Paul McCartney: Oasis Shouldn’t Have Said They’d Be ‘Bigger Than The Beatles’

Sir Paul McCartney has lashed out at Oasis for saying they’d be “bigger” than his band The Beatles in 1996.

The 73-year-old rocker thinks the group made the “biggest mistake” of their career by saying they’d give the ‘Twist and Shout’ hitmakers a run for their money during a controversial interview with MTV over a decade ago.

Speaking to Q magazine, Paul said:”Oasis were young, fresh and writing good tunes. I thought the biggest mistake they made was when they said ‘We’re going to be bigger than The Beatles’.

“I thought ‘So many people have said that, and it’s the kiss of death.’ Be bigger than The Beatles, but don’t say it. The minute you say it, everything you do from then on is going to be looked at in the light of that statement.”

Noel Gallagher – who was joined by brother and arch-enemy Liam Gallagher in the pioneering Britpop band ,which broke up in August 2009 – was slammed with backlash when he made the claim but he has since stated he has no recollection of making the statement and was probably out of his head on drugs at the time.

He previously admitted: “I might have been high when I said that. I think I was.”Paul’s comments come after the ‘Let It Be’ hitmaker admitted he was gripped by depression and “took to the bevvies” and almost walked away from his music career entirely when the iconic four-piece band – which also included John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr – went their separate ways in 1970.

He recently said: “I was depressed at the time, yeah. You would be. You would be too. I was breaking from my lifelong friends, not knowing whether I was going to continue in music. I took to the bevvies. I took to a wee dram. It was great at first, then suddenly I wasn’t having a good time. It wasn’t working. I wanted to get back to square one, so I ended up forming [his band] Wings.”

Source: www.easternmirrornagaland.com

Campaign Supernova!

To coincide with the 20th anniversary of the release of Oasis' first singles and debut album in 1994, (heralding the dawn of the Britpop era), we propose to put out a boxset which celebrates the history of their label - the maverick Creation Records. It follows the re-release of our critically acclaimed, award winning documentary film , Upside Down: the Creation Records Story, which featured a cross section of Creation artists from the Jesus and Mary Chain to Primal Scream and everyone in-between including the Super furry Animals, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, the House of Love and of course ,Oasis. It is also telling that 2014 also marks the 30th anniversary of the label's first release proper - 1984's Upside Down by The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Our film of the same name picked up 2011's MOJO Vision award and the NME writers award the same year beating Martin Scorsese's George Harrison biopic into second place. The boxset will feature the film itself and another disc which boasts at least 25 extended interviews with the likes of Noel Gallagher, Bonehead, Bobby Gillespie, Alan McGee, Irvine Welsh, Howard Marks and many many more

We have a crowdfunding campaign in motion through Indiegogo with the aim to raise the capital required to get this amazing boxset made.

Click here to read all about it.

Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.

Liam Gallagher Wants Jared Leto And Ethan Hawke To Audition For His Beatles Movie

Liam Gallagher is set to hold castings in Los Angeles for a new Beatles film and wants Jared Leto and Ethan Hawke to audition.

Liam Gallagher is set to hold castings in Los Angeles for a new Beatles film.

The Beady Eye frontman wants Jared Leto and Ethan Hawke to star in the movie and has convinced Michael Winterbottom to direct the film about The Beatles' company Apple Corps and the break-up of the group.

A source told The Sun newspaper: ''Liam is going to hold castings in the US in April. A lot of the lead roles are American, so he's keen to find the right names.

''He knows he's not going to manage to entice someone like Brad Pitt but he wants high-calibre people who are more on the indie scene of Hollywood. He thinks actors such as Jared and Ethan would be perfect.''

The former Oasis lead singer, who split from his own band in 2009 after a huge fist-fight with brother and bandmate Noel, is the executive producer of The Longest Cocktail Party and is currently looking for someone to fund his movie.

The source said the 41-year-old star aims to follow in the footsteps of late Beatles guitarist George Harrison, whose company HandMade Films produced hit movies 'Monty Python's Life Of Brian' and 'The Long Good Friday'.

The Beatles - also made up of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the late John Lennon - made their first debut on US TV 50 years ago and stars gathered for a special tribute show last month at The Los Angeles Convention Centre.

The group formed in Liverpool in 1960 and split in 1970 after Paul said he was quitting the band.

Source: www.contactmusic.com

Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.

Video: Liam Gallagher Joins The Charlatans On Stage And Performs My Sweet Lord

Liam Gallagher and friends played at benefit concert to honour The Charlatans' late drummer Jon Brookes, taking place in London yesterday.

Below is a video of them playing a cover of George Harrison's 'My Sweet Lord', as soon as I come across any other videos I will post them.

Beady Eye's Andy Bell Talks About Dave Sitek, Sitars, Oasis Reunions And More

Beady Eye’s softly-spoken guitarist Andy Bell opens up to Michael Hartt about working with Dave Sitek and admits that if Oasis were to reform, he’d be there in a flash.

Having been greeted by a somewhat lacklustre reception, both critically and commercial, with their first album, Different Gear, Still Speeding, Beady Eye have returned with their second album, BE. The record sees Liam Gallagher and his ex-Oasis cohorts Gem Archer, Chris Sharrock and Andy Bell pursuing different sonic terrain to the swaggering rockers of their first outing. With the aid of TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek on production duties, their second outing is a spacier, more adventurous affair.

When I reach guitarist Andy Bell he is a laid back mood and in his softly-spoken Oxford accent talks passionately about how Dave Sitek helped Beady Eye find their new sound, learning the sitar and those ever-present Oasis reunion rumours.

On a scale of one to 10, how surreal was it to play the Olympic closing ceremony last year?
Oh, it was brilliant. It was a 10, without a doubt. It’s just something that, when you get the chance to do it, you’d be insane to turn it down. The experience of it was brilliant and it was a really, really funny day out as well. There was one bit where we were walking from our dressing room to the stage and the acts and crowds of extras that we were passing as we were going by was just like being inside some, I don’t know, Liberace’s acid trip or something. There were troops of Indian Maharajas riding elephants, then you’d have break-dancers and the Spice Girls would be passing. Basically all the bits and pieces from all the other acts were all milling around through these backstage areas as we walked through. It was a really insane but very enjoyable moment; even more so because I was miming so I didn’t have to do anything really. I just stood there and pretend to play guitar. Liam had to sing live though.

What was the recording process like for BE; how long did you spend in the studio?
We only had five weeks booked with Dave Sitek but we worked fast and we finished 18 songs. We did that in four weeks. In the last week we basically left Dave and his assistant to get on with what they were doing and we kind of chilled.

We recorded it in a studio in Richmond, about an hour from London, which is called State Of The Ark. It’s a private studio owned by a successful songwriter who wrote a lot of hits for Tina Turner and Cliff Richard. His name’s Terry Britten. [Ed: Britton was a member of Australian band The Twilights with Glenn Shorrock in the 1960s].He’s an interesting guy. Obviously he doesn’t have to work anymore, he’s got this studio and he just kind of potters around. He used to always bring in weird pedals for me to try out. Little prototypes of things. He’s working on a really cool idea for a stereo guitar where half the strings go through to half the amplifier and half go through to the other side. I’ve ordered one.

That must have appealed to the shoegazer in you?
Totally man. Anything that makes guitars sound weirder.

How does Beady Eye work in terms of song writing? So you, Gem and Liam work on the songs then bring them to one another or is it more collaborative?
It’s slowly changing but basically we bring them in. I’ll explain how it works and this has been the same for both albums. After the Oasis break-up, we were back in a room working on new music weeks after we’d split because that’s all we really knew how to do. We went straight into demoing mode because I think we were a bit unsure how to deal with it all. We hit on this formula where Liam would bring a song and we’d work on that for a week or so; this was in Gem’s home studio. We’d work on Liam’s song, finish everything that needs finishing with it, record a demo and then the next week we’d move on to mine or Gem’s and we’d go round in that same order. So you’re more or less bringing something in to polish up, that you’re ready to work on with the band.

That’s the formula we used on both albums but then we kind of changed it with this new one, slightly towards the end. We were just finishing up and we knew we had a set number of days with Dave left and Liam had a great burst of inspiration where he came out with three songs at once, which were ‘Soul Love’, ‘Evil Eye’ and one more. We also hadn’t finished ‘Flick Of The Finger’, which was an instrumental demo that we had knocking about years before called ‘Velvet Building’, which had no words, no actual song or anything. It was just the riff with Liam singing over it. We really liked it and Liam suggested that me and Gem finish it off for him. So working on ‘Flick Of The Finger’ was the first time that we’ve taken a song from that little start until completion. It was a true collaboration between the three of us.

The tracks on BE tend to have a bit more space to them as opposed to the full-on rock ‘n’ roll of the first album. Was it a case of using the studio more or messing with arrangements?
I’d credit that as probably the biggest contribution Dave Sitek [brought] to what we do. I think in the past, we’ve kind of seen records as places to just fill every corner with dense sound and it’s taken Dave to make us question that by saying , “How about having a section where almost nothing happens, almost nothing changes and you just have some time to think or just enjoy the moment?” When you take that thought and run with it then you get some of the moments on this album, which are really the best bits. The end of ‘Don’t Brother Me’, the end of ‘Soul Love’, some of the middle sections of songs kind of seem to open out. It’s quite freeing to realise you can do that. It was really good and I credit Dave for that, without a doubt. He brought that in.

Would you it be fair to say that, musically and lyrically, BE is a far more introverted record than Different Gear, Still Speeding?
Yeah, definitely. Again, the production brings that out because it does feature the voice front and centre and some of those tunes that have the more introspective subject matter are now sonically way more interesting than they could have been. They’re the ones you’re drawn to. Like ‘Don’t Brother Me’, which was an acoustic tune originally and that became this cosmic epic. Conversely, as song like ‘Ballroom Figured’ we had a band arrangement for that and it was brought down to guitar and voice which gave it that intimacy.

Is that you playing sitar at the end of ‘Don’t Brother Me’?
Yeah, it is. I bought one for the first album because we used it on ‘Millionaire’. In true Brian Jones fashion, I bought the thing in the morning and put the overdub on it about an hour later. I tuned it all to the right notes and then put it away for the next two years and then brought it out for this outro. One day I want to do the whole George Harrison thing and go to India and learn how to play it properly. It’s fairly hard with the sitar to tune it to the song you’re doing and pick out some notes that sound good but I’d like to be decent at it someday.

It seems like something people dedicate their lives to learning.
It’s amazing. I’ve seen films of Ravi [Shankar] teaching George to play it. I think the timing’s really important in Indian music. It’s always really odd counts per bar. There’s a formula that they have to learn so it’s kind of like remember a bank statement or something. It’s counting to five, then it’s counting to three, then it’s counting to seven. You’re basically playing music to a formula, a very complicated formula. When you do it right, it sounds great. If everyone’s doing the same thing; when you have a tabla layer playing at the same time, it’s really good.

Given that it’s only been four years since Oasis split, do you find the continuing press about a possible reunion detracts and distracts from what you’re doing now?
It doesn’t really bother me. All it really says to me is that people still care about Oasis in the same way that I do occasionally get asked about Ride as well; about whether we’ll reunite. To me, I kind of put it in the same category as things I would like to happen. I’ve got no problem doing it at all. If the Oasis thing came up, I’d be there like a shot but it’s something that relies on Noel and Liam. I don’t know if it’s likely to happen in this millennium really.

What about Ride then?
Similar deal really. Ride is more like something that’s on the backburner where all of us have said “Yeah, that’d be really nice to do one day”, but we’re all really busy. We’ve all got lots of things going on – music and other things. It’s something that I don’t wanna leave forever. I think right now I’ve got unfinished business to work out with Beady Eye and we have to get to a certain point before I’d consider taking a bit of time off from it. I just think it’s not that time right now. We’ve got a lot going on and we’re fully committed to it.

Is part of that unfinished business coming to Australia this time after not touring here on the first Beady Eye album?
We’re definitely going to Australia this time. I keep hearing conversations about it. We wanted to last time as well but we didn’t. This time we definitely are.

Beadyy Eye’s BE is out now through Sony.

Source: www.fasterlouder.com.au

Liam Gallagher: 'I Didn't Want To Call New Beady Eye Album 'BE''

Liam Gallagher has revealed that the title of the forthcoming Beady Eye album – 'BE' – was not his first choice.

The former Oasis singer, speaking to NME in the new issue on newsstands now and available digitally, instead said he instead wanted to title the album 'Universal Gleam' but was outvoted by his band and label.

"[The title] is nothing to do with me," Liam said. "I wanted to call it 'Universal Gleam'. But at Columbia [their record label], a lot of people got their knickers in a twist, putting out a record called 'Universal Gleam' when we're not on [the label] Universal. So yeah, it's 'BE'. 'BE'. 'BE' who you are. 'BE' whatever you fucking want to be. 'BE'. Fucking bumble-'BE'. I find that a bit more hippy-ish than fucking 'Universal Gleam'.

Asked to explain what, exactly, 'Universal Gleam' means, Gallagher explained: "'Universal Gleam' was when John [Lennon] and George [Harrison] met up with [Beatles publicist] Derek Taylor when Brian Epstein died. They went to meet him and he just said that they had a universal gleam about them. I wanted to call it that, but other people were going, 'No no no', so I went, 'Look, call it what you fucking want.'"

Beady Eye this week (April 29) unveiled their brand new single 'Second Bite Of The Apple', which is taken from 'BE'. The album, which was produced by Dave Sitek, is due for release on June 10.

Click above to listen to the song, which comes from the Liam Gallagher fronted band's second album, 'BE', which will be released on June 10. Beady Eye will play live at Manchester Ritz on June 19 before heading to London for a show at Camden Centre on June 20. The short stint will then come to a close in Glasgow at the ABC on June 22. Tickets were only made available to fans who pre-ordered the new album.

Read the full interview with Liam and bandmate Gem Archer in the new issue of NME.

Source: www.nme.com

Liam Gallagher's Style Icons

The Pretty Green frontman took a break from showing off the AW13 line at London Collections: Men to reveal his fashion inspirations.

KEITH RICHARDS

“He looked like he’d slept in his clothes and worn them for about a month. You can look too smart sometimes. I hate that. I like shoes you’ve had for ages that look battered. What’s the point of having a fucking jacket if you’re only going to wear it once? You should wear it a million times.”
 
PAUL WELLER

“Paul Weller in the Jam era. Bands now are told what to wear. There aren’t any bands today that look good. I really like The Pistols too, but they wore leather kecks and I’m not really into leather kecks. You’re probably never going to catch me in hot pants, but then you never know what’s around the corner.”
 
GEORGE HARRISON

“He was the coolest one. Anything he put on, he just made it look cool. And he knew how to wear a kaftan. He could wear one and look like he’d just got back from India, do you know what I mean? I don’t know what it is [about him]. I just know that every time I see a picture of him I think, ‘I’m having that.’”
 
LIAM GALLAGHER

“Me. Because I don’t give a fuck. I was born that way. That’s just the way it is. I’m cool, man. I don’t know what it is. That’s the thing with Pretty Green – it’s not there to be magnified. I’m sure Keith Richards wasn’t thinking about it that much either. He just whacked it on and he looked cool.”

Source: www.mrhyde.com

Noel Gallagher On Oasis, The Rolling Stones, John Lennon, David Bowie And More

During 18 years as the guitarist, primary songwriter and sometime vocalist for Oasis, Noel Gallagher became one of the biggest rock icons of his era. His sales and chart statistics were downright gaudy: 23 UK Top 10 singles, seven UK No. 1 albums, concert audiences as large as 125,000 a night, and album sales of over 70 million.

But as anyone who followed the music press knew, the group's alliance of Noel and his younger brother Liam was a fractious and temperamental one from day one. (For context, this YouTube of a legendary NSFW Oasis interview sums it up.) In 2009, just days before the end of an Oasis world tour, Mr. Gallagher and his brother fought one time too many. Noel left the venue, and the band was done.

"My whole attitude toward songs like that is that if you're going to fucking say it, say it. Don't piss around pretending it's a song about a tree when it's really about sex. And I'm talking about Radiohead here." - Noel Gallagher

After nearly two years of quiet, Gallagher re-emerged with a solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, last fall. The record showed that Noel's still got quite a knack for a melody, and drew mostly critical raves and strong sales worldwide, turning a few months of touring into over a year of travel.

The tour concludes this week with three stops in Texas before a friends and family gig in London, after which Gallagher claims we'll not see him for a while.

CultureMap recently called Gallagher at his Chicago hotel to discuss his solo debut, the Internet, David Bowie and this week's U.S. elections.

CultureMap: It's a strange couple of weeks for you to be in America with the elections and the hurricane. Are you having some interesting conversations on the road? 

Noel Gallagher: Yeah, I think this is my third election in a row that I've been in America. I am actually planning on applying for a vote next time since I spend enough fucking time here. I find the whole thing fascinating, American politics is fascinating. It's so confusing and bizarre. I like to watch it play out. But I don't begin to understand it.

But for instance, last night I was watching. You can watch Fox News on one channel and it gives you the exact opposite view of CNN on the other, but using the same figures. And it's insane how it's even legal to do that stuff. You can't do that in England, you know what I mean?

CM: I think for a long time in the U.S., media was supposed to be neutral, but then the UK have always kind of had Rupert Murdoch on one side and The Guardian on the other, and everybody knew their points of view. Now we have more of that here.

NG: Yeah, but the TV station itself — that should be neutral! You can voice any opinion, but the anchor of the program should be neutral. You watch Fox News… I can say it's fucking insane. Fox News is insane.

And then you watch CNBC or something, and they are using the same stories and the same figures but with completely different [results] — they interpret them completely differently, and I mean it's fascinating to watch as somebody from another country. I love it here, I've got to say, I think it's fucking great, but it's very confusing. Who is going to win?

CM: I think Obama is going to win, but I think it's incredibly close, and I think we are all going to stay up half the night to see. 

NG: Yeah, I'll be on a tour bus somewhere, but I think I'm definitely going to stay up. It's exciting to be here. Because British politics is very sedate and a bit more subtle and only goes on for two weeks. This has been going on for the last fucking year, hasn't it?

CM: Absolutely. Another difference: There's not as much religion in British politics today, in my experience. 

NG: Yeah, and there is an insane fight over the women's vote. The [media] seem to have categorized it, they've herded all women into a group now, like some minority group, and they're [acting like] they are all gonna vote as a group, and they are talking about abortions and birth planning and all that. I don't know. It makes you think it's kind of an archaic way of thinking about women.

I think it's just so far removed from what we are used to in the UK... like all women in America are gonna get together and kind of block vote on one particular issue is ludicrous, isn't it?

CM: I know you have a daughter and I do too, so it's strange to watch all of this play out.

NG: I've seen on Fox news two guys debating what Jesus would say if he walked into a family planning clinic.

CM: Amazing.

NG: I was watching it, with my mouth open going, "What did they just say there?" What would Jesus say? One of them was saying, "Well, I think he'd reconvert them to Christianity because obviously they are not Christian if they are in a birth planning clinic." Another guy was saying he'd give out free condoms, and I was like: "Fuck me."

CM: You grew up in a Catholic family, if I'm remembering correctly. 

NG: That's correct.

CM: Does it ever strike you — were things ever this extreme when you were growing up in Manchester? 

NG: I was thinking about that this morning, but I don't know whether in England… it's the same, but it's slightly more subtle. I mean, the message was the same, but you don't really notice that you are receiving it. I mean, America is very in your face. I've gotta say, religion isn't as massive an issue when it comes to the election. Religion isn't a massive issue in the UK anyway, you know what I mean?

I don't think many people 'do' religion any more. There's not so many where there's a serious obsession with it. The people who are into it in America are obsessed by it and they're obsessed about what the religious right think and what rights they have and all that kind of thing. I guess that's the same with any extremists, you know? There are Christian extremists and Catholic ones, all of that is fuckin' as mad as Muslim extremists, you know what I mean?

CM: It's crazy. I think we all may have too much information. It's too easy to get angry with people that are different than you.

NG: Well yeah! I mean, of course! I don't think it's any coincidence that all the wrongs of the world have coincided with the birth of the Internet, you know what I mean?

CM: I wanted to ask you about that. I lived in London in 1995 when the second Oasis record came out, and I remember the joy of walking down to HMV when you put out a new single because I wanted to see what B-sides you'd thrown on it. And, you know, nobody knew. You'd go and you'd take it home and listen. Do you feel like some of that record store magic or some of that attentive music listening that we both grew up with is gone now? 

NG: Yeah, of course. And the software was invented by people that didn't go to record shops. You got some guys in fucking Seattle or wherever these guys with bald heads and glasses sit, they're thinking: "I don't want to fucking go to record stores, I want the record stores to come to me." The Internet, for all the great things it has given us, because people are connected all around the world — it has destroyed magic. It's destroyed word of mouth.

You know, particularly in the music industry, before a record is out, an opinion is formed. It's destroyed the ability of people to think for themselves. Like you, we were in London in 1995, and the single was out on that day, and you didn't even know what it sounded like unless you caught it on the radio. But there was no forum to tell you. It wasn't pre-leaked. There wasn't a free download before.

You went and you took it home and you formed your own opinion. You probably didn't have a mobile phone in 1995. So the next time you would talk about it is when you actually met somebody down the pub or something and said, "Fucking hell, have you heard that track 'Listen Up' on the B-side?" There would be no "I'll press the little wheel on the computer and go, um, it's alright." You know.

CM: What do you think that means for young musicians now? I know you're a fan of Jake Bugg and have brought him out on the road with you. What does it mean to someone like that, who is good but is living in a different world than you did? 

NG: Well, he's growing up with it. He's fully immersed in the machine now as it is, you know? For the likes of me and every artist from the '90s, we had to make the transition. So it was difficult. Young acts now, they're kinda brought up in the machine, so they don't know any different. I was talking with him the other night, and he was saying that it was mind blowing to him that [Oasis] sold 700,000 albums in three days in England. And you wouldn't even sell that now with people on their computers.

He said, "How would you manage to shift all those people down to the record shop?" Well, it's just magic, you know. I mean, that kind of magic is gone now. You know, music has now become... I don't think it's a force now. I mean there's still nerds who believe in it, like me and you and other people. And that's who you make music for.

But, you know, now people will have bought my album and put it on a blank CD to listen to it at a dinner party and just chuck it away like it is worth nothing to them. You know what I mean? 'Cause it's just a piece of plastic.

CM: I get the feeling that not many people are going to get rich making music anymore. That it's becoming more of a working class gig where you live in the bus or the van and that's how you earn a living.

NG: Well, absolutely. Trust me on this: The days of Led Zeppelin and David Bowie and fucking Marc Bolan and all that — they're all gone. Those flamboyant rock stars flying around in fucking jets. There won't be another Rolling Stones, there won't be another David Bowie, that's for sure. Because the industry doesn't want that. They don't want a guy like David Bowie completely murdering Ziggy Stardust to go off and become another character.

They would want Ziggy Stardust for the rest of his fucking life, you know. But it serves the industry right, I think. You know what I mean? Because for starters, they overcharged for music in the first place. So there was a quest by young people to get music for what they felt was the right price. And in the end, they're getting it for free now. So it serves the industry right.

CM: Were you surprised that Oasis actually lasted as long as it did? That it took until 2009 to wind down and you to leave? 

NG: Yeah. I mean, we tried. You know, to our credit, we tried to keep it going for as long as possible. We were never... with all the various members of the band, it was kinda fractious, and there were cliques, and it was never quite a happy ship at any point in the 18 years.

But to our credit, all of us, we all tried to keep it going for as long as possible. And then there just came a point for me, where I just thought, "This is never gonna change. And it's time for a change." But I think we did pretty fucking good, you know. I've got to say, I think we did pretty good.

CM: When you left Oasis, you laid low for a solid year-and-a-half or so. What do you do with your time off? 

NG: Well, I got married, I had another baby. I moved house.

CM: That pretty much takes care of it. 

NG: It's just life, you know what I mean? I'm not really driven as an artist. I don't get back after a tour and sit down and think like, "What's my next project?" I just think, right, let's go back to being a regular fucking guy for a while. Because I like sitting around the house, you know what I mean? And I don't really ever wanna overdo it, because I don't want to have contempt for my job, so to speak.

So the guys in my band now, well, they're not in my band, they're just guys that play with me on the road. They're kind of fishing for what's gonna be there in the next couple of years. I've got to say, "Don't fucking hang around waiting for me," because I could conceivably not make a record for the next five years. I just do things when I feel like it, and I might not feel like it for a few years, and that's great. And I don't really believe in saying anything unless you've got something to say. And at the moment, I've got nothing to say. You know, in regards to doing a new record.

CM: I read something by George Harrison once, where he said that money doesn't buy you happiness, but it does buy you options. It gives you the ability to take some time away and just do whatever you want. 

NG: Absolutely. What I did at the end of the Oasis thing, my first thought was I knew exactly what I was gonna do. And that was doing nothing. And then I was going to wait for the call from somewhere. That call might be that two songs might come in a row that excite you and you think, now I've got an album. And I wait for that kind of call.

So one night I went to bed, and I wasn't thinking of music, I wasn't that bothered. I'd just moved house, it was all fucking great and lovely, and my son was growing up. Then the next morning I got up and I was having breakfast and I thought, I'm gonna book a studio. And I don't know why. So I wait for that call. And whenever that'll come will be whenever it will be.

CM: There were always rumors during Oasis' earlier days that you would squirrel away songs and save them for later. A couple of things that had been kicking around for a long time made it on to this record. Any reason that you chose those two songs? Because I'm sure there are more. 

NG: You mean "Record Machine" and "Stop The Clocks"? I just thought they were great songs and I thought…if I don't put them out now, there's no point in putting them out. Those two songs are kind of the bookend of the Oasis story, really. I mean the bottom line is I thought they were great songs. I've got to say, I do tend to write — I'm either in two stages of writing. I'm either writing lots of songs or I'm writing none.

I don't really keep it ticking over. I haven't written anything for months now. But before that, I wrote a lot of songs. So I do always have a backlog. And every record that I make is never really quite representative of where I am at that moment, because I have got such a backlog of songs from over the years. That is what I do. That's my style.

CM: Where are you today musically? What are you listening to or influenced by?

NG: I have become heavily obsessed with David Bowie again. Don't know why.

CM: That's a crazy catalog to get into. You can kind of dig deep and get lost.

NG: Yeah, yeah, yeah. On the road, I've been listening to him regularly. I always thought he was great, but I never really thought he was as great as I think he is now. I think he is up there with John Lennon and fucking Bob Dylan and those guys.

His recorded output is fucking phenomenal. But every single style of music that he attempted, whether it be pop in the '60s and this glam rock thing in the '70s and the avant-garde electronic music in the late '70s and then, like, electro-pop in the '80s. All fucking truly amazing. And it's beginning to blow me away, so I've been listening to it lots recently.

CM: When I lived in New York, I was able to see him a couple of times, and it was really good. It makes me sad that he's walked away from live performance. 

NG: Yeah. I think he's been ill. There was a picture of him in the UK papers a few months back. I guess if you're David Bowie and you're gonna get up on the stage, people are expecting you to be fucking brilliant, you know what I mean? And if you can't give it a hundred percent and be the David Bowie that everybody expects, then I guess there's no point in doing it. I would hate to go and see David Bowie and just be like, "Wow, I'm so disappointed."

CM: Speaking of which, there have been so many reunions of classic, beloved bands as of late. Have you gone to see, say, The Stone Roses or Led Zeppelin or any of the bands you really like that have done that?

NG: I did see Led Zeppelin and I did see The Stone Roses, yeah. I've seen them both.

CM: How did you think it turned out in either case? 

NG: Well, you know, the Zeppelin thing was a one-off gig and it was great. It wasn't John Bonham who was there, so obviously it wasn't really Led Zeppelin. But that was great. It was an event, that moment. The Stone Roses thing —  I've seen them five times and I've seen them do two truly great shows. They're friends of mine, and I think it's turned out good for them, you know what I mean.

CM: Yeah. It didn't end so well the first time, so that may have been more about fence mending. 

NG: Well, I guess, and it's a financial thing. I don't think they made much money the first time around, and who doesn't wanna make a few fucking million dollars, you know? But The Stone Roses are playing now, and actually, I wouldn't go to see them again, you know what I mean.

CM: Yeah. I don't think we'll see Led Zeppelin again. Robert Plant's actually been living here in Austin. We've been seeing him around at the coffee shops.

NG: You know, I've been hoping I might bump into him in the pharmacy somewhere.

CM: On your tour set list, you have about a half dozen Oasis songs sprinkled in among your solo record. You probably have a hundred Oasis tunes. How do you actually decide what 25 minutes of Oasis you're gonna put in there? 

NG: I've gotta say, it's fucking difficult. I've had over 15 months now of people shouting out Oasis songs, not one of which is on the set list. First and foremost, I put together what I wanted to do of my new stuff and that amounted to about 45 minutes. So we're just filing it out, really, but I don't expect to do any more than half a dozen next time. But I guess it's just what feels right at the time.

I guess people are always gonna expect to hear "Don't Look Back In Anger," so that's kind of a given. But, I like the more obscure stuff that I did. They were always hidden away on B-sides, because Liam couldn't sing them or wouldn't sing them, and they should've been album tracks. A lot of them would've been great Oasis songs if only the singer could be arsed. They are about to take a new lease on life, I think.

CM: To end in the present, on the new record, "If I Had A Gun" may be one of the best songs you've ever written. It feels pretty direct compared to some of the other ballads you've done. Is there a good origin story for that song? 

NG: When I put together a set of chords and a melody and it lends itself to being a romantic song, I always go back to the first night that I met my wife. She was then my girlfriend, you know, and she's since become my wife. And so I remember what that felt like. And what those first few weeks felt like. You know what I mean?

CM: Absolutely. 

NG: And then try and make it as believable as possible. And just really, if you're gonna write a love song, write it from the heart. And write it about someone you actually love. I'm not going to mention her name, because people don't know her, but I make it as universal as possible. My whole attitude toward songs like that is that if you're going to fucking say it, say it. Don't piss around pretending it's a song about a tree when it's really about sex. And I'm talking about Radiohead here.

Source: www.culturemap.com

Liam Gallagher On Style And More

To celebrate the British Fashion Council's London Collections, Shortlist Magazine has designed three limited editions covers to front their style specials. Knowing a man who is clear of his sartorial choices, Liam Gallagher was naturally asked to submit his own design.

Shortlist Magazine recently caught up with Liam to talk through the ideas behind his psychedelic cover, the meaning of British style and what's next for Pretty Green.

SM: So what is the idea behind your cover?

LG: "The cover was inspired by the psychedelic portraits of The Beatles taken by Richard Avedon in the late 60's, which I’ve got hanging in my house. I wanted to create something that had the same vibe and also used the paisley logo that we created for Pretty Green."

SM: How did you go about putting it together?

LG: "I worked on it with the graphic design team at PG and this one jumped out the minute we did it."

SM: What does British style mean to you?

LG: "British style for me is a look back over the decades especially in the 60’s where lads were buzzin and defining their style and where bands like the stones and the Who were creating their own classic look. Take album covers from the Kinks to The Small Faces they all had a clean smart British look that made a statement. It’s all about iconic classic pieces like the Parka or the Trench which epitomise British style. I try to capture a bit of that in what I do with Pretty Green. Fashion and music will always go hand in hand and that has a major bearing on the Pretty Green designs."

SM: What are your personal style rules?

LG: "It’s about the look and whether I personally like it or not. I’m into quality clothing with a vintage vibe. Pretty Green is a reflection of my personal style and taste, one foot in the past one foot in the future."

SM: What is your worst fashion mistake you’ve made?

LG: "Its not for me to point out, I’m sure there’s been a few mistakes but overall I’m cool as fuck!"

SM: Who is your all time style hero?

LG: "There’s several – Stone Roses, George Harrison / Bryan Jones / Steve McQueen."

SM: Who gives British style a bad name??

LG: "Anyone who wears what they are told to wear and not what they want to wear, you know the ones who have stylists, if you don’t know what you look good in then I feel sorry for you."

SM: Give us a guide to looking good on-stage? What are the essentials?

LG: "For me it’s starts with the shoes and then work you’re way up."

SM: What next for Pretty Green??

LG: "We are opening a new store next week in Leeds which will be our 11th in the UK, and then our first international store in Tokyo which opens at the end of July just before the mighty Beady Eye play Fuji Rocks, it gunna be mega we are having a big party on the Wednesday if your in town and you’re not a clown then you’re invited!"

Look out for your copy of Shortlist Magazine this Thursday or read it online HERE.

Source: www.prettygreen.com

Billy Connolly Helped Me Kick £1m Drugs Habit, Reveals Noel Gallagher

Noel Gallagher has revealed how comic legend Billy Connolly helped him kick the £1million cocaine habit threatening to wreck his life.

The former Oasis star turned to The Big Yin when he went cold turkey in a last-ditch bid to quit drugs.

He had become pals with the funnyman after a chance meeting while shopping in Harrods in London.

Noel, 44, said: “I’ve only ever really been star-struck twice.

“One was Neil Young and the other was Billy Connolly. I don’t know why. I met him in Harrods. He went, ‘Awright, ma wee brother’. I was like, ‘F***, it’s Billy Connolly’.
“I’d seen him live and watched his DVDs. He makes me laugh till it hurts.

“When I decided I was going to kick drugs, I spent a lot of time lying on the couch, eating soup and watching his DVDs.

“They say laughter is the best medicine. I assure you it is. I love the guy. He’s great.

“I met him recently at the premiere of the George Harrison movie Living In The Material World in London. A top man.”

Noel was in Glasgow last week playing a sell-out gig at the 10,000-capacity SECC followed by a secret show for 300 fans at The Grand Ole Opry, the city’s famous country music club.

The singer returns to Scotland on July 7 to play the Main Stage at T In The Park alongside his music heroes The Stone Roses.

He will also headline Edinburgh Castle 10 days later. And he might be measuring for curtains because he wants to buy the castle for his wife Sara MacDonald, who is from Edinburgh.

Noel said: “I’ve been up to the castle with the wife but never gone inside. If it’s for sale, I’ll be putting in a bid. I’ll buy it for the missus as a weekend gaff.”

He married long-term girlfriend Sara last summer in a private ceremony in New Forrest National Park and comedian Russell Brand was his best man.

The couple have two sons, Donovan Rory, four, and Sonny Patrick, two. Noel also has a daughter, Anais, 12, from his previous marriage to Meg Mathews, which ended in divorce in 2001.

Noel claims to have ditched his wild party lifestyle since meeting Sara at the Space club in Ibiza in 2000.

He was so smitten with the PR girl, he wrote Waiting For The Rapture, a track on Oasis’s 2008 album Dig Out Your Soul, for her.

She also helped straighten him out at a time when he was blowing £1million on drugs as Oasis ruled Britpop.

Noel even claims to have snorted coke in a Downing Street toilet reserved for the Queen after being invited to No.10 by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1997.

Noel once said: “Doing drugs is the most beautiful thing about being in a rock band. Up until 1998, I must have spent £1million on drugs. Then I stopped because it is bad for your health, brain, life and for people around you.”

After 18 years as an addict, he reached a crossroads when he woke up in his plush London home after an all-night party and found the place full of hangers-on who he didn’t recognise.

He said: “I got up one morning in 1998 during the World Cup when Germany were playing Italy. There was a load of people in my house – I didn’t know any of them – who were carrying on the party from the night before.

“The first thing I did was walk to the fridge and get a beer and got back on it. But then I thought, ‘This weekend will end with me speaking to a stranger about the Pyramids’.

“I changed my life. It sounds pretty corny but I kissed drugs goodbye. I was depressed and felt weak. When I talked to a doctor, he gave me simple but sound advice – ‘kick the drugs’. I did and don’t really miss it.”

Noel jumped at the chance to appear on the Main Stage at T In The Park for one good reason – he wants to see The Stone Roses, who have reunited after a 15-year split.

He turned down an offer from T boss Geoff Ellis to headline the King Tut’s Tent because he didn’t want to go head-to-head with them.

Noel said: “I’m a huge fan. The first time I saw them was in 1985 at the International 1 in Manchester when Sally Cinnamon first came out and they were selling the 12-inchers at the merchandising stall. I remember it like it was yesterday.

“I’m glad I’m playing with them at T because I’m not going to get the chance to see any of their other reunion gigs. They tried to put me on in the tent at the same time they were on the Main Stage.

“There’s f****** no way that’s going to happen. I want to see them. I’m made up I’m gonna to do my thing, then they are gonna do theirs.”

Noel’s solo career with his latest project, the High Flying Birds, has given him a new creative lease of life since quitting Oasis in 2009 after one bust-up too many with brother Liam.

He has scored hits with singles AKA…What A Life!, The Death Of You And Me and Dream On from his debut album.

The singer is estimated in The Sunday Times Rich List to have a personal fortune of more than £52million but he says he’s not motivated by money.

Noel said: “It depends what you’re driven by. If you’re driven by money and you end up with lots of it, I suppose you might think, ‘I’ve got money now’.

“In the early days I was driven by the need to make a mark or leave a footprint. Now I’m not as driven but enjoy it more.

“I was saying to some young people at The Brits the other week, ‘You’re all living someone else’s dream. Don’t let me catch you moaning because there’s a kid in a council estate somewhere with a guitar watching this and all he wants is what you’ve got. So if you complain, step aside. There are plenty more who will take your place’.”

Source: www.dailyrecord.co.uk

Noel Gallagher On His Strangest Fan Experience And More

Noel Gallagher the time he returned home to find a fan sitting in his kitchen in Buckinghamshire.

The songwriter was asked by the current issue of the NME what's the strangest fan experience you've ever had?

Gallagher said "I remember getting home one afternoon when I'd moved out of London. I'd moved from Supernova Heights in north London out into the countryside in Buckinghamshire. And I'd been out one afternoon and come back and there was a bit of commotion in the kitchen. There was a guy sat at the kitchen table who had just broke into my house. Just a guy. And this is just after George Harrison got stabbed and all. He'd travelled all this way, and he'd heard I recently moved there so he was just in there waiting for me, like it was the most normal thing in the world. I was with a friend of mine who happened to be a black dude, so we sat around the kitchen table, made him a cup of tea and kept him talking while my missus went to call the police. Now, where I lived was on a country lane and the police couldn't find the house, so I went down to the gate to let them in and said, 'There's a bit of a weirdo in the kitchen -I don't know what's happened, but it's pretty fucking freaky.' And as I've gone outside the guy's tried to make a run for it, so my mate's grabbed him. Anyway, the police go up the driveway - it's about a quarter of a mile - and by the time I've got there they've got my mate in a headlock! The black guy! The other guy's just fucking stood there! And I'm like, Are you fucking kidding me?! He's me fucking mate! It's this guy here who's just broken into my house!' I was like, 'Wow! Fucking hell!' Sign of the fucking times or what?!"

During the same interview Gallagher said that he would also be interested in teaming up with his one-time foe Damon Albarn. The two rockers endured a 15-year feud after falling out at the height of Britpop in the mid-1990s - when their bands Oasis and Blur became chart rivals - but they recently put their differences aside after a chance meeting in a bar.

And Gallagher admits he'd welcome the idea of a joint project: "For a start, he's (Albarn) as mad as a box of frogs. Number two, he'd get loads of hip-hop dudes working on it (collaborative album), which itself would be f**kin mental. And number three? It would be a better record."

Noel Gallagher On Meeting George Harrison And More

Noel Gallagher has been speaking about the time he got to meet former Beatle George Harrison at a bonfire party.

Speaking to the Rolling Stone he said "I was invited to a bonfire party, and it happened to be on the property that backed up into George's house. So I'm sitting on a log and this guy with a beard and a denim jacket comes up to me and says, "Hey, you want a Heineken?” I was like, “F*cking hell!” We talked about Carl Perkins, and I told him he was my favorite guitar player".

During the same interview he was asked if he flattered when George Martin called him the finest songwriter of his generation.

He replied "I was fucking flattered - but you can’t take that too seriously, or what are you going to do next? I think he’s wrong, by the way".

Noel Gallagher Met George Harrison At Country Bonfire

Noel Gallagher got the chance to tell Beatles star George Harrison just what he meant to him as the two stars chatted about guitar great Carl Perkins at a mutual friend's bonfire.

The former Oasis star is a huge fan of the Fab Four and fondly recalls sitting on a log next to Harrison at a country party.

He tells Rolling Stone magazine, "It happened to be on the property that backed onto George's house. So I'm sitting on a log and this guy with a beard and a denim jacket comes up to me and says, 'Hey, you want a Heineken?'

"I was like, 'F**king hell!' We talked about Carl Perkins and I told him he was my favourite guitar player."

Harrison died shortly after the meeting in 2001.

Source: www.contactmusic.com

Stars Share Their Memories Of George Harrison

People from the world of music and film arriving at the London premiere of Martin Scorsese's documentary about George Harrison gave their memories of the man.

The film was made in collaboration with Harrison's widow Olivia and follows his life from his upbringing in Liverpool.

Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Terry Gilliam and Noel Gallagher spoke to the BBC.

The documentary will be an Arena feature to be shown on BBC Two in mid-November.

Click here to watch the video (UK Only).

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Liam Gallagher’s Style Icon Is George Harrison

The Beady Eye singer has his own fashion label Pretty Green and although he is famously obsessed with John Lennon he claims The Fab Four’s guitarist is a bigger influence on his fashion choices.

He said: “My fashion icons are, well, George Harrison always looked cool, all The Beatles always looked cool, Keith Richards, Steve McQueen looked good, The Jam, Paul Weller are all influences. The Stone Roses had a look - they were my first thing.”

The 38-year-old rock star admits he is proud of the success his clothing label has achieved and insists fashion is just as important as music to him.

He added: “I believe in it without a doubt. Look I don't sit there stitching it but it's stuff that I wear, you know what I mean? Or stuff that I'd like to wear. Fashion and wearing good clothes is equally as important as music to me.”

The ‘Bring The Light’ singer now has three Pretty Green shops in Manchester, Glasgow and on London’s famous Carnaby Street.

Source: www.musicrooms.net

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