We’re Still Better Than Oasis

Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson is unrepentant about kicking off a row with Oasis by saying his band were better.

He told me: “I really opened a can of worms when I started talking about Oasis.

“It’s like a game of tennis now and it’s showing no signs of stopping. But at least we’re selling some records.”

Ricky reckons the first two Oasis albums were top-notch but things have gone a bit downhill for Noel and the lads.

I can’t agree but hats off to him for his honesty.

Sorce: www.thesun.co.uk

Is Oasis about to 'Dig Out' another breakthrough?

A dozen years ago, a Rolling Stone cover trumpeted "Oasis have conquered America, and they won't shut up about it."

The British band has lost some U.S. ground since 1995's (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, but they're still mouthing off.

REVIEW: 'Dig Out Your Soul' is a delight

That breakthrough album sold 3.9 million copies, seven times the combined U.S. sales of the group's last three studio albums. The dip is surprising because Oasis is the best rock band on the planet, its singer says.

"I don't say that for the sake of saying it," Liam Gallagher says. "There are other good bands. They're not as good as Oasis."

If seventh effort Dig Out Your Soul, released today, doesn't light up the charts, Oasis will compensate with receipts from a U.S. tour starting Dec. 3 in Oakland.

"It's funny that it seems Oasis is under the radar in the U.S., since they're one of the very few British rock bands able to fill arenas here," says Spin editor Doug Brod. "Oasis will never sell millions of records like they once did, but then very few artists will."

Slumping CD sales inspire artists to test unconventional distribution, yet Oasis, proudly old-school in its artistic approach, is leery. The band did stream Dig on its MySpace page last week, and Liam says he'd consider marketing innovations "as long as it's not selling out, and we don't look like a bunch of desperados."

But the notion of giving away music "doesn't sit right with me," he says, branding Radiohead's tip-jar sale of its In Rainbows download a publicity stunt. "This is my living. It costs me to make it, and it's going to cost you to buy it. If they won't buy it, I don't want them as our fans."

His guitarist brother, Noel, isn't distressed by piracy losses, which he figures siphon 25% off industry profits.

"That's what was spent on Champagne and limos," he says. "It's good when record companies panic. They need to streamline. Just like these big banks going under, and those Wall Street idiots driving Ferraris. What about people who had a hurricane rip apart their community? That's real pressure, my friend."

He prefers to leave business decisions to his manager.

"If he told me to sign with Timbuktu, I'd do it," says Noel, recalling recent business meetings "so mind-numbingly boring that you'd want to kill yourself. I look after choruses. That's my job."

A month ago, Oasis began whipping up excitement with single The Shock of the Lightning and a string of Canadian dates. And suddenly, a different bolt.

"I remember singing the chorus of Morning Glory and then I was in a heap on the floor," says Noel, who'd been assaulted onstage during a Sept. 7 concert in Toronto. "I can't remember seeing the guy. I had a bad pain on the left side of my chest. I couldn't stand up. I thought I'd been stabbed."

Initially treated locally for severely bruised ribs, Noel was diagnosed in London with broken ribs. The tour was halted, and it resumes tonight in Liverpool.

"I'm a bit down in the dumps and pretty spaced out on painkillers," he says. "Two ribs broke at the spine, so it's almost like a broken back. They can't manipulate them into place until they've healed. Another four weeks. It's taken the wind out of my sails."

The attack "freaked me out," says Liam, who attempted to tackle the assailant. He's less sympathetic now. "It could have been a lot worse. He'll live. It's mostly in his head now."

The Gallagher brothers' onstage harmony and offstage bickering have filled England's music press since Definitely Maybe arrived in 1994.

"Liam still takes the rivalry thing a bit seriously," says Noel, 41. "It's real with him. I do tend to annoy him a great deal. I don't mind that. When we get off tour, the last thing I want is to have dinner with Liam, after having dinner with him 365 nights. I've got another life outside Oasis. We're not 21 anymore. We're not The Monkees."

They're in rare accord on this.

"We haven't got a relationship, only musically," says Liam, 36. "I think he's a great musician. He thinks I'm a great singer. Do people want us to hold hands and walk in the park and have little coffees?"

The pair also share a high regard for their seventh studio album, which is earning critical raves, including "the most begrudging positive review I've seen in my life, from a magazine (The Observer) that notoriously despises Oasis," Noel points out.

Though U.S. sales have eroded, the band has maintained a solid reputation for Beatlesque guitar pop and Who-sized hooks and defiance, newly cemented by Dig's melodicism and dense psychedelia.

Oasis "may not have the current artistic cred of, say, Radiohead, but you can't underestimate their appeal as a classic-rock act," Brod says. "Their first two albums are masterpieces and they've recorded songs, such as Live Forever and Wonderwall, that are now part of the rock canon. What shocked me the last time I saw them — headlining Madison Square Garden a couple of years ago — was that the crowd was full of college students who were (kids) during the band's heyday."

An atheist, Noel is at a loss to explain Dig's multiple religious references.

"I don't believe any of the stories in the Bible, but I do like the imagery," he says. "I wish there were people with wings living in the clouds. But I don't see the hand of God anywhere."

Noel, who wrote six of Dig's 11 songs and is sitting on another 30 demos and finished tracks, says he's eager to release a solo album, provided Liam and guitarists Gem Archer and Andy Bell also pursue outside projects. (The band's fifth member, drummer Chris Sharrock, replaced Zak Starkey in May.)

"The others would have to agree, and that's not going to happen," he says. "They cry, you see."

Liam counters: "Let him do one. He's a big boy. It's not in my blood. I want to be in a band. I don't aspire to be a Robbie Williams."

Nor does he compete with Noel's songwriting output. "I write if nothing's on TV," says Liam, who contributed I'm Outta Time, Ain't Got Nothin' and Soldier On to Dig. "I get my kicks singing."

Besides, free time has grown scarce in both households now that parental duties encroach on their rock 'n' roll lifestyles. Liam rises at 6 a.m. for a run before taking his kids to school.

"There are other things in my life besides Oasis, like that big pile of ironing," he says. "But once I'm on that stage, let's go, man. Let's ram that music down people's throats. I haven't changed a bit."

Being a dad "has changed my life outside of the band profoundly," Noel says. "It hasn't changed my work in any way. But when I'm bored in a hotel, I get my videophone out and look at my children and wish I was playing cops and robbers with them.

"I used to listen to music all day every day in my formative years. That time goes out the window. Show me someone who listens to Pink Floyd, I'll show you someone who doesn't have kids."

Though hardly homebody teetotalers, the Gallaghers have calmed down since their feral '90s, when Noel wrote the band's early albums under the influence of cocaine.

"Our lives were very boring," Liam says. "Obviously, if you take drugs to make music, you're an idiot."

These days, the two make more headlines spewing toxins than ingesting them. Noel in particular infamously blasts peers, most recently James Blunt, Mark Ronson, Keane, Bloc Party and Kaiser Chiefs, whom he dubbed "fat idiots."

"I've said worse and lived to tell the tale," he says.

He has been especially vocal lately about troubled Rehab singer Amy Winehouse.

"She's probably dying as we speak," he says. "That girl is a mess, and the people around her are vampires. Solo artists are easy prey. When we were at the height of our drug problem, we had each other to say 'It's gone too far.' She has no one."

Before anyone can accuse him of sympathy, he cracks, "I was never a fan, to be honest."

Source: www.usatoday.com

Noel Gallagher Interview With Zane Lowe

Noel Gallagher was interviewed by Zane Lowe tonight show on BBC Radio 1.

Click here to listen to the interview, it starts a hour into the show.

Tune in tommorow between 7-9PM (UK) for a exclusive interview with Liam Gallagher.

Oasis' Liam Gallagher On New Album: 'It Could Be Our Best

It should come as no surprise to Oasis fans that the British band's latest album - out Oct. 7 - sounds a whole lot like their past albums.

Liam Gallagher's nasally whine is there, as are the band's signature rock 'n' roll melodies and their not-so-subtle nods to the Beatles. As a result, Dig Out Your Soul is sure to be a welcome addition to the collection of any die-hard Oasis fan - of which there are plenty here in Canada, as evidenced by the thousands who turned up for the band's recent Canadian dates.

We sat down with Liam Gallagher at the end of August, a few hours before the band's show at GM Place, to talk about the new album and Oasis's place in the rock world.

Here are some excerpts from that conversation:

Q. How did it feel last night to play your first North American concert in years?

A. The crowds were great. You know what the first gig is like. You're jet-lagged and all that nonsense and it was a'right. It wasn't our best but we'll get there. People seemed to like it. I'll say it, we were a bit nervous with the new songs and stuff, to be quite honest. I was anyway. But there were bits of genius in there.

Q. Such as?

A. I don't know. We've done some good versions of songs.

Q. And the new album?

A. It's a'right.

Q. How does it rank for you among other Oasis albums?

A. It's the freshest one to date. So there are some good songs on there. Oasis is a different band from what it was 10 years ago and people got to realize that and I've got to realize that, and we're writing a different kind of music, but we're still writing good songs, I think. . . . It's good, man. I think it's a great record. It could be our best.

Q. You say Oasis is a different band. How so?

A. We're different people in the band, you know what I mean? We're getting older, you know what I mean? Musically, we're different. I think we're better.

Q. How?

A. Better technically, better at everything. I think we're a better band, man. Personally, we're better. Everything. Yeah man.

Q. You had a reputation for being very hot-headed. Have you cooled off?

A. It depends on the situation. If there's someone taking the f**king piss then I can go off, man. But if people are being cool, then I'm one of the sweetest guys in the world. Like I say, it depends on the situation. But I've chilled out a bit. I don't stay out drinking and doing all that nonsense any more because you can't and I don't want to. I don't have the energy for it.

Q. The Verve has a new album out. Between you and them, do you foresee a bit of a Britpop revival?

A. I hope not. I hated it the first time. It was rubbish. I don't like Britpop. That was the press getting smart and labelling ya. But I don't think the Verve are Britpop. I think Blur were Britpop and Supergrass were Britpop and all them, Menswear and bands like that . . . I think we were writing more deeper and special music than 'Girls who dig boys who dig girls.' You know what I mean? That kind of thing. No. I don't think we were Britpop.

Q. The title of the new album is Dig Out Your Soul. Where does that come from?

A. It comes from a lyric on [guitarist] Gem [Archer]'s song. And Noel was messing with a couple of titles - you'll have to ask him about 'em - but nothing seemed to stick. This one is sort of, you know, psychedlic and all that, you know, and you got to try hard man, to dig out your soul. Come on man, let's get in there, see what's there.

Q. How's the state of your soul?

A. My soul is just, absolutely, words can't describe it, man. And I'd hate to say the wrong words, but my soul is always magical, beautiful, challenging.

Q. How do you fuel it?

A. How do I feel it? My soul?

Q. No. How do you fuel it? Keep it going?

A. By not being a dick, man. And being cool, man. And being nice to people around you that you love and stuff like that. And by being a good person. Trying to be a good person. I am a good person.

Q. What are you hoping from this new album?

A. It's a magical album in my head and nobody can take that away from me regardless of whether it sells two copies, or two million copies or 20 million copies. It's already got its own life in my head. I'm very proud of it. I'm proud to be in a band with these guys and I hope they feel the same way. I'ts amazing, as far as I'm concerned. It'd be nice if people like it. I like it. But if you don't like it you don't like it. You can't force people to like your music.

Q. Do you have a favourite song on the album?

A. I like it all, man. I really like it all. Like it all. I mean [the songs I wrote] are pretty special and that, it's a personal thing. But I like 'em all man."

Source: www.vancouversun.com

Oasis Called Police To Remove Studio Lunatic

Rockers Oasis were forced to call in the police while recording new album Dig Out Your Soul - because a "lunatic" gained access to their studio and threatened to kill them.

The band locked themselves away in London's Abbey Road studios, made famous by the Beatles, to work on their seventh album.

But security was breached when a man arrived and made threats against their lives.
Singer/guitarist Noel Gallagher says, "There was an incident when some f**king lunatic turned up at the studio saying he'd written all the songs that we hadn't yet recorded.

The police had to be called - he threatened to kill us, although not (my brother) Liam, funnily enough."

Source: www.contactmusic.com

Russell Brand: 'I'll Boost Oasis' New Album Sales By 50 Percent'

He is confident...

Comedian Russell Brand has joked that he'll help boost sales of Oasis' new album by 50% because he has provided a voiceover for the LP's promotional campaign.

Brand can be heard promoting 'Dig Out Your Soul', which was released today (October 6th), in television adverts.

The comedian was praised by Noel Gallagher when the Oasis guitarist appeared on Brand's BBC 2 Radio show last week.

Gallagher said Brand had done a “very, very good job” at creating some “funny” adverts – but he voiced doubts about how the voiceover might help album sales.

In reply, Brand said: “Well, I would say you can look forward to a 50% increase because a lot of people say this is the voice of a nation you're listening to now.”

Gallagher then said: “I somehow think that however many we sell, you're going to be pretty much taking the credit for it,” to which Brand replied: “I would say so. I'll be looking for some of that credit.”

Previous Oasis album campaigns have received voiceovers from Ricky Gervais and Ricky Tomlinson.

Source: www.gigwise.com

Oasis' Noel Gallagher: 'Marilyn Manson Is A Cool Geezer'

Oasis' Noel Gallagher has described Marilyn Manson as a “cool geezer” - but was less kind about the performer's music.

In an interview with MTV, Gallagher said he liked “everything” about Manson, “except his music”.

“I’ve got to say man, he’s a cool geezer,” Gallagher said.

The Oasis guitarist also gave similar praise to Biffy Clyro, calling them the UK's equivalent to the Foo Fighters. “They’re real top geezers,” he added.

Oasis release their new album 'Dig Out Your Soul' today. (October 6th). Their UK tour will begin tomorrow in Liverpool.

Source: www.gigwise.com

Oasis New Album 'Dig Out Your Soul In Stores Today

I'm popping along to my local record store to pick up the new album today...

‘Dig Out Your Soul’ was produced by Dave Sardy who worked with the band on 2005’s, ‘Don’t Believe The Truth’. It was recorded at Abbey Road and mixed in Los Angeles. All four band members once again contribute tracks.

The tracklisting for ‘Dig Out Your Soul’:

Bag It Up
The Turning
Waiting For The Rapture
The Shock Of The Lightning
I’m Outta Time
(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady
Falling Down
To Be Where There’s Life
Ain’t Got Nothin’
The Nature of Reality
Soldier On

Big Brother Recordings also announced a few weeks ago that they will be making the new Oasis album, ‘Dig Out Your Soul’, available in two separate formats for download purchasers.

In addition to the full-length album, the band will be releasing a simple ten-track mp3 version for £5. This will be available from a variety of online stores and Oasisinet.

A spokesperson for the label said, "We want to give the fans more of a choice. If you just want to get the tracks you've heard on the radio and check out a bit more of the band's new music you can for a reasonable price".

The full-length version of the album will also be available at all online stores and for fans that buy it on Oasisinet.com & Itunes it comes with a half hour documentary on the making of the album.

This is the first time a new Oasis album has been made available on mp3 from release.

Finally, fans who pre-order 'Dig Out Your Soul' from iTunes will also receive a bonus track in the form of the Liam written ‘I Believe In All’ on day of release.

The Wit And Wisdom Of Noel Gallagher

She may not be mad for his music, but pop critic Fiona Shepherd reveres the wit and wisdom of Noel Gallagher

A couple of weeks ago Noel Gallagher, in his eternal, blokeish wisdom, produced a highly predictable list of the ten greatest rock bands of all time, noting with deliberately inflammatory prejudice that "no female artists" were "allowed". It wasn't his finest moment, but for sheer ignorance it paled next to his notorious response to the news that Jay-Z was headlining this year's Glastonbury Festival: "I'm not having hip-hop at Glastonbury," quoth he. "It's wrong."

Shame on you, Noel – you let your fans down, you let your band down, but most of all you let yourself down. Because we have come to expect better of rock's accidental sage.

Ever since the circulation of the Wibbling Rivalry tapes (featuring a hilarious, heated argument between Noel and younger sibling Liam) back in 1994, it has been clear that the Gallaghers give good quote and, now that Liam has decided he prefers jogging to skirmishing, it is Noel to whom we look for an entertaining rant.

He has exhibited a flair for stoking controversy ever since his notorious pronouncement that compared drug-taking to having a morning cup of tea. Often, his comments are just plain noxious – he has called Kylie "a demonic little idiot", proclaimed that The Backstreet Boys should be shot and was more than happy to stoke a bitter rivalry with Blur – in particular, frontman Damon Albarn – at the height of Britpop (yet has all the time in the world for a dullard like Richard Ashcroft).

I shouldn't be listening, but I am. Like many people, I would rather read an interview with Noel Gallagher than listen to his dreary music. His soundbites at least have the modicum of wit, spice and imagination that is lacking in his songwriting.

Gallagher has no aspirations to be either a Wildean wit or a spokesperson for a generation (and he has harsh words for those who would); instead, he just sounds-off prejudicially, like some guy down the pub – which is part of the appeal.

He can be off-puttingly boastful, once claiming that the only reason he is not the most lionised pop songwriter of them all is that The Beatles got there before him.

Most of the time (Jay-Z slight aside, I would hazard), he knows exactly what he is doing and what effect his remarks will have.

But sometimes he does actually make a judicious observation, such as his response to George Michael's Bush-bashing single Shoot the Dog – "This is the guy who hid who he actually was from the public for 20 years, and now, all of a sudden, he's got something to say about the way of the world? I find it laughable," he scoffed.

Ultimately, Gallagher doesn't take himself too seriously, and neither should we. Describing himself as "equal part genius, equal part buffoon", he at least shows self-awareness, if not grammatical and linguistic skill.

My favourite Noel Gallagher quote is a consummate distillation of his half-baked philosophy, wicked wit and downright irreverence – in sharing it, I can allow Noel to have the last word.

"Do you ever look at the sky and think, 'I'm glad I'm alive?'" he once pontificated. "After I heard System of a Down, I thought, I'm actually alive to hear the shittiest band of all time."

Source: www.thescotsman.co.uk

Oasis 'Dig Out Your Soul' Review

Oasis’s best records should be heard in bars, with lots of people talking and a game on the television. Its giant planes of guitar sound and Liam Gallagher’s slow-motion nasal burr — one of the great British sounds — complement the petty emotions and electronic hum that surround us in public places; the songs’ lyrics, trivial and social, keep time sliding along. Any bar will do, though Oasis albums since “Standing on the Shoulder of Giants,” from 2000, might go better in a wine bar. The songs would fit the clientele: slower, more self-conscious, less invincible.

But “Dig Out Your Soul,” the group’s seventh studio album, should be heard in a really good stereo showroom: an extraordinary one with high-end stuff, and where the salesmen might let you have beer and chips while you listen. Produced by Dave Sardy, the record is an interior trip, rich with guitar and voices and organs and keyboards, some of the sonic layers scuffed and some clear as water. You get the full measure of the sound because the songs stay in single chords for longer. It’s an expensive record valorizing the drone.

It sounds so good; really, it sounds better than it is. Noel Gallagher, the band’s guitarist and principal songwriter, wrote half the album and the best of its droney tracks: “Bag It Up,” “The Shock of the Lightning,” “(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady.” They all go down in the first half, and they’re not fascinating; they don’t particularly show off his skill for the unexpected chord change. As ambitious as it is in the experience of sound and groove, “Dig Out Your Soul” is unambitious in songwriting content.

It’s derivative too — mostly, and unsurprisingly, of the Beatles, the Gallaghers’ favorite band. There are small echoes of many post-“Revolver” Beatles songs: sharp, pinpointed references, specific sounds on specific guitar chords, piano figures, and drum rhythms played by Zak Starkey, Ringo Starr’s son. (A nearly inaudible clip of a John Lennon interview, from shortly before his death, rustles through the background of Liam Gallagher’s ballad “I’m Outta Time.”) But it doesn’t stop at the Beatles: “High Horse Lady” welds together David Essex’s “Rock On” and Tommy Tucker’s “High Heel Sneakers.”

These songs are heavy with thoughts about time. They’re mildly philosophical, but not so spiritual that they would make you put down the beer and chips. “The Nature of Reality” is, offhandedly, about the nonexistence of objective truth. And “Soldier On,” with its endless-march feeling borrowed from the end of “I Am the Walrus,” is pure stiff-upper-lip: “Who’s to say that you were right and I was wrong/Soldier on/Come the day, come the night, I’ll be gone/Soldier on.” BEN RATLIFF

Source: www.nytimes.com

Going To Any Of The Upcoming Oasis Shows?

And taking your camera along....

I have added all the photographs that I have been sent to date to the 'Dig Out Your Soul' Tour Archive (here).

Just send your photographs from the gigs to scyhodotcom@gmail.com

You can include of the band onstage, meeting the band, the venue or even you and your friends at the gigs.

Please include what show they are from...

A few shows are missing but hopefully a few of you reading this can send in your own photos, to fill in the blanks.

I've received loads of great photographs from readers of the blog to date, I'm going to the first date in Liverpool and a few others around the country over the next few weeks.

I look forward to receiving you photographs and adding them to the archive.

OASIS - Dig Out Your Soul Album Review

5 stars out of 5

The last time Oasis tried experimenting, on 2000’s Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, it made for an album even worse than Be Here Now.

After Don’t Believe The Truth finally saw band is back to its best and them back to their best, they’ve gone one better and can finally dismiss any “Beatles rip-off” insults. The songs written by Noel Gallagher on the first half are the heaviest they’ve ever done, with hard rock guitars like their mates Kings Of Leon for massive hard rock guitars as Liam Gallagher sings in a new gruff voice like Johnny Cash on The Turning and Liam singing in a new gruff voice.

Of Liam’s songs, the sweet I’m Outta Time is Songbird Part 2, and the biggest surprise is guitarist Gem Archer’s To Be Where There’s Life – addictive funk like The Rolling Stones’ Sympathy For The Devil.

Any of the 11 tracks will fit brilliantly next to the classics at concerts. Seven albums in, and Oasis have never been more inventive. Still the rock & roll band all others in Britain have to be judged by.

Source: www.newsoftheworld.co.uk

Oasis 'Dig Out Your Soul' Review

Maturity always seemed an alien concept to Oasis. The brothers Gallagher may have worshiped music made before their birth but there was no respect to their love: they stormed the rock & roll kingdom with no regard for anyone outside themselves, a narcissism that made perfect sense when they were young punks, as youth wears rebellion well, but the group's trump card was how their snottiness was leveled by their foundation in classic pop. This delicate balance was thrown out of whack after phenomenal success of 1995's (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, when the group sunk into a pit of excess that they couldn't completely escape for almost a full decade. When Oasis did begin to re-emerge on 2005's Don't Believe the Truth they sounded like journeymen, purveyors of no-frills rock & roll.

All this makes the wallop of 2008's Dig Out Your Soul all the more bracing. Colorful and dense where Don't Believe the Truth was straightforward, Dig Out Your Soul finds Oasis reconnecting to the churning psychedelic undercurrents in their music, sounds that derive equally from mid-period Beatles and early Verve. This is heavy, murky music, as dense, brutal, and loud as Oasis has ever been, building upon the swagger of Don't Believe and containing not a hint of the hazy drift of their late-'90s records: it's what Be Here Now would have sounded like without the blizzard of cocaine and electronica paranoia. Dig Out Your Soul doesn't have much arrogance, either, as Oasis' strut has mellowed into an off-hand confidence, just like how Noel Gallagher's hero worship has turned into a distinct signature of his own, as his Beatlesque songs sound like nobody else's, not even the Beatles. His only real rival at this thick, surging pop is his brother Liam, who has proven a sturdy, if not especially flashy songwriter with a knack for candied Lennonesque ballads like "I'm Outta Time." To appreciate what Liam does, turn to Gem Archer's "To Be Where There's Life" and Andy Bell's "The Nature of Reality," which are enjoyable enough Oasis-by-numbers, but Liam's numbers resonate, getting stronger with repeated plays, as the best Oasis songs always do.

But, as it always does, Oasis belongs to Noel Gallagher, who pens six of the 11 songs on Dig Out Your Soul, almost every one of them possessing the same sense of inevitability that marked his best early work. Best among these are the titanic stomp of "Waiting for the Rapture" and the quicksilver kaleidoscope of "The Shock of the Lightning," a pair of songs that rank among his best, but the grinding blues-psych of "Bag It Up" and gently cascading "The Turning" aren't far behind, either. These have the large, enveloping melodies so characteristic of this work and what impresses is that he can still make music that sounds not written, but unearthed. These six tunes are Noel's strongest since Morning Glory -- so strong it's hard not to wish he wrote the whole LP himself -- but what's striking about Dig Out Your Soul is how its relentless onslaught of sound proves as enduring as the tunes. This is the sound of a mature yet restless rock band: all the brawn comes from the guitars, all the snarl comes from Liam Gallagher's vocals, who no longer sounds like a young punk but an aged, battered brawler who wears his scars proudly, which is a sentiment that can apply to the band itself. They're now survivors, filling out the vintage threads they've always worn with muscle and unapologetic style.

Source: www.allmusic.com

This Week's Top Ten Best Selling UK Singles

10 - Gym Class Heroes Ft The Dream - Cookie Jar
09 - Iglu & Hartly - In This City
08 - Pussycat Dolls - When I Grow Up
07 - Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl
06 - Rihanna - Disturbia
05 - Boyzone - Love You Anyway
04 - Sugababes - Girls
03 - Oasis - The Shock Of The Lightning
02 - Kings Of Leon - Sex On Fire
01 - Pink - So What

Oasis have entered the UK Official Singles Charts at number 3 on this weeks chart, Pink claimed her second UK number one single, her first since Just Like A Pill in 2002.

Upcoming Oasis TV & Radio Appearances

October 5th, 2008 - Dave Pearce, BBC 6 Music, London, England (Noel Gallagher interview)
20:00 -22:00 (UK) listen here.
Noel Gallagher from Oasis will be telling Dave about his ultimate Dance Anthem.

October 6th, 2008 - Gonzo, MTV2, London, England (Noel & Gem and Liam & Andy interviews)
21:00 - 22:00 (UK) MTV 2
Followed by 22:00 - 00:00 Oasis: Takeover
Brand new and exclusive! Oasis take over the airwaves now for a chat and to play their favourite videos of all time.

October 7th, 2008 - Steve Lamacq, BBC 6 Music, London, England (Andy Bell interview)
October 8th, 2008 - Steve Lamacq, BBC 6 Music, London, England (Liam Gallagher interview)
October 9th, 2008 - Steve Lamacq, BBC 6 Music, London, England (Gem Archer interview)
October 10th, 2008 - Steve Lamacq, BBC 6 Music, London, England (Noel Gallagher interview)

16:00 - 1900 (UK) listen here.

It's Oasis Week, as Steve speaks to a different member each day. Join him as Gem, Liam and Andy will be on the phone whilst Friday sees Noel Gallagher in the studio.

New Oasis Posters Available From PLAY.COM

Play.com have two a pre-order for two Oasis posters for release on 17/10/2008.

The posters are 61cm x 91.5cm (24 x 36 inches) and available here.

Source: www.play.com

Australian Interview With Noel Gallagher

"F**n' hell ' you're making us look like Bon Jovi," yells Noel Gallagher at the photographer as all of us in the North London photo studio try to suppress a chuckle, in an effort not to encourage Noel, so that the photographer can get on with his job. It's not an easy job, taking photos of someone who can't be arsed.

More photos, more interviews - Oasis are on the promotional trail for their new album Dig Out Your Soul, and Inpress has been granted access to the band's amusingly cheeky and immodest spokesman, Noel. The new album is an independently funded recording, and is once again produced by Dave Sardy, who worked on the last Oasis album, Don't Believe The Truth. Boasting all the melodic qualities that have become synonymous with the band, the album also treads new ground as a result of further lyrical exploration, tempo changes, and musical innovation (interesting drum patterns, et al).

Always quick with a slicing quip - especially in the direction of his brother - Noel has jumped on the sofa and is ready to chat about Dig Out Your Soul and the world of Oasis. There is little doubt that there are few interviewees who are as entertaining as Noel, so without further ado...

Coldplay said that they brought in a hypnotherapist to their recording sessions. Did you guys get involved in the new age science for the new album?
"I'm afraid not, no. Is that true, or were they joking?"

No, that's what they told me - honestly.
"They brought a hypnotherapist in to hypnotise them?"

Apparently so. They told me it was to help with self-awareness.
"What? He hypnotised them so they could become more aware of themselves?"

Yeah. It was a friend of (producer) Brian Eno.
"Ah, yeah, well that's (what) you get for working with Brian Eno, innit? That, and a lot of lentil soup, one would imagine."

Is there any weighting in accordance with the group structure when Dave Sardy selects songs to record for the album?
"I don't expect preference. It just so happens that I tend to be far more brilliant than anybody else. It's a f**g curse I've had to live with, for a long time."

Tell us about the first single, The Shock Of The Lightning
"That song wasn't even written when the album started. We had a weekend off and I went home, and that song fell out of the sky and landed right in my lap, and I just wrote a few words that rhymed."

There's also the 'magical mystery' Beatles reference in there... Did you do it consciously?
"Oh yeah, you gotta get a Beatles reference in there now and again - the Japanese love that. It was only pointed out to me when I started doing the promo a few backs back that there were some Beatles references in the new music, and I was like, 'Where?'. It didn't dawn on me when I was doing it."

I'm Outta Time has a touch of the Beatles too, right?
"The John Lennon sample you can't hear?"

I heard it.
"No you didn't; you can't hear it. What does he even say then?"

Err... I don't know... but it was obviously Lennon.
"There you go then."

So it's not a posthumous duet then?
"What, like Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole? No."

Ever thought about doing one?
"What, throttling Liam, and killing him, and then doing a duet with him when he's dead? The idea has suddenly become very appealing."

Waiting For The Rapture is a pretty sexy track, isn't it?
"It's about meeting an angel on a night out at a club called Space in Ibiza. Some would say I was taking drugs, or it was a dream. It did happen a long time ago - eight years ago to be precise."

If you were inclined to have sex to your own music, would that be the one?
(Laughter) "Unfortunately, if I was inclined to have sex to my own music I'd be distracted by the bass drum, thinking, 'F**k, I could have got that sound better'."

How are you preparing psychologically for being on the road together for your upcoming world tour?
"There's two buses - Liam's in charge of one, and I'm in charge of the other. My tour bus is very calm: card games, scrabble, a bit of knitting, maybe watch some old documentaries about whittling. Liam has drinking games on his bus, and people setting fire to their own farts. Our worlds don't collide on tour - I see him onstage and that's enough."

Give us the word on this supposed feud you had with Jay-Z regarding Glastonbury.
"This won't come as any surprise to you, but the British press just grabbed the wrong end of the stick, and then beat about the bush with it for six weeks."

Did you feel you had to defend yourself?
"No, not at all. I never said anything. I made a comment about ticket sales at Glastonbury, and then all of a sudden it was like I was saying, 'How dare a rap artist come to our country and infiltrate your children?'. I never said that. It was ludicrous, to be honest."

What is it you want people to get from this record?
"That I'm still - after 15 f**n' years - a f**n' genius."

Do you promise that the wheels won't fall off the tour bus before it gets to Australia?
"No, not at all. There's too much money involved for the wheels to come off these days. I'll be there regardless, even if I have to come with ukulele and a f**n' bass drum on my back."

Source: Inpress Magazine

Oasis Goodie Bag Given To Irish Fans

A special gift was given out on Friday for the first few Irish Oasis fans who bought the new Oasis album Dig Out Your Soul in HMV Dublin.

The lucky few were given a goodie bag that included a Oasis Tote Bag, Oasis Pin Badge, Oasis Deck Of Cards and more.

The Shock Of The Lightning entered the Irish Charts this week at number 12 in the singles chart.

Oasis' Greatest Hits

Noel Gallagher denies he's a tough guy, but that hasn't stopped him and his brother from brawling with fans, bandmates and each other over the years. A few of their more famous dustups:

1994 During their first U.S. tour, Liam changes the words of Noel's songs, offending both him and U.S. fans. During a post-show confrontation, a chair is thrown and Noel leaves the tour.

1995 While recording (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, the brothers have a violent fight involving a cricket bat after Liam invites everyone from a pub to the studio where Noel is working.

1997 In Australia, Liam is charged with assault after head-butting a 19-year-old fan who claims he was asking him for a photo. The charges are dropped, and a lawsuit is settled out of court.

2000 While drinking in Barcelona, Liam insults Noel's wife sparking a scuffle. Noel leaves and vows to quit the tour, but eventually returns.

2001 Shortly after the birth of Liam's second son in July, the singer tries to drag a photographer into a fight outside the hospital.

2002 Liam, drummer Alan White and members of their entourage are arrested after a drunken brawl in a Munich club. Liam, who also tested positive for alleged cocaine use, loses two front teeth, while Alan is hit in the head with an ashtray. Liam claims they are fighting Italian gangsters -- who turn out to be real-estate agents and computer salesmen.

2007 While shopping with then-fiancee Nicole Gallagher and son Gene, Liam attacks a photographer, pummelling him with fists and insults for apparently following too closely.

2008 Noel is assaulted onstage during Virgin Festival in Toronto by a man who shoved him down into his monitor speakers and then lunged at Liam before being tackled by security. Noel -- who recently admitted he initially thought he had been stabbed -- sustained three broken ribs. Daniel Sullivan, 47 of Pickering, Ont., has been charged with assault and is due in court Oct. 24.

Source: www.edmontonsun.com

Oasis Back In The Groove

Dig Out Your Soul

Sun Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5

For 15 years, Noel Gallagher has been making it look easy. But lately, he's just taking it easy.

Just dig into Dig Out Your Soul and hear for yourself. The seventh Oasis studio album is earthy and relaxed, noisy and experimental, groove-based and trippy -- in short, a big change from the tightly crafted Brit-pop of the band's early days.

This is all Noel's doing, of course. Or his undoing. Over the last few years and albums, the Mancunians' mercurial musical mastermind has slowly morphed from a blatant control freak into a laissez-faire, semi-benevolent dictator, gradually loosening his grip on the band's sound and songwriting.

Here, his passive-aggressive tactics have their pros and cons. On the plus side: These songs are warmer and livelier, avoiding linear verse-chorus-solo arrangements for looser, more organically flowing arrangements. The stream-of-consciousness approach is echoed by the atmospheric, layered production, with tunes casually flowing into each other, loosely connected by effects, field recordings or musical vignettes.

And while some cuts feel underwritten, Noel still hasn't lost his uncanny ability to skilfully rearrange classic-rock moments into songs that are more than the sum of their name-that-tune parts.

On the minus side: He doesn't do enough of it. Of the 11 cuts on this 45-minute disc, only five are new Noel numbers, with another being a recycled oldie. Three others come from singer Liam Gallagher, with a token track each from guitarist Gem Archer and bassist Andy Bell.

They're okay, but honestly, they can't hold a candle to Noel's work -- which is why most of them are jammed onto the end of the front-loaded disc. Even the title is a bit of a burn. It sounds like a plea for spiritual self-examination -- but it's just a tossed-off line about a DJ playing old Motown records.

Bottom line: Dig Out Your Soul is still an intriguing and entrancing work. But Noel might want to consider cracking the whip a bit more next time.

After all, there is such a thing as taking it too easy.

Bag It Up 4:39

Hit the ground running? Not these guys. Instead, they warm up with a thumpy, mid-tempo groove that tops a simple, gritty riff and haunting keyboards with lyrics that claim "the freaks are rising up through the floor." As long as they're not rushing the stage.

The Turning 5:05

"When the rapture takes me," sings Liam, "Be the fallen angel by my side." Fittingly, the cut starts off simple and soulful, then launches into a fuzzy arena-rock chorus with soaring backups.

Waiting for the Rapture 3:03

Again with the Rapture -- but this time it's Noel on the mic, praising a woman who "put an apple in my eye" over a chugging, bluesy riff that borrows from The Doors' Five to One.

The Shock of the Lightning 5:02

The disc's first single is this pumping rocker with a hooky chorus, a Keith Moon-style drum solo, and lyrics about love being a "magical mystery." Huh. Where have we heard that before?

I'm Outta Time 4:10

Liam wrote three tunes this time. Here's the first: A slow 'n' steady Lennonesque piano ballad that even has a snippet of an old BBC interview with John. One for the girls, as Noel puts it.

(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady 4:07

The lazy stomp-clap rhythm echoes Give Peace a Chance, but the dry, rootsy shimmer of the guitars makes this the most American-sounding cut. It's also the oldest -- Noel says it's been around for eight years.

Falling Down 4:20

Noel (who also sang High Horse Lady) handles the vocals again on this string-sweetened psychedelic rocker topped with twangy Bond overtones. "We live a dying dream, if you know what I mean," he says. Um, not really.

To Be Where There's Life 4:35

Sorry, Noel fans: Starting here, he passes the songwriting torch for the rest of the disc. Here's guitarist Gem Archer's contribution: A hypnotic slow-burner full of sitar-like buzzing. Skippable.

Ain't Got Nothin' 2:15

Liam's second tune is this surprisingly punchy rocker bashed out in waltz time. It's short, sharp and simple -- but that's exactly why it works.

The Nature of Reality 3:48

Bassist Andy Bell splices bits of Helter Skelter, Revolution and a million blues tunes into a slow-whomping nugget of glammy boogie. Seriously, Noel couldn't have written one more song?

Soldier On 4:49

Liam takes it home with another plodding acoustic rocker. But while the song is nothing special, at least the echoing vocals and spacey keyboards are nice touches.

Source: www.edmontonsun.com