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Matt Deighton On His Time In Oasis


When Noel Gallagher quit Oasis mid tour in May 2000, Mother Earth’s Matt Deighton spent three months as guitarist in one of the world’s biggest bands.


Speaking to the current issue of Mojo about his time in the band he said "I had a gig in Dublin booked the day before they wanted me to fly out to Switzerland, but we worked that out. There wasn’t much of a conversation really. I said, “Yeah, great,” as anyone in their right  mind would. From that call to rehearsing was only about a week. I think I might have been recommended by Steve to Alan [the White brothers, respectively drummers to Weller and Oasis]. We met at the hotel and they said, “What stuff are you into?” I said early Fleetwood Mac, which they were all listening to, so we bonded over Danny Kirwan. We had two, three days of rehearsals. We played instrumentally first, so I could get a blend going with Gem [Archer, guitar] and Andy [Bell, bass]. Liam [Gallagher, voice] was sitting listening, having a cigarette. I was playing Noel’s guitars, which was a funny old one.I remember it was all being video’d. They’d sent me a CD of the setlist and Gem was brilliant, showing me the chords when we were rehearsing on the tour bus. The first gig in Milan went really well. No one was freaking out, everyone was cool, it was, “Let’s give this a right old go.” It was exciting. I’d had long hair in [Acid Jazz group] Mother Earth, and a moustache before. My mate said, “You got your hair cut to be in Oasis.” But I’d got a skinhead two days before I’d got the call".

"The last show was in Madrid [actually the Gijón festival], a real good one, a blazing old gig. But there wasn’t really a bad one. It didn’t go downhill. It was a lovely experience, playing those songs, Acquiesce, and Who Feels Love?, and Gas Panic!, hearing them up close, in stadiums. It wasn’t really marked –  I think we had a few drinks after, but there was no damage to any rooms. There were hugs when we parted at Victoria station and  a week or two later everyone, Noel included, went to see Peter Green play at the Borderline. It was very tidily left, very gentlemanly".

Read the full article with Matt in the current issue of MOJO.

Doubtless Dauntless is out on Monks Road Records on October 28. He plays the 229 The Venue, London, on December 8. A documentary, Deighton Dauntless, will screen in 2019.

1 comment

Sean King (New York, NY) said...

I remember Liam saying, something to the effect of, "Where's the 'tache!? "Where's the 'tache!?" Great tour in general, btw.