Noel Gallagher, Lou Reed And Arctic Monkeys Win At GQ Men Of The Year Awards

According to GQ, Noel Gallagher is an Icon, Arctic Monkeys are the Band of the Year, and Lou Reed is the Inspiration of the Year.

Gallagher, Arctic Monkeys and Reed were among the winners at the GQ Men Of The Year Awards held on Sept 3.

Lou Reed was handed his award by The Rolling Stones' guitarist, Ronnie Wood.

The Arctic Monkeys said of their award: "This is the triangulation of our 2013 achievements: Glastonbury, a Match of the Day slo-mo montage and this award,"

We're not sure what Noel Gallagher thought of his award, but we do know what he thought of certain guests attending the ceremony.

Gallagher used his acceptance speech as a platform to make a political statement about certain guests, including Mayor of London, Boris Johnson and the Foreign Secretary.

Accepting his GQ award, Gallagher said: "Welcome to the Tory party conference by the way. Its nice to see the Foreign Secretary here while there's s--- going on all over the world he should be sorting out."

Other winners on the night included Elton John who was honoured with the Genius Award; Pharrell Williams who was named Performer of the Year; and The Who's Roger Daltrey, who received the Editor's Choice Prize.

Source: thedwarf.com.au

Tickets Still Available For Beady Eye's UK And Irish Tour

Tickets are still available for a number of dates to see beady Eye in the UK and Ireland in November.

For more information click here.

Listen To An Exclusive Noel Gallagher Song Now

To celebrate the relaunch of the XFM website, we've decided to get in touch with some of our favourite artists and rustle up something special just for you.

First up, we have none other than Mr Noel Gallagher, who earlier this year curated the annual Teenage Cancer Trust shows at London's Albert Hall. On March 23, Noel performed himself, with support from none other than Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon.

It was a special night, alright. And additionally special because Noel played his song Alone On The Rope live for the very first time. The studio recording of it first appeared as a bonus track for customers of Amazon who pre-ordered the High Flying Birds album.

Now, we've got our hands on the live version of the track for you to listen to right here...
Source: www.xfm.co.uk

Another On This Day In Oasis History...

The videos below are from Live By The Sea, originally released on video on August 31st 1995.

It features Oasis' gig at the Southend Cliffs Pavilion on April 17th 1995, as well as the videos for Rock 'N' Roll Star and Cigarettes & Alcohol.

On This Day In Oasis History...

The Videos below are from August 31st 1994, when Oasis played at the Tivoli, Buckley in the United Kingdom.

The two videos below are from the Definitely Maybe DVD that was released in September 2004.

This gig was the first time that I saw the band live.

Another On This Day In Oasis History...

The videos below are from August 30th 1994, when Oasis played an accousic set at Virgin Megastore in London to celebrate the release of Definitely Maybe.

On This Day In Oasis History...

Definitely Maybe is the debut album by English band Oasis, released on August 30th 1994. It was an immediate commercial and critical success in the UK, having followed on the heels of singles "Supersonic", "Shakermaker" and particularly the popular "Live Forever".

Definitely Maybe went straight to number one and 7x platinum in the UK Album charts on initial release. It was the fastest selling debut album of all time in the UK when released. Definitely Maybe marked the beginning of Oasis' success in America, selling over 1 million copies there, although only reaching #58 on the Billboard 200. The album went on to sell over 7.5 million copies worldwide.

In 1997 Definitely Maybe was named the 14th greatest album of all time in a 'Music of the Millennium' poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In 2005 Channel 4's '100 Greatest Albums' countdown placed the album at number 6. In 2006 NME placed the album third in a list of the greatest British albums ever, behind The Stone Roses and The Queen Is Dead. In a recent British poll, run by NME and the book of British Hit Singles and Albums, Definitely Maybe was voted the best album of all time with The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band finishing second and Revolver third. Q magazine readers placed it at five on their greatest albums of all time list in 2006 and in that same year NME hailed it as the greatest album of all time. It is frequently referred to as the greatest debut album of all time.

Album History
In 1994, Oasis were seen as a distant echo of the moribund 'Madchester' scene which had exploded in the early 1990s. Unlike other Madchester bands who indulged in experiments with funk, dance or hip-hop, Oasis presented themselves as a relatively straightforward rock and roll band. Along with bands like Blur and The Verve they seemed to encapsulate a new wave, one which did not yet have a name. By the end of the year the media coined the term Britpop, of which Definitely Maybe retrospectively became one of the pivotal albums.





















Many of the songs had originally appeared on Oasis' "Live Demonstration" demo recorded in Liverpool the year before with Chris and Tony Griffiths of The Real People. The main recording sessions took longer than expected, with the bulk of the album having to be recorded three different times with Mark Coyle producing, before Owen Morris came up with a mix that everyone was satisfied with. The album cost nearly £85,000 to produce, a huge amount of money for a debut album at the time.

The album title, according to Noel Gallagher, comes from a poster he saw in a pub, although he cannot remember what the poster was advertising.

Track Listing

All tracks written by Noel Gallagher.

01: "Rock 'n' Roll Star" – 5:22
02: "Shakermaker" – 5:08
03: "Live Forever" – 4:36
04: "Up in the Sky" – 4:28
05: "Columbia" – 6:17
06: "Sad Song" (extra track on the UK LP version, and the original Japanese version of the album) – 4:27
07: "Supersonic" – 4:43
08: "Bring It on Down" – 4:17
09: "Cigarettes & Alcohol" – 4:49
"Digsy's Dinner" – 2:32
This was misspelt as "Digsy's Diner" upon its North American release.
10: "Slide Away" – 6:32
11: "Married with Children" – 3:11

Singles

"Supersonic"
Released: 11 April 1994
Writer: Noel Gallagher
Producers: Oasis & Mark Coyle
Video Director: Mark Szaszy (UK) / Nick Egan (US)
Chart positions: # 31 (UK)
Watch the music video here, or a live performance here.

"Shakermaker"
Released: 13 June 1994
Writer: Noel Gallagher
Producers: Oasis, Mark Coyle & Owen Morris
Video Director: Nick Egan
Chart positions: # 11 (UK)
Watch the music video here, or a live performance here.

"Live Forever"
Released: 8 August 1994
Writer: Noel Gallagher
Producers: Oasis, Mark Coyle & Owen Morris
Video Directors: Carlos Grasso (UK) / Nick Egan (US)
Chart positions: # 10 (UK) # 2 (US Modern Rock)
Watch the music video here, or a live performance here.

"Cigarettes & Alcohol"
Released: 10 October 1994
Writer: Noel Gallagher
Producers: Oasis, Mark Coyle & Owen Morris
Video Director: Mark Szaszy
Chart positions: # 7 (UK)
Watch the music video here, or a live performance here.

Personnel

Liam Gallagher – vocals
Noel Gallagher – lead guitar, vocals
Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs – rhythm guitar
Paul McGuigan – bass guitar
Tony McCarroll – drums

Additional Personnel
Anthony Griffiths – vocals
David Batchelor – producer
Mark Coyle – producer, engineer, mixing
Anjali Dutt – engineer
Owen Morris – producer, mastering, mixing, production concept
Roy Spong – engineer
Dave Scott – engineer
Brian Cannon – art direction, design, concept, cover design
Michael Spencer Jones – photography

Andy Goldstein's Sports Bar Best Bits - Noel Gallagher Special

Join Andy Goldstein and chums as they round up the best bits from the Sports Bar week.

Click here to listen.

Another On This Day In Oasis History...

The videos below are from August 28th 1994, when Oasis played at the Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands.

On This Day In Oasis History...

The following statement by Noel Gallagher, was posted on the Official Oasis Site on August 28th 2009.

"It's with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight. People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.

"Apologies to all the people who bought tickets for the shows in Paris, Konstanz and Milan."

Oasis were due to play the Rock en Seine festival in Paris but cancelled at the last minute. When the support band said Oasis would not be performing, many fans thought it was a joke, but then screens at either side of the stage showed this message: "As a result of an altercation within the band, the Oasis gig has been cancelled."

Noel Gallagher Reveals How He Penned His Songs

You Really Got Me gave Ray Davies the flu and Jarvis Cocker would leave himself voicemails when he had ideas. Britain's finest musicians reveal how they penned the world's best hits.

Noel Gallagher

Biggest hit Don’t Look Back In Anger (Oasis), March 1996 – No 1; 24 weeks in chart

Biggest Album Definitely Maybe, September 1994 – No 1; 177 weeks in chart

I once said that I wrote songs ‘for the man who buys the Daily Mail and 20 Bensons every day’. And I meant that at the time. I’d consider myself to be just an average man in the street who’s been blessed with a talent to write songs. I don’t write songs for the Observer or The Guardian, or for the NME or Mojo. I’m not bothered about pushing the envelope. I wanted everyone to like Oasis, not just some people in Oxford, a few people in Hull and a couple of people in Glasgow.

I learned long ago not to go looking for songs. If it comes, it comes; if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I’m not standing on the runway waiting for the aliens to appear going, ‘Come on.’ It just never happens, does it?

I only listen to music from, or derived from, the 1960s. I’m not interested in jazz or hip-hop or whatever’s going round at the minute; indie rubbish. I don’t listen to avant-garde landscapes and think, ‘I could do that.’ I’m not a fan of Brian Eno. It’s Ray Davies, John Lennon and Pete Townshend for me.

All that Definitely Maybe, Morning Glory, Be Here Now stuff was written while I was still on the dole. I had the chords, the arrangements, the melodies; just bits of lyrics to fill in. You start off writing songs, you’re not sure who’s going to hear them. Then when I tried to write the next batch, I was like, ‘We’ve 20 million fans.’ Then your records become eagerly anticipated and you start going, ‘Umm, I might go to the pub today.’
If you wrote Digsy’s Dinner (from Definitely Maybe) now, The Guardian or the music papers would destroy you. It’s a song about going to someone’s house for lasagne – you only write songs like that when you’re free of inhibitions.

It’s not natural for me to say to my missus, ‘I’m going to the country to write an album.’ That was Be Here Now. I had all the music but not the words. We were starting in two weeks, so I went to some Caribbean island and I thought I’d do it all in two weeks. I listen to those words now and I just cringe. I was heavily into drugs at that point and I just didn’t give a damn.

All the songs I like, they’re not written by songwriters pulling scabs off themselves. I’m not interested in all of John Lennon’s stuff about his mother, because it doesn’t mean anything to me. How can Mother mean anything to anybody apart from John Lennon? It can’t, because he’s singing it about his mother, not mine. The abusive father I had belongs to me. And I wouldn’t want to share any of that or to put it into a song.
‘Slowly walking down the hall’ (from Champagne Supernova) is from either Chigley or Trumpton. Which is the one with the train?

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Noel Gallagher's Regrets Over Oasis' Be Here Now

Rocker Noel Gallagher cringes every time he hears a song from Oasis' 1997 album Be Here Now, insisting the tracks make no sense as he was drug-addled when he wrote them.

The guitarist worked at a breakneck pace to record the hotly-anticipated follow-up to (What's The Story) Morning Glory?, but just weeks before heading into the studio with his bandmates he realised he had no lyrics for the songs.

Gallagher decided to spirit himself away in a Caribbean bolthole to write the words, and he has regretted his decision ever since.

He tells British magazine Event, "I had all the music but not the words. We were starting in two weeks, so I went to some Caribbean island and I thought I'd do it all in two weeks. I listen to those words now and I just cringe. I was heavily into drugs at that point and I just didn't give a damn."

Source: www.contactmusic.com

Noel Gallagher Put Off Writing Songs When Succesfull By Going Drinking

Noel Gallagher says success made him want to "go to the pub" instead of writing new songs.

The former Oasis rocker wrote some of the group's defining tracks when he was on unemployment benefits and admitted the band's fame made him second guess his music.

He said: "All that 'Definitely Maybe', ['(What's the Story) Morning Glory?'], 'Be Here Now' stuff was written while I was still on the dole.

"I had the chords, the arrangements, the melodies, just bits of lyrics to fill in. You start off writing songs, you're not sure who's going to hear them.

"Then when I tried to write the next batch, I was like, 'We've 20 million fans'. Then your records become eagerly anticipated and you start going, 'Umm, I might go to the pub today.' "

The outspoken musician also slated song writers who bare their soul on record, insisting tracks dealing with personal issues don't "mean anything" to anyone else.

He told the Mail on Sunday newspaper's Event magazine: "All the songs I like, they're not written by song writers pulling scabs off themselves.

"I'm not interested in all of John Lennon's stuff about his mother, because it doesn't mean anything to me. How can 'Mother' mean anything to anybody apart from John Lennon?

"It can't, because he's singing it about his mother, not mine. The abusive father I had belongs to me. And I wouldn't want to share any of that or to put it into a song."

Source: kildare-nationalist.ie

Noel Gallagher Writes For The 'Average Man'

Noel Gallagher has claimed he is an ''average man'' and insisted he writes for like-minded people rather than for the music press.

Noel Gallagher makes music for the ''average man''.

The 'Don't Look Back In Anger' hitmaker described himself as an ordinary man who happens to have ''been blessed with a talent to write songs'' and slated the idea of making music for the approval of the press.

He told the Mail on Sunday newspaper's Event magazine: ''I once said that I wrote songs 'for the man who buys the Daily Mail and 20 Bensons [cigarettes] every day'.

''And I meant that at the time. I'd consider myself to be just an average man in the street who's been blessed with a talent to write songs.

''I don't write songs for The Observer or The Guardian, or for the NME or Mojo. I'm not bothered about pushing the envelope.

''I wanted everyone to like Oasis, not just some people in Oxford, a few people in Hull and a couple of people in Glasgow.''

The singer also admitted he prefers to let his songs come naturally rather than sitting around ''looking for'' inspiration.

He added: ''I learned long ago not to go looking for songs. If it comes, it comes. If it doesn't, it doesn't.

''I'm not standing on the runway waiting for the aliens to appear going, 'Come on'. It just never happens, does it?''

Source: contactmusic.com

On This Day In Oasis History...

The videos below are from August 25th 2000, when Oasis played at the Reading Festival in England.



A video of Step Out can be found by clicking here.

On This Day In Oasis History...

The videos below are from the 23rd of August 1996, when Oasis played on MTV Unplugged in London, England.

Watch Highlights From Beady Eye At Ibiza Rocks

Below are some highlights and an interview from Beady Eye in Ibiza last month.

Yet Another On This Day In Oasis History...

On August 22nd 2009, Oasis played there last gig ever at the V Festival in Stafford. Below is the setlist from the gig and a few videos found on YouTube.

Rock 'N' Roll Star
Lyla
The Shock Of The Lightning
Cigarettes & Alcohol
Roll With It
Waiting For The Rapture
The Masterplan
Songbird
Slide Away
Morning Glory
My Big Mouth
Half The World Away
I'm Outta Time
Wonderwall
Supersonic
Live Forever
Don't Look Back In Anger
Champagne Supernova
I Am The Walrus

Another On This Day In Oasis History...

On August 22nd 1995, When Oasis played 'Roll With It' on Top of the Pops, the Gallagher brothers switched roles with Liam pretending to play guitar and Noel pretending to sing.

The set ended with the band erupting in laughter at the Gallaghers' impressions of each other.

On This Day In Oasis History...

"The Importance Of Being Idle" is a song on the British rock band Oasis' sixth album, Don't Believe the Truth, written and sung by lead guitarist Noel Gallagher. It was the second single released from the album in the UK, on August 22, 2005, where it debuted at #1. It was also the first time that Oasis earned two successive #1's in the same calendar year. It was written by Gallagher sometime during the summer of 2004, before the band made their final attempt at recording what would become Don't Believe the Truth. He got the title from the Mark Twain book of the same name which he found whilst cleaning out his garage (it belonged not to him but to girlfriend Sara McDonald.)

Musically, as Noel has commented, the song sounds like tunes from two British bands, The Kinks and The La's. In particular, the sentiment expressed is noticeably similar to The Kinks' "Sunny Afternoon" and "Dead End Street", and the use of falsetto for every other verse line recalls The La's "Feelin'". The guitar sound is similar also to The La's b-sides; "Clean Prophet" and "Over". It also is a breakaway from the sound of Oasis's latter albums, especially the straight ahead rock 'n' roll anthems of Heathen Chemistry. The keyboard used on the pre-chorus sections was bought by bassist Andy Bell from the auction website eBay.

Noel has said that the lyrics of "The Importance of Being Idle" are inspired by his own laziness. Some of the second verse, with the reference to begging his doctor for "one more line", seems to be referring to an actual event as this resembles Noel's account of how he gave up cocaine in 1998.




















Most reviewers acclaimed the track as one of the highlights of Don't Believe the Truth, which itself was widely praised as a marked return to form. The band mentioned in interviews in June that it would become the second single, after the UK Number One "Lyla". The b-sides are Liam Gallagher's "Pass Me Down the Wine" and Gem Archer's "The Quiet Ones."



The promo film was directed by Dawn Shadforth, (whose previous videos include Kylie Minogue's award-winning "Can't Get You Out Of My Head"). Shadforth's film for "The Importance of Being Idle' starred Welsh actor Rhys Ifans and homages the style of early 1960s kitchen sink drama British films, and is set during the build up to a funeral procession in a northern town, with the extravagant undertakers parading the coffin at the video's climax and Ifans playing the part of a high-kicking funeral director. The video is based on the film and play Billy Liar with Ifans playing the role of Billy. Noel and Liam therefore play Shadrack & Duxbury, the owners of the funeral parlour where Billy works. The rest band (Gem,Andy and Zak) make a brief appearance as lazy workers playing cards in an undertaker's office. It was widely acclaimed at the time as being probably the best video Oasis had ever made, not least by the band themselves, who were said to be very happy with the finished product. The video is very similar in style and concept to the music video for "Dead End Street" by The Kinks.

Q Magazine readers placed the song at #1 in a list of 2005's greatest tracks.

The video for the song was voted the video of the year at the NME Awards.

The song is included on Oasis' 'best-of' album Stop the Clocks.
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