Big Brother Lose Stock In Fire Caused By Rioting In London

A warehouse holding large amounts of stock for the UK's leading independent record labels was destroyed as rioting spread across London last night (August 8).

PIAS distribution, which handles releases from Big Brother, XL Recordings, Beggars, Domino, Wall Of Sound, Warp Defected and Sunday Best saw its warehouse in Enfield burnt down in scenes of unrest that spread across the city, as well as other parts of the UK.

The three-storey building was also home to Sony's distribution base in the UK.

Spencer Hickman, of Rough Trade record shops, wrote this morning via Twitter: "PIAS distribution got burnt to the ground last night, they look after XL Group, Domino, at least most of the big indies."

Rob Da Bank also took to his Twitter feed to confirm: "So looks like all our Sunday Best stock went up in flames last night in the PIAS blaze."

Although the full extent of the damage is so far unclear, there are already fears about the impact the loss of so much stock at once will have on the already-strained independent music sector.

Last night saw the third consecutive day of rioting, after a peaceful protest in Tottenham on Saturday (August 6) over the death of Mark Duggan during a police operation, turned violent. By last night, rioting and looting had spread to Hackey, Camden, Ealing, Clapham, and also spreading out into Birmingham.

Source: www.nme.com

Strum Might Say Liam Gallagher's Bored

Liam Gallagher clearly hasn't got his Beady Eye on a new guitar player.

The singer looked unimpressed with the strumming skills of a Londoner who serenaded him outside his home yesterday.

The opportunist music man - who wore the frontman's favourite style of coat - burst into song upon seeing Liam, who politely stood and listened.

However, his body language - a rub of the chin and a pained expression - suggested he wasn't about to offer him a job.

Hats off to the singer though for briefly leaving the security of his gated property to make the wannabe rock star's day.

Click here to see the pictures.

Source: www.thesun.co.uk

Charity Auction: Electric Guitar Signed By Beady Eye

War Child has joined forces with 102.1 The Edge to bring you a weekly online auction of amazing memorabilia, tickets, and unique experiences, while helping children in war zones.

This week's auction is a signed guitar from Beady Eye.

All money raised will go towards helping children whose lives have been devastated by war, click here to make a bid or to have a closer look.

Questions For Noel Gallagher

This week Andy Goldstein is recording a special hour long chat with Noel Gallagher about the forth coming Premier league season that will be broadcast on Monday 5th September on talkSport.

The questions MUST be about football, to submit your questions click here.

Vote For Oasis As The 'Greatest Act Of The Last 25 Years'

This year marks Q’s 25th birthday, to celebrate, Q – in association with BlackBerry is launching a nationwide vote to determine The Greatest Act Of The Last 25 Years.

The winner will be announced at the Q Awards on 24 October.

Find out more info at qthemusic or vote for Oasis here (CLICK ON THE CREATE YOUR 25 BUTTON).

Forever The People: On The Road With Oasis 1997/98 Ebook

Forever The People by Paolo Hewitt is now an ebook and is available at a special low price here.

"Forever the People" is the follow-up book to "Getting High". The book charts the continuing success of Oasis as well as providing a fly-on-the-wall insight into the band's characters and their lifestyles.

Own A life-Sized Silhouette Of Liam Gallagher

Earlier this year there was an art exhibition called Cutting Edge which featured 30 life-sized silhouettes made from carten steel.

Liam Gallagher was one of the silhouettes and they are now being auctioned off for charity, with all the proceeds going to Manchester charity the Wood Street Mission.

To bid, or to have a closer look click here.

Noel Gallagher: The Title Will Be Between Manchester United And City

Avid Citizen Noel Gallagher joins Mark and Alvin to discuss the Community Shield and how he feels Roberto Mancini's men will fare this season. Click here to listen to the interview.

Noel Gallagher: 'Foo Fighters, Green Day And Radiohead Should Play Oasis Songs'

Noel Gallagher has revealed how much of his older Oasis material will feature on his set-list during his first solo tour, as well as having a sly dig at fellow musicians, Radiohead.

Speaking to Rolling Stone about how much of the set for his solo shows will comprise of older material – “about four songs” - Gallagher justified the inclusion of playing Oasis songs by saying:

"I've always thought most bands should play Oasis songs, anyway. The Foo Fighters should definitely do a couple. Green Day could do even more than one or two. Radiohead? I mean, let's face it. It'd be a better night out."

It's not the first time one of the Gallagher brothers has had a pop at Radiohead. In the past Noel's brother Liam has called Radiohead fans 'ugly and boring' as well as recently telling Thom Yorke to "go fuck himself".

In the interview Noel Gallagher was also asked about the change from selling out huge arenas to playing smaller, more intimate venues.

When asked if the transition of being closer to the audience and being put in a changed enviroment would be a benefit to the singer, Noel said: "People keep saying, 'Oh, it'll be great to get out of your comfort zone'. It's like, 'Fuck you!' Get out of your fucking comfort zone! It fucking took me 20 years to build a comfort zone. I have no fucking intention of stepping outside of mine. Not for no fucker. That's fucking gone! Fucking comfort zone bastard."

Source: www.nme.com

Noel Gallagher: 'I'm Not Technically Proficient Enough To Attempt All Kinds of Music'

Noel Gallagher's new project Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds came together in large part because he was bored. "I was in a band, right?" the former Oasis guitarist says. "And I left. And then I wrote some songs. I had a lot of songs left over from the band. And then I wrote some other songs. And after a couple of years sitting 'round the house, I had a baby. Moved house. My wife decided it was time for me to do something because I was annoying her."

The group's name was inspired by two 1960s rock bands. "I was listening to Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac and I was going 'Oh, Noel Gallagher's something,'" he says. "And then I was rooting through CDs one day and there it was - 'High Flying Bird' by the Jefferson Airplane. And I was like, 'Fucking hell, I'm a genius. I'm a fucking genius.'"

Gallagher recruited many of his longtime friends to join the High Flying Birds, including guitarist David McDonnell and bassist Russell Pritchard. He says that the recording of their self-titled album – in stores on November 8th – was more creatively fulfilling than his last few albums with Oasis. "To be in a band you have to accept that it's going to be a compromise," he says. "This time I didn't have to explain to anybody how it goes. I was sick to death of writing out lyrics for other people. It was a very serene, peaceful process of recording. I'm sure that's going to be offset by fucking utter chaos and frustration on the live side."

The disc was produced by Dave Sardy, who produced the last two Oasis albums. Gallagher says he had little interest in making the album sound different than his work with Oasis. "I've got a certain style and I've got no control over what I write," he says. "I'm not technically proficient enough to attempt all kinds of music. I wish I could write a fucking record like Raw Power or Wish You Were Here, or have the ability of a musical chameleon. But fuck it, I'm not. I just write these songs because they're real to me and they're coming from a place of truth. And that's it. I don't give a shit about being different. I want to be the same. And that in itself makes me different."

As of now, only a brief British theater tour is on the books for late October – but Gallagher says that many more shows are coming, including an American run of dates in November. "I've been playing stadiums for the past 10 years," he says. "Only time I set foot in a theater is to go see a fucking play. So it's going to be a lot more smaller and I am kind of trepidatious about it. I've got to see it."

Many people – including this reporter – have unsuccessfully tried to convince Gallagher that it'll be a nice change of pace to play smaller venues where he can actually see the faces of the audience. "No, fuck off," he says. "No, I don't want to see anybody's face. I don't want anybody to fucking talk to me between the songs. I don't want to fucking sign anything for anybody. I'm used to people being a mile away. That suits me. It's more nerve-wracking playing in front of people who are two feet away from me."

This line of thought goes on for a while. "People keep saying, 'Oh, it'll be great to get out of your comfort zone.' " he says. "It's like, 'Fuck you!' Get out of your fucking comfort zone! It fucking took me 20 years to build a comfort zone. I have no fucking intention of stepping outside of mine. Not for no fucker. That's fucking gone! Fucking comfort zone bastard. I'm in the process of building another one and believe you me, I won't be stepping outside of this one."

The show will largely focus on Gallagher's new material, but he will play some tracks by Oasis. "I'm only playing songs that I've written," he says. "It's not like I'm Morrissey and I'm playing a song that somebody else wrote for me. I wrote all these songs with all those words. They're my songs. I'm not doing songs from the Oasis catalog that you associate with Liam. I can't sing like he sings. I'm not even doing that many Oasis songs, to be honest. Out of an hour and a half total, there'll be 10 minutes of Oasis. So maybe four songs. I don't ever see a day where I don't play Oasis songs. I've always thought most bands should play Oasis songs, anyway. The Foo Fighters should definitely do a couple. Green Day could do even more than one or two. Radiohead? I mean, let's face it. It'd be a better night out."

Source: www.rollingstone.com

Noel Gallagher: If Carlos Tevez Is Going To Leave Why Hasn't He Gone?

Noel Gallagher aka Dr Octagon returns to the Sports Bar to talk about the Blue Moon rising with Andy and Bobby. Click here to listen to the interview.

Noel Gallagher On talkSPORT Tonight

Noel Gallagher will be on Andy Goldstein's Sports Bar on talkSPORT the show starts at 9PM (UK TIME).

Listen online by clicking here.

Win Tickets To See Noel Gallagher In London

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds are taking to the stage this October to perform their debut live show UK-wide. Most famously known for former band Oasis, Noel has now flown the nest and is set to perform his long awaited new releases and new solo material live in three special gigs.

Noel Gallagher is one of music’s biggest names and has altered the direction of British music, and you can be there to see him do it all again.

Win 2 tickets to watch Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds live at London’s HMV Apollo Hammersmith on Friday 29th October.

Enter the competition here now for free and you could be watching one of music’s most influential and iconic songwriters truly back where he belongs.

Noel Gallagher Tickets Sell Out In Minutes

Noel Gallagher's first live sets with his new band have sold out in less than 10 minutes.

The musician quit Oasis in 2009 after a fall-out with brother Liam and created a new group, Noel Gallagher's Flying Birds, which is also the name of his new record.

The rocker recently announced plans for three live shows in October (11) and fans flocked online to buy tickets when they went on sale on Friday morning (05Aug11).

The gigs, which will take place in Dublin, Ireland; Edinburgh, Scotland; and London, were booked up within six minutes.

Source: www.contactmusic.com

Video: Noel Gallagher Talks Album Artwork

Noel discusses the album artwork for the eponymous debut album from Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.

Beady Eye Add More Dates To South American Tour

Beady Eye are pleased to announce they have added three more dates to their debut tour of South America set to take place in October and November.

In addition to the already announced performance at the sold out Planeta Terra Festival in Sao Paulo on 5th November, the band will play:

Santiago, Theater Caupolicán (Chile) - 31st October
Tickets go on sale from today through PuntoTicket en tiendas Ripley y Cinemark habilitados (call center 600 462 6000, desde celulares 02 464 5557, y desde el extranjero, 56 02 464 5557).
Sin recargo en tienda SoldOut (Av. Providencia 2198 – Portal Lyon, local 79).

Montevideo, Teatro de Verano "Ramon Collazo" (Uruguay) - 2nd November:
Tickets on sale from 25th August through RED UTS www.reduts.com.uy

Buenos Aires, Personal Festival (Argentina) - 4th November:
Tickets on sale from Monday 8th August through www.topshow.com.ar

Source: www.beadyeyemusic.com

Noel Gallagher On The Stone Roses 'Fools Gold'

From Elvis Presley and the Sex Pistols to Derrick May and Herb Alpert, Noel Gallagher has told the current issue of Mojo (on sale now) the tracks that shaped his life.

"You get records that could have been recorded yesterday and this is one of them. It's also the sound of the band peaking: they never did anything that matched it. This is 20 years old and it still sounds like the future. Like the New York Dolls and The Velvet Underground, The Stone Roses came together and something happened between the four members. They stumbled across something.

It was only fleeting for them. They did a few big gigs - Spike Island was 30,000 - and it's laced with sadness, listening to this, because they could never beat it. They came close with Love Spreads, but this isn't even music. Someone was channelling something on that weekend that they don't even know. The amazing thing about this: There's barely a tune in it. Try and play it on an acoustic guitar. There is no song. It's a bass line. It's alchemy. I can imagine how it would have happened. Someone would have started playing something and someone else would have have said, "Do that again." it's an unbelievable piece of music. How can it have ever dated, when it was so of its time."

Noel Gallagher On Elvis Presley's 'Blue Moon'

From Elvis Presley and the Sex Pistols to Derrick May and Herb Alpert, Noel Gallagher has told the current issue of Mojo (on sale now) the tracks that shaped his life.

"If you are in any doubt as to what a great singer Elvis was before the berks took over, just listen to him go flasetto on this. It's f**king aching! My dad was a DJ so we would hear this kind of thing around the house when we were growing up. He played in Irish social clubs, country and western and all that shit. I play Blue moon on guitar a lot, but the sound of it just grips me. The funny thing is, all the rock 'n' roll geniuses went in show business if they didn't die, so they were doing films and adverts and all that. They did sell out a little bit."

Noel Gallagher Explains The Artwork For New Album

Noel Gallagher has explained the artwork for his forthcoming solo album 'Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds'.

In an exclusive to DIY clip, the ex-Oasis man reveals: "We were in Los Angeles, and I'm there with a mate of mine who's a photographer Lawrence Watson. He ends up buying an old 50s polaroid camera. He was taking some pictures in the studio, and they looked great instantly - like 'wow, now that's a photograph'"

"There's an old petrol station in Beverley Hills beside the police station that's got a triangular neon roof, and when you stand underneath it it looks like you're stood underneath Concorde. So we go out one night and it's all lit up in the neon, and we're taking these pictures - it looks like I'm stood under the wings of a high flying bird."

Noel Gallagher Tickets Selll Out In 20 seconds

Tickets for the Dublin performance of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds sold out in a matter of seconds when they went on sale this morning.

The brains behind the once-great Oasis plays the Olympia Theatre on 23 October next on the first leg of a three-date UK and Ireland tour.

Tickets went on sale via Ticketmaster today – but it seems that fans are so eager to catch a glimpse of Gallagher that every single one was snapped up in a matter of 20 seconds.

If you didn’t manage to get any tickets and you’re really eager, you could still see him strut his stuff but it will mean a bit of a trek – High Flying Birds also plays at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall on Thursday 27 October and the Hammersmith Apollo in London on Saturday 29 October.

“The Death Of You And Me”, released last month, was the first single taken from debut solo album, imaginatively titled
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, which is due to be released on Monday 17 October.