Because it's Pop Montreal, and because I feel like it, and because it's not every day that you get to sit down face to face with, as a friend so succinctly said, one of "The World's Greatest Living Englishmen," this week's instalment will skew towards topics musical. Namely, Liam Gallagher of Oasis, once (self) described as the greatest rock band on the planet. And for a time they probably weren't wrong.
Their Bell Centre performance Sept. 5 certainly supported that contention, awe-inspiring clinic in classic rock songwriting that it was, and only the third time the Mancunians had set foot in Montreal since their formation in 1991. It followed a phenomenal 1995 private showcase for about 300 folks at the old Club Soda (during which Gallagher never took his eyes off the ceiling or his hands out of his pockets) and an uneven 2002 Molson Centre show that typified the group's malaise at the time.
Oasis could be poised for resurgence - as much as any formerly 50-million-album selling artists are poised for resurgence in the new reality of the music industry - on the strength of their seventh album, Dig Out Your Soul. But has the band embraced the new business?
"Well you'd have to ask my money, I don't do business," says Gallagher unapologetically. "I just go up and do the thing. I sing, man. The minute I start getting involved in business is a damn sad day for rock'n'roll... I don't get involved in none o' that shit."
Gallagher is similarly unperturbed when it comes to illegal file sharing
of their music.
"It doesn't really piss me off. I'd prefer it if they paid for it and all that, but I'm not in it to make money to be quite honest - I'm in it to not be fucking working in a fucking McDonald's, y'know what I mean? ...If people fuckin' sting you for a bit, who gives a fuck? I've got enough money."
Which for some reason reminds me that on the way to the Bell Centre, I was figuring I had a moral obligation to scrap him. Two battle-tested vets from opposing sides of the music tracks in an interview room cage match. And then I got a close-up look at him whilst sitting down, both of us leaning forward on our knees, his face about 12 inches away from mine. Oddly, it was right around then I had an abrupt change of heart. The guy is a monster. And by that I mean in frighteningly top shape, cannons for arms and broad across the back. In short, not the vaporous, coke-eroded beer fart I'd misled myself to believe. And there is a reason for that.
"I've gotten into running, which I never used to do," Gallagher says with something shockingly akin to enthusiasm. "If I've not been drinking, I'll get up at about 6 in the morning and I'll run about fuckin' 10 miles, come back, take the kids to school. That's what I do, man."
Indeed he does. Park-goers on the mountain a few weeks ago would have been treated to an uncommon sight. "I went for a run up to the top of Mont Royal," he says.
While the fitness fanaticism certainly runs counter to popular preconception, so does his assertion that he - who at one time seemed genetically predisposed to bailing on shows - actually loves performing live.
"What? Because I don't walk around with a big sticker on my head sayin', 'I'm having a great night, and are you all having a great night? Woo-hoo! Can I have some fuckin' crowd activities?'" he snaps back.
"There's enough fucking bands going on stage and yapping at the crowd. I wouldn't be there if I weren't having a good time, believe you me. But it's just the way I am, man - I'm not fucking Cliff Richard, and I'm not fucking Dave Grohl. I'm Liam Gallagher and I just want to sing my songs."
And speaking of songs, the new single, The Shock of the Lightning, shows Oasis back in fighting form. "To me it's the Sex Beatles. People used to compare us to The Beatles and The Sex Pistols and I think that song's about as close as you're going to get to that."
It's all Christmas tree and no ornaments.
"It's the meat and veg isn't it? I mean, that's the kind of music we like to make. It's nothing new, it's all been done before, it's simple rock'n'roll music. You either like it or you fuckin' hate it, and I hope it's one or the other and nowhere in between."
While the writing has evolved, Gallagher's distant singing style hasn't changed even minutely from the days when I first saw him at Club Soda. And, to hear him tell it, there's more craft than contempt in his posturing.
"I get a bit more power from my voice [standing that way]. Holding microphones is like fucking bingo calling: 'Hey fuckin' N 60.' It's like, fuck that. That's just the way it is. Plus I'm not a dancer, man - I just don't dance."
At the end of the day, Gallagher comes off as a man at peace, self-satisfied even.
"I am pretty self-satisfied,' he concurs. "I've done okay, I'm cool. I just want to be the biggest band in the world. It's not all about selling records, that's kind of old. I just want people to come and see us and enjoy it and get what we are. And what we are is no-frills. I'm sick of guys jumpin' around with fuckin' makeup on acting like women. It's like, fuck off, just fuckin' nail it."
Source: www.hour.ca
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