming down on the work front - and enjoying life more - one thing has not changed. The relationship between Noel and his singing brother LIAM remains as strained as ever. Noel continued: “The problem with our relationship is that he doesn't like me. “I know that. I can accept that. I actually don't mind that. “And I'm indifferent to him. I'm not bothered what he does, I'm not bothered what he says, I'm not bothered about his music, his haircut or where he lives. “I don't actively go out of my way to antagonise him. He does actively go out of his way to antagonise me. “But I just keep out of his way. I can't be dealing with him, he's just a pain in the a**. “He's got a split personality. He's either got a Messiah complex. When he looks in the mirror he sees the Messiah. “Or he's got a Caesar complex. When he looks in the mirror he sees enemies everywhere. “It's very difficult to deal with a person who thinks he's the centre of the universe one minute and the next minute everybody's out to get him.”
Luckily, despite their differences Oasis are around for the long-term.Noel has compiled the greatest hits to satisfy a contract with Sony Records. But then the band will go it alone - and start a new album which they plan to release themselves on their label Big Brother. Noel explained: “Record labels are places you go and borrow money to make records. We don't need to borrow money any more. That's basically it. “Why take all that money off them, put it in your bank - and then when your record comes out, for every record sold you get 15 Pence. Why not just not take the money and when it comes out, and it sells for £ 15, you get £15 of it. That makes business sense to me.”
Noel hinted that a new studio album will be ready next year. But for now there’s the compilation to look forward to. Stop The Clock features 18 of Oasis’ best tunes - and will be released in the UK on November 20.
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http://www.xfm.co.uk/Article.asp?id=307674Noel Gallagher and Gem Archer of Oasis will be playing an exclusive Xfm homecoming gig in Manchester this December to be broadcast live across the Xfm Network.
Xfm in association with Virgin Megastores are proud to announce that Noel and Gem will be taking to the stage at The Lowry, Manchester to play this special exclusive set on Sunday 3 December to celebrate the release of their best of album ‘Stop The Clocks’.
With a capacity of just 400, this will be one of the smallest venues Noel has played in a very long time, and a once in a lifetime chance for fans to see the Oasis helmsman play a seriously intimate gig.
Tickets to the one-off show won’t be available through normal ticket outlets or from the venue, and can only be won by tuning in to Xfm London, Xfm Scotland or Xfm Manchester during our special Oasis Day on Friday November 24
Or by signing up to Xfm Plus (if you're not already a member) and going to the competition on the Xfm Plus homepage by
clicking here.
Not that we’re blowing our own trumpet here but this is just two weeks after Xfm’s exclusive session with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and just days before Xfm’s charity Christmas extravaganza Xfm’s Winter Wonderland. We’re said it before and we’ll say it again. Damn we’re good to you.
To hear Noel Gallagher and Gem Archer Of Oasis live at the Lowry Quay Theatre, Manchester tune in to Xfm from 6pm on Sunday December 3.
‘Stop The Clocks’ is out on Big Brother / Sony Records on November 20.
New Noel Reuters interview & news-round up
Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rock icons Oasis release their greatest songs album on Tuesday capturing more than a decade of hits, but the band's main songwriter Noel Gallagher says his best-known tunes are not so great.
For many Oasis fans, three songs -- "Wonderwall," "Don't Look Back in Anger" and "Champagne Supernova" from the blockbuster hit 1995 album "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" -- were the defining moment for the band.
For Gallagher, the album was overrated.
"Morning Glory, I don't think it's the best-sounding record we have ever done," Gallagher told Reuters in an interview. "Some of the songs are not as great as people think they are."
As for the notion that "Don't Look Back in Anger" and "Wonderwall" captured the spirit of British optimism of the mid-1990s, Gallagher puts much of it down to timing.
"There was always going to be one defining British album that came out at that time, it just so happened we put ours out at the right time and the songs, being about hope and love, just struck a chord with people," Gallagher said.
"I don't much like 'Wonderwall,' but the effect that song has on people, I can't deny it," he said. "Great music is in the ear of the beholder."
"I still don't know who this chick Sally is," he said of the heroine of "Don't Look Back in Anger."
"I wrote the thing and I don't know what it means, but for some reason, for (fans) it means the world to them," he said.
"All those lyrics, like 'Champagne Supernova' and that, they were just nonsense ... you can think about those lyrics for the next 500 years and they still won't mean anything."
"BIGGER THAN JESUS"As Gallagher reviews the 18-song, 2-disc "Stop the Clocks" compilation, he says the band's first album "Definitely Maybe" from 1994 remains his best work.
"People are still hailing it as one of the greatest albums of all time," he said, calling it on a par with the seminal punk opus "Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols."
Absent from the album, which includes some of the band's famed B-sides, is anything from their third effort, 1997's "Be Here Now," when the band came close to imploding under the weight of their own success and a blizzard of cocaine.
"As soon as you get involved in cocaine, it all goes out the window because you think that every note you play on the guitar is ... monumental," Gallagher said.
Now 39, Gallagher is more relaxed that at the height of his fame and drug abuse when he notoriously wished Blur frontman Damon Albarn death by AIDS before later apologising.
"It's shallow," Gallagher said of the life of drugs he gave up in 1998 after a moment of clarity.
"Back in the day, I was prone to making sweeping statements," he said, adding that he has no real regrets. "It was a time for heroes, it wasn't a time for being reserved and concise about our success. We were ... bigger than Jesus."
Now having completed a six-album record deal with Sony Music, Gallagher says he has no plans because for the first time since 1994, Oasis are without a recording contract.
"It's quite a liberating feeling," he said. "I'm sitting back at the minute and saying, 'I couldn't be bothered, I've achieved everything I ever set out to achieve.'"
"But on the other hand, Oasis is such a fantastic thing, you could never walk away from it, ever," he said. "While you still have breath in your lungs and could still stand up and weren't bald, you couldn't walk away from this."
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A new Noel interview also appears in new edition of The Big Issue.
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Noel appear on Radio 2 today on Ken Bruce's show, talking about his favourite songs. You can listen to the show again online at
www.bbc.co.uk/radio2 . Noel appears roughly 2 hours into the programme. More clips from the interview will be broadcast over the next 5 days on Ken's show.
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Noel also appeared on The Album Chart Show on BBC Radio 2, talking about 'Stop The Clocks'. Again, you can listen to the show online at
www.bbc.co.uk/radio2---
Noel will be appearing on BBC 2's The Culture Show this Saturday evening, talking about R.S. Lowry, the insepiration behind the new Masterplan promo video.
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Two bonus tracks are being made available on the UK edition of iTunes with 'Stop The Clocks'. These are Columbia (from the 2nd night) and Cast No Shadow (from the 1st night) at Knebworth in August 1996. Both tracks (along with the version of Champagne Supernova from the first night on the STC bonus DVD) have been freshly mixed for the release.
Noel interviews and appearances
Reminding people that the TV edit of 'Lord Don't Slow Me Down' will be shown tonight on Channel 4 at 11:50pm. This is followed by a repeat of the 2nd July 2005 City of Manchester Stadium gig.
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Before then, Noel will be appearing on The South Bank Show (ITV1, 10:45pm) which is about Sir Peter Blake, designer of the 'Stop The Clocks' and the Beatles 'Sgt. Peppers' album sleeves.
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Noel was chatting on the phone to Russell Brand last night on his new BBC Radio 2 radio show. Listen to the show again at
www.bbc.co.uk/radio2==
Noel will be on BBC Radio 2 on Monday. On Ken Bruce's show (9:30am - 12:30pm), he'll be choosing his favourite tracks as part of the 'Tracks Of My Years' feature and later on he'll be on The Album Chart Show (7pm - 8pm) chatting to Simon Mayo about 'Stop The Clocks'
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Dates for your diaries: Noel will be on MTV2 UK's Gonzo show next Friday (7pm) for a 2-hour special. You can watch a clip from the interview on the Overdrive player at
www.mtv.co.uk .There's also an Oasis appearance on MTV Italy's TRL on Saturday 25th November. The website seems to suggest a live performance as well. Also, him and Gem should be appearing on Gary Crowley's Saturday show on BBC Radio London before the end of the year. More news on that as it comes out.
Noel interview for The West Australian
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=25&ContentID=13284At the end of 1994, Noel Gallagher was on tour with his band in the United States. The album he’d just written and recorded had gone straight to the No. 1 spot on British charts and was quickly becoming the (then) fastestselling debut album in British history.
But none of that meant much in Los Angeles. He’d just seen his younger brother, Liam, completely mess up a concert, bent on a cocktail of drugs and booze.
Gallagher grabbed his passport, went to the airport and, without telling a soul, boarded a plane for San Francisco. Oasis were over before they’d barely begun.
This was to be the first of many splits, fractures and punch-ups surrounding the enigma that is Oasis, one of the greatest episodes in the celebrated history of rock’n’roll.
Gallagher is enjoying a fairly relaxed day at his luxurious home in Chalfont St Giles, a short drive north of London. It’s been 15 years and more than 50 million album sales since he joined his brother’s band and drove it to the kind of fame and fortune that made instant rock’n’roll folklore.
“I didn’t think that we’d still be sitting here after however long it is discussing the merits of one’s back catalogue,” Gallagher laughs, reflecting on the tumultuous history of Oasis and the release of the band’s greatest hits album, Stop the Clocks.
“It was good to just be getting off the dole, really, and possibly making some money. Taking as much drugs as possible and have a good time. Rock’n’roll is not about making plans or achieving goals and that. It’s about doing what you want. Of course, Liam takes that to the absolute f...ing extreme, but there was no master plan, really.”
With the release of 1994’s debut, Definitely Maybe, there was no going back to the dole line for the five members of Oasis, which included the Gallaghers, Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs, Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan and Tony McCarroll.
Formed amid the crumbling decay of Thatcherism, for these Mancunians music was the only escape. And they were never going to leave quietly, as Liam so famously stated on the snarling Cigarettes and Alcohol: “Is it worth the aggravation/To find yourself a job when there’s nothing worth working for/It’s a crazy situation/But all I need are cigarettes and alcohol.”
Six albums later, including an impressive B-sides release, and Oasis have run and crawled rock’s gauntlet. (What’s the Story) Morning Glory created Brit-pop and made them filthy rich, Be Here Now pushed them out of favour with the hostile British music press and last year’s superb Don’t Believe the Truth reinstated them as heroes again.
There have been broken spirits and broken noses, and today Noel and Liam remain the only two original members in the band — and even they are hard pressed to muster any scrap of brotherly love.
“He’s a f...ing little idiot is what he is,” Gallagher says matter-of-factly. “I haven’t seen him for four months but I know wherever he is he is being a f...ing idiot. Genuinely, he doesn’t like me, I tell you that for a fact. And I am indifferent to his idiocy.”
Behind the brawls and tabloid fanfare, Oasis were quite simply a brilliant rock’n’roll group. Noel the pop mastermind, Liam the untameable rock star — together they were unstoppable. And hearing these 18 undeniable hits from Stop the Clocks blast through the stereo back to back is all the proof you need: Rock ’N’ Roll Star, Wonderwall, Slide Away, Cigarettes and Alcohol, Live Forever, Supersonic, Don’t Look Back in Anger and so many more.
“We tell it like it is,” Gallagher suggests of the reason for the band’s continued success. “And I guess people have been through the ups and downs with us, and ultimately there’s some good music in there. It’s real as well; I often see the rock stars on the tele and I think, ‘There’s something intrinsically fake about you’. And you don’t get that with Oasis. Ask me the f...ing question, I won’t tell you any lies.
“I guess the 90s would have been a little less exciting if it wasn’t for us.”
Add the 21st century to that as well. Not only did Oasis make English music exciting again in the 90s, the band’s influence stretched across the oceans and has today manifested itself in the contemporary rock vogue, headed by bands as diverse as Jet and the Killers.
While Gallagher, who turns 40 next May, is happy to accept his fate as rock’s elder statesmen — and says he’s currently working on the next Oasis album, which will see a release “later rather than sooner” — he humbly admits his time as rock’s bad boy genius has passed.
“Fundamentally, rock’n’roll is youth,” he explains, “so once you reach a certain age you cease to be rock’n’roll any more. It’s not about bad behaviour or about living on the edge or wearing a leather jacket or having a drug habit and drinking Jack Daniels all day. All of those things help, right, but it’s about being young.
“Then you get older and you’ve got more baggage and instead of music being the single most important thing in your life, it becomes one of many important things in your life.
“A kid who is 24 and has one electric guitar and a f.....g head full of ideas is far more interesting than someone who is in their 50s with five kids and six houses.”
