If Liam Gallagher Ever Goes Bald He's Getting A Wig

The former Oasis frontman - who once described one of his 90s hairstyles as "Dougal from 'The Magic Roundabout'" in reference to the children's TV dog - says there is no chance of him going around with no hair because that wouldn't be very rock 'n' roll of him.

The 'Wall of Glass' singer told the new issue of The Big Issue magazine: "No one wants to see bald rock stars, man. If I ever go bald, I'll be getting a wig. F***ing too right, without a doubt. There's no shame in that. What would you do? I wouldn't suffer in silence. I'd definitely go for it."

The 46-year-old rocker - who now has a short hairdo - also revealed that Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards is his biggest hair inspiration, but while he's tried out his style before, he has joked that by the time he hits the road for his tour in support of his debut solo LP 'As You Were' later this year he could rock a perm.

Asked who has served as his "hair hero", Liam said: "He's [Keith] got the Elvis thing going [with the sideburns] and it's really long down here [on the neck]. That's the perfect haircut. And I had it a couple of months ago. But last week I just thought, I'm a bit f***ing bored here, I'll go to the barbers. And I asked him, 'Do you have any clippers?' He went, 'Yeah', so I said, 'Just take it off' ... By the time I do the UK tour I might have a f**king perm. A Marc Bolan vibe. Who knows man, that's the beauty of life."

As for his what he's like when's he's not play the rockstar on stage, Liam insists he's super laid-back, unlike his wild partying days in the 'Some Might Say' group.

He said: "I'm a chilled motherf**ker these days. I certainly don't go round beating up old people and tripping them up or gobbling on windows. I've got a heart of gold."

The Big Issue with the exclusive interview with Liam Gallagher available to buy from Monday (10.02.17) from Big Issue vendors across the UK for £2.50. 'As You Were' is released on 6 October.

Source: www.swnewsmedia.com

Here's What We Know About Two New Liam Gallagher Songs Called 'Greedy Soul' And 'Bold'

During Liam Gallagher's interview with Q, the interviewer was played two demos of tracks on Debbie Gwyther laptop one was called 'Greedy Soul' and the other 'Bold'.

The interviewer said both tracks were absolutely brilliant and sounded nothing like Beady Eye or Oasis.

He said that 'Greedy Soul' was shockingly good. A stripped back beat-soul number which sounds like Mark Bolan playing Street Fighting Man, he added there is an urgency and clarity to Liam's voice on it that hasn't been apparent for a long time.

'Bold' he said was a more stately Plastic Ono Band affair. The interviewer said that his notes on his phone are unclear ("Lay it n me, U didn't di what I was tol... MEGA CHORUS") He  said that he listened to 'Greedy Soul' twice either side of it, so who knows really.

The current issue is on sale now and available in stores or digitally.

Liam Gallagher: 'One Direction Are My Biggest Competition'

A little rivalry never hurt anybody.

Mick Jagger referred to The Beatles as a "four-headed monster"; Bowie was spurred on by the success of his friend Marc Bolan; Oasis entered a musical arms race with Blur.

But since Oasis imploded in a backstage brawl four years ago, Liam Gallagher has found a new foe.

"Who's my biggest competition?" he asks. "One Direction."

"I'm not into their music," he clarifies, but the teen band are that most Gallagher of things - "mad for it".

"Fair play to them, man, they got lucky - like we all do, I guess - and they're just going for it.

"That's what it's all about, innit? It's all going to end at some point. And when it ends, you want to make sure you've ticked all the boxes."

At 40, William John Paul Gallagher is as quotable as ever. But the flippancy masks a larger truth: His real musical nemesis is his brother, Noel.

When Oasis split, Liam came out fighting. Taking the remnants of the band with him, he formed Beady Eye: Bare-bones, ready to rock, full of fury.

But their no-frills debut, Different Gear, Still Speeding, was easily eclipsed by Noel's superior solo album. While the senior Gallagher set off on arena tours, Beady Eye were dumped by their managers and limped across the finishing line with UK album sales of just 500,000.

It may have been a blessing in disguise, though. Because, for the first time since the 1990s, Liam Gallagher had something to prove.

Gauntlet laid down, Beady Eye hired an "absolute outlaw" to produce their new album, BE. His name is Dave Sitek and he's best known for his left-field work with TV On The Radio and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Most importantly, the New Yorker didn't really know, or particularly care, about Oasis.

"That was the most refreshing thing about the whole experience," says guitarist Andy Bell. "He came in without the baggage of thinking, 'well, I'm assuming you're going to want to have it sounding like this'.

"Dave said, 'I work pretty fast'," adds second guitarist Gem Archer, "and we said, 'so do we'. So the race was on."

Reinvigorated, the band laid down 21 tracks in just nine days. Most of them had been demoed in advance but, says Bell, "a lot of that went out the window as soon as Dave started his production".

Gallagher describes Sitek's contribution as "the weird jiggy stuff". BE frequently dips its toes into the cosmos, wandering off into ambient psychedelia at a point when most Oasis tracks would have hit the "fade out" button.

"We just sat back and let it unfold," says Gallagher.

"It's like thinking time," adds Bell, "because nothing really happens. And that's something we don't normally put in records, is a bit of space to think."

"We did take a gamble. But life's a gamble, isn't it? Every album's a gamble. Unless you play it so safe that you're not gambling, and I wouldn't want to hear that album in the first place."

Sibling song
With characteristic humility, Gallagher told the NME earlier this year that BE was the album "Oasis should have made after (What's The Story) Morning Glory". Does he stand by that?

"Yeah. I don't mean this particular album. I think we should have been a little bit more open to this kind of thing in Oasis - i.e. with the producers, do you know what I mean?

"In Oasis, Noel was full-on, hands on producing, and he's not a producer. I think some of the time, with this word 'experimenting', you have to let the experimenting happen.

"We tried to stay out of the way. And that's the biggest... it's the hardest thing, to be not running the show all the time."

Noel's shadow hangs over both the album and the interview. Liam even defines Beady Eye by his absence: "Oasis was pretty much Noel's direction and vision, and this is ours".

But, although the brothers have barely spoken since the end of Oasis, Liam appears to offer an olive branch on the album track Don't Brother Me.

"In the morning, I'll be calling and hoping you understand," he sings. "Give peace a chance. Take my hand - be a man."

Yet, when pushed to talk about the song, he's suddenly cagey.

"Liam, you must getting asked about Don't Brother Me in every interview."
Liam: "No, you're the first."

"When I saw the title, I assumed it would be an angry song - but it's not. What was your state of mind when you wrote it?"
Liam: "Can't remember. Fuzzy. As usual. I didn't sit down to write a song about a brother. There's bits in there about Noel, I guess. And there's bits in there about me, and there's bits in there about my other brother. And there's bits in there about brothers in general. About everyone just chilling, man. And give peace a chance. There's a couple of little cheeky things in there."

"Such as?"
Liam: "I don't know. I wouldn't want to spoil the party."

"Could it be this line: 'I'm sick of all your lying. Your scheming and your crying?'"
Liam: "But that could be about me, though, couldn't it?"

"Well, no. When you sing about 'your' scheming it's directed at someone else."
Liam: "It could be me, though, couldn't it?"

"So you're singing to yourself?"
Liam: "Could be. I talk to myself, so why not?"

"Did you write the song looking in the mirror, then?"
Liam: "Yeah, alright. It's about him. And it could be about people around him. I'm not here to shy away from talking about our kid. You ask me a question and I go for it. But, yeah, it's about a lot of things. It's not about just Noel. Believe you me, if I could write a song about the [expletive] with Noel, I would."

"So why not do that?"
Liam: "Because it's not in me, man."

"OK… Let's take a step back - because ultimately the song is conciliatory."
Liam: "It's a nice song with some nice moments in it, man."

"Nice moments" abound on BE. Don't Brother Me is one of two songs written in waltz time, while Soul Love is a tender ballad that dissolves into a hazy coda played while the band watched the "Star Gate" sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

'Second bite of the apple'
But there are also the expected rock numbers, including first single Flick Of The Finger, which draws on the pounding rhythms of the Velvet Underground's Waiting For The Man and The Stone Roses I Wanna Be Adored.

It's at its best when Sitek pushes the band into unexpected territory. When he loosens his grip, the music occasionally slips back into Oasis-by-numbers bore rock.

Throughout, though, the biggest revelation is Gallagher's voice, which is pushed to the front, with none of the echo or reverb or studio trickery other singers rely on.

"There's a lot of records where you're screaming and shouting, and you think you're singing the biggest vocal ever," he says.

"You come back in the next morning and you think it's going to sound like a jumbo jet and it's that big." [indicates something very small].

"So this time round I thought, do you know what? When I sit in my house playing my guitar, I like the way my voice sounds. I took all the reverb off, tried to be as naked as possible. Sometimes it's hard, because you get self-conscious about it but we had to just get past that."

"Half of these songs on the new album, I was basically whispering it. Come back in and the vocal was massive. It's all about soul, man.

"I can sing punk rock, I can sing rock'n'roll and I can sing soul music and all."

Never short on confidence, Gallagher genuinely believes Beady Eye have made a breakthrough on their new album.

As the next single puts it, he's ready for "a second bite of the apple".

"We'll be gutted if it doesn't get to number one," he says. "But it won't stop us from doing this. That cloud won't be there forever.

"You don't start a band to be number one. You start a band to write good music, and that's what we do."

BE is out on 10 June.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Oasis Up For Inclusion In Music Walk Of Fame

Camden Town is to get a Hollywood-style walk of fame, which will honour pop music greats linked with the area such as Pink Floyd, Oasis and Amy Winehouse.

Endorsed by the Los Angeles movie-star original, Camden's will honour music's greatest performers with a bronze and stone disc, presumably to mimic a vinyl record, set in the pavement. Each disc is set to cost about £500.

Those chosen will be split into five groups: influential artists; innovative artists; unsung heroes; and industry types. After a committee has come up with a shortlist, we all get the chance to vote on the Music Walk of Fame's website.

The shortlist hasn't been decided yet, but hints have been dropped that among those in the first tranche will be Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, The Doors, Marc Bolan, The Move, Cream, Hawkwind, Blur, Oasis, Pulp, Supergrass, Suede, Madonna, Radiohead and Public Enemy.

The list is to be announced in May.

Source: www.londonnet.co.uk

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

The Ten Best Rock'N'Roll Frontmen

Who are the best rock'n'roll frontmen of all time? Not solo artists but real frontmen - men that actually front bands. We choose some of our favourites.

01. Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols

Yes he's not very cool anymore, but 30 years ago Johnny Rotten was the snarling, sneering photogenic face of punk rock. His natural ability to (often literally) wear a load of rubbish and still look breathtaking combined with a voice that immediately captured the dark sarcasm of his lyrics.



02. Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones

He may not have pioneered the hip swivelling, camp-as-a-row-of-tents frontmen approach (Little Richard and of course Esquerita got there 10 years earlier) but Jagger certainly made it his own. Mixing a voice that brings-to-mind the arrogance of grizzled old bluesmen, an off-stage reputation as a snobby twit and a dance resembling a chicken and Jagger is, for many, the ultimate frontman.



03. Jimi Hendrix of the Jimi Hendrix Experience

Hendrix's on-stage theatrics rarely overshadowed his immeasurable talent but it can't be denied that Hendrix was as much showman as he was musician. With a dress sense as good as his guitar playing, a reputation as something of a drugs dustbin and the ability to do with his guitar what Little Richard did with his vocals - Hendrix pretty much invented the rock'n'roll cliché. That so many have followed his path speaks volumes.



04. Marc Bolan of T Rex

Marc Bolan mixed the foppish persona of Mick Jagger with the voice and hair of Bob Dylan and the fashion of David Bowie when he helped to pioneer glam rock. Often dismissed as a tween pin-up, Bolan was in fact vital to reinforcing the ever-important teen divide in the early 1970s - making long hair, beards and flares the look of the establishment rather than the cosmic teenage rebels.



05. Iggy Pop of The Stooges

A true wildman of rock'n'roll, Iggy Pop (or James Newell Osterberg, Jr. as his mother knew him) took blues-inspired rock'n'roll to new levels in the late 1960s. After watching Jim Morrison (whose omission from this list is sure to be questioned) perform at the University of Michigan in 1967, Pop took his stage act to new extremes, rolling in glass, exposing himself and vomiting onstage. Without Pop, punk rock would not have developed as we know it.



06. Freddie Mercury of Queen

Freddie Mercury is another who aped Mick Jagger, although Mercury's performance was more outlandish in almost every way. His untrained voice was one of a kind, rolling from heavy rock baritone to soaring falsetto with ease, while image wise Liza Minnelli-inspired flamboyance was key.



07. Liam Gallagher of Oasis

Liam Gallagher is nothing but a frontman. His own songs are awful and his personality vacuous but when Liam Gallagher takes the stage something very silly and slightly magical happens. Forget his voice for a moment (which even the harshest critic couldn't deny is powerful and distinctive) when the man stands motionless on stage with a tambourine in his mouth, scowling at the audience you really can't take your eyes off him. You sort of hate him but you also kind of envy him. This is what a frontman is.



08. Bono of U2

Further proof that you don't need to like someone to recognise their talent as a frontman. Somehow, somehow, Bono has become even bigger than his band, meeting political leaders, making poverty history , editing The Independent for a day, saving the world. All the while he's managed to churn out the kind of atmospheric rock'n'roll that demands a theatrical frontman. He's even entered popular culture as a derisory term for an egotistical, overblown frontman. Johnny Borrell from Razorlight? He's a bit Bono isn't he.



09. Kurt Cobain of Nirvana

The classic doomed rock'n'roll frontman. Cobain was so punk rock that he killed himself because he didn't want to mislead fans into thinking he still found Nirvana fun. On top of that he wrote vicious, poetic lyrics and then screamed them unintelligibly over huge-sounding, pop-laced rock'n'roll. His legacy has ensured every year new waves of troubled young things rip their jeans and pick up a low slung guitar in his honour.



10. Joe Strummer of The Clash

Joe Strummer was a punk rocker with a heart a soul. While Johnny Rotten quickly became a cartoon anarchist, Strummer aimed for real revolution, showing his fans that rock'n'roll could be politically intellectual as well as nihilistically so. He also managed to inject blues, rockabilly, soul, folk and dub into The Clash's sound, all the while looking look Kenickie from Grease's cooler little brother.

Source: www.independent.co.uk

The Devendra Banhart remix of '(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady' and the Liam Gallagher-penned 'I Believe In All' and 'The Boy With The Blues' are now available to buy on iTunes.