Plus Gallagher Sr admits there's another Oasis LP in the works too. The legends will certainly be busy boys this year
For a man who apparently didn't have much planned after Oasis' picked up their Brit Award in February, Noel Gallagher has had a very busy few weeks.
First-up, he was using these very pages to get himself a spot at Glastonbury (Michael Eavis has promised to call him, so watch this space), then he jetted off to Moscow for an acoustic gig, played his biggest ever solo shows headlining the Royal Albert Hall in London for two nights in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust, before rounding off last week headlining the Manchester Versus Cancer gig with Ian Brown.
So it looks as if the guitarist is currently enjoying his own company - well, his along with guitarist Gem Archer and percussionist Terry Kirkbride, who have backed him at all of the acoustic shows. But could there be more at stake than doing his bit for charity?
His brother Liam has already slated the idea of a Noel solo project - "I don't wanna hear about solo albums, you're not putting me on a f***ing shelf for a year," he said in July 2000 - but with the older Gallagher's unofficial acoustic tour winding down, we collared the man and asked him once and for all about a solo album.
Oh, and what's keeping Oasis going...
NME: You started off playing the odd acoustic show last year, now you've played across the globe and headlined two nights at the Royal Albert Hall. It feels like you've been on a solo tour.
Noel Gallagher: "Yeah! When I sat down to do the gigs, the first one was at KOKO for [the Russell Brand-sponsored show for Focus] charity, then the second one was at the Union Chapel [in Islington], which was also for charity [Mencap]. In-between because we weren't really promoting the Best Of, I started it off by doing a couple of interviews in New York, and my manager asked me how it was. I said it's shit, it's like being on tour without all the good bits'. I don't mind doing interviews all day as long as I can play a gig, so he said: 'Why not?' Putting the setlist together was great because there were songs such as 'Half The World Away', which you don't get to play with the band. 'Sad Song', which I did at the Albert Hall, I hadn't played in ages. I remember playing it live on Radio 1 just after I'd written it. That was when I had to write a song every day, that was my thing, I had to write a song every day. Come on!"
What's Your Songwriting Workrate Like Now?
"(laughs) Not one a day! I've got two on the go at the minute and it's taken me well over... the tunes themselves aren't a problem. I've got eight that I've made a start on, it's the words. I start writing and I always end up with a (lyric) book with huge gaps in it. Ive got two songs that are nearly finished and that took me four months. But I've got loads of songs left over from the last record."
The title track of the tour documentary Lord Don't Slow Me Down sounded quite promising...
"Yeah, it's quite rocking! It's just 12-var blues really, but it's good. That got left off the last album because it was the same verse all the way until the end, but it's kind of locked into that now because it appears at the end of the film."
With all these acoustic shows - you recently told us you want to play Glastonbury - and a few new songs milling around, have you ever thought seriously about doing a solo album? You always play it down, but...
"I've actually got a backlog of songs that are slowly building up. The thing about a solo record is the time to do one is between Oasis world tours because you'd have a good couple of years. But it takes me so long to write songs that eventually I run out of time [before Oasis begins again], but i've got a backlog now of about four or five songs which are probably too far in the past as far as the band is concerned, but which could work on my record."
"I've actually got a backlog of songs that are slowly building up. The thing about a solo record is the time to do one is between Oasis world tours because you'd have a good couple of years. But it takes me so long to write songs that eventually I run out of time [before Oasis begins again], but i've got a backlog now of about four or five songs which are probably too far in the past as far as the band is concerned, but which could work on my record."
Well, you've proved you can see out huge venues with the Royal Albert Hall shows, so there certainly seems to be fan interest in you doing solo stuff.
"The thing that always stops me doing it is going on the road, standing up and fronting a band. I don't mind sitting down on a chair with a couple of your pals playing or doing the charity thing, but I'm not sure how I'd feel about charging people to come and see me play it every night with me up front. But a record, I don't know, it's coming!"
"The thing that always stops me doing it is going on the road, standing up and fronting a band. I don't mind sitting down on a chair with a couple of your pals playing or doing the charity thing, but I'm not sure how I'd feel about charging people to come and see me play it every night with me up front. But a record, I don't know, it's coming!"
Well, that's the side-project sorted, what now for Oasis?
"Well, I did two nights at the Albert Hall, so I guess next up we'll start thinking about another album at some point."
It's early but do you have any ideas for your seventh studio album?
"The next one in theory is already f***ing written. I've got eight songs that I'm pretty happy with. I think Liam's got one or two that he thinks are brilliant. We're waiting for Gem and Andy. It's just a case of sitting down and saying, 'When do we want to do this?'"
"The next one in theory is already f***ing written. I've got eight songs that I'm pretty happy with. I think Liam's got one or two that he thinks are brilliant. We're waiting for Gem and Andy. It's just a case of sitting down and saying, 'When do we want to do this?'"
What will it sound like? 'Don't Believe The Truth' seemed to move things on musically for Oasis, do you think that has given you a freer hand when you start recording?
"It's been a very healthy kick in the arse for me. From 'Be Here Now' we've finished albums and I've always thaught, 'We can do better than that', but when this one was finished and we were playing it on the road I thought, 'F***ing hell, this is good!' I've found myself throwing a lot of songs away as a result, a lot of them that might have got past before.
That's healthy. I fancy doing something more extravagant with this one."
So it's all systems go?
"The thing that always puts me off is as soon as somebody says, 'Right, we're going to start recording in August' - for arguments sake - my manager will book a tour and the next thing you hear it's sold out in five minutes. The thing about going on the road is the older you become the more difficult it gets. It's great but you have to prepare for it. The hardest thing about being on the road is that you're on the piss every night. When you're 24...when I think of it now, some of the states we would get into! Drinking 'till 8am, with a big gig like Earls Court the next night!
You grab abit of kip and then play it. We never went onstage out of it, by the way!
And now?
"Now, you have to get in training because you know you're going to be on the road for a year and you're going on the piss. Of seven days a week, four of those nights you're going to be absolutely out of it. The first four months are great, but the worst thing is when the conversations repeats itself. You go 'hang on, we've had this drunken argument about The Velvet Underground already' (laughs). The first three or four months are fucking brilliant and the last couple of months are great because you're heading home. The middle bit is tough. That's when you get bored of playing the songs and start playing them differently. You're pissed every night, there's always some shit going on, all that crap. So I'm going to try to put this record off as long as I possibly can (laughs)."
"Now, you have to get in training because you know you're going to be on the road for a year and you're going on the piss. Of seven days a week, four of those nights you're going to be absolutely out of it. The first four months are great, but the worst thing is when the conversations repeats itself. You go 'hang on, we've had this drunken argument about The Velvet Underground already' (laughs). The first three or four months are fucking brilliant and the last couple of months are great because you're heading home. The middle bit is tough. That's when you get bored of playing the songs and start playing them differently. You're pissed every night, there's always some shit going on, all that crap. So I'm going to try to put this record off as long as I possibly can (laughs)."
Well, since your last record deal ran out with 'Stop The Clocks', you're probably the biggest unsigned band in the world right now. There are no record labels to tell you to release an album.
"I'm quite enjoying not having a record deal at the moment. I'd rather make this album, get it finished, then go round to record labels instead of some hotshot A&R man getting involved and going, 'You know what I always thought you guys should sound like?, What! And so on, I'd rather make this album, get it finished before anyone else gets involved. But it definitely won't be this year, although I think it might get started."
Will there be any Oasis releases this year? How about the film?
"Yes, it will be out later this year. I was amazed it wasn't out for christmas actually, but I'll be really amazed if it isn't out for the next one! I'm going to do a DVD commentary, yes! They were talking about extras the other day and I begged them to let me do a commentary. I'm going to have some fun with that..."
Finally, not to make you feel too old or anything, but following your Brit Award, did you see Berwick Steet in Soho, London, has been named a national rock landmark because it's the cover of '(What's The Story) Morning Glory?'?
"Really? Fu**ing hell. Do you think people do the thing, walking down the street like they do on Abbey Road? That would be f**king great, wouldn't it? I wouldn't mind but it's such a shit cover. It must be one of the most uninspired artworks for one of the biggest albums of all time. I'd like to think Japanese people do walk down that street in rush hour dodging black cabs. I hope they put one of those blue plaques there!"
Source: NME Magazine
