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Noel Gallagher On The Death Of The B-Side, Going Solo And Playing At Glastonbury


A few questions taken from Noel Gallagher's interview with the new issue of Music Week.

Some of your best-loved songs are B-sides, so how do you feel about the death of the B-side?

“Well... the death of everything: 7”s, B-sides, venues, the charts, Top Of The Pops, record shops, you fucking name it. It’s a metaphor for life – all the old ways are dying gradually. The album will be next and then eventually the song, then there’ll just be fucking pop stars. Then they’ll die and there’ll just be emojis. Then they’ll fucking die and we’ll all be speaking Chinese.”

Do you wish you’d gone solo sooner, then?

“It’s hard to say. I was first offered a solo deal after Knebworth [1996] and turned it down... No, I think these things happen when they happen. I think it was meant to happen for a reason. I can be a bit of a fatalist when it comes to things like that and I tend to follow my instincts. There were plenty of times when I could have left Oasis, but for some reason, the night that I did, something instinctively said, ‘Now’s the right time’.”

Strangely, you’ve yet to play Glastonbury as a solo artist…

“They’ve never made me an offer I couldn’t refuse! But I do like going. I go most years so to play it would be a ball-ache for me, unless I could do the Thursday night in a soup kitchen somewhere. I’ve been offered it a couple of times and been like, ‘Nah’. It would’ve been in the middle of a tour and it just didn’t work out. But the festival itself is fucking amazing, I love it and I’ll be going next year.”

Read the interview in full in the new edition of Music Week that is on sale now.

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