Noel Gallagher Speaks His Mind On Manchester City

Suppose I asked you to name one Manchester City fan who would be prepared to say publicly that: a) he was amused by the problems besieging Thaksin Shinawatra's takeover bid, and b) Joey Barton is a damn good chap really. Yep, I think you know who.

Noel Gallagher and controversial statements go together like City and calamity. He's never apologised for it; he's not going to start now.

So when Radio Five Live reporter Colin Paterson caught up with him in the cafe at Abbey Road studios in London today and asked him for a few words about everything that's going on at City at the moment, Gallagher let rip - and then some.

The broadcast version of the interview lasted just 75 seconds, during which Gallagher claimed he was enjoying the takeover troubles, dismissing them as "pure Man City", joked about making a bid for the club itself (with Manchester DJ and M-People overlord Mike Pickering), described former Sheffield United boss Neil Warnock as "a Mickey Mouse manager", argued that Joey Barton is a good guy if you get to know him and stated that Richard Dunne will probably be the next big-name player to leave the Blues.

All the interview needed was a melancholy guitar track in the background and Oasis could have released it as a single. Maybe they will.

So, the highlights of the Gallagher interview were as follows:

On the takeover: "This takeover is never going to happen now, because the government has had his bank accounts frozen. It's pure Man City. I love it.

"The fixture list comes out on Thursday, we haven't got a manager, we've only got half-a-team and we haven't sold any season tickets. It's brilliant.

"I'm thinking of mounting a hostile takeover - me and Mike Pickering. I reckon we could scrape together about £400,000 in cash. I reckon we would get it for that."

On the lack of a manager: "In the dugout, I would like to have seen Sam Allardyce, but he went to Newcastle.

"It depends who's available now. It would be good if they got a foreign coach.

"But it all depends on the takeover. If there's no takeover, we'll get Neil Warnock - and a more Mickey Mouse manager than him you couldn't find anywhere."

On Joey Barton: "He's a good lad, Joey; he's a friend of mine. He gets a bad rap. But when you meet him, he's a really nice lad.

"It's good for him that he's moving to Newcastle. I'm made up for him. But I'm sad to see him go; he's our best player.

And on the future of the rest of the squad: "I was sad to lose Sylvain Distin; he was another of our best players. At least we haven't lost Richard Dunne yet, but I'm sure he'll be out of the door soon."

Ah, come on Noel, tell us what you really think.

Source: www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

On This Day In Oasis History...

"Shakermaker" is a song by British rock group Oasis, written by their lead guitarist Noel Gallagher. First appearing as a single, released on the 13th June 1994, which peaked at number 11 in the UK charts, it was later released on Oasis' groundbreaking debut album Definitely Maybe. It was also the first song performed by the band on the UK's world famous music programme, Top Of The Pops.

The song, much like its predecessor - Supersonic - is a fine example of how Noel Gallagher is able to couple nonsensical lyrics with a catchy tune and create a popular song, in the vein of John Lennon of The Beatles. Noel admits the lyrics are taken from the world around him, for example, a Shaker maker was a popular toy in the 1970s, the character of "Mr Soft" was taken from a Trebour Soft Mints commercial, which featured Cockney Rebel's song "Mr Soft", "Mr. Clean" is a song by The Jam, one of Noel's favourite bands, "Mr Benn" is a British children's cartoon and the entire last verse - Mr Sifter sold me songs/When I was just 16/Now he stops at traffic lights/But only when they're green - was written in a taxi on the way to the recording studio to record the song. Apparently Liam Gallagher was pestering Noel to finish the song. At this point, the taxi stopped at the traffic lights outside 'Sifter's"' (a record shop in Burnage, Manchester). Noel penned the lyric and it became part of the song. Noel used to frequent the store to buy old records before Oasis started releasing albums and Mr Sifter refers to the owner of the record store. Sifter told Noel to mind his words if he ever got famous.

The song illustrates Noel Gallagher's habit of borrowing from the past, as the tune for the verse was originally taken from "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" (the song made famous from its use on Coca Cola adverts in the 1970s) by Roger Cook, Roger Greenway, Bill Backer and Billy Davis. However, this led to Oasis being successfully sued for the unlicensed use by The New Seekers and they had to pay out $A500,000 (Australian dollars). When asked about the incident, Noel Gallagher said, "We drink Pepsi now." Noel has also offered conflicting reports that he actually stole the song's melody from the Beatles' song "Flying" which is also quite possible.

Click here for the promo video or here for a live performance.

Source: Wikipedia

Noel Gallagher Talks Of Possible Take Over Of Manchester City Foootball Club

Noel Gallagher talks to BBC Five Live's Colin Paterson about the possible Manchester City takeover,and who he would like to manage the club.

Link HERE

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Noel's Not Rolling In Style

Some Might Say Noel Gallagher is losing grip of his rebellious, rock star roots.

The OASIS star was spotted at a Volkswagen showroom picking out a family-friendly Golf with pregnant missus Sara MacDonald. Non-driver Noel has owned a rare £100,000 Jaguar.

I know which motor I’d rather Roll With.

Source: www.thesun.co.uk

Calling All Oasis Fans and Budding Musicians

Oasisbrother is working on a belated birthday present for Noel Gallagher's 40th earlier this month.

He is looking for fans to send in acoustic Oasis tracks, that they have covered as part of a bootleg that he is going to send to Noel.

Send you're tracks to oasisbrother @ acusticonoel@gmail.com

Please include your full name and what country you are from.

Recordings have so far come from fans all around the world including Mexico, Spain, United States Of America, Great Britain, Peru and France.

Entries must be received by the 22nd of June.

Oasis & The Stone Roses Exhibition

Die hard music fans now have a chance to view some never before seen photos of Oasis & The Stone Roses by photographer Ian Tilton .

The Oasis images are from as early as 1990 performing in Manchester at venues such as the Hacienda. This is the first time Ian has released these images since they were taken.

If your interested come down to Stroon which is located at 40 Thomas St, Northern Quarter, Manchester, M4 1ER.

Source: www.live4ever.us

Oasis Founder Launches New Music Channel

Alan McGee unveils Rockworld TV

The man who discovered Oasis, Alan McGee, has announced he is to join forces with radio DJ Gary Crowley.

The pair have teamed up with alternative music and lifestyle TV channel Rockworld.TV, which broadcasts on SKY Channel 368 and www.rockworld.tv, to produce a brace of new shows which will both aim to showcase the very best in new music.

McGee, founder of the legendary Creation Records and Poptones, will present a monthly TV version of his long running weekly club night 'Death Disco', which will be filmed in front of a live audience at The Cuckoo Club in London.

The show will feature three bands playing live per episode and already lined up for the first show, broadcast on July 20, are The Holloways, Reverend And The Makers and The Chavs.

Meanwhile, Crowley will be hosting monthly show, 'Gary Crowley Presents', which will mix live, acoustic performances and interviews featuring both new and established artists.

The first show, scheduled for broadcast on June 10, will feature performances from The Bishops and The Draytones as well as an interview with original Sex Pistols member Glen Matlock.

Source: www.nme.com

Paul McCartney Feels Sorry For Oasis

Do you ever look at any of these so-called biggest bands in the world—U2, or Coldplay, or Oasis—and think, Oh, please. You guys have no idea?

[Laughs] Well, I think they know that themselves. I actually don't think I have to point it out to them. When they started out, Oasis in particular, they said they were going to be bigger than the Beatles. And I felt sorry for them. Because everyone who says that, it's a prediction that doesn't come true. It's a fatal prediction. I sort of sit by and go, Good luck, son.

Many bands have been referred to as Beatle-esque—do you think any of them are particularly good?
I don't mean to be mean, but no.

Click here for the full interview.

Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

The Drinks Are On You Now, Alex

In Bit of a Blur, Alex James has written the definitive guide to Britpop, which for him included booze, cocaine and making passes at Marianne Faithfull, says Caspar LLewellyn Smith

Bit of a Blur
by Alex James
Little, Brown £16.99, pp288

In this tenth anniversary year of the New Labour government, the mid-1990s present themselves as a time when the champagne flute was always half-full. In Cool Britannia, London was swinging and, on the evening after Blur mimed their breakthrough hit 'Boys and Girls' on Top of the Pops, Vic Reeves and Jonathan Ross led their bass player to the Groucho Club for the first time. No one personifies that period quite like Alex James and it was in the Soho club that he did some of his best work as part of a different triumvirate leading the never-ending party.

It was supposed to be the brothers Gallagher rather than their ostensibly more fey rivals who ramped up the decadence; while it skirts around the Britpop wars, this effervescent memoir proves otherwise and also emerges as the most fascinating, as well as hilarious, document to date of those times. James cites Jeffrey Bernard as one of his idols, when des Esseintes might be more appropriate; either Huysmans's 19th-century decadent creation or, failing that, a member of Motley Crue. Put bluntly, there is an awful lot of shagging in Bit of a Blur.

On the band's first North American tour he strays from his childhood sweetheart for the third time when a journalist from Canadian Elle proffers a handjob by way of an interview; in New York he is led to bed by a model whose face he then recognises on the cover of Vogue. Later he will make a pass at Marianne Faithfull (rebuffed) and sleep with Courtney Love (recommended, apparently). 'I was an outlaw, a rebel,' he reflects. 'If I rationalised my decadence, I'd tell myself it was the duty of rock stars to indulge themselves beyond reasonable limits. If I couldn't be reckless and extreme, I wasn't doing my job properly.'

His 29th birthday ends with him soused in a balthazar of champagne, naked on his hotel bed in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with the five prettiest fans he has picked up in the lobby. 'You need five girlfriends when your bottle is that big,' he notes.

In many ways, James's story follows the paradigm - the provincial, middle-class upbringing, the art school influence. His father ran a business that supplied waste-disposal equipment to supermarkets but otherwise occupied himself searching for shipwrecks off the Bournemouth coast, which inspired a sense of adventure as well as a lasting interest in science that would later lead James to involvement in the project to land a spaceship on Mars. His father was also socially adept. 'An ability to join in is the most important thing you can have if you want to play bass,' James writes, 'and I guess that comes from my dad.'

Studying French at Goldsmiths, he moved in the same circles as Damien Hirst and Keith Allen. It was at that time that he met the other members of the band who would become Blur and they lurched into early success. Blur embraced the attention. Like the character in the Blur song, James knew his claret from his beaujolais, as well as his Krug from his Dom Perignon.

It's easy to overlook his contribution to the band - Graham Coxon could well have been the best guitar player of his generation and Damon Albarn was always more than just a pretty face - but the bassist was the social glue that kept them together. He was the band's ambassador, flitting between different worlds with ease. In Monaco once, he is talking to royalty when Hirst's brother approaches, dripping wet from the sea, asking: 'Fuckin' 'ell, did you see them bazongers? Them were beauty.'

'Ah, Bradley, this is Prince Albert of Monaco.'

'Fuckin' 'ell, all right, mate. Did you see them tits?'

Prince Albert of Monaco was smiling.

For a generation that had grown up never knowing a Labour government and that had seen bands such as the Smiths falter outside the top five in the singles charts, the rise of Blair and the Britpop bands was exhilarating. Never mind that the scene never amounted to more than a couple of bands finding success, James contends; as for Oasis: 'I didn't really have any strong feelings about them. The singer had a good voice, but the music was honky.' Never mind that no one wanted to ask any hard questions.

The most telling moment in Bit of a Blur comes once James has sobered up - he estimates to have spent £1m on cocaine and booze - and Blur's first flush of success is behind them. Returning from passing his first set of flying exams to the Groucho, he finds Moby playing 'London Calling' on the piano and Wayne Sleep turning pirouettes on the bar. It all seems as ever, but things have changed. 'I was introduced to the bass player from Coldplay, who was a very serious man,' he recalls. 'He was observing the chaos with some hauteur. He explained that his band's reinvigorated North American promotional strategies would boost sales in key secondary markets, coast to coast, album on album. Fair to say it did.'

Damon Albarn ridiculed Noel Gallagher for meeting the PM at a No 10 drinks party in 1997. Fast-forward a decade and Blur's bass player visits Buckingham Palace for a music industry reception and finds himself awestruck by the Queen. 'It's tiring being anti-royal,' he writes. 'I've felt much better about everything since I had a chat with the boss.'

'I think all rock stars start by wanting to destroy the world,' he continues. 'Then their dreams come true and they end up trying to keep it like it was before they started.' The bass player lives now in a very big house in the country with his wife and three children - Geronimo and twins Artemis and Galileo - and writes a column for the Observer Food Monthly about cheese. James was never a rebel, but he remains a man of impeccable taste.

· Alex James will be in conversation with Miranda Sawyer at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London WC2 on Thu 7, 7pm. For tickets, call 0845 456 9876

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Why Music Really Is Getting Louder

Dad was right all along – rock music really is getting louder and now recording experts have warned that the sound of chart-topping albums is making listeners feel sick.

That distortion effect running through your Oasis album is not entirely the Gallagher brothers’ invention. Record companies are using digital technology to turn the volume on CDs up to “11”.

Artists and record bosses believe that the best album is the loudest one. Sound levels are being artificially enhanced so that the music punches through when it competes against background noise in pubs or cars.

Britain’s leading studio engineers are starting a campaign against a widespread technique that removes the dynamic range of a recording, making everything sound “loud”.

“Peak limiting” squeezes the sound range to one level, removing the peaks and troughs that would normally separate a quieter verse from a pumping chorus.

The process takes place at mastering, the final stage before a track is prepared for release. In the days of vinyl, the needle would jump out of the groove if a track was too loud.

But today musical details, including vocals and snare drums, are lost in the blare and many CD players respond to the frequency challenge by adding a buzzing, distorted sound to tracks.

Oasis started the loudness war and recent albums by Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen have pushed the loudness needle further into the red.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Californication, branded “unlistenable” by studio experts, is the subject of an online petition calling for it to be “remastered” without its harsh, compressed sound.

Peter Mew, senior mastering engineer at Abbey Road studios, said: “Record companies are competing in an arms race to make their album sound the ‘loudest’. The quieter parts are becoming louder and the loudest parts are just becoming a buzz.”

Mr Mew, who joined Abbey Road in 1965 and mastered David Bowie’s classic 1970s albums, warned that modern albums now induced nausea.

He said: “The brain is not geared to accept buzzing. The CDs induce a sense of fatigue in the listeners. It becomes psychologically tiring and almost impossible to listen to. This could be the reason why CD sales are in a slump.”

Geoff Emerick, engineer on the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album, said: “A lot of what is released today is basically a scrunched-up mess. Whole layers of sound are missing. It is because record companies don’t trust the listener to decide themselves if they want to turn the volume up.”

Downloading has exacerbated the effect. Songs are compressed once again into digital files before being sold on iTunes and similar sites. The reduction in quality is so marked that EMI has introduced higher-quality digital tracks, albeit at a premium price, in response to consumer demand.

Domino, Arctic Monkeys’ record company, defended its band’s use of compression on their chart-topping albums, as a way of making their music sound “impactful”.

Angelo Montrone, an executive at One Haven, a Sony Music company, said the technique was “causing our listeners fatigue and even pain while trying to enjoy their favourite music”.

In an open letter to the music industry, he asked: “Have you ever heard one of those test tones on TV when the station is off the air? Notice how it becomes painfully annoying in a very short time? That’s essentially what you do to a song when you super-compress it. You eliminate all dynamics.”

Mr Montrone released a compression-free album by Texan roots rock group Los Lonely Boys which sold 2.5 million copies.

Val Weedon, of the UK Noise Association, called for a ceasefire in the “loudness war”. She said: “Bass-heavy music is already one of the biggest concerns for suffering neighbours. It is one thing for music to be loud but to make it deliberately noisy seems pointless.”

Mr Emerick, who has rerecorded Sgt. Pepper on the original studio equipment with contemporary artists, admitted that bands have always had to fight to get their artistic vision across.

He said: “The Beatles didn’t want any nuance altered on Sgt. Pepper. I had a stand-up row with the mastering engineer because I insisted on sitting in on the final transfer.”

The Beatles lobbied Parlophone, their record company, to get their records pressed on thicker vinyl so they could achieve a bigger bass sound.

Bob Dylan has joined the campaign for a return to musical dynamics. He told Rolling Stone magazine: “You listen to these modern records, they’re atrocious, they have sound all over them. There’s no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like – static.”

Studio Sound

— The human ear responds to the average sound across a piece of music rather than peaks and crescendos. Quiet and loud sounds are squashed together, decreasing the dynamic range, raising the average loudness

— The saturation level for a sound signal is digital full scale, or 0dB. In the 1980s, the average sound level of a track was -18dB. The arrival of digital technology allowed engineers to push finished tracks closer to the loudest possible, 0dB

— The curves of a sound wave, which represent a wide dynamic range, become clipped and flattened to create “square waves” which generate a buzzing effect and digital distortion on CD players.

Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Oasis Headlines On Your Site

Have you got a personal website crying out for fresh content, a MySpace page that needs jazzing up or a Facebook entry lacking that something to set it apart.

Then check out my new online service - a widget that lets you put this blog's headlines on YOUR site.

It's easy to install, updates every time I publish a new article in the paper it allows your users to click a link for the full story and pictures.

All you need to is CLICK HERE and follow the instructions on the page that pops up.

Then just sit back and enjoy the very best in Oasis gossip.

Official, Rock Music Is Too Loud

Music chiefs were blasted last night for using computer wizardry to make new albums louder than ever.

Bosses are artificially enhancing sound levels as they believe the noisier a record is, the more copies it will sell.

But music lovers say some tracks are now so distorted they can make listeners feel nauseous.

And Britain’s leading studio engineers have launched a campaign to make records range in levels to avoid one loud blur.

Among records blasted by engineers is the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Californication which some branded “unlistenable”. An online petition has even been launched to have it “remastered”.

Other albums slated by studio experts are works by Oasis, the Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen.

Peter Mew, senior mastering engineer at London’s Abbey Road Studios — where The Beatles made many of their hits — said: “Record companies are competing in an arms race to make their album the loudest. The quieter parts are becoming louder and the loudest parts are just becoming a buzz. This could be the reason CD sales are in a slump.”

Geoff Emerick, an engineer on the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s album, said: “A lot of what is released today is basically a scrunched up mess.

“Whole layers of sound are missing. It’s because record companies don’t trust listeners to decide themselves if they want to turn the volume up.”

Singing legend Bob Dylan, 66, said: “Modern records are atrocious. There’s no definition of anything — just static.”

Val Weedon of the UK Noise Association called for a ceasefire in the “loudness war”.

And one record boss admitted: “New techniques are causing our listeners fatigue.”

Source: www.thesun.co.uk

DC 101 Top 500 Modern Rock Songs

This past Memorial Day weekend listners of Washington's DC 101 Radio did a big countdown of the Top 500 Modern Rock Songs of all time, which listeners were encouraged to vote for in advance.

Oasis made the list with Wonderwall (#28) and Champagne Supernova (#160).

01. NIRVANA - Smells Like Teen Spirit
02. PEARL JAM - Jeremy
03. NINE INCH NAILS - Closer
04. THE CURE - Just Like Heaven
05. NIRVANA - Come As You Are
06. RADIOHEAD - Creep
07. U2 - Pride (In The Name Of Love)
08. RAMONES - I Wanna Be Sedated
09. METALLICA - Enter Sandman
10. RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - Under The Bridge
11. JANE'S ADDICTION - Been Caught Stealing
12. PEARL JAM - Black
13. SMASHING PUMPKINS - Today
14. STONE TEMPLE PILOTS - Plush
15. BLINK 182 - Dammit
16. BEASTIE BOYS - Fight For Your Right (To Party)
17. VIOLENT FEMMES - Blister In The Sun
18. THE WHITE STRIPES - Seven Nation Army
19. REM - Losing My Religion
20. GREENDAY - When I Come Around
21. OFFSPRING - Come Out And Play
22. LINKIN PARK - In The End
23. BUSH - Comedown
24. SEX PISTOLS - Anarchy In The UK.
25. SMASHING PUMPKINS - Disarm
26. THREE DAYS GRACE - Animal I Have Become
27. PEARL JAM - Alive
28. OASIS - Wonderwall
29. ALICE IN CHAINS - Man In The Box
30. GREENDAY - Longview
31. U2 - I Still Haven't Found (What I'm Looking For)
32. LINKIN PARK - Numb
33. LENNY KRAVITZ - Are You Gonna Go My Way?
34. THE CLASH - Should I Stay Or Should I Go
35. REM - It's The End Of The World As We Know It
36. STONE TEMPLE PILOTS - Interstate Love Song
37. BEASTIE BOYS - Sabotage
38. NIRVANA - Heart Shaped Box
39. SMITHS - How Soon Is Now?
40. NINE INCH NAILS - Head Like A Hole
41. U2 - One
42. PEARL JAM - Even Flow
43. THE KILLERS - When You Were Young
44. EVERCLEAR - Santa Monica
45. RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE - Bulls On Parade
46. LIVE - Lightning Crashes
47. TOADIES - Possum Kingdom
48. METALLICA - The Unforgiven
49. THE RACONTEURS - Steady, As She Goes
50. NIRVANA - Lithium
160. OASIS - Champagne Supernova

Click Here to view the full 500

Source: www.dc1o1.com

Don't Look Back At Noel In Anger

The biggest Oasis fan I know recently took up golf and last week bought a scarily professional-looking lawn mower. This kind of prepared me for the shock of Noel Gallagher, on May 29, turning 40.

Whatever happened to those years between 1997 - when Be Here Now was Britain's fastest-selling album - and now? Whatever happened to Oasis because that third elpee really was the beginning of the end for them? Ah well...

One of the few papers to give the full-page treatment to Noel's birthday bash was the good old Daily Record. In other lives, Scott (of the golf and the mower) and I worked for the paper. When Oasis were the biggest band on the planet, we were among the five-man team detailed to shadow their every move between their Loch Lomond concert-site and Glasgow's Hilton.

That's right, five. Tragically for us, Oasis didn't trash the hotel. Noel and "our kid" Liam sat quietly in the bar until 2am. We followed them to their rooms and then crashed in our room, singular. (I slept on the floor and was woken by the photographer standing astride me in a black thong, blow-drying his hair into his favoured Jon Bon Jovi style.)

The Record went big on Oasis -they were exciting and Noel gave great quote, just like his hero John Lennon. Keen to mirror that famous photo of Harold Wilson with the Beatles, Blair got himself snapped alongside Noel when the Gallaghers were invited to No 10. Tone and Noel, what hope they promised.

You wonder whether Gordon Brown will repeat Blair's pop party and which bands might be on the guest-list. Oasis-influenced the View? Too Scottish, perhaps, for a PM who would not want to be accused of jockrock bias. You hope for his sake that Brown doesn't bother, especially after that desperate namecheck for Arctic Monkeys, another band who probably wouldn't Be Here Now without Oasis's influence.

Britpop was a marketing campaign, nothing more. Very quickly, Blair must have realised the folly of aligning himself with a bunch of chancers who claimed to be, according to a subsequent album of bombastic, bad-rhyming rock, Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants (sic). And shortly after that, Noel must have wished he'd never accepted pineapple and cheese on a stick from a politician who would not have regarded that title as too grand for his memoirs.

Those were crazy days, hanging onto Noel's every word. When one of the brothers' infamous scraps caused the cancellation of their first big American tour, every editorial conference for a week echoed to the same question: "What can we say about Oasis today?"

Lots. Psychologists were wheeled in and so was Pat Kane, who knew a thing or two about sibling rivalry in rock. We squeezed the story dry. Well, it was the Gallaghers' biggest scrap since their mother asked: "Right, who wants the top bunk?"

Noel may not match Lennon as a songwriter but he's his equal with the gags and definitely the funniest rock star I've ever met. It's a pity he didn't follow through with his threat to attend his own bash dressed as Stalin but on Sky's Soccer AM recently he came out with a cracker.

Unwrapping his gift from the presenters, a round object we all thought would be a football, he quipped: "Is it the head of James Blunt?"

Source: www.scotsman.com

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Is Being Re-Recorded

The Beatles' monumental album 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' is being re-recorded by some of the biggest names in pop. Robert Sandall reports

Radio 2, June 16, 8pm Geoff Emerick is recalling the unsettling moment when he and the other two members of the Beatles' recording team - producer George Martin and assistant engineer Richard Lush - sat down with the group in November 1966 to discuss their next album.

The 19-year-old Emerick, who had only previously engineered for the Beatles on Revolver, knew he was about to be severely tested. "The first thing John [Lennon] said was that he was sick of making soft music for soft people, and that this time he wanted to make sounds that nobody had ever heard before. And everybody looked at me."

As he speaks, all eyes in the room are again on Emerick. On this occasion, though, most of them belong to Stereophonics, one of the groups who have been recruited to re-record the songs of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in a 40th-anniversary homage to this most famous album.

Kelly Jones and his band have just knocked off a cracking version of the reprise of the title track, which catches the original so accurately, right down to the whoops at the end, you can barely tell it's a 2007 repro job. Astonishingly, this audio cloning has taken less than four hours, and was done with hardly any re-takes. "The point about this is that you have to really commit to tape. It's more limiting, but it's more fun, too," says Jones.

He is referring to the big idea here, which is to employ, as far as possible, the same studio equipment as the Beatles did. This is why we are gathered today not in Abbey Road, where all the gear has long since been upgraded, but in a spacious recording facility in West London owned by Mark Knopfler. Though he is not personally involved in this project, for the first time since Knopfler bought the four-track mixing desk on which Sgt Pepper was recorded, it's being put to serious use

Emerick loves it. He hankers for the days before 96-channel mixing desks and corrective software, when musicians had to get it right, or play it again. "It used to be all about capturing a moment in time," Emerick says. "Everybody who's come in so far has said, 'We should record like this every time.' The process now is so boring. Everything is done perfectly to time by people standing around looking at a computer screen."

The Pepper re-make is another of Bob Geldof's media-friendly, madly time-pressured initiatives. Hence the presence today of a TV crew from his company Ten Alps, who are filming a two-part documentary, one for each side of the album, the first part of which will go out on BBC 2 on Saturday. An hour-long special will precede it on Radio 2.

This latest wheeze came to Geldof in 2006 after he read the chapter in Emerick's recent autobiography where he described his struggle to make Sgt Pepper sound as special as Lennon had demanded.

It took three months - a very long time to spend on an album in 1967, though nothing much by today's standards. Emerick says he's spent three months this year twiddling his thumbs in Knopfler's place while Ten Alps tried to nail the participants. "The trouble seemed to be that everybody wanted to do Day in the Life," Emerick observes, drily.

Despite rumours that U2 have bagged the top job, a week and a half before the first TV show airs, this key performance has still not been finalised. Also high on the to-do list is Oasis's version of Within You Without You, which the band stipulated they would record only in the Beatles' favorite haunt - studio 2 at Abbey Road. Because Knopfler was unwilling to allow his four-track mixer to travel across London, an identical machine belonging to another of rock's analogue nostalgists, Lenny Kravitz, is being shipped over from America.

So far, Emerick is thrilled with what he has heard. "These modern bands have more energy. They're more aggressive and pushy. When the Beatles were doing Pepper there was a more diffuse kind of energy. Ringo played his heart out, but it was really a John and Paul album."

Emerick has recorded Razorlight (With A Little Help From My Friends), Kaiser Chiefs (It's Getting Better) and The Fray (Fixing a Hole). The Magic Numbers are down for She's Leaving Home. He doesn't know who has taken on the tricky task of recording When I'm 64. It was originally offered to, and declined by, Stereophonics.

Today's session got off to a shaky start when it transpired that the band had turned up expecting to perform the Sgt Pepper that opens the album, rather than the one that segues into the finale, Day in the Life. As soon as Jones learned that Bryan Adams had recorded track one side one last week, he equably changed course. "I used to play both versions in my first covers band. I actually prefer the Beatles' darker stuff."

With the day's work mostly done, Emerick is now sitting behind a squat, grey metal desk, with antique Bakelite knobs and immense fader levers, reminiscing about the 700 working hours he spent battling with its limitations to create the Sergeant. "The only way we could make things sound different then was to abuse the equipment, by wobbling the tape machine, or holding it back to make it go slower."

He recalls late nights when he and McCartney would obsessively overdub his bass parts trying to get the sound punchier, to the point where McCartney's fingers bled. "That was Paul's best playing ever. John wasn't such a perfectionist at that point. He didn't have the patience."

The aspect of Stereophonics' performance that Emerick has most enjoyed, he says, is their vocals. "They have a great sense of fun when they're singing. And that reminds me of how the Beatles were. However tense things would get in the studio, all of that would disappear as soon as they started singing together. Once they gathered round a microphone they would always turn back into a bunch of kids."

With a little help from...

Side one of the new version of Sgt Pepper features:

• Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
by Bryan Adams

• With a Little Help From My Friends
by Razorlight

• Getting Better
by Kaiser Chiefs

• Fixing a Hole
by the Fray

• She's Leaving Home
by the Magic Numbers

Side two is yet to be decided.

Sgt. Pepper's 40th Anniversary - Part 1 - Radio 2, Sat, 8pm
Sgt. Pepper "It Was 40 Years Ago Today..." BBC 2, Sat,10.45pm
Sgt. Pepper's 40th Anniversary - Part 2 - Radio 2, June 16, 8pm

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Oasis Documentary To Air At Glastonbury Festival

It gets better for those of us headed to Glastonbury this year. A preview screening of the new Oasis documentary "Lord Don't Slow Me Down" will be shown on the festival's outdoor screen.

Lucky Oasis fans at Glastonbury Festival will be amongst the first to have a chance to see the full-length (94 minute) version of the band’s documentary tour film, when it is screened at 2am on Sunday 24th June.

“Lord Don’t Slow Me Down” was directed by renowned promo director Baillie Walsh, and compiled from a year’s filming with the band on their mammoth “Don’t Believe The Truth” world tour 2005/6. It follows one of the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands behind the scenes and in front of the fans, across the globe. With unique access to the band throughout the tour, “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down” is the ultimate Oasis documentary and a must see for fans.

This will be one of the only opportunities to see the film prior to its release later this year on DVD, and the next best thing to having the band play live at the festival.

Source: www.glasswerk.co.uk

Noel's All Eyes For Radiant Sara

A Besotted Noel Gallagher looks on as pregnant girlfriend Sara MacDonald checks her bump yesterday.

The Oasis guitarist, who famously calls his brother Liam ‘Our Kid’, showed no signs of letting Tuesday’s 40th birthday get him down.

One onlooker in London’s Knightsbridge said: “Noel kept fussing over Sara who looked great. Pregnancy obviously suits her.”

Source: www.thesun.co.uk

Sgt Pepper Turns 40

It was actually 40 years ago today that Sgt Pepper taught the band to play and a special re-recording of the Beatles' iconic album has been made to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its release.

A host of modern artists including the Kaiser Chiefs, Oasis and Razorlight have reportedly contributed to the project by recording their own versions of the historic tracks on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The album, dubbed by critics as one of the greatest of all time for its original sound, was released by the Beatles on June 1st 1967.

Widely hailed as the first ever 'concept' album, Sgt Pepper has come to be regarded by music critics as a symbol of that year's so-called summer of love.

Audio engineer Geoff Emerick, who worked on the original album, took part in the modern re-recording of Sgt Pepper using the same one-inch four-track equipment he first used to capture the sound of the Beatles.

The tribute recording is due to be aired on BBC Radio 2 tomorrow.

Meanwhile the cultural impact of Sgt Pepper is even set to be debated by academics later this month.

The University of Leeds' music school is hosting a special discussion forum, Sgt Pepper at 40, to mark the four decades since the album's release.

"We hope to consider Sgt Pepper from a range of angles - the compositional to the cultural, the historical to the sociological, the musicological to the technological," said Simon Warner, director of the school's popular music research centre.

"We’ll be wondering if the album was essentially a symbol of its time or whether this artefact still resonates four decades on," he added.

Source: www.contactmusic.com

McGee Rejects Labels

The man who discovered Oasis has decided to turn his back on traditional record labels.

Creation Records founder Alan McGee is winding down his Poptones imprint, so he can concentrate on acting as an adviser for bands instead.

He believes the future for young acts is in bypassing record companies completely to release their own music.

McGee, who also discovered the Jesus and Mary Chain and more recently managed The Libertines and currently manages Dirty Pretty Things and The Charlatans, claims it's no longer realistic for record labels to profit from new bands.McGee said: "The accountants will make them (the record companies) see sense.

"They'll probably stop signing new groups - new groups will have to develop themselves."

He added: "The best advice I could give to any young band is to do it yourself. Of course the major record companies will come in and sign two or three new bands a year and probably always will, but who'll own the major record companies? Probably a hedge fund."

Source: www.bbc.co.uk/6music

Rolling Stone’s 25 Greatest Songs Off Bad Albums

Over the weekend you guys submitted suggestions for our list of the greatest songs ever hidden away on bad albums. We pooled your nominations with ours, narrowed the whole list down and behold the results: our official list of the twenty-five greatest songs on bad albums.

1. “Under Pressure” off Queen’s Hot Space
2. “This Is England” off the Clash’s Cut The Crap
3. “Eminence Front” off The Who’s It’s Hard
4. “Brownsville Girl” off Bob Dylan’s Knocked Out Loaded
5. “Hallo Spaceboy” off David Bowie’s Outside
6. “Kill Your Sons” off Lou Reed’s Sally Can’t Dance
7. “2000 Light Years from Home” off the Rolling Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties
8. “Goin’ Home” off Neil Young’s Are You Passionate
9. “Song For Guy” off Elton John’s A Single Man
10. “Don’t Look Back” off Boston’s Don’t Look Back
11. “Jammin’ Me” off Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Let Me Up I’ve Had Enough
12. “Shipbuilding” off Elvis Costello’s Punch the Clock
13. “Go Let It Out” off Oasis’s Standing on the Shoulder of Giants
14. “Big Love” off Fleetwood Mac’s Tango In the Night
15. “Tonight” off Elton John’s Blue Moves
16. “Celluloid Heroes” off the Kinks’ Everybody’s in Show-Biz
17. “Country Death Song” off the Violent Femmes’ Hallowed Ground
18. “Busy Doin’ Nothin’” off the Beach Boys’ Friends
19. “Supernova” off Liz Phair’s Whip-Smart
20. “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” off Prince’s The Gold Experience
21. “Human Touch” off Bruce Springsteen’s Human Touch
22. “Learning To Fly” off Pink Floyd’s Momentary Lapse of Reason
23. “I Don’t Want Your Love” off Duran Duran’s Big Thing
24. “Wild Wild Life” off The Talking Heads’ True Stories
25. “My Love” off Wings’ Red Rose Speedway

Source: www.rollingstone.com