Noel Gallagher On Playing Festivals

Noel Gallagher has spoken ahead of his Calling Festival appearance next week.

The former Oasis man will headline the London event on July 4, with the likes of Ryan Adams And The Shining, Wolf Alice, Modest Mouse, Echo & The Bunnymen and others also performing.

Speaking to NME in this week's issue, available digitally and on newsstands now, Gallagher was asked about his plans for what will be High Flying Birds' biggest show to date.

Gallagher replied: "I haven't actually given it much thought. Not sure I see the point in overthinking these things. Just get up there and give it 75%! One always has to save some for the after show you see!"

Quizzed on whether he will play any unusual Oasis songs, Gallagher responded in jest: "Fucking hell, d'you want me to tell you what colour of brown or navy blue bomber jacket I'll be wearing and all?"

In the same interview, Gallagher confirmed that his next record is underway. "I’m already a bit of the way into my next record," he said. "As for what it will eventually say on the cover though remains to be seen."

The new record will be Noel Gallagher’s third album as Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. It follows 'Chasing Yesterday' which was released in February this year and his self-titled 2011 debut.

Source: www.nme.com

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Why The World Still Seems Obsessed By Oasis

Exactly 20 years on from the release of Oasis’s first No 1 single, there are good reasons why they still cast a huge shadow over the pop landscape.

Last week, the Daily Mirror ran a story on a supposed (read: 100% not happening) Oasis reunion. It arrived almost exactly one year on from a Daily Star front page that claimed the “chart-topping Manchester band” were “set to headline Glastonbury in a £500m comeback deal”. Coincidence? Maybe. Although perhaps it isn’t coincidence. Maybe the tabloids take turns. Maybe the Sun is readying its own Gallagher-brothers-reunite exclusive for this time next year.

Also likely coincidence, but the Daily Mirror story arrives close to the 20th anniversary of the landmark event that kickstarted the red tops’ obsession with Oasis: Some Might Say, the band’s first No 1 single, was released exactly 20 years ago, on 24 April 1995. The single entered the charts at No 1, a landmark event not just for Oasis, but for what was then “indie” music, and for British music in general. Up until then, the idea of a band like Oasis reaching the top of the charts, as much as Echo & the Bunnymen or the Stone Roses might have boasted it was their aim, seemed like a romantic, nebulous concept. But Oasis actually did it. When Noel Gallagher raised his guitar above his head during a celebratory appearance on Top of the Pops that week (guest presenter – of course – Chris Evans), the alternative, music press-consuming nation felt a collective pang of triumph. At that precise moment, their world became the mainstream.

Within a year, genuine disappointment would greet Bluetones singles “only” entering the charts at No 2. Oasis, meanwhile, graduated from having indie centrefold Evan Dando trail them around on tour and play tambourine badly with them at instore appearances to having Robbie Williams – the Zayn Malik of his day, only with more cocaine – trail them around on tour and dance onstage badly with them during a Glastonbury headline set. Some Might Say was followed by Roll With It, the release of which – for reasons you’ll be aware of – was a lead item on the national news. Enter the tabloid press, bearing daily stories on Liam and/or Noel for at least the next two years. In August 1997, a picture Of Noel Gallagher mooning in Ibiza was the lead story on a Daily Record front page. The second lead was the death of Princess Diana.

In April 2015, pictures of Liam getting pissed would be unlikely to trump the arrival of Kate Middleton’s baby, but the regularity with which reliably spurious Oasis stories are deemed of greater interest to readers of a national newspaper than, say, the general election is testament to a continuing, insatiable public appetite for all things Gallagher. At the more specialist end of the media scale, consider also that NME – a magazine that is in theory primarily for teenagers keen to discover the hottest new bands – has published three Noel Gallagher covers already this year, and 21 Oasis-related covers in the six or so years since they ceased to exist. Even given there have been two Noel solo albums and two Beady Eye albums to contend with in that time, that’s a lot. And it can’t solely be down to the fact Noel is consistently the sharpest, most entertaining interview in town. It is because a lot of people still care, a lot.

There is a tendency to scoff that these people are all nostalgic football-loving British lads in their mid-30s, but that is easily disproved. Noel Gallagher recently expressed frustration that neither Arctic Monkeys nor Kasabian have succeeded in inspiring a next generation of bands. There’s a reason for that. If you look to Catfish & The Bottlemen – easily the fastest rising guitar band of the moment – they’re still going back to Oasis. Their leader Van McCann had his “I must do this” epiphany at their gigs at Heaton Park in 2009. “It was as if Jesus had come back,” he said recently of the occasion. It’s worth noting at this point that McCann was not even two years old when Definitely Maybe was released.

Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian themselves, of course, are both direct, self-confessed descendants of Oasis. And if you want to look beyond white, male British guitar bands, you could pan out to Frances Bean Cobain – born the same week as Van McCann – who continues to be a vocal, B-side referencing obsessive on Twitter (quizzed as to who she preferred out of Nirvana and Hole, she answered “Oasis”). Or to Jessica Alba, who celebrated her 21st birthday at an Oasis gig in Las Vegas. Or further afield to Mish Way, singer with Canadian feminist punks White Lung, who recently wrote an article entitled “It’s literally impossible to hate Oasis”. These are just a few. Marilyn Manson adores them (‘Be Here Now’ is his favourite album). Quite brilliantly, Tupac Shakur once said that they were “true thug life”.

What Oasis still represent to this wide spectrum of people is that idea of a band doing things completely on their own terms and triumphing over ”manufactured” music. Oasis didn’t even make a dedicated video for Some Might Say (Liam didn’t turn up to the shoot, and a clip had to be cobbled together from footage shot for Cigarettes and Alcohol). Nor did they, unlike the supposedly more alternative-minded likes of Blur and Pulp, utilise that most execrable of 90s fan-extortion tactics – the multi-edition CD single – to pump up its chart position. They didn’t, it turned out, need to play either of these games. Their songs and their attitude was enough.

“We’re here to get lids like you out of the charts and bands in,” Van McCann said recently in response to fawning adoration from Louis Tomlinson of One Direction. A fantastically correct attitude for a young would-be rock’n’roll star to have. And one that comes directly from Oasis, a band who will likely still be the template for kids with or without guitars to do the same in even another 20 years’ time.

Source: www.theguardian.com

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Various Videos Of Noel Gallagher On The Calling Festival

Below are a number of videos to promote the Calling Festival: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Ryan Adams & The Shining, The Hives & Echo & The Bunnymen this July at Clapham Common.

Tickets on sale now: http://www.callingfestival.co.uk/tickets



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Noel Gallagher Would Be Happy To Write Songs For His Brother Liam

Speaking to NME, Noel said that he would be happy to write songs for his brother and former Oasis bandmate and promised that they would be better than those released by Liam's old band Beady Eye.

"I'd write him a few songs, I've got a few songs lying around that he'd be good at singing. But I'm not sure what he plans to do or if plans to do anything," Noel said. Asked what type of songs he would hand to his brother, the High Flying Birds singer added: "Some fucking good ones, better than the lot he was singing last time for sure."

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds will headline London's Calling Festival on July 4. The event, which takes place on Clapham Common, will also see performances from Ryan Adams, The Hives and Echo And The Bunnymen.

Source: L4E

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Noel Gallagher Plays New Tracks And Oasis Classics In London

Noel Gallagher played a triumphant set of established hits and new material at the Tufnell Park Dome last night (Monday 2 February) - launching new album, Chasing Yesterday.

Playing for just over an hour, Gallagher’s set list including latest singles 'The Ballad of Mighty I' and 'In the Heat of the Moment', alongside Oasis classic 'It’s Good to be Free' and 'Don’t Look Back in Anger'.

However, fans were not treated to an extended set as, prior to the latter, Gallagher admitted, “They’ll be no encore tonight [because] I’m off to see Prince and he’s on stage in ten minutes”, before responding to a single boo with “don’t knock the Purple One”.

The gig represented a rare opportunity for fans to see Gallagher, who tours more extensively with UK arena dates scheduled for next month and a summer world tour, in such an intimate venue. Fans had had to face the lottery of applying through a ballot for tickets at the 600 capacity venue with thousands missing out, whilst posters plastered around the Dome made it clear that performance was also being filmed so expect to see footage emerge in the not too distant future.

Meanwhile, Noel Gallagher was recently announced as headliner of Calling Festival, at London's Clapham Common and also see appearances from Ryan Adams & The Shining, The Hives, Echo & The Bunnymen with many, many more to be announced.

Calling Festival takes place on Clapham Common on Saturday 4 July. Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday 6 February.

Source: www.gigwise.com

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Teenage Cancer Trust Concerts Extra Ticket Details And More

Echo And The Bunnymen will join the mighty Primal Scream at the Noel Gallagher curated Teenage Cancer Trust Concerts at The Royal Albert Hall on 21st March.

All shows are near sold out so keep checking the following outlets for any extra tickets being released.

www.gigsandtours.com
www.ticketmaster.co.uk
www.royalalberthall.com
www.teenagecancertrust.org

Liam Gallagher Wants To Tattoo His Lyrics To Ian McCulloch's Forehead

Liam Gallagher wants to tattoo his lyrics to Ian McCulloch's forehead, because the Echo And The Bunnymen singer slated the Beady Eye frontman's songwriting ability.

Liam, who has recently re-joined the social networking site Twitter, used his page to hit out at the 'The Killing Moon' singer, who has previously slagged off Beady Eye lyrics.

Liam Gallagher Tweeted: Ian McCulloch you wanna watch what your saying about my lyrics or I will come and tattoo them on your forehead ! LG

It is currently unclear what McCulloch has recently said to upset Liam, but it is likely that Gallagher may have read an interview the Echo And The Bunnyman frontman gave to the Irish Independent in September 2011.

In the interview, McCulloch said: "I like Liam, but, to be honest, Beady Eye are crap. He looks like a fish out of water. He should have bided his time and thought a little more about the lyrics that might be worth writing."

He added:"I feel for him. He's never been the greatest frontman in the world. That's bollocks because there's so much of me in him."

Earlier this year, Liam Gallagher was voted as the greatest frontman of all time in a poll voted for by the listeners of XFM, with Queen singer Freddie Mercury in second place.

The former Oasis man is among those who've made the last eight in NME's search for the Ultimate Musical Icon of the last 60 years.

Source: www.nme.com