Noel Gallagher Turns Down The Chance To Record With Hurts And Miles Kane

Noel Gallagher has revealed that he turned down the opportunity to work with both Hurts and Miles Kane this year.

The singer-songwriter was approached by both acts to work on their albums but Gallagher says that he declined both opportunities as he doesn't want to be working all of the time. "I don't live my life by the credo of having to work all the time," he told NME. "I got asked to be on some pretty big records but nothing came of it. I was going to be on the Hurts album: they sent me some great fucking songs, but sometimes you've got to phone these people back and say, 'Nothing's fallen out of the sky here, man - it sounds great as it is'. If I can add something, then great, I'll do it but not for the sake of it."

Talking about the decision to say no to Miles Kane, Gallagher was typically honest, saying: "I couldn't be bothered in the end. I was in Singapore. He asked me to work on it and I was in the middle of a tour and couldn't make it work. I'll play with anyone, diary permitting. And when I say diary, I mean Man City football fixtures."

Hurts released their second album 'Exile' earlier this year while Miles Kane's album 'Don't Forget Who You Are' is set to be released in June. Meanwhile, it was reported earlier this week that Noel Gallagher has been offered £2m to become the next X Factor judge.

Source: www.nme.com

Simon Cowell Reveals Noel Gallagher Rejected Offers To Become X Factor Judge

Britain't Got Talent judge Simon Cowell has denied the claims that rocker Noel Gallagher could become a judge on the X Factor after revealing that the former Oasis star "wasn't interested" in the position.

Speaking to EntertainmentWise at the launch of Britain's Got Talent yesterday, the media mogul addressed the speculation that Noel had been approached to judge talent on the show when it returns later this year.

He said: "I don't think he'd want to do it."

Asked if he had spoken to Noel about the idea, Simon continued: "I spoke to him once but he wasn't interested. But I like Noel, he's a cool guy."

The media mogul also dismissed the claims that Noel has been offered money to appear on the show, commenting:

"No absolutely not. We literally had a conversation because I know him quite well but that was a couple of years ago."

Meanwhile, Simon also admitted at the press launch that he will axe the show when it gets "boring". He told us: "When we first made this show, if you'd told me we'd be sitting here on season seven, I would pinch myself to be honest with you. It's all credit to the guys who make the show. I think the show is as much about people as it is talent."

Believing that "everyone wants to be famous" these days, Simon continued:

"Let's be honest, we live in a world where everyone wants to be famous and I think that's fun and the day it starts to become boring, trust me we'll stop."

Click here to watch a video of Simon talking about Noel.

Source: www.entertainmentwise.com

Oasis' 'Don't Look Back In Anger' Used In Japanese Advert

Oasis 'Don't Look Back In Anger' is currently being used in an advert in Japan, check out the video below.

Teenage Musician Plays Gig With Liam Gallagher

A teenage musician became a ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’ after he performed an impromptu gig with his idol - Liam Gallagher.

The former Oasis frontman has spent time in the Accrington area this week, shooting a video with his new band Beady Eye.

Keen guitarist and singer Reece Bibby, 14, heard that one of the locations used by the band was the Canine Club on Abbey Street.

He was in such a hurry to meet the star that he grabbed his guitar, but not his coat, when he left his home on Marlborough Road.

He said: “I love Oasis and Beady Eye so had been waiting for a couple of hours outside the club. I only had a t-shirt on and had started shivering.

“A woman who was with her daughter wrapped me in a pink blanket from her car and took a picture which the band must have seen, because a couple of minutes later someone came out and said Liam wanted to see me.

“I was shown inside and taken upstairs to the group’s dressing room.

“Liam hugged me and asked me why I wasn’t wearing a coat. He then saw my guitar and said ‘do you know any Oasis songs?’.”

It was then that Reece became the envy of thousands of musicians worldwide, performing perhaps Liam’s best-known song with the man himself.

“I started strumming the opening chords of Wonderwall,” he said. “My hands were freezing and shaking but I know the chords well. I couldn’t believe it when he started singing the opening line. I got goosebumps.

“He sang the verses and I joined in the choruses. It was amazing.”

Liam then signed Reece’s acoustic guitar and handed him his pair of Mosley Tribe designer sunglasses.

Reece said: “He told me to believe in myself and that as a musician I should listen to the sounds all around me. It was just surreal.”

With that, Reece, a Hollins Technology College pupil returned home to dad Jamie, 35, mum Lyndsey, 32 and 13-year-old sister Lexie.

Reece, performs a mixture of his own songs and cover versions and will be playing at the Victoria pub, Accrington on May 4.

Click here to see the pictures.

Source: www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk

Beady Eye Release A Video For 'Flick Of The Finger'

Beady Eye have released a video for 'Flick Of The Finger' on the bands official YouTube page..

Danny Boyle Contemplated Asking Noel Gallagher To Write Songs For His Movie

Filmmaker Danny Boyle has his sights set on directing a movie musical after losing his nerve about turning Millions into an all-singing spectacular.

The man behind Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire reveals he contemplated asking former Oasis star Noel Gallagher to create original music for his well-received 2004 film, and still regrets not acting on his dream.

Boyle tells WENN, "I'd love to do a musical. I think any decent director has got to do a musical some day! It would be an original musical that's not based on a stage show that's got original music for the film only.

"We made a little film called Millions, kind of a family film and we should've turned it into a musical. The problem with musicals isn't the music, it's the story that allows people to sing. The writer and I talked about it because you've got two kids, one who's incredibly imaginative who sees saints and you put a song to those saints and accept them singing.

"We were gonna get Noel Gallagher from Oasis to write the songs but we didn't have the confidence, so we backed away from it. It's a lovely film but we may have missed our opportunity to do it as a musical."

Source: www.orange.co.uk

Liam Gallagher On Bumping Into Brother Noel

The feud between Liam and Noel Gallagher is one of the most turbulent and volatile in modern music (bar some of the insane gangsta rap beef you see every now and then), so when the pair met after Beady Eye performed at the London 2012 Olympics last year, you’d expect to hear that sparks were flying and that maybe even a sly punch was thrown.

Well, actually, it turns out the pair didn’t have the ultimate show many would have predicted - and Liam has described the scene as ‘more Montel than Jeremy Kyle’!

While it may seem hard to believe, Liam insists that he wasn’t drunk (he was only four Champagne bottles deep), and described the meeting as ‘alright’ - before comparing it to American talk-show Montel, rather than ‘chav’ program Jeremy Kyle.

[Bumping into Noel] was all right,” Liam told Shortlist. “I wasn’t that pissed actually, I’d only had like… four bottles of champagne. I thought I was pretty pleasant, you know what I mean? I said, ‘What do you make of that then, you f*cker?’ And he went, ‘Uh, yeah, it was all right.’ Then I said, ‘I seen your mates there, they said to say hello,’ and he went ‘Who?’ and I said, ‘Take That,’ and he went, ‘Urggh.’”

He continued: “Well, it wasn't Jerry Springer or Jeremy Kyle. It was more Montel. Montel is cool as fuck. At least he knows what he's talking about. D'you know what I mean? You can't have one chav telling another chav to wind his neck in, can you? Montel's a fucking dude: he's been there, seen it. And he wears fucking polo necks in front of a live studio audience.”

He went on to talk about the Beady Eye track ‘Don’t Brother Me’, which he confesses is about Noel.

Well, it just sounds shit, 'Don't Sister Me', doesn't it? Especially when I haven't got a sister. I could've tried to call it something else, but that's what it is... And that is it. It's a lovely fucking song. There's a lot of love in there, but there's also a couple of - humorous, I think - digs.

“There's nothing malicious in there, 'cos it's not in my nature. I wish I could write a malicious one - you'd fucking know about it if I could - but I couldn't. I'm joking, man. But I couldn't. And 'You, You Cunt' sounds shit, doesn't it? Plus he's heard that one before. Everyone's heard that before.”

Source: www.stereoboard.com

Beady Eye To Play French Festival In August

It's been confirmed that Beady Eye will play at the Le Cabaret Vert Festival in France that takes place in August.

More details can be found here.

Thanks to AG.

Gallery: Beady Eye In Accrington

Click here for a number of pictures of Beady Eye taken in Accrington yesterday.

Thanks to AG.

New Fans For Beady Eye At Pub Video Shoot

His band Beady Eye may be taking an 'experimental' new direction for album number two, but going back to his traditional roots is what Liam wanted to do for his new video.

He's just announced his band Beady Eye will be taking an “expiremental” new direction for their second album, but Liam Gallagher returned to very traditional roots to shoot his new video.

For Liam chose old-fashioned boozer the Dog and Partridge in Accrington to film the video with his bandmates –  to the surprise of residents there.

Burnage boy Liam announced yesterday that Beady Eye’s new album will be called BE, and will see the rockers experiment with cassette tapes, iPhone apps and samplers for a fresh new sound.

And they certainly wasted no time in heading up here to film a video for what is likely to be the first new song off the album, Flick of the Finger.

Needless to say, the presence of the famous rocker caused something of a stir in the village of Baxenden when they set up filming at the pub.

Schoolgirls Amy and Molly Brennan and friend Holly Kenyon spotted the film crew outside the pub and with dad Ian they decided to investigate.

Ian said: “I asked them what it was all about and they didn’t want to say anything at first but then they told us it was Liam Gallagher.

“As we walked back up the road he came out, it was quite surreal seeing him at our local boozer. The girls were quite scared when I went to talk to him but he was nice as pie.

“I asked him for photos with the girls and he was chatting to them telling them his mum was a dinner lady and asking if they were off school.

“People always say he’s mad but he was really sound.”

Ian added the girls – Amy, 14, Holly, 13 and Molly, 10, had heard of the former Oasis legend but admitted they were more One Direction fans.

He said: “As soon as they got home they were watching Liam and the band online, it was exciting for them, I think they’re fans now.”

After word got out of Gallagher’s appearance people flocked to the pub to catch a glimpse of the rocker.

Earlier in the day our beady eyed moles spotted Liam at Piccadilly train station where he arrived with bandmates for the long day of filming ahead.

Can’t wait to see the results!

Source: www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Beady Eye Shoot New Video In Accrington

Stunned villagers looked on in amazement yesterday as rock star Liam Gallagher chose a out-of-the-way pub to shoot a video for his next album.

The former Oasis frontman rolled up with his latest band Beady Eye in Baxenden to film a promo for the song Second Bite Of The Apple.

The unlikely location for the shoot was the Dog and Partridge pub in Back Lane, with the band choo-sing it for its traditional looks, both outside and in.

After the shoot Galla-gher happily posed for pictures and signed autographs for fans, delighting the crowd of around 50 who had patiently waited for the band to complete their filming.

Gallagher said: “It’s great be up here, it’s a beautiful little place. The weather’s been good too.

“We’ve all had a top time, you can’t beat a traditional little boozer.”

Licensee Fiona Heap said: “A location scout came in last Friday and asked us if it would be OK for them to film for a few hours.

“I think they were after the looks of a traditional local and they were particularly taken with the pool room.

We were only too glad to help.

“The crew were here all day but the band arrived around 12.30pm and stayed until 4pm.

“Liam was very friendly and was fantastic with the fans outside. All the band seemed to be having a good time.”

Delighted fans said that Beady Eye’s visit had been memorable.

Darcey Powell, 16, said: “I can’t believe it.

“I got a picture with Liam and he was really nice, dead friendly.

“This is the best thing that has happened in the Easter holidays ever.

“I had a dentist’s appointment but I sacked it off to meet Liam. There wasn’t really an option.”

Amelia Cardwell, 14, said: “I heard on Facebook that the band were here and came down with my mum.

“I can’t believe he’s shooting a video right on my doorstep.

“It’s really exciting.”

Source: www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk

Beady Eye Talk About New Songs

“There’s a lot more magic”

The songs on Be, in Beady Eye’s words

1. Flick Of The Finger

Liam: “We had to go first with it. I get a bit of an I Wanna Be Adored vibe.”

Andy: “To me, it’s a Gimme Shelter moment.”

2. Soul Love

Liam: “This started as a Songbird-y thing, but I changed it the night before we recorded it.”

3. Face The Crowd

Liam: “Face The Crowd is just f*cking…”

Gem: “…a banger.”

4. Second Bite Of The Apple

Liam: “This is the one Sitek changed the most… There’s a lot more magic on this album.”

5. Soon Come Tomorrow

Andy: “One of my tunes, a bit of a quieter, slower thing.”

Liam: “Great tune. Hendrix-y.”

6. Iz Rite

Liam: “The Beatles on E.”

7. I’m Just Saying

Andy: “Anyone longing for a bit of Morning Glory-era Oasis, this is for them.”

8. Don’t Brother Me

Liam: “It’s a beautiful f*cking song and I like the title. I didn’t want to change it.”

9. Shine A Light

Andy: “The intro to this we called ‘the Scarface bit’: like an old black-and-white movie. Very dramatic.”

10. Ballroom Figured

Liam: “It’s a bit Marley to me: Redemption Song. Beautiful.”

11. Start Anew

Andy: “My favourite vocal on the album. It’s an epic: starts off as an acoustic tune then ends up like Neil Young in Boca Juniors’ stadium, in 35C heat, with fireworks going off.”

Source www.shortlist.com

On This Day In Oasis History...

"Some Might Say" is a song by British rock band Oasis and was released on the 24th April 1995.

The song was written by the band's lead guitarist Noel Gallagher. It was the first single to be released from their definitive second album (What's the Story) Morning Glory ? in 1995, and provided the band with their first #1 in the UK Singles Chart.

















The track was apparently inspired by the Small Faces and/or T-Rex. It was the last Oasis track to feature original drummer Tony McCarroll, who was asked to leave the band before the main recording sessions for (What's the Story) Morning Glory ? when tensions arose between McCarroll and the Gallagher brothers. The rest of the tracks on the album feature Alan White on drums.

The sleeve artwork, shot at Cromford railway station in Derbyshire, England, features art director Brian Cannon's father with wheelbarrow and his mother with mop. Also pictured are Matthew Sankey, Cannon's aide and Carla Knox, barmaid of his local pub. Liam Gallagher can be seen on the bridge whilst Noel can be viewed with a watering can. Cannon himself rates this piece amongst his greatest works.

The planned promo video for the song was canceled due to Liam not turning up for the shoot. Instead, a makeshift video was created using footage from the "Cigarettes & Alcohol" and US "Supersonic" videos.

Track listings

All songs written by Noel Gallagher except where noted.



Track listings

All songs written by Noel Gallagher except where noted.

In the UK

CD CRESCD 204
"Some Might Say" - 5:28
"Talk Tonight" - 4:21
"Acquiesce" - 4:24
"Headshrinker" - 4:38

7" CRE 204
"Some Might Say" - 5:28
"Talk Tonight" - 4:21

12" CRE 204T
"Some Might Say" - 5:28
"Talk Tonight" - 4:21
"Acquiesce" - 4:24

Cassette CRECS 204
"Some Might Say" - 5:28
"Talk Tonight" - 4:21

In Japan
CD ESCA-6251
"Some Might Say" - 5:27
"Talk Tonight" - 4:21
"Acquiesce" - 4:24
"Headshrinker" - 4:39
"Some Might Say" (Demo) - 6:47
"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) - 2:16

In Australia
CD HES 664059-2

B-sides
Aside from the title song, the single boasts some of Oasis' finest B-sides, all of which were deemed worthy to grace the critically acclaimed Masterplan album. "Talk Tonight", is one of many acoustic B-side tracks sung by Noel, and was, at the time, the most vulnerable song he had attempted. It was inspired by the near-breakup of the band in Los Angeles in autumn 1994, when Noel walked out without telling anyone and headed for San Francisco.

The B-side "Acquiesce" was released as part of the Stop the Clocks EP in promotion their compilation album, Stop the Clocks.

In an interview promoting the compilation album, Stop the Clocks, Noel stated that "Some Might Say" is the "archetypical Oasis song' and 'defines what Oasis is". Noel added later in the interview that along with "Some Might Say", its b-side, "Acquiesce", was also the song that defined Oasis.

The song also appears on Stop the Clocks, as do two of the b-sides. Suprisingly, this means that the "Some Might Say" single contains the fourth largest number of tracks to appear on Stop the Clocks of any Oasis release (after Definitely Maybe, Morning Glory and The Masterplan). Therefore, more songs from this single ended up on Stop the Clocks than Don't Believe the Truth (2 songs), Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, Heathen Chemistry (1 song each) and Be Here Now (no songs from this album appear on Stop the Clocks).

"Some Might Say" is a playable track in both Guitar Hero World Tour and The European version of Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades.

Bonehead Talks About Parlour Flames, Oasis And More

Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs was a founding member of Oasis. He, Paul ‘Guigsy’ McGuigan, Tony McCarroll, Liam Gallagher and a dude named Chris Hutton formed The Rain in 1991. Soon after, Hutton was replaced by Noel, and Oasis was born. The eight years to follow were the most chaotic in Bonehead’s life; three incredible records, tens of millions of albums sold, some of the biggest gigs in UK rock history, fame/fortune etc. In 1999, he chose to leave the band.

In 2012 Bonehead hooked up with Salford based songsmith Vinny Peculiar to form Parlour Flames.  Their upcoming LP is the first record Bone will have put his name to since Oasis’ LP Be Here Now (1997).

To read the interview in full click here.

On This Day In Oasis History...

On April 10th 2000, Oasis appeared on 'The Tonight Show With Jay Leno', and performed 'Where Did it All Go Wrong' from 'Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants'.

The show was recorded in Los Angeles, click here to watch the video.

Liam Gallagher Announces Beady Eye's Album Tracklisting?

Liam Gallagher appears to have unveiled the tracklisting for Beady Eye's new album.

The frontman posted a series of messages on his Twitter page earlier this afternoon (09.04.13), sparking speculation it is the song titles of the band's forthcoming second record 'BE', as one line was 'Flick Of The Finger', the title of a track previewed by the group last week.

In three tweets, each ending with Liam's signature 'LGx', he announced the apparent track listing, which runs as follows:




While little is known about the sound of the album, Liam - who is joined in the band by fellow ex-Oasis members Gem Archer, Chris Sharrock and Andy Bell, plus former Kasabian guitarist Jay Mehler - says it is a huge departure from their debut, 'Different Gear, Still Speeding'.

During recording, he said: "I hate the word 'experimenting', but we are definitely experimenting.

"It feels like a really special album. You know when you normally go through a door and go, 'Er, I'm not really sure about that?'

Source: www.femalefirst.co.uk

Bonehead Looks Back At Oasis' First NME Cover

NME has always loved Oasis - so we invited Bonehead to have a nostalgic root around our archive cupboard and look back on the band's first NME cover.

Click here to watch the video.

Beady Eye Announce Album Details

Beady Eye have announced their new album will be called BE and is out June 10.

Liam Gallagher's band's second album was recorded in London with producer Dave Sitek (TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs).

The frontman has previously admitted the follow up to Different Gear Still Speeding will be more experimental and we are now told BE was created using a mixture of  'Protools, cassette tapes, samplers, recorded conversation, iphone apps and unusual instrumentation'.

"Working with Sitek just opened something up in us. He's without a doubt the best producer I've ever worked with, a real outlaw - he doesn't give a fuck, no rules," Liam Gallagher commented.

"We had a new found focus when we were writing it - we really got our heads down and got our shit together - clear heads, none of that crap from the 90s. It feels like a really special record for us."

A new Beady Eye track called Flick of The Finger leaked online earlier this week after being played on US radio.

The track, from BE, is not going to be a single.



Source: www.xfm.co.uk

Liam Gallagher's Latest Tweet

Ballroom Figured 
Start Anew 
LG x 

I'm Just Saying 
Don't Brother Me 
Shine A Light 
LG x 

Second Bite of The Apple 
Soon Come Tomorrow 
Iz Rite 
LG x 

Flick of The Finger
Soul Love
Face The Crowd LG x

Follow Liam on Twitter by clicking here.

Beady Eye On The New Album And More

ShortList’s Hamish MacBain discovers how “the maddest bastard in thick-rimmed glasses since my grandma” turned Liam Gallagher and Beady Eye from Sixties fetishists into psychedelic futurists

As ever, there are many things about which Liam Gallagher is currently “buzzing”. There’s his son Gene’s continued prowess on the drums (he’s now in a band), and the fact he was last month given a set of sticks by Reni from The Stone Roses. There’s today’s “mega” photoshoot. There’s Beady Eye’s new bassist Jay Mehler – formerly of Kasabian, absent with chicken pox – whose arrival he declares to be “like Van Persie going to United”.

There’s Suede’s latest single (“F*cking tune… I bumped into Brett at my kid’s school. I don’t mind him, he used to have a pop at me and I used to pop back but you get older: at least I’m not cuddling Damon Albarn and doing f*cking gigs with him”). There’s – still, always – The Stone Roses, who he saw in Dubai a few weeks ago. And while he’s not buzzing about Palma Violets – “I saw a picture, the guy was wearing a weird shirt” – he is all over Justin Bieber.

“Anyone who goes on two hours late is f*cking right in my book, man,” he raves, as the shoot is finishing up. “All these so-called rock bands that sit backstage going, ‘Hey, let’s wait 15 minutes.’ F*ck that, wait two hours and 15 minutes! He’s kicked the f*cking arse out of it – no one will beat that, ever. So get off his f*cking back, man: I am a Belieber!”

More so than any of these things, though, Liam and the rest of Beady Eye – equally enthused-by-life guitarists Gem Archer and Andy Bell, quiet drummer Chris Sharrock – are today excited about their new tune Flick Of The Finger which, if the world hasn’t ended, will go live a few days after you read this. Deriving from an old Liam demo of a song called Velvet Building – “It was on cassette, that’s how long ago it was,” says Gem – it was briefly mooted for the aborted, Death In Vegas-produced Oasis album in 2004, but has now been completely reinvented and retitled, with new words by Andy and Gem, a bombastic brass section and… well, let’s hand over to its creators, shall we?

Andy: “We’re gonna have to start the gigs with it. Got to. It’s a calling card.”

Liam: “It’s stomping, in-yer-face. It’s just mental. To me, it’s like a tsunami just waiting to f*cking come at you, and then it gets you.”

Gem: “It’s like Bruce Lee, on a surfboard, in a tsunami…”

Chris: “…with brass. Burning sage.”

And when you do hear it, and wonder who and what the ranted spoken word bit is all about, then here’s the sketch: it’s taken from Tariq Ali’s book Street Fighting Years: An Autobiography Of The Sixties, with the words – “whose weapons rapidly developed by servile scientists will become more deadly until they can, with a flick of the finger, tear a million of you to pieces” – originally those of 18th-century French political theorist and “friend of the people” Jean-Paul Marat.

Except that now they’re spoken by Fonejacker.

Gem: “We needed to re-record it anyway, and Kayvan [Novak, the show’s creator] came on board to do it. I just love that it’s this heavy, heavy piece of wordage, but delivered by Fonejacker.”

Liam: “So that’s the only guest appearance on the album – Fonejacker. And the first thing that people will hear of our new stuff is his voice: ‘Say what you believe.’ So he’s lucked out there, the little f*cker!”

A TOUGH START

If Beady Eye are happy and excited now, this was not the case a year and a half ago. With their debut Different Gear, Still Speeding not having connected in a way they would like – “At the end of the day, people just didn’t f*cking buy it,” Liam shrugged to me a while back – and having left their management (who also manage Noel), they found themselves playing a last few shows that, at times, Liam says, “Were absolutely f*cking painful.”

“At a lot of them, I was having a really bad time,” he says. “I mean, we were great, but it was just…

Gem: “Situation and circumstance, man. People were saying we’d never make the end of the tour. We were like, ‘We f*cking will!’”

By December 2011, Beady Eye had made it to the end. But they knew it was time to regroup. They would not play live again until June 2012, and even then it was just a handful of support slots with The Stone Roses. Still, at these shows they appeared revitalised: partly due to the rest, partly due to new management, partly because they had relented slightly on their decision to not play Oasis songs, with the crowd at Heaton Park treated to Rock’N’Roll Star and Morning Glory: songs written by Noel Gallagher but – as they say in showbiz – made famous by Liam Gallagher.

“The way I see it, it’s about giving people value for money,” he says. “It’s hard times out there, and if people want to hear a couple of f*cking tunes, is it doing any c*nt any harm? We’re not doing it to get into arenas and we’re not doing it to get out of sh*tholes. And, y’know: if people don’t want to hear them then… we’ll still do them!”

Andy: “We were definitely pretty up at that point. By then, we had about 12 new songs ready, too. We could have gone in the studio then, but we thought, ‘Let’s get a few more tunes written.’”

Liam: “We knew the next album had to be flipped on its head. We didn’t know how to do it, we didn’t know where to start by doing it, so at that point all we felt we had to do was write some good tunes. But we just needed a bit of f*cking help. The last record, the producer weren’t right, he bailed, Gem ended up mixing it and it turned out great for what it was. But we needed a great producer.”

Enter a man described by Liam as “the maddest bastard in thick-rimmed glasses since my grandma”. As well as being the main architect behind the adventurous, some-might-say-wilfully-difficult sounds of his own band TV On The Radio, Dave Sitek is feted for his innovative, forward-thinking production on albums by Brooklyn, New York’s avant-garde elite (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars), and his free-jazz influenced remixes. He once made a space-rock album of Tom Waits covers with Scarlett Johansson. So perhaps not a producer you would expect to be working with a band whose last album contained a song called Beatles & Stones, that sounded quite like The Who and The Kinks.

Andy: “People will talk about him being from one world and us being from a different world, but actually we’re pretty similar. We agreed on a lot of stuff musically: the stuff we liked, stuff we were playing in the room, for fun.”

Gem: “Initially he was like, ‘Why do they want me?’ But we sent him some tunes and he went, ‘Oh, I get it: they want to go there.’ And he wanted to make some rock’n’roll, as he put it. So it was a leap of faith that worked.”

Liam: “I love him: he’s an outlaw. He definitely didn’t come over to London to see the Queen, know what I mean? He came to make a good record. When people mention ‘experimenting’, the thing about that word, it makes it sound like they’re really f*cking trying hard. But we didn’t really try that hard, man. We just laid it on the line. He was like, ‘I’m not here to make demos sound better, I’m here to f*cking toss it up in the air and see what happens.’ And he did, but that’s as far as experimenting went. We weren’t sitting there going ‘Right, we need to do more of this kind of thing’ or whatever, because I find all that sh*t f*cking hard work.”

BE: HERE NOW

Whatever the process, the results, anyone would concede, are very different-sounding. The songs are

still swaggering and direct, but now there are many layers of colour, with tunes taking unexpected twists at every other turn. And Liam’s voice is a revelation: mixed dry, with barely any effects on it, so you feel he’s right up against your forehead. “It’s how I sound round the house or on the back of a camel or whatever,” he says. “I’m sick of idiots saying I can’t sing. Hopefully now they’ll get off my back.”

With the first time Liam and Sitek laid eyes on each other being Day One at State Of The Ark Studios in Richmond, it is a marriage that was helped, too, by the fact both parties were barely aware of each other’s legacies. There was not the reverence a British producer might have for four-fifths of Oasis.

Liam: “It weren’t all f*cking rosey, that’s for sure. We had a couple of ding dongs, definitely. Not fisticuffs, but there was a lot of…”

Andy: “…push and pull. We pushed him and he pushed us.”

So was there material you brought in and he went, ‘No thanks’?

Liam: “Yeah, without a doubt. And you know how that goes down. He’d be, ‘I’m not having that’, and I’d be going, [aggressively], ‘Well, I f*cking am.’ So there’d be a bit of bullfighting going on. And then he’d go off and conduct ‘a musical experiment’ and you’d be like, ‘Hmm, that don’t sound too bad at all, actually. I can go with that.’ And there were others where we were like, ‘You’re losing your mind, we need to get back to Hare Krishna land.’”

Andy: “Sometimes we won, sometimes he won. But the best person won each time for the tune.”

Liam: [Adopts comedy posh voice] “Guys, the record won. Music won!”

The record, by the way, is called Be. Liam wanted to call it Universal Gleam, but was vetoed by “certain people” (Chris). He concedes that you could have “gone into a right old coked-up bullsh*t waffle about that, but with this you can’t really speak much about it. It just is.”

He adds, “My theory is that it’s gonna have Be on the cover, and then on the back I-E-B-E-R. [Stands up, shouts football chant-style] Biiiiieee-ber! I’ve got his f*cking back, man.”

Why are you going on about Justin Bieber so much today?

Liam: “I don’t f*cking know, do I? It’s better than going on about The Strypes, or any of them other f*ckers, innit?”

FAMILY TIES

At the right of this page, there’s more details about specific songs on Be,

but one warrants a slightly lengthier discussion: a spaced-out, electric sitar-assisted Liam ballad you might first hear as Don’t Bother Me, but it’s actually entitled Don’t Brother Me.

So then, Liam: why would you go and call a song Don’t Brother Me?

Liam: “Well, it just sounds shi*t, Don’t Sister Me, doesn’t it? Especially when I haven’t got a sister.”

You must know that it makes it pretty clear who it’s about, and that people will pick up on it.

Liam: “Yeah, yeah, people will pick up on it, but I’m ready to go there. So yeah: it’s about Our Kid.“

You’re prepared for the fact you’re now going to continue to be asked about Noel for the next year and a bit of your life?

Liam: “But the tune is the tune, I love the tune more than I love having to go and speak about it. I could’ve tried to call it to something else, but that’s what it is. [Sings] ‘Don’t brooo-ther meeee.’ And that is it. It’s a lovely f*cking song.

I love the song. I’m not gonna change the title to make my life easier.”

Some of the lines in it – ‘Come on now, give peace a chance’; ‘In the morning, I’ll be calling, hoping that you’ll understand’ – suggest it might be an olive branch?

Liam: “Well, as Andy said to me, it’s a bit contradictory. There’s a load of love in there, and a load of f*cking…”

One verse goes: “I’m sick of all your lying/Scheming and your crying.”

Liam: “Yeah, but the lying and the scheming and the crying might not be about him. It might be about someone around him. Or it might be about me. He might be sick of my scheming, lying and crying. But anyway, there’s a lot of love in there, but there’s also a couple of – humorous, I think – digs. There’s nothing malicious in there, ’cos it’s not in my nature. I wish I could write a malicious one – you’d f*cking know about it if I could – but I couldn’t.”

What do you mean you couldn’t?

Liam: “Ahh, I’m joking, man. But I couldn’t. And You, You C*nt sounds shit, doesn’t it? Plus he’s heard that one before. Everyone’s heard that before.”

Gem interjects: “Life isn’t black and white, is it? It’s many shades of grey.”

Liam: “The best line for me is ‘Did you shoot your gun?’”

Why?

“I just think it’s cool. He’s always on about shooting guns, isn’t he? If I Had

A Gun... Well, did you f*cking shoot it?”

Gem: “See, I never even got that.

So that’s the point of it all, isn’t it?”

Liam: “And there’s ‘You’re always in the sun/With your Number One.’

The Sun newspaper… There’s loads of little things going down in there!”

You bumped into Noel after you played the Olympics, didn’t you?

Liam: “I did, yeah. Well, he bumped into me.”

How was it?

Liam: “It was all right. I wasn’t that p*ssed actually, I’d only had like… four bottles of champagne.”

Gem: “I knew that was coming.”

Liam: “I thought I was pretty pleasant, you know what I mean? I said, ‘What do you make of that then, you f*cker?’ And he went, ‘Uh, yeah, it was all right.’ Then I said, ‘I seen your mates there, they said to say hello,’ and he went ‘Who?’ and I said, ‘Take That,’ and he went, ‘Urggh.’ That was it, and I turned me back and had a drink and then everyone was going, ‘Here y’are: speak to him,’ and I said, ‘Nope, I’m f*cking having a drink,’ and that was it.”

But you’re saying it was relatively cool?

Liam: “Well, it wasn’t Jerry Springer or Jeremy Kyle. It was more Montell.”

You mean as in Montell is a bit less scratching-each-other’s-eyes-out…

Liam: “Montell is cool as f*ck. At least he knows what he’s talking about. D’you know what I mean? You can’t have one chav telling another chav to wind his neck in, can you? Montell’s a f*cking dude: he’s been there, seen it. And he wears f*cking polo necks in front of a live studio audience.”

This seems as good point as any to leave “the Noel bit”, doesn’t it?

EYEING THE FUTURE

As we finish, Beady Eye collectively move straight into looking at video treatments, sat round a table, getting excited again. Gem shows me the artwork for the record on his phone – from a shoot for Seventies magazine Nova that he rightly says “won’t get into Tesco”.

Andy talks about how new bands such as The Strypes and Temples, ironically, will now sound retro next to his band’s new album, but even though Beady Eye’s second is an adventurous step into more leftfield territory, he’ll still “be gutted if it doesn’t go to No1”. Liam talks about “some interesting gigs” that they have coming up. There are ideas everywhere, and the definite sense of a band refreshed and reinvigorated, looking forward.

Beady Eye needed to roll the dice, and they have. It looks like it might just pay off.

Be is released on 10 June. Flick Of The Finger gets its first play on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 show on Monday
Source: www.shortlist.com