Oasis's Noel Gallagher Plays Private Solo Gig In L.A.
Oasis are releasing a greatest-hits album, Stop The Clocks, later this month, and to celebrate, the band's Noel Gallagher and Gem played a special Los Angeles concert on Thursday, November 9, for listeners of local radio station Indie 103.1 FM. Presumably, Noel's brother/bandmate/occasional nemesis Liam Gallagher couldn't be bothered to make the journey, but given that Noel has always been main songwriter for Oasis (and, some would say, the more vocally talented Gallagher brother), the delighted contest winners in the audience didn't seem to miss Liam at all.
After a screening of the Oasis tour documentary Lord Don't Stand Me Down, Noel, Gem, and a percussionist introduced only as "Gary" wordlessly made their way onto the stage of L.A.'s Wadsworth Theater, where they played a stripped-down concert starting with "(It's Good) To Be Free," "Talk Tonight," "Fade Away," and "Cast No Shadow." Noel then dryly quipped, "Let's play another song that's not coming out on our album," drolly referring to the fact three of the set's first four songs are not even featured on Stop The Clocks. How Gallagher-like of him.
Throughout the show, Noel bantered in trademark Gallagher fashion with the diehard fans in attendance, gruffly grunting in response to their constant declarations of adoration and song requests (and once shushing them when he was trying to tune, and another time barking at them to "fook off" in his impenetrable Mancunian brogue). At one point, when a wiseguy in the audience cried out for a drum solo, Noel retorted, "You're obviously on very, very serious drugs. Someone should take them off of you and put them in my dressing room." And perhaps most amusingly, he introduced one song with, "This is a new song I've been working on; it sounds like something else and it's doing my f--king head in, [trying to figure out] what it is"...only to then play the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever."
His demeanor may have been rough at times, but when Noel sang, his voice was positively crystalline, and the sound created onstage seemed far too big and bombastic to be the work of merely three musicians--especially on Noel's signature anthem, "Don't Look Back In Anger." Conversely, "Wonderwall" took on a wonderfully bluesy quality performed stark and solo by Noel, as did a sad and pensive version of "Slide Away" and the whimsical finale, "Digsy's Diner."
As the night ended and Noel declared, "We're going to get absolutely hammered after this" (a comment that was met with wild applause), Noel signed off in true Oasis fashion, saying, "Thank you for coming, but really, you should be thanking me, because I'm not getting paid for this and it cost me money to get here!" Noel needn't have worried--judging from the elated crowd reaction, those who were lucky enough to attend this special gig were indeed quite thankful.
Source: www.music.yahoo.com
It's Oasis Versus The Beatles
Now You Decide
Forget the Britpop wars of a decade past. Noel and Liam are about to embark on the chart battle they've been hankering for their whole lives - Oasis v The Beatles.
The Burnage boys release their greatest hits collection Stop The Clocks on November 20 - the same day Love by the Fab Four hits shop shelves. Legendary Beatles producer Sir George Martin, 80, and his son Giles, 37, have remixed some of The Scouse foursome's very finest treasures for the new collection.
The Gallaghers have made no bones about their slavish adoration of the works of John, Paul, George and Ringo and will be watching their first week sales figures particularly closely. And let's not forget - the last high-profile chart scrap Oasis were involved in ended in their defeat.
In 1995 Blur famously brought forward the release of their Country House single so it would be in direct competition with Oasis's Roll With It.
The southern lads relegated Oasis to No2. It proved a pyrrhic victory, mind, with Blur crumbling as Damon, 38, sought refuge in numerous side projects while the Gallaghers and their gang went on to become one of the biggest bands on the planet. And now Noel and Liam are hoping they can pull off the ultimate triumph - by beating their heroes to the top spot.
Noel once said: "The Beatles are the be-all and end-all. Where it starts and where it finishes. Everything we do is inspired by The Beatles and our ambition is to go where we want to."
Whereas Liam modestly added: "Our band is hugely gifted. We are geniuses. Musical history is simply Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Sex Pistols and Oasis. That's it."
My spy tells me: "They lost out to Blur 10 years ago and are keen to avenge that defeat."
Source: Daily Star
'Look, I Was A Superhero'
Liam doesn't like me," shrugs his older brother. "He confuses love with hate. 'I love you.' No, Liam, I think you'll find you fucking hate me." Sitting in his management's central London HQ, Noel Gallagher recounts a recent disagreement. Oasis are about to release Stop the Clocks, their first retrospective. In the accompanying booklet, the lyrics for each of the 18 songs appear beside an image. The picture Noel chose to go next to Songbird - the only track written by Liam - was a red brick wall. "Because it's a love song about his bird," explains Noel. "And red is the colour of love."
'Look, I was a superhero'
How is Tony Blair doing? Why does Liam hate him? Should stars shop at Waitrose? As Oasis release a greatest hits album, Noel Gallagher gives Chris Salmon the inside track
'Liam doesn't like me," shrugs his older brother. "He confuses love with hate. 'I love you.' No, Liam, I think you'll find you fucking hate me." Sitting in his management's central London HQ, Noel Gallagher recounts a recent disagreement. Oasis are about to release Stop the Clocks, their first retrospective. In the accompanying booklet, the lyrics for each of the 18 songs appear beside an image. The picture Noel chose to go next to Songbird - the only track written by Liam - was a red brick wall. "Because it's a love song about his bird," explains Noel. "And red is the colour of love."
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But Liam, who wrote the song for his long-term partner, Nicole Appleton of All Saints, didn't take it that way. "I got a message on my answer machine," sighs Gallagher. "He was like, 'The colour red? Beside the song I wrote about my missus? Who I've got a child with? How fucking dare you!'" Gallagher tells the tale with a mixture of amusement, resignation and disbelief. "He only had to say he'd like to change it. No problem. But instead it descended into personal abuse." Liam's rant continued until the tape ran out. "I listened to it with my missus," says Noel. "She was going, 'You and your kid are actually insane. It's amazing you've managed to get this far.'"
But, somehow, here they still are. The Gallaghers may be Oasis's only original members, but their massive following remains. Last year's warmly received Don't Believe the Truth sold 2.5m copies, propelling Oasis on to a worldwide tour to 1.7 million people in 26 countries. They plan to record the follow-up in 2007. "The empire is still building," says Gallagher.
For now, though, the 39-year-old is looking back. On completing their six-album deal with Sony, Oasis were asked to release a greatest-hits collection.
Gallagher wasn't keen, but aware that Sony actually owns the band's songs, he agreed to support a best-of, featuring his selection of Oasis favourites.
It's a belting collection, with an intriguing tracklisting. Of the 18 songs, four are B-sides and four album tracks - meaning only 10 of Oasis's 22 top-40 hits feature. The rejects include Roll With It, Oasis's contribution to the famous 1995 chart battle with Blur. "I don't like that song," admits Gallagher, who seems comfortable enough with his achievements - and himself - to be self-critical. But the most telling statistic is that 14 of the 18 tracks were released in 1994 or 1995. In other words, Gallagher seems to be admitting what many of us believed: that his band - and his songs - peaked over a decade ago.
"Yeah, of course," he shrugs. "We're talking about the best of Oasis here. If you stop the man in the street and ask 'What's Oasis's best album?', a few might say Don't Believe the Truth, which is great, but the squares will say Morning Glory and the cool people will say Definitely Maybe. That album should just be called the Best of Oasis." He leans forward. "Look. I was a superhero in the 90s. I said so at the time. McCartney, Weller, Townsend, Richards, my first album's better than all their first albums. Even they'd admit that."
So why didn't he remain a superhero into the next decade? "Because those songs were written in my 20s. All I had in the world was a guitar and a Dictaphone. When you're young, you write about being young and shagging and drugs and drinking. You can't do that when you're 39. I was a different person then."
These days, Gallagher's Saturday nights involve watching Match of the Day, and he hasn't touched cocaine since 1998.
"Cocaine itself isn't that bad," he says. "It just makes you drink more and that's the worst drug there is. Especially when you're surrounded by people whose psychosis sets in the more they drink. But people think I stood up at a party and announced, 'That was my last line of cocaine, from this day forth I shall take no more,' and everybody sighed and left. It wasn't like that. The reason I packed it in was that it was only meant to be a weekend, which became a week, which became a month and so on. I just decided I couldn't be arsed any more."
Although Gallagher says his songwriting passion was reignited by Don't Believe the Truth, his inescapable problem is that any new Oasis album must compete with their first two records. "Which is completely unfair. If I knew how to write another Definitely Maybe, I'd do one every year. It astounds me that I wrote those songs. But nobody has ever bettered Definitely Maybe, don't pin it on my shoulders. The Arctic Monkeys came close, but that's it. They've got the tunes and the attitude. If only they could front it out."
At times this year, the Arctic Monkeys have seemed almost embarrassed by their success. It's the antithesis of the Oasis way. "I've never understood that kind of thing. Like the Clash going, 'We're not playing on telly.' Well fuck off then. When we first started we said we were the greatest band in the world. We should have said we were the best band in the charts. 'Cos to me, the world is the charts. I don't give a fuck about Radiohead and all that indie nonsense. I was brought up on the top 10. Slade, T.Rex, David Bowie. If you're not in the charts, you don't exist. BMX Bandits? Four people are listening to it in Hull. I went in there to get Phil Collins' severed head in my fridge by the end of the decade."
Which, in a manner of speaking, he did. "I came from a shithole in Manchester, right, so it was all brilliant to me. Even touring in a transit van was better than being in my flat. Then when we got a deal, we were like: 'Bring it on!' I wanted the big hairdo, big shades, big car, big house, swimming pool, jet, drug habit, a mirrored top hat and a chimp. All of it. The Kasabian lads told me they'd only get out of bed to read about us in the paper. And what would you rather read? 'The guy from Keane's been to a rabbit sanctuary 'cos one of the rabbits needed a kidney implant, so he swapped his with it' - or 'Liam Gallagher sets fire to a policeman in cocaine madness, while his brother Noel runs down Oxford Street nude'?"
No doubt Kasabian loved the story about Gallagher visiting the victorious Tony Blair, in 1997, at his Downing Street reception and asking the new PM how he'd managed to stay up all night during the election; "Probably not by the same means you did," was Blair's knowing reply.
Having effectively been New Labour's house band, what does Gallagher think of Blair now? "Well, I think that Britain is a better place than it was before the Labour party took over. Personally, I'd have loved Neil Kinnock to get in. He was gonna rip Margaret Thatcher's head off and shit down her neck. Then Tony Blair came along and it was like: 'Ah, he's gonna outsmart all of these public schoolboy cunts.' But we all got carried away in 97. Once the veneer wore off - even taking the Iraq debacle out of the equation - we've all just given a massive shrug. I think the Labour party's crowning achievement is the death of politics. There's nothing left to vote for."
Gallagher is concerned David Cameron will win the next election, "although even if he does, it won't matter because it won't change anything. He's just saying the same as Tony Blair was saying. Gordon Brown over David Cameron? When I see them on television, I switch them both off."
Gallagher, though, is contented. He has no sympathy for those for whom fame is a burden. He doesn't sit in his country house (though he has one) counting his millions (though he has several). "Life is a great thing, why shut yourself away from it? I can't understand people like Elton John and Robbie Williams going straight from their blacked-out limos to a restaurant. I stand in the queue at Waitrose. More rock stars should do that. Forget therapy, go to the supermarket and interact. The staff in my local Waitrose are really blase about me now. They'll be like, 'Him? Oh he's in here all the fucking time. And between me and you, he doesn't eat very well.'"
Ten years ago, Gallagher's life was almost entirely focused on Oasis. But even though he says its not his sole passion any more, that he has a full life outside Oasis, he insists he is still very much the band's leader. "If I said the next album was going to be Irish reggae, then it would be." Nevertheless, he's relinquished control to the point where all four members contribute songs, something he admits would have been unthinkable in the mid-1990s. "I've got to say a lot of weight was lifted from my shoulders when Liam, Andy and Gem started to deliver songs for Don't Believe the Truth and they were actually good."
Gallagher readily concedes his brother's earliest songs weren't great. "But you either say, 'That's shit, fuck off,' and he retreats into his shell. Or you go, 'Look, I'm not into it, but if you believe in it, it goes on - but you're taking the flak for it.' Liam used to say in interviews, 'Noel won't let me write.' But back in the 1990s while I was grafting, he was shooting Stella into his arms 'cos he thought it would mainline into his brain quicker. So I was like, 'Well write one, and we'll take it from there.' I'm glad he's done it, because the great ones are great and the shit ones he gets slagged off for. And there's nothing I like more than reading people slagging Liam off." Gallagher cackles.
"The reason he doesn't like me is that I'm indifferent to him," he explains. "I can come off tour, put the bags down and shut the door. Liam can't do that. He wants to carry on. Plus, he insults me and I don't like being around people who insult me."
The brothers don't exchange Christmas or birthday presents and have only seen each other "two or three times" since returning from tour in March. "I just don't need to be in the gang all the time," says Gallagher.
Presumably he has considered the possibility that Liam's insults stem from jealousy; after all, Noel's the older, brighter one, the one who wrote 17 of 18 songs on Stop the Clocks, the one people respect more. "But he's got nothing to be jealous of. Thing is, you say about the 17 songs, but Oasis is dependent on three equal parts. That's him, me and the songs. It's all about that struggle and it wouldn't be Oasis without him. But Liam can't see that. 'Cos when he has a drink, he's got an enemy complex. And a serious inferiority complex. But, y'know, he is my brother. And although I don't like him, I do love him to bits."
Perhaps, I suggest, you should buy him a Christmas present this year. "Yeah, maybe I will," nods Noel, thoughtfully. "I'll get him a fucking straitjacket."
· Oasis's Stop the Clocks EP is released on Monday on Sony. The Stop the Clocks 2CD album is released on November 20.
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Noel Gets Home Win Over Mike
Noel Gallagher has won his long-running court case with Mike Oldfield — creator of Tubular Bells — over his Ibizan villa.
The Oasis guitarist bought a holiday home on the Spanish island from Mike for £2.5million in 1999, but quickly found part of the property was slipping into the sea.
Noel’s resulting legal action became a talking point for the Ibiza set.
Now the case has finally been settled, with Noel being awarded a sum believed to run into six figures.
A source said: “It was nothing personal. But it’s funny Noel has landed a small fortune from another major music star.”
Noel and girlfriend Sara MacDonald spent most of the summer at the villa.
When he bought it he was annoyed by the huge “eyesore” of a yacht moored in his view. It turned out it was his with the house.
Source: www.thesun.co.uk
The Better Man? Oasis, Sans Liam
Even back in their chaotic heyday, that coke-fuelled period during the mid-'90s that Noel Gallagher claims not to be able to remember, there were two different versions of Oasis.
There was the brash rock band, driven by the two brawling brothers at its forefront. And then there was songwriter/guitarist Noel's more refined and reflective, quasi-solo side-act -- the one he would break out for B-sides, acoustic sets in the middle of Oasis' arena shows and when singing sibling Liam bailed on him mere minutes before the band's MTV Unplugged session.
That split has lingered through Oasis' improbably long career. But on Tuesday night, a small contingent of the Mancurians' Toronto fan base got a demonstration of how much both incarnations have evolved.
Crammed into the Danforth Music Hall for an unusually intimate gathering to mark the release of a new best-of compilation and tour DVD, the faithful were first treated to an airing of the film. Although less a documentary than an homage to the band, the stylish production drove home what's been obvious to anyone who's caught Oasis' live act in the past couple of years.
Gone are the days of cancelled shows and onstage blow-ups. In their place is an increasingly slick and professional -- if still hard-partying and intermittently cantankerous -- rock machine. If anything, the shows -- whose set lists rarely change -- have become predictable. But they've become a ritual for the band's enormously devoted fans, who put more arms in the air and sing a little louder with each visit.
Arguably more entertaining, though, is Noel's emergence as a different sort of generational presence: elder statesman. In large part, that role involves putting his dry, profane wit to use telling war stories and passing judgment on every young band that comes along. But what sometimes passes unnoticed is the form that it took on Tuesday night.
However much he tries to pass himself off as an indifferent curmudgeon, the drug-free and increasingly worldly Gallagher is an inherently earnest and impassioned performer. Liam gives his songwriting brother's creations technical prowess and a dose of charisma; Noel, when he takes over vocal duties, gives them heart.
Accompanied only by fellow Oasis guitarist Gem Archer (who doubled on keyboard duties) and percussionist Terry Kirkbride, Gallagher mostly bypassed the familiar Oasis hits in favour of more obscure album tracks. And drawing heavily from the his 1994-95 catalogue, Gallagher served reminder of how absurdly prolific his songwriting was during that period -- many of the B-sides holding up as well or better than the take on Wonderwall.
But his fans already knew that. What they might have been more surprised by -- those who weren't too busy spoiling the vibe bellowing song requests to notice -- was the musicianship.
It's one thing to breeze through the same standards every night. It's quite another to roll out flawless new arrangements of neglected old chestnuts and actually improve on them, as he did with everything from a folksy Whatever to an impassioned Slide Away to a bluesy Married with Children, which closed the night.
As Oasis often has, Gallagher opened his encore with a cover of a Beatles song -- Strawberry Fields Forever, this time. It was perfectly proficient, but equally unnecessary. Once written off as nothing more than a Beatles imitator, the older and wiser Noel is more than capable of getting by on his own merits these days.
Source: National Post
The Greying Of Oasis
Once considered the consummate British rock yob, Noel Gallagher is looking suspiciously gentlemanly these days.
The affable Oasis bandleader strolls into an interview at an uptown hotel dressed rather nattily in a black wool jacket and crimson scarf with a distinguished shock of grey hair protruding over his forehead, projecting the air of a man who has joined the ranks of the rock 'n' roll aristocracy.
Gallagher and younger brother/sparring partner Liam, of course, have been predicting this would happen from day one, to the continual (and continuing) ire of their detractors. But Oasis's unwavering "superstar" profile in Britain, the durability of its smash early-'90s output and some 50 million in record sales have, over time, assured the band a place in history.
And if a combination of cocaine and hubris contributed to a rapid tail-off from the early peaks of 1994's Definitely Maybe and 1995's (What's The Story) Morning Glory, the last couple of records — made with the stronger-than-ever assistance of new members Gem Archer, former Ride guitarist Andy Bell and Zak "Son of Ringo" Starkey — have been decent enough to foster hope of another definitive statement at some point in the future. A few weeks ago, Britain's Q Awards still saw fit to named Oasis "the best band in the world," so it's hardly over.
"Morning Glory does cast a long shadow over everything else," shrugs Gallagher. "And even when that came out, in Britain people were saying `Well, it's not Definitely Maybe.' But I'd rather be in that position than, you know, Placebo — I don't mean to bring that band down, although they are shite — so it doesn't bother me now. I'm used to it."
Noel's trip to Toronto was officially undertaken to promote Stop The Clocks, a double-disc anthology being released by Sony/BMG despite the band's exit from the label after last year's Don't Believe The Truth.
He concedes mixed feelings about the "greatest hits" thing and has said in the past that Oasis would only release one in the event of its demise. But since Sony was going to release it with or without the band's participation, he and Liam felt "obliged" to participate.
"We were left with the dilemma of do you get involved and make sure it's done properly with the right songs, or do you not get involved and make sure it's done improperly with the wrong songs," he says. "It's not really a decision that was very difficult to make. If there's Oasis records going in the f--kin' shop I want to be behind them."
To make the promo trip more interesting, Gallagher and Archer are performing acoustic gigs in various cities around the globe — Starkey is on loan to The Who, so Oasis dates were impossible — in tandem with screenings of the new tour documentary, Lord Don't Slow Me Down, as they did Tuesday night at the Danforth Music Hall.
Directed by Baillie Walsh, who helmed the video for 2005's "Let There Be Love," Lord Don't Slow Me Down is a backstage look at Oasis's 11-month slog behind Don't Believe The Truth. Gallagher admits it's not quite as exciting as a film chronicling the band's legendary "wild years" a decade ago might have been, but he's also relieved there were no cameras present then.
"I've seen it and I think it's great but, then, I would because it's me. So I'm not really the right person to ask," he laughs. "You don't get the drinking champagne out of f--kin' prostitutes' cowboy boots at 7 o'clock in the morning, no. Unfortunately. There are no live midget lesbian shows. Although there are midgets in the film. You can't do f--k all without midgets, can you? Every home should have one."
Oasis wrote enough songs for the last album that it "could start another album tomorrow if it wanted to," but for the moment the band is completely idle. There's no rush to sign another contract, nor to record.
"I'm enjoying the time off, really. I'm sittin' on my arse doing f--k all. I watch a lot of television and cater to my girlfriend's every f--kin' whim for the seven months that I see her. And then I don't see her for two years.
source: www.thestar.com
Oasisinet Latest Email
The release of the Stop The Clocks album is getting nearer and the STOP CLOCK has been updated again this week with two new film clips a wallpaper for your computer and a brand new competition. Check it out now!
NOEL AND GEM ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCE AT LONDON KOKO SHOW
Last Thursday Noel and Gem performed a semi acoustic set at London s KOKO venue as part of an evening for the charity Focus12. The evening proved to be a huge hit with the lucky fans who managed to get tickets. Check out the NME review here www.nme.com/news/oasis/24958
LORD DONT SLOW ME DOWN PREVIEWS IN NEW YORK
Lord Don't Slow Me Down the Oasis on the road documentary film had its first advance screening at New Yorks CMJ festival on Saturday (4th November). Around 400 fans, some queuing up from 3am, attended the screening ... You can read the full story here www.nme.com/news/oasis/24974
STOPCLOCK EP
On 13th November 2006 in the UK Oasis release a brand new collectors EP of classic songs. The EP is led by Acquiesce, for many the finest Oasis song never to be a single, and book-ended by The Masterplan, the masterful b side to Wonderwall released a decade ago. Also included on the EP are never before heard recordings of Cigarettes and Alcohol and Some Might Say, that were unearthed during the mastering of the forthcoming Best Of album. The EP is available only as a one-off collectors edition CD and Double gatefold 7in including an exclusive sheet of stickers:
Acquiesce
Cigarettes and Alcohol (demo version)
Some Might Say (live in 1995, venue unknown)
The Masterplan
FOPPS LONDON STORE OASIS PHOTO EXHIBITION
To coincide with the new Stop the Clocks album launch on the 20th November 2006, Rockarchive.com present an exclusive collection of images by photographer Jill Furmanovsky taken from her ground-breaking Oasis exhibition Was There Then. The music store FOPP play host to these iconic images at their flagship store on Tottenham Court Road from the 13th Nov 2006 to the 17th Dec 2006.
You will be able to view the photos at the store and images will be available for sale as limited edition signed prints. For sizes and pricing information, please contact fopp@rockarchive.com.
HAVE YOU SEEN OASIS...? GOOGLE VIDEO PROMOTIONTo celebrate Oasis forthcoming album Stop the Clocks out on the 20th November. Oasisinet in conjunction with Google video are inviting fans from all over the world to upload their own Oasis clips and memories to a special Google map. You can also view clips from the on the road Oasis documentary film Lord Dont Slow Me Down.
Every fan clip that is submitted will go into a random draw to win an exclusive signed Stop The Clocks artwork print. The draw will take place on November 20th to coincide with the release of the new album and 1 winner will be picked at random then notified via email.
Source: Email from www.oasisinet.com
His Big Mouth
If you thought Noel was a bit of a gobby shite, here's some of Liam's wit and wisdom.
"There's Elvis and me. I couldn't say which of the two is best"
"I suppose I do get sad, but not for too long. I just look in the mirror and go, 'What a fu**ing good-looking f**k you are., And then i brighten up."
"Put me in a room with any of these (other) bands - they wouldn.t f**king walk out alive. I'd put money on it."
"Americans want grungy people, stabbing themselves in the head onstage. They get a bunch like us, with deodorant on, they don't get it."
"I refuse to dance. And I can't dance anyway. I'm not in a band for that"
"Noel and I don't speak to each other. That's probably best. We see each other, but I've got nothing to say to him. There's a difference between disagreements and hating each other. me and him are cool. We're brothers. We're never gonna split up. We're f**king family"
"Rock 'n' roll for me, 10 years ago was going out and getting f**king hammered and not really caring about the music because someone else was taking care of it. Now I'm writing music. I feel a bit more... what's the word? I don't know, responsible."
"I'm not Mick Jagger, man. I don't think singers who start off singing should play guitar. It looks f**king stupid."
"Every now and again I'll go out and f**king fall over, make a tit of myself. But the joy in my life - I just stay in and play guitar."
"It's great, man, that people are still interested in us. But it's great that I'm still interested in me."
"Was 'Cigarettes & Alcohol' just 'Get It On' by T.Rex? Oh totally!"
" I don't have a bad word to say about 'Be Here Now' The only person who's got a problem is Noel."
"People are always on about, 'Oh, you've failed in America'. I've never failed at anything in my entire life. I got out of the bedroom when I was a young f**king lad, and I'm in a great f**king band. And now we're playing at Madison Square Garden."
"Am I still the walrus? I'm not the walrus. The walrus was Noel. I'm just me, man."
"I'm not good at going onstage and telling people I love them. People might take that as being a bit of a arrogant twat, but that's just the way I am."
Source: NME Magazine
Live Review: Noel Gallagher In T.O.
Toronto - There was definitely a feeling of occasion last night at the Danforth Music Hall as Oasis guitarist-songwriter-singer Noel Gallagher played a rare show on his own.
A sign of things to come for the Manchester rock band?
Not bloody likely, if Oasis frontman and Noel’s brother Liam Gallagher has anything to do with it.
The concert, which sold out quickly and saw scalpers getting at least $250 per ticket, was just one of a half-dozen or so shows that Gallagher is performing around the world to promote the upcoming Oasis best-of, Stop The Clocks, in stores Nov. 21.
It had been billed as an unplugged performance, but Gallagher was joined by Oasis rhythm guitarist Gem, who played both lead electric guitar and organ, and drummer-percussionist Terry Kirkbride for his hour-and-ten-minute set.
The material leaned towards b-sides, with a mix of crowd favourites like Talk Tonight, Half The World Away, The Importance Of Being Idle and Slide Away and full-out hits Wonderwall and Don’t Look Back InAnger — all of which are on Clocks.
Gallagher even trotted out the Beatles classic Strawberry Fields Forever for his encore.
Now if only he had been able to shut up the enthusiastic (drunk?) crowd, who were on their feet from the opening song and continually shouted out requests and words of admiration no matter how quiet it got on stage.
“There’s no reason to shout out song titles,” said Gallagher, in exasperation at one point. “I have prepared a set list which I’m not going to deviate from.”
The often hilarious, black-and-white rockumentary, Lord Don’t Slow Me Down, which was filmed during Oasis’ last tour, was also given its Canadian premiere at the Danforth before Gallagher took the stage. (He was in New York screening the film before he got to Toronto.)
“Did you enjoy the film?” he asked. “Is it any good? Do I look good?”
Truthfully, it’s a pretty funny document of Oasis behind-the-scenes, whether it’s a camera spying on Liam’s child-like dancing around a silent, empty room, or Noel spouting his usual bon mots at the expense of his brother.
“Liam is going to go bald,” he is heard saying towards the end of the movie. “When Liam goes bald, that’s when we’ll pack it in.”
Source : www.jam.canoe.ca
More Oasis Acoustic Shows
Oasis braintrust Noel Gallagher has never been one to mince words, God bless him.
So if the Manchester-born songwriter and guitarist had his way, Oasis wouldn't be releasing a greatest hits package, the two-disc Stop The Clocks, on Nov. 21.
"If it was up to me, it wouldn't be coming out until Oasis wasn't around anymore," said Gallagher in Toronto yesterday before his acoustic performance last night with rhythm guitiarist Gem at the Danforth Music Hall.
SONY OWNS RIGHTS
However, it was either cooperate with the band's former label, Sony-BMG, from which they've since parted, or not be involved in Stop The Clocks' track listing and art work at all.
"They own all the rights to everything, so we were informed that they were going to do a retrospective of some description by Christimas -- did we want to get involved?" explained Gallagher. "Well, if it is has to be now, it has to be now. Don't be surprised if there's a singles album following this. They're well within their rights to do it."
A BATCH OF NEW SONGS
Gallagher, who said he's currently got about 30 new songs in rough form for the next Oasis studio album, isn't sure who Oasis will sign with next on this side of the pond but they'll stick with their own indie label, Big Brother, in England.
"We won't be going back to Sony," he said. "They're all right for us in Canada, so we might stay with them in Canada. In America, I feel they kind of let us down a wee bit. I balance that by saying they didn't really dig our unprofessionalism. They found it very difficult to actually grasp the concept that we actually didn't give a f---. And they thought, 'Well, if they don't give a f---, we don't give a f---.' That's how I see it anyway. I don't bear any malice towards any of them. They've got a business to run."
Gallagher said Oasis fans shouldn't hold their breath for the next studio disc -- it definitely won't be out in 2007 -- but he did offer a hint at the sound.
"Some of it's great,"he said. "But for what it's worth, a lot of my songs will probably end up being acoustic. But not in the Cat Stevens sense. 'Cause a lot of (2005's) Don't Believe The Truth was kind of acoustic-driven. But when you get into a studio, it all goes out the f---in' window and you just go, 'Let's rock!'"
To promote Stop The Clocks then, Gallagher and Gem are on a mini-tour of acoustic performances that began last Thursday in London and after Toronto will be followed by stops in L.A., Tokyo, Manchester, Paris and Milan.
Noel said his younger brother and Oasis lead singer Liam wasn't part of the trek because he "doesn't do acoustic performances. He doesn't do promotion. What's the point of him being here?"
Meanwhile, the Oasis road movie, Lord Don't Slow Me Down, was to be screened in Toronto last night at the Danforth before the acoustic set, and is expected to be released as a DVD in Canada next year.
Gallagher said director Baillie Walsh was given carte blanche to shoot the band on the road during their tour for Don't Believe The Truth. Sadly none of their stops in Canada were filmed.
"There's no gringey-bits for me in it," said Gallagher of the film. "Liam wears some very questionable clothes in it. Shorts at one point. That's no good for being in a band. And some very questionable headware. But there's a lot of drinking involved and a lot of talking absolute nonsense. It's quite funny in places.
"The opening scene is very funny. When I'd seen it, I cried with laughter. It involves extremely large bottles of champagne which are called methusals, and there's a scene of a lot of people trying to open this bottle of champagne. It gets, very, very, very, stupid 'cause everyone's f---in' a--holed.'"
Source: www.torontosun.com
You Won't Believe This But Liam's Got Self-Esteem Issues"
Best get comfy - Noel Gallagher's of a mind to put the world, from his brother to the monkeys, to rights
A pink f**king pinstripe suit! With a white vest! F**king hell"
Noel Gallagher is rolling around with laughter on a sofa in Wheeler End Studios - the Buckinghamshire retreat where Beatles memrobilia covers the walls, Union Jacks line the toilet seats and Oasis have spent the past seven years calling a second home. "I was in our office doing something and it just jumped out at me across the room, like 'What the f**k is over there!? Only he could get away with the pink suit - colossal man, just f**king colossal!" Noel is of course, talking about his younger brother's choice of outfit on the cover of Hello! magazine this summer at Tazmin Outhwaite's wedding.
Over the course of our afternoon with him we'll hear many new things described as "colossal", the new favourite word in the Oasis leader's vocabulary. Kasabian are colossal, as is - perhaps more surprisingly, given that this is the supposed patron saint of lad-rock we're talking to - The Gossip's 'Standing In The Way Of Control'. All those times in the mid-90s, being in the biggest band on the planet, flying around the world "with a load of mates, drinking beer, taking drugs and eating KFC" were, obviously colossal. And perhaps most revealingly, text messaging, which allows him to fob people off when he's not in the mood to be sociable with a concise, "Not coming out. C U L8R", is also deemed a worthy recipient of this newest superlative.
See, 2006 was all set to be a quiet year for Oasis (and thus rock 'n' roll in general). One where Liam's sartorial adventures could well have ended up the highlight. There was the tail-end of the triumphant 'Don't Believe The Truth' tour that ended in March, but that looked like the end of the world's Oasis fix until 2007.
However, in early September, the whispers started about 'Stop The Clocks', the Best Of which Noel had previously claimed wouldn't be released until Oasis split, but which is seeing the light of day now, because of contractual obligations to the band's former record label, Sony. To cut a long story short, it would have come out anyway, so the band decided to get involved to ensure the tracks included, the artwork and, indeed, the title (taken from an as-yet-unreleased song that features the line, "stop the clocks/lock the box and leave it all behind") were to there taste, not their ex-marketing manager's.
"Every f**king person I've spoken to in the last few weeks has said, 'Why's they're no tracks from 'Be Here Now'?"' Noel groans, anticipating NME's next question as to whether the omission might be him finally admitting that, in the scheme of Oais albums, it actually wasn't very good. "No. I narrowed it down to about 30 tunes, which was too many - that's like a f**kin' prog rock record or something. 'D'You Know I Mean?' was on there for a bit, but it upset the flow on the album. And I was'nt gonna put a 'Be Here Now' track on there just for the sake of it. Perversely, i kind of like the fact that there's a whole album for people in the future, it's supposed to be a concise introduction to Oasis."
With tracklisting arguments now over 'Stop The Clocks' gives us all an excuse, once more, to immerse ourselves in the most vital, culturally significant British bands since the Sex Pistols; to remind ourselves of those still-unparalleled moments of rock 'n' roll brilliance that, as Noel puts it, "make you feel like you're 18, you've got a great new jacket on and you're going out to kiss the f**king sky". 'Rock 'N' Star', 'Live Forever', Champagne Bleedin' Bastard Super-F**king-Nova'...really, the strangest thing about an Oasis best Of being released in that there's no need to reminisce. These are songs that never went away, that are as important today as they were in the mid-90s. In short Oasis are still the band to beat and everyone, including Noel, knows it.
"If I see one more advert on the TV for an album that says, 'Best guitar album since 'definitely Maybe'... f**king hell- I'll shoot whoever writes those f**king things!" he blasts. You flick through a magazine and it's 'Razorlight, 9/10, the best guitar album since 'Definitely Maybe'!' And I'm just like, Really? Not to my ears it ain't. I mean, it's flattering that album is still considered the benchmark, and that The Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, Razorlight and all that said that was the album for them, but come on. I think a lot of these bands are... not fake, but just copying the blueprint.
You're always looking at Johnny Borrell or him out of The Kooks and going, 'I dunno if you mean it, man' When you see those bands, there's just something not quite right. It doesn't get you 110 per cent, like when the great bands - those bands come along. Do you not think Arctic Monkeys are one of those bands? "Well they're good, but their public persona is now of a bunch of grumpy old men, even though they're 19, d'you know what i mean?
I think they were a good kick up the arse, but I'm a bit worried about what's going to follow in their wake. If it's gonna be a load of c**ts with guitars up here (does air-Alex Turner guitar, adopts Sheffield twang) going, 'And me mum works down the f**king chip shop, she met a geezer...' and all that. Great pop music is not about real life, it's about how great life can be. Real life's f**king shit! But yeah, I suppose they're what Oasis were - like the elixir of life to a different generation, with different values. The MySpace generation."
Are you a MySpace user?
"My missus has got a computer, but I can't even switch it off, let alone on. Gem will sit downstairs and yak on about all this shit he's seen on YouTube, like old La's interviews or whatever. Or I'll phone him and tell him about an album I've heard, then about an hour later he's downloaded all the songs from f**kin MySpace. It's Mad." Do you think that's a good thing? "This generation of kids just rely on the technology - that's what they want. These days you can see f**king Johnny Borrell in his pants going through the bass parts, and that just strips awaythe magic for me. Everyone just wants more and more information.
All the fantasy's gone out of music, 'cos everything is too fu**ing real. Every album comes with a DVD with some c**t going, 'Yeah well, we tried the drums over there, but...' Give a shit, man! It makes people seem to human, whereas I was bought up on Marc Bolan and David Bowie, and it was like, 'Do they actually come from f**king Mars?'"
The modern world then, for Noel Gallagher, despite its seemingly unwavering love for his group, sometimes feels like it has changed, almost beyond recognition. He goes to Arctic Monkeys gigs and gets blown away by the fact that the fans know all the words to songs that aren't even released; he freaks out when hi daughter want to go on "my-f**king-pony-dot-com" and he can't show her how, and he won't be buying glowsticks and time soon.
"I saw Klaxons in Ibiza with Kasabian," he gasps "and it was like torture! Either all their instruments were broken, or they didn't have a clue what they were doing. That new rave stuff in the NME - fu**ing shocking!" And then there's politics. This remember, is a man who, at the Brit Awards in 1996 declared: "There are seven people in this room giving a little bit of hope to young people in this country - that's me, our kid, Bonehead, Guigsy, Alan White, Alan McGee and Tony Blair. And if you've got anything about you, get up there and shake Tony Blair's hand. He's the Man."
Fast forward 10 years, and Oasis are set to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at next year's Brits. This time, you suspect, their leader won't be praising the man who once made thinly veiled references to cocaine with him at Number 10 Downing Street. "I tell you what New Labour have achieved," Noel says, thinking back to those heady days. "They've destroyed politics in this country. Because I don't know anyone who, next time around is gonna f***ing vote. It means nothing. "That's a bad thing though isn't it? "Well I guess all the anarchists and Thom Yorkes of this world, who are like, 'All politicians are baaas' - they recon they've been trying to destroy politics for years. And unwittingly, the Labour Party have done it for themselves, because everybody's so disillusioned with it now.
Left and right doesn't mean anything - it's all this middle ground that's just nothing. The bank of f***in' England are in charge. Life's still shit for most people who have to get up and go to work, but that's the other thing about all this technology - everyone can afford an ipod, so they think life's f***ing great; every c**t's got a plasma screen and a computer, and a mobile phone with a video camera in it, and they think it's great because you can shop online and get all this stuff delivered to your house. Everything's affordable, so everyone thinks things are ok. There's not alot of soul to British life anymore, I don't think."
We're about to ask what he thinks of The Horrors' hairdos, but Noel Gallagher is not finished yet. "And then you think about the extreme Islamists and the neo-conservatives in the west. That's it for them now - they're at war forever and ever. And it's worse for a place like Britain, which is so multicultural, and where some people don't need much encouragement to be f***ing racist. There's always a debate on Sky News, with somebody who's for these draconian measures to lock every f***er up and there's always somebody who's against it.
And they're all shouting! You're just like, 'Fu**ing hell, man - surely it's not that f**ing bad. People don't hate each other'. it's just these extremists in our community, in Whitehall, It's fu**ing bad darts, man. He's right, of course. But thankfully, with Noel, one thing that's never far away, even when he's discussing the state of the world, is a side-splittingly funny story.
"I'll tell you what, though," he begins by way of introduction, "it makes travelling around the world a pain in the arse. I had a problem with my visa in the States recently, where i got pulled in Texas and grilled for about two and a half hours. I'm there going 'just phone anyone in England! Email them a photo! Ask them and they'll go, 'Oh that's 'im out of Oasis'. Three months later I'm at the same airport on holiday with my missus and it happens again! Some guy looks at his screen and goes 'Follow me sir' This guy calls someone else over, they're both looking at the screen and after a few minutes he says to me, '(Adopts hilariousTexan accent) Can you answer a question for me, sir?' Now I'm getting annoyed at this point, so I'm like, 'What about?' and he goes (Comedic pause) What was it like when y'all met Pete Townshend?' He's holding this massive gun, going "Cos I seen y'all played 'Won't Get Fooled Again', and I'm just thinking, 'Fu**ing hell - ain't you got work to do?'''
As preposterous as this fu**ing sounds," laughs Noel, as we return to the subject of Oasis, "Liams got self-esteem issues. Whenever he plays you a tune he's written, he is expecting you to be in total awe. So when we're just like 'Yeah it's good, let's record it', he's expecting more and he can't understand. I'm always trying to say to him, 'The core of Oasis is about three fundamental things: the songs' me and you. Without one of those things, it all just falls down. Sometimes I wish he'd just accept that."
See, it's still the same things driving Oasis. Noel's right: it is about the songs, him and Liam, but it's also about the tension between them. Noel will never understand why Liam thinks it's cool to walk offstage, Liam will never understand why his brother is the only person he knows who isn't in awe of him. Noel will never wear a pink suit or be pictured in the tabloids fighting, liam will never see what's wrong with either of those things.
This is what puts Oasis in this unheard -of position: even on the eve of a Best Of, and while receiving awards that should signify something close to the end, they still matter. And 'Sto The Clocks' is just a pit-stop, before charging headlong into the future. The next 12 years of Oasis, you'd wager, are gonna be fu**ing colossal.
Source: NME Magazine
Noel Gallagher & Gem's Acoustic Show In Toronto Setlist
These are the songs Noel Gallagher and Gem Archer performed at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, Canada earlier today.
(It's Good) To Be Free
Talk Tonight
Fade Away
Cast No Shadow
The Importance Of Being Idle
Listen Up
Half The World Away
Wonderwall
Whatever
Slide Away
Strawberry Fields
Forever
Don't Look Back In Anger
Married With Children
Oasis Stop the Clocks, Not The Band
Oasis' Noel Gallagher has embarked on a mini-world tour to promote his band's best-of CD, 'Stop the Clocks,' due out Nov. 21.
The axeman's next tour city will be Los Angeles, where he'll play Friday. So far Gallagher's solo sets have consisted of 14 songs, only half of which actually appear on the new CD/DVD package. Gallagher says the shows, including one in London, England, last week, have been, well, interesting.
"[It] was very boisterous. It was quite overwhelming, to be honest," he tells AOL Music. "I sat on a chair with a guitar, and I couldn't hear anything over the crowd singing. My sound engineer tried to rectify it and ended up blowing up the PA."
Known for their tumultuous history, which has seen walkouts by frontman Liam Gallagher and the departure of several members over the years, we wondered whether the album provides some kind of closure.
"I guess it's the end of something. I don't think it's the end of the band," Gallagher says. "Nobody's expressed any interest in doing anything else other than another album."
Source: www.aolmusicnewsblog.com
This Weeks NME
"New rave? Fuckin' shockin'" Oasis on bust-ups, Best Ofs, pink suits and just generally having a right good groan about everything...
Source: www.nme.com
Oasis To Hit Studio This Month
Liam Gallagher wants to get going on new album
Oasis singer Liam Gallagher has revealed the band are likely to get started on their new studio album this month.
The rock giants release their Best Of compilation 'Stop The Clocks' on November 20, but Gallagher is keen to get started on the follow-up 'proper' to 2005's 'Don't Believe The Truth'.
He told NME's sister magazine Uncut: "I reckon we're going to start doing something this month, go to our studio. It's the bollocks. Fuckin' old Tudor ranch in High Wycombe, fucking stay there and get it done. Just got to wait for Noel to finish his tunes I suppose."
Speaking about 'Stop The Clocks', which marks the end of the band's deal with SonyBMG, Gallagher added: "I want to get this (album) out of the fucking way, it's doing my head in. To me, it's the last of however fucking long, the last 16 years of that label, that's done.
We can start again." Uncut is on sale now in all good newsagents, priced £4.20. See Uncut.co.uk for more information.
Source: www.nme.com
Copycats!
Oasis rant at the new wave of rock bands
Noel Gallagher has blasted the current crop of rock pups claiming they're not a patch on Oasis in their heyday. The Oasis axeman singles out The Kooks and Razorlight for a particular bashing. His extraordinary rant also sees the elder statesman of Britrock taking a swipe at Arctic Monkeys.
Stop The Clocks, Oasis's first greatest hits collection, hits shops in a fortnight and the senior Gallagher, 39, is despondent about the guitar-toting groups of today.
He Rages: "If I see one more advert on the TV for an album that says 'Best guitar album since Definitely Maybe' I'll shoot whoever writes those f***ing things!"
"It's flattering that it's still considered the benchmark, and that The Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, Razorlight and all said it was the album for them, but come on. I think a lot of these bands are just copying the blueprint . You're always looking at Johnny Borrell or him out of The Kooks and going: 'I dunno if you mean it man.' When you see those bands, there's something not quite right."
Alex Turner, 20, and his gang fare little better either. The guitarist reckons their dour image will really hamper their progress. In an interview with NME out today, he continues: "Their public persona is now of a bunch of grumpy old men." I'm worried about what's going to follow in their wake. If it's gonna be c***s with guitars going: 'And me mum works down the f***ing chip shop, she met a geezer' and all that." "Great pop music is not about real life, it's about how great real life can be. Real life's sh*t."
Now rave scene leaders Klaxons get the hair dryer treatment too. "I saw them in Ibiza with Kasabian," adds Noel. "It was like torture. "Either all their instruments were broken, or they didn't have a clue what they were doing!"
Who says that age mellows anybody?
Source: Daily Star
MTV Asia Interview With Noel
Unlike most "Best Of" albums of this nature, Oasis have sat down and undertaken the almost impossible job of picking what they consider to be their finest moments ever. So Stop The Clocks is imbued with the sort of wilfulness that has helped make Oasis the favorite band of millions of people worldwide and its running order will no doubt provoke equal parts adulation and bar discussions from the millions of Oasis fans worldwide. Could it ever be any other way?
Oasis have been at the helm of the world's music scene for over 10 years and, on November 20, 2006 the first ever Oasis retrospective will draw together the years of multi platinum albums, No. 1 singles and, unique to Oasis, instantly familiar B sides into one 18 track double album entitled Stop The Clocks. So here it is. The tracks as chosen by the band themselves -- the songs they believe encapsulate their remarkable career to date.
Stop the Clocks is released as Oasis take a well earned sabbatical prior to starting work on new material, destined for similar levels of success in the future. This is not a full stop, but merely a time out; a dream set list, and a chance for the world to review the immense contribution that Oasis have made and continue to make to rock 'n' roll.
Listen to the entire double-disc compilation album, Stop The Clocks, right here from now till November 20 and watch the MTV interview with Noel Gallagher! Click HERE to listen to the album.
Source: www.mtvasia.com
Launch For New Oasis Album
Fans of Manchester superband Oasis will get to hear an exclusive first play of their greatest hits album in its entirety at a special launch event next week.
City centre club Fifth Avenue will play the full, eighteen-track album from 10pm on Friday, November 17 - ahead of it going on sale the following Monday.
Revellers will be able to sway and swagger to the band's classic hits like Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger, while discussing the controversial omissions and inclusions on the Stop The Clocks hits compilation.
But don't expect to see Burnage-raised Noel and Liam Gallagher lads making an appearance at the Manchester launch. I'm told they won't be doing any regional promotion of the new album. Spoil sports.
Source: www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk
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