Noel Gallagher - Select - December 2000

Have things been strained between you and Liam since the Wembley shows?
No more than usual. We live in a constant strain. Today it's fantastic, because I'm in Manchester at me mam's and he's in London. But he's been a different man since he split up with Patsy - he'sjust mellowed out. Maybe his new bird's got him back on the marijuana. He's a bit more normal but I'm sure that'll all change. Him and the rest of the band have been in the studio, which incidentally I didn't get invited along to, so I'm on strike at the moment. We will make another record, we have to before someone else fucking leaves. But even if it doesn't happen for three years, that won't mean we're breaking up.

What about the Noel solo sessions?
It's already done, so Liam's gonna have serious egg on his face. Let's fucking see now if he'll leave. If I'd gone on tour I wouldn't have done it, so it's his own fucking fault.The whole thing is, it's not intended to be some major Richard Ashcroft thing or to get in the way of Oasis, but singers being singers, they overreact. He's thrown his little toys out of the pram... so now he won't get a free copy, he's going to have to buy the bloody thing.

Does that leave any songs left for Oasis?
I've already written another six or seven songs, though I have to say five of them are shit. Gem's written his first song for the band, called 'The Roller' - it's like T Rex doing `Instant Karma'. Andy's written a couple of songs; Liam's written seven which I'm flabbergasted at... Of course, I'm not letting them on the album. Only joking.

What's this, democracy within the band?
I was always open to other people writing in this band, but no cunt ever did. But now everyone wants to be taken seriously as an artiste. I'm still in charge by the way, let me make that fucking crystal clear. When they ask what I'm doing, I say, 'I'm splitting up with me fucking missus, I've got more important things to do than play with you.' [Playfully] Do you think they'd kick me out? That'd be fantastic! I can't be arsed doing music at the moment seeing as I'm having a personality crisis. I'm taking the rest of the year off.

So is there truth in the stories that Meg was too wild and you just wanted to settle down?
It's all bollocks. I'm supposed to be living in this big mansion, smoking a pipe and reading The Independent, while Meg's charging round London with four bottles of Jack Daniel's stuffed down her knickers. Look, she was never that wild and I was never that homely a guy. I still love going out, she loves staying in.

What was the biggest strain?
You spend seven months on the road in a complete fucking rock'n'roll bubble, being treated like a child, so you act like a child. Then you come back expecting to pick up where you left off and find that life goes on without you... Now I'm living in a hotel with a bar that's open all night, in London, so I'm out every night. I haven't passed anything solid out of my arse for two months.

Talking of which, what did you think of 'Kid A'?
I liked Radiohead better - or Blur for that matter - when they were writing songs. Are they scared? Is it an artistic statement? Because it doesn't say fuck all to me! 'Let's make some fucking noises and call it art, that way we don't have to write an intro or a middle eight and can't be judged against anything.' To answer your question - I love it.

Where do Oasis stand in the year 2000?
We're not a very fashionable band any more. But between 1993 and 1996 we were it.

Noel Gallagher - ITV/cd:uk - 25th November 2000

Noel Gallagher - Rockinrio.com.br - November 2000

Oasis's Noel Gallagher says he feels "honored" and gives exclusive interview to Rock in Rio Rock in Rio will present, on January 14, one of the most important bands that have emerged from the excellent British musical scene in the '90s. For many, Oasis will become even better, for its members are getting riper and riper. In one exclusive interview, Noel Gallagher says he feels happy and honored with the festival's social purpose. The band has just been given the best live performance award from Q magazine, one of the most renowned publications in the U.K. We are going to see here at Rock in Rio For a Better World an Oasis at its very best. Check the interview with guitarist and main composer of the Manchester band below:

Q: How do you feel about performing in a festival with several other bands with different styles like Guns'N'Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Young, James Taylor, among others?
A: It must be interesting.

Q: Rock in Rio For a Better World has a very serious social purpose in terms of helping collect funds for education, health and other issues. For instance, all sponsors are donating 5% of their quotas for Brazilian social projects . How do you feel about being involved in such kind of festival?
A: Oasis feels honored in being involved with such a nice cause and in performing for the Brazilian people.

Q: Last month you received an award from British magazine Q for the best live performance. Does that mean Brazilians will see Oasis at its best?
A: We hope so.

Q: You are working on a new album. Is there a possibility that you show some of the new songs at Rock in Rio?
A: No, none of those songs will be played live yet.

Q: You normally include songs from other artists in your repertoire. Have these bands influenced Oasis's career? Which songs can we expect for the January show at Rock in Rio? Are you planning to record the Rock in Rio show for future release?
A: We don't know yet. We are rehearsing and soon we will decide which songs will be included in the show repertoire. There are no plans for recording the show. We have just done that in Wembley and it's going to be released as a live record (CD Familiar to Millions).

Q: What kind of memories do you keep from your last show in Brazil? ("Be Here Now" tour, 98)? What do you think about Rio de Janeiro?
A: I don't remember the show very well...But I have excellent memories from Rio.

Q: In your viewpoint, how is the British musical scene at this moment?
A: Just OK.

Noel Gallagher - Familiar To Millions Official Interview Promo CD - October 2000?

An Mp3 encode of the official Familiar To Millions Interview Promo CD. Don't know the recording date, but am estimating sometime in October 2000.

http://www.savefile.com/files/225227

With thanks to Alan Coleman from The Soapbox forum.

Noel Gallagher - Melody Maker - 6th September 2000

WHAT'S ALL THIS ABOUT AN ANNOUNCEMENT? ARE YOU SPLITTING UP?
No. What it was, I was out the other night at the premiere for 'Snatch' and some knobheads from the press were there. They said, 'What's all this about?' I said, 'I'm hardly going to tell you in the fucking middle of the pictures. If we were going to announce anything, it will be for the fans first and it won't be until after Tuesday, because we've got a gig on Monday night,' And then it was all like fucking like John Lennon said, And now all this!"'

WHAT ABOUT YOUR FEUD WITH THE 3AM GIRLS ON THE MIRROR?
"One of'em called me an ape, right, so I had a go back and then I met them at the 'Snatch' party and they were saying, 'Oh, are we really that ugly?' So I said, 'In this light, you don't look too bad.' And then I read in the paper today that I'd made some grovelling apology But that's tabloids for you, innit? I should have fucking known better."

WERE YOU PISSED OFF AT NOT BEING ALLOWED TO PLAY V2000 WITH WELLER LAST WEEK?
"Haha! Honest to God, right, it's a good job they pulled the plugs because I was pissed as a fucking arsehole! God only knows what would have happened if I'd have actually been allowed to plug my guitar in. By the time I'm supposed to be on there, I'm seeing four Paul Wellers. Then someone pulled the plug and I thought, 'Thank fuck for that!"'

LIAM TOLD US RECENTLY ABOUT 40 NEW SONGS...
"No I've written two. So unless the other four have written 38 between them. ."

ARE YOU STILL DOING YOUR SOLO ALBUM?
"That was intended to be a side project that ran alongside Oasis. I could do a record in fucking six days because I could play all the instruments myself and I've got my own studio. Liam made a big fucking deal about it, he brought it to a head and he's now telling me I'm not allowed to do stuff outside of the band, which I think is a fucking joke, because I've already done stuff with The Chemical Brothers anyway"

DO YOU THINK LIAM SHOULD DO SOME SOLO STUFF?
"Everybody should have the right to go off and do their own thing at any fucking point. Y'know, fucking hell, man - we're not In the army. But we'll sit down and we'll address that in October, November time. Until then, we'll just be looking forward to tonight and I particularly can't wait until fucking Monday because then it's over. Not it's over - I mean the tour is over."

WHAT THEN?
"Fuck all! I've got some work to do in the studio and then there's a band I'm gonna sign and produce for Big Brother, which I can't tell you about. I'm gonna put that out in January. It's the most retro fucking rock you could ever imagine. It doesn't fit in with anything else that's going on. But fuck it, I like it, so it doesn't matter."

Noel Gallagher - Rolling Stone - 29th August 2000

So, what is going on with Oasis?
We had a bit of a fall out in Barcelona. Not about anything particularly important, but we decided that for the good of the tour I would go home and they'd get a replacement to stand in. After that, the gigs we've done in England have been great. But you know we're not really sure what's happening next year or the year after, so as soon as we know what we're gonna do, we'll let everyone know. We'll put everybody out of their misery.

We're just concentrating on doing these gigs [Reading, Glasgow, Leeds], then going on holiday and then living that thing we call life for a little while -- and then seeing what we want to get back into it.

Have you worked on any new material?
I wrote two [songs], just after I finished the last record. I wrote another one the other day but it's got no words, so that's half a song. So I've got two and a half songs. Apparently, the rest of the guys have got over fourteen, which I find very hard to believe. Liam's been writing for a while. I've heard a couple of his tunes, and they're alright.

What do your new songs sound? Are they different or along the same lines?
Well, we're not experimentalists. We're not into space jazz, you know what I mean? We're into rock & roll music. What we do is what we do and the sooner people work that out. . . I mean, we're never gonna make an experimental, electronic record because we like playing Les Pauls through loud amplifiers. That's the end of it. It's rock & roll music, man. That's what we do.

So this rumor about Oasis not touring anywhere else but Britain, does that hold for America as well?
I love touring. I absolutely love it. It comes across in interviews that I don't actually like touring, but playing is fantastic. Meeting the people that you play your music for is great as well, and it's just that the vibe on this particular tour for a six- or seven-week period was so fucking awful that I didn't want to be around it anymore. So I went home.

But then there was the announcement that you weren't going to tour outside Britain anymore.
Yeah that was a typical management company statement.

So that's not the case then?
Well, I've done the America tour, so they got it and I think that last American was one of the best things we done ever in America. I thought it was fantastic. I thought all the gigs were great.

America's not off the list entirely then for you, then?
Not for me.

So what's going on with your side project, Tailgunner?
We had a single out Monday [in Britain]. I don't know how it's doing in the charts as we speak but, yeah, Tailgunner are on tour, again, with another drummer. I've got plenty of stand-ins knocking around the British music industry at the moment. So I've got a stand in doing me drummin' in Tailgunner, and I had a stand-in in Europe doing me guitar bits [for Oasis]. I spoke to Mark [Coyle], who's the main man behind Tailgunner and they're up for recording another album pretty soon. And I don't know whether I'm playing drums on it or not.

Do you have any other side projects?
Not at the moment. I might be signing a group for my record label [Big Brother] in a few weeks.

What are they like?
Can't tell ya . . . They're English. And they're more like the Rolling Stones than the Black Crowes, if you know what I mean. They're from the North, somewhere very near Manchester.

Are you on speaking terms with Liam at the moment?
The relationship has been portrayed as rather rocky in the British press.I was out with him on Sunday. I went out with him on the booze and that, and everything's cool. It's just that our fall-outs seem to be a bit more public than other people. We're two very separate, sarcastic people and there's nothing we like better than getting into a bit of verbal tennis, if you like, but it doesn't mean anything. I wouldn't be going on stage with him tonight [at Reading] if I wasn't his fucking best mate.

It was well reported you were upset about your first gigs back with the band at Wembley. What happened?
Well I thought the first night, the Friday night, was great. The second night was awful. It was one of the most awful experiences I've had in my fucking life. Liam hadn't been to bed the night before and I found that very disrespectful to the audience. Subsequently, that gig got reviewed and it was said to be one of the best performances by a British band in like God knows how many years, which makes me think that maybe I'm going a bit fucking mad and I don't know the state of my own band any more.

Is Oasis still very much your band? How's it going to work if they've written fourteen songs and you've written two?
Well that's what I'm trying to say. We don't know how it's going to work or if it's going to work. We're just concentrating on doing these gigs and going on holiday and hopefully reconvening and sorting it out like proper fucking adults do. We're not children, you know what I mean? Not like saying, 'Well you said this about me and I said that about you, and you done this and you done that and blah, blah, blah.' It'll be nice if we could sort it out like adults do.

When do you think that might happen? Do you guys have a timetable?
No, we don't. Oasis doesn't work to a time schedule.

So holiday lasts until whenever you feel like it then?
Well, yeah. Rock & roll's not about conforming to the clock. A clock is too time restricting. If it's gonna happen it'll happen when we feel like. Who's to say when we're gonna feel like it? I don't know.

How did you feel when they started throwing stuff at the band in Europe, and you weren't there? Were you watching that from afar?
I found it funny, actually. That'll fucking teach them to send me home [laughs].

When that was happening, were you speaking to the band by phone?
No, we're not really sociable animals. We don't hang out outside unless we by accident bump into each other at other people's gigs or something. We're not in 'Summer's End, Buddhist cult' man, where we're all on the same vibe. We're five completely different people, who live in different parts of the country almost, and we get together for things like this and we do our shit and then we all go our separate ways and it'll be same for this weekend. We'll be doing our shit and we'll be going our separate ways, and then somebody, usually from the management, will make a phone call, and we'll all get together and we'll all sit down and hopefully like adults we'll all be able to sort it out.

A few years ago you thought you could take on the world and Oasis was going to be together forever. Do you see the band together in a couple years from now?
You do when you're young, don't you? And [then] there's other things that come into your life. We've all got kids now.

Noel Gallagher - The Observer - 6th August 2000

My old man said be a City fan ...

As Manchester City return to the Premiership, Noel Gallagher recalls his first game and revels in the cigarettes and alcohol lifestyle of his early heroes

The first game my dad ever took me to was City v Newcastle United at Maine Road in 1971. That was it; City became my team. United were in the Second Division then and we were the top team in Manchester for about 10 years. But over the years, when City have been struggling and United have become the best team in Europe, Ive sometimes wondered why my dad brought me to Maine Road rather than Old Trafford. The reason is basically a family one my dad hated his brothers. They were all Irish people who came over here and decided to support United. My dad chose City instead, just to piss them off. No other reason than that Liam and I should by rights have been United fans.

My dad used to take us into the Kippax Stand and sit us up on this narrow brick wall at the back, where wed lean against this big sheet of corrugated asbestos, and then he'd piss off to the bar with all the other dads. I remember in that first game we absolutely murdered Newcastle 5-1. But the only goal I saw because if City got anywhere over the halfway line it got a bit chaotic and we were too small to see over the crowd was Malcolm Macdonalds.

The Kippax was basically a big shed. It was very dark there was no lighting and a really huge roof coming down low, so it was like looking at a television screen.

In the Seventies everyone used to wear scarves and have Rod Stewart haircuts. You could still drink in grounds so there was always fighting especially if away supporters who were mixed in among City fans because there was no segregation then celebrated a goal. Nowadays in football grounds fans tend not to sing a lot. But in the Seventies it was deafening in the Kippax. It was like the sound coming out of a speaker. We sang Lily The Pink, one about Colin Bell called Colin The King and all the naive old ones like Tommy Booth Walks on Water. It was only in the Eighties that songs began getting witty and complicated and having swearing in them.

When we were at primary school my dad took us mainly to night games, because on a Saturday hed be in the bookies betting on the horses, as Irish fellas do. Wednesday night games were even better than Saturday afternoon games. The pitch seemed greener and it was usually an exciting game like an FA Cup match. We began going regularly on Saturday afternoons when we went to secondary school and met other City fans, and my mum could trust us to go out on our own. I went religiously every other Saturday between the ages of 12 and 21. The first season we were in the Second Division, after we lost to Luton, we went to every single game, home and away. Wed just left school and signed on and there was fuck all else to do. We used to get train specials it was 2 to anywhere in the country on Saturday afternoons to places like Oxford, Barnsley and Ipswich, which took about six months to get to and from.

Players in the Seventies were guys who went to the pub before the game, smoked cigarettes and liked to bet on the horses, whereas players now are just programmed robots. You see Alan Shearer and just think youre the most boring person in the world. We used to watch people like Stan Bowles and Rodney Marsh real characters and Colin Bell, Franny Lee and Mike Summerbee. The late Seventies, early Eighties team, with people like Peter Barnes, was really good. But the best City player Ive ever seen was Georgi Kinkladze. A mate of mine who worked at Maine Road rang me up when we signed him and said: Ive just been to watch him; hes playing a different sport. I said: Heard it all before, mate. But he was right. We went to Kinkys first game and came away thinking well, were either going to go and win the European Cup now or well be in the Fourth Division in five years which we nearly were. You see, all City fans are arsed about is the pitch looking good on a Saturday and turning up to see the one player whos better than anyone at Man Utd. For three or four years, it didnt matter that we werent in the same league or that United were winning everything and qualifying for Europe because we had the best player in Manchester, bar Roy Keane. Kinky was amazing. It was widely accepted that we had the best player in the country. Plus he looked good in the kit. In the end he had to go because he was frustrated. Why did he score all those great goals, where he took on eight players? Because he had no City player to pass to. They were all shit. What, Peter Beagrie?

Weve had quite a few bad players: Steve Daley would admit himself he was never worth a million pounds. But that was Malcolm Allisons school of buying players. How much do you want for him? Five hundred thousand. Well Ill give you a million. Clive Allen and Niall Quinn were both good, even though everyone said they were past it. Weve had some good managers, like Peter Reid we even finished above United one season under him, which is unheard of and Billy McNeill, who got us promotion the first time we went down. Every time a new manager arrives, I always say: Hes going to be the one, the one to help us win a bit of meaningful silverware, but they never are so Im not going to say that about Joe Royle. City fans have this thing that as long as you look good in the kit or sat in the dugout, then it doesnt matter what youre like. Howard Kendall didnt look cool and neither did Brian Horton, whereas Malcolm Allison did. He turned up at Monday morning training in a white Rolls-Royce with a bottle of champagne and some actress in the back of the car. Thats football management.

The thing that fucks me off about players now is that they come off the pitch and say well we worked hard. Did you? Bricklayers work hard and they dont get paid 50 grand a week. Its no wonder that all these kids go round smashing up town centres when all the England players go on about is getting stuck in, standing your ground, working hard and being aggressive. Whereas the French players like ballet, man! Their supporters cause no trouble because the idols they look up to are artists. Not fucking get stuck in lads, they dont like it up em, foreigners. Fuck off. Theyre playing a different sport.

David Beckham is the best player England have got by a country mile. Its quite amazing what he can do with a football. I do feel sorry for him, but it comes with the territory. Hes a great player. Beckham and Scholes are all England have got. George Best was dead right when he said recently United were better than England. Roy Keane, Jaap Stam and Ryan Giggs would walk into the England team; even Denis Irwin might.

I say all that as a City fan. In the Eighties I used to hate Man Utd with a passion. But as you get older, you mellow. I hated Mark Hughes and Eric Cantona, but Paul Scholes? Hes like Ashley off Coronation Street.

Its great that City are back in the Premiership. Theres lots of games in London so Ill go a lot, plus itll be the first time the end of an Oasis world tour has coincided with the start, rather than the end, of a season. And I cant wait for the derbies; theyre pure, unadulterated hatred, like when Celtic play Rangers.

Well be top of the league some time in the first six weeks, for a week; Ill put 50 grand on that now with anybody. Therell be City fans on TV saying its the European Cup for us now, cock. Piss off. The middle 15-20 games will take care of themselves. Its the last six games that will decide if we stay up. We have to play four of the top six: United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea. Relegation is going to be between eight teams again, and we have to beat those other seven twice to stand a chance.

We could get into Europe this season or get relegated without scoring a goal. Thats why I support City. -OSM

Oasis headline the Reading and Leeds festivals (25 and 28 August, ticket details: 020-8963 0940) and also play the Glasgow Green Festival on 26 August

Liam Gallagher - Worldpop - August 2000

What a year it's been for Oasis. First Noel quits overseas touring amid stories of brotherly fights, then there are the rumours that the band are set to call it a day. worldpop catches up with the wildest of the Gallagher brothers, Liam, in an exclusive video interview and gets the lowdown on fights, Nicole Appleton, Noel and the future of Oasis.


Are Oasis splitting up? Everyone's saying that this is going to be the last gig for Oasis?
Liam: It is … it is our last gig … last gig of the world tour.

Are Oasis going to split up?
We're not going to split up. It's the last gig of the f***ing world tour and it's been emotional.

What's happening with you and Noel?
Nothing, nothing man, everything's sweet. Everyone knows we had an argument and he left the band for a bit, but now he's back in the band.

Is it just a normal brothers' relationship?
Liam: Well I think so, people just read too much into it. Today we're getting on, tomorrow we might not get on well.

Why are people making such a big deal about it then?
The thing about Oasis is it's like a f***ing soap opera and we can't do anything about it.

But you're always talking about the in-band feuds.
I don't play it up cos it's true, it's what happens. I said to the papers yesterday that we were splitting up as everyone else says we are splitting up so I may as well join in cos if you say you are not splitting up, then they look at you like you are f***ing daft so you might as well join in with them.

Will Oasis make another album?
Noel has said he can't see you making another record together.We are, we're going into the studio in a couple of weeks' time. We are all writing. We're going to take a few weeks off and then go back into the studio and f***ing take it easy. It might not be an Oasis album but we're just going to see what happens, we're going to write music together. Get these ideas down and see how it goes. If it becomes an Oasis album, it becomes an Oasis album, if it doesn't, it doesn't.'

Are you upset that this is the last date of the world tour?
I'm gutted it's the last gig cos it's been a bit of a f***ing stupid tour.

Do you think you've had a good year, despite your up and downs?
It's been a great year, I'm getting divorced, it's been a great year. I'm happy, I'm rocking man. Little things make me happy.

Was it good to go on stage in Milan for the first time without Noel and show him you could do it?
No not really, I just wanted to do the gig to tell you the truth. It's good to play festivals here cos the ones abroad have been a pain in the arse.

You seem a lot happier since meeting Nicole, how is it going?
Yes, it's going really well man. She's great, she's top.

Is it love?
Is it love. I don't know man, it's sommat.

Is she here today?
No, I don't know where she is, probably getting pissed somewhere.

How will you be celebrating after the gig?
I'm going to be drinking like a f****ing demon. What's new? I'm just going to get wasted with my mates and then that's it. I'm going home tomorrow and then I've got to start looking for a house. I live in London, it's where my baby is. London is a big place, it's where I can escape from things. I get a bit mithered but …'

Do you look back and think how far you've come?
I don't think too much. I just get on and do it. If you start thinking about what's gone on and what's going to be and what was the bit in the middle all about, it'll freak you out. As soon as I joined the band I stopped thinking.

Do you think you are a better band with the new guitarists, Gem Archer and Andy Bell?
This is why we are not splitting up. We have to go on and make an album with these guys and I think it will be the best record we ever do, if we all put our heads together. There has to be a little change somewhere, not musically, but in the way we record. It can't be just Noel walking in with the songs saying, do this and that. We all f***ing play together.

Are you a more democratic with your writing?
Yes, five heads are better than one. I think Noel's played his cards.

Are you still bothered that Noel wants to work on a solo album?
What's the point of doing a solo album when you're in the best band in the world? What's the point? Let's make music for this band, let's make it better, even better. We started out to be in this band and that was it. There was none of this, oh maybe down the line I'll do a solo album. Maybe down the line I'll drive a milk float, that's not what I'm into. I want to make Oasis music.

Will you stop Noel?
If it's causing this many problems, he might as well do it.

Will you have any duets on the new album?
I'm in Oasis I love my band. I wouldn't do any duets. Doing duets is for girls.

Alan White - Rhythm - 15th July 2000

Five years ago Alan White was plucked from obscurity to join the ranks of Britain’s biggest and most controversial band. Today, Oasis are still massive and still in the headlines, but Alan has changed. A lot. From shy ‘new boy’ to experienced old hand, he provides a calming centre to the turbulent storm of the ever-volatile Gallagher brothers. In a Rhythm exclusive, we go behind the scenes with the man in the hottest seat of all.

In typically un-rock star-like fashion, Alan White has arrived at Bolton’s Reebok Stadium on time, and is contentedly playing a few Latin patterns to an empty arena when the Rhythm crew join him on stage to say hello. Outside the stadium the party is already well underway among hordes of animated Oasis fans, enjoying the long-overdue sunshine as they wait expectantly for the doors to open for tonight’s show. Coming to the end of a tour that has taken them to Japan, Europe and America, Oasis are back playing live in the UK for the first time since 1997. The well-documented departures from the band last year of founding members Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs and Paul ‘Guigsy’ McGuigan, followed by the dramatic exit of Noel from the touring party in May, has resulted in an ongoing media frenzy in both the music press and the tabloids ? eager to speculate about the future of the band and the eternal tensions between the Gallagher brothers. With Noel now back with the band for the UK dates, everyone is just watching and waiting to see what will happen next in the continuing saga of one of the world’s greatest rock ’n’ roll bands

Alan himself despite the intense press scrutiny is relaxed and upbeat as he tells us how much he is looking forward to gracing the Rhythm front cover for a second time. It was back in early 1996 that we first heard the remarkable story of how he’d originally landed the gig with Oasis. At the time, many people had wrongly assumed that he’d secured the post because of his big brother Steve’s association with Paul Weller ? a long-standing hero of Noel Gallagher’s. As it turned out, that connection was purely coincidental ? Noel had actually heard Alan practising in a rehearsal studio and proceeded to make enquires as to the identity of the mystery drummer he’d been so impressed by. Alan returned home one day to be given a message by his mum. "Noel Gally-something phoned for you." And that, as they say, was that

Rhythm: After what has been a very turbulent year for Oasis, how does it feel to finally be back playing live in the UK?
Alan White: It’s fantastic, and for me personally there’s a different kind of energy when you play on home ground ? you give that little bit more, I think. After having been out on the road since February, these gigs are a real homecoming for us, and after everything that has happened, it’s great to just get up there and do it for the fans.

As a band, you have given both the music and the tabloid press plenty to write about in recent months, haven’t you?
Oh yes (grinning), shitloads has happened

Let’s go back, then, and start by talking about the departure of Bonehead and Guigsy from the band.
Things started to go pear-shaped after we’d finished recording Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants and Noel, Liam and I had to find two new guys to replace them. We weren’t actually that worried, because we knew there would be thousands of guitarists and bassists who would want a job in Oasis. What was important, though, was to get people in that we knew, and who fitted into the band on a personality level.

So how did guitarist Gem Archer (formerly of Heavy Stereo), and bassist Andy Bell (ex-Ride and Hurricane #1), actually come into the equation?
Noel knew Gem, and we all knew Andy, because I’d worked with his wife Idha in the past. And when the five of us started jamming it all came together very quickly - in the first week, really. We’re all into the same music and were instantly very comfortable with each other.

With a hectic touring schedule already planned for the first half of 2000, Andy and Gem certainly had a baptism of fire, which is not unlike the position you found yourself in five years ago when you replaced the sacked Tony McCarroll.
They’ve had to step into Oasis in its prime, just like I did, and hats off to them because they’ve done a great job. And it feels good not to be the ‘new’ boy any more.

How is the rhythm section working out with you and Andy?
For me it’s great. No disrespect to Guigsy, because he’s a great bass player, but we’ve just got a bit more bounce to it now, which has given me more freedom. Andy fits in really nicely with me - we’re both into funky playing - and Gem is really solid on the rhythm too, so I’m very pleased.

From all the positive things you’ve been saying about the band’s new recruits, it certainly sounds like the tour was going well until May, when Noel dropped the bombshell that he was quitting overseas touring with Oasis.
It was odd because everything was fine, the gigs were going fantastic and we couldn’t get any better, or be any happier really. Then one night there was a bust-up and Noel was on the plane home. Liam and I had to decide what to do, and we decided to get another guitarist in. I knew Matt Deighton (who has previously performed with Paul Weller and Mother Earth), and he flew out the next day. We had a rehearsal in Milan and basically that was it, we carried on gigging.

Just like that? You make Noel’s departure sound like a minor inconvenience.
Yes, because that’s what you do when you are on tour. What all of this is about is the fans and playing the music. Thousands of people had bought tickets to see Oasis, and there was absolutely no way we were going to knock it on the head just because Noel wasn’t there.

After the departure of Bonehead and Guigsy, though, it must have been very strange to then lose Noel from the line-up as well?
It was. Suddenly Liam and I were the only two ‘original’ members. But things move on and, even without Noel, Oasis still felt like a great rock band which is what matters. The unfortunate thing is that Noel writes all the f***ing songs, so we needed him back!

As he promised, Noel is back on board for the UK dates, so how is the atmosphere in the band now?
Everything is great at the moment. The changes in the band have actually made things more equal I think ? it’s more like the five of us together now, rather than the ‘I’m the songwriter’ vibe.

After the phenomenal success of 1995’s classic What’s The Story (Morning Glory) and the incredible gigs at Loch Lomond and Knebworth during the summer of 1996, Oasis seem to have suffered from an ongoing media backlash, with sceptics gleefully forecasting the imminent demise of the band at every given opportunity.
We were talking about those dates only the other day. For us they were fantastic, we made history. And now the press have the cheek to turn round and say we’ve lost it, that we’re not as big as we used to be. But we wouldn’t ever want to recreate those big gigs ? why would we? We’ve already done it. Last night we played to 35,000 people here in Bolton, in Dublin we played to 44,000, and next week we’re playing Wembley Stadium for two nights, So we can’t be that bad, can we?

Such ongoing negative press must be very frustrating, though
It gets on my tits because every side is negative. They say that the album is shit, but there were five people in this band that made that record and think it’s great. If people don’t like it, then f*** them, it’s our album and we love it. Most of them aren’t even interested in the music, though. They only want to talk about what Liam has had for breakfast and his personal life, which is wrong. When they do slag us off, though, it only brings us closer together, and makes us stronger, so we are able to turn the negative into a positive.

Who do you tend to hang out with most in the band?
I’m with Liam a lot, we just really get on together and have fun. It’s not just about being two geezers in a band, it’s also about being friends. It’s almost like a marriage, really.

Do you see the new line-up as a new musical start for the band?
Yes, but at the moment we’re still playing existing tunes. After the next album, of course, there will be songs that all five of us have come up with together, and that’s going to be very exciting.

One thing I was surprised about when I first heard Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants was the loops.
Noel has gone a bit loop mad on this one. Fair play to him for trying something different, you know, but I don’t think it’s something we’ll do again. Even though I haven’t been able to put as much into the album as I could have done, there’s still plenty of my playing on there. The next album will be different, not only have we got Gem and Andy on board, but we’ve also got our own studio now. I think it’ll be more in the style of Morning Glory, where we were raring to go and just went in andplayed it, rather than spending time arseing about with things.

Looking back now, what would you say is your favourite track on What’s The Story (Morning Glory)?
The whole album sounds really exciting, but I’ve got two favourites: ‘Wonderwall’ because I like the playing on it, and ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’, just because it’s a great tune and I’m glad to be on it. For me, it’s got a ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’ type of vibe to it, and playing drums on a song like that is something that I can really be proud of. I wish I could have played on ‘Some Might Say’, it’s one of my favourite tracks, but Tony did that. Even though I egged Noel to let me re-record it, he wasn’t having it.

What kind of drum sound were you after on Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants?
I wanted good, live sounding drums, and I think I have managed to achieve that. For instance, I love the sound of ‘Sunday Morning Call’, it’s got a real live feel which is just what I wanted. ‘I Can See A Liar’ has a fresh, punky, Pistols-y vibe and for ‘Little James’ we put tea towels over the drums because Liam specifically wanted that Beatles sound. The album was recorded on lots of different kits, Gretsch, Ludwig and Rogers, they sound really nice and it’s great to have that character and history. I’ve been collecting old kits for a while now and I love them. I wanted to hear the drums on this album, rather than a wall of guitars, and I think I’m getting there. On each record, I manage to get the drums that bit louder, but I suppose I’m only really going to get them as loud as I want to when I do my own album.

And is that something you’d like to do?
Definitely. I’m really looking forward to experimenting with my drums when the tour is finished. I don’t know what it’ll be like, I’ll just mess about and try different things. Even though I think we’ve used too many loops on the album, I’m keen to experiment with them on my own terms. I’d also like to try some odd times and some jazz. I was chatting to Zak Starkey yesterday, he’s supporting us with The Healers (the band fronted by ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr), and weagreed that when you’re in a band you tend to fall into this routine pattern when you play every night. You can’t improvise because it’s not that kind of band, so you miss out on jamming and playing different stuff. When you arrived today I was up there doing some of my old Latin rhythms. It was great, because I don’t usually get the chance.

I see that you’ve got your own room to chill out in before the show. So what’s been pumping on your stereo recently?
Tony Williams, who I haven’t listened to for ages now, John Scofield, and Sun Ra (bonkers US space-jazz maverick), who Matt Deighton introduced me to. It’s always good to be exposed to new influences, I think.

So who would you cite as your biggest drum influence?
Without doubt, my brother Steve. He’s the one who got me into drums and, as far as I’m concerned, he’s the best in the world, there’s such personality in his playing. Keith Moon is another, I was fascinated by his whole character and the sporadic way he played. It was like a chaotic explosion, but he pulled it off. Then there was Ringo, Clyde Stubblefield, Tony Williams and Jack de Johnette to name but a few. I like checking out different drummers ? Oscar Harrison is a top lad and a top player. Another top geezer is Neil Primrose out of Travis, he has a really nice feel and it’s good to see him back with the band. Zak Starkey is a great drummer, as is Taylor Hawkins. He’s the spitting image of Copeland when he plays, and is well on the case.

How easy did you find the drums when you first sat down to play?
It came quite naturally for me, really, and Steve saw this and encouraged me to pursue it. He would show me stuff at home and then I started having drum lessons at school. The geezer who taught me there was crap, though, and it ended up with me showing him things. He’d ask me what I was doing and I’d go, ‘It’s the Moeller system ? my brother taught me this’.

So, you continued your drum education with Steve’s former teacher, Bob Armstrong, didn’t you?
I went to him when I was 15 to learn how to do it properly. Every day after school I used to come home and go straight up to the loft to practise. I’d just play along to anything I could get my hands on, The Police, James Brown, Prince, Martha And The Vandellas. A really diverse range of stuff.

Tell us a bit about your first drum kit.
I got it off Steve when I was 17 and he made me pay £500 for it, tight-arsed git! It was a white Marine Pearl kit and I had to save up for ages.

As a fellow drummer and a brother, what was the best piece of advice that Steve ever gave you?
To be myself, not to take any bullshit, to have my own opinions, to get my head down and work hard, to have a pint but not do drugs, and to keep focused on the job. And I’ve been able to do that really well. You can easily go sideways in this business, but I’m not going to be a casualty. It’s not worth it, it’s only rock ’n’ roll. Regardless of the fact that he’s a drummer as well, Steve is one of my best friends, and that’s the most important thing for me, brotherly love. I’ve got that with him and my other brother, Paul.

After setting your sights on a full-time career in music while you were still at school, how did you actually go about turning the dream into a reality?
I started out on the London circuit with a female singer called Tamara, I made my playing debut with her at the King’s Head in Fulham. It was great, and I just knew it was what I wanted to do. I was nervous before we played and I still get nervous now, but I see it as a good thing. The day I lose those nerves is the day that I lose the heart and soul needed to do the job. Steve then put me in touch with Galliano. It really was a great experience for me at the age of 17 to work with a proper band like that. I loved everything about the acid jazz scene and really looked up to those guys.

You then joined Star Club, a tuneful, hard-grooving powerpop outfit.
We toured America, and again it was a great learning curve for me. Steve (French), Owen (Veiss), and Julian (Taylor) were great musicians to work with, and I hope they’re all doing well now. I left Star Club when I had the opportunity to record with Dr. Robert, an ‘80s hero of mine, who was launching a solo career after The Blow Monkeys. I did two albums with him and we toured Japan. That was the gig that really opened my eyes to the bigger picture and having it large! After Robert I worked with Idha, who is married to Andy Bell. I did have some lean times over the years. I worked in a drum shop for a while and was actually on the dole for a year. Every day then was spent playing and practising because I knew that one day it would happen. I could only afford to see Bob Armstrong every other month instead of every two weeks because I was so skint. But then I got that call from Noel and that was it.

What did you think of Oasis before the opportunity to join them literally landed in your lap?
This is a true story (laughs). I actually went to see them at The Water Rats in Kings Cross and thought they were f***ing great, but I didn’t like the drummer. Three weeks later I was in the band. Someone up there was watching over me

Alan's Gear:
I’m playing Drum Workshop, beautifully made drums that sound great. For this tour I’m using my new custom kit in Blue Boa finish, which is stunning. There’s a 22"x18" bass drum, two shallow rack toms, 12"x8" and 13"x8", that I can really get on top of when I play, and a 16"x16" floor tom. My snare is a Craviotto 14"x6", which packs a real punch. On the cymbal front I’m using Sabian, which really cut through and sound fantastic. From left to right I’ve got 14" HH hi-hats, 16" crash, my own 22" Signature ride, an 18" crash and 14" AA regular hi-hats. All my hardware is Drum Workshop as well, and my sticks are Vic Firth. Set-up wise there is nothing unusual, I have my toms quite low on the bass drum, and my ride is angled quite acutely, but that’s about it. Dodge (famed uber-drum tech) looks after my drums for me and he’s a top man. Everything is always spot on when I sit down to play.

Liam Gallagher, Gem Archer & Andy Bell - Melody Maker - 28th June 2000

Liam Gallagher has told Melody Maker that "it's never gonna be the same" playing live without brother Noel. He made the comment after leading another triumphant Oasis gig in mainland Europe, at the third Heineken Jammin' Festival in lmola, Italy.

Prior to their headlining set, all five members of the band, including new guitarist Matt Deighton, sat backstage in the hospitality area, chatting to each other and looking relaxed.Liam gave a short interview to European MTV and seemed happy both before and after the gig to speak to journalists and others who asked for pictures and autographs.

For the most part, though, the privacy of the band was respected and they were generally left to themselves. Liam's comments to Melody Maker were typically forthright. When asked how the tour was going, he replied, "Yeah, pretty well, considering. We know what we're doing, d'y'know what I mean? We're not f***ing idiots. We've been doing this for 1O years now."

Asked if he was planning on writing new material of his own, he said, incredulously, "Am I planning on it. Yeah, man, I've already done it. Of course I have. What's it like? It's just really good. I love it, and that's what matters. And it's honest, and it's good." Perhaps still feeling the sting of the lukewarm reception accorded to "Little James", he added: "You'll probably hate it. But never mind."

The set, which included songs from all four oasis albums, found Liam effortlessly confident, communicating more with the audience and looking completely at home onstage - as he has been at all of the European gigs since Noel's departure.He said of the 15,000-strong audience's "Oasis!" chant: "it sounds like, OAPs', man! We're youngsters!" and introduced "Cigarettes And Alcohol" by saying, "This is for all the people from England, if there is any."

Liam briefly removed his sunglasses at one point to contemplate the crowd, at other times straddling the microphone stand, puffing his crescent tambourine between his teeth like an enormous grin, and holding up a Heineken towel with a smirk (although not all at once!).

He altered the lyrics to "Roll With it, to sing, "Don't lot any f***er get in your way", and thanked the audience more than once for their applause. The band played cautiously and consistently, Gem taking most of the lead parts, while Matt Deighton played rhythm. However, they took the end of "Cigarettes And Alcohol" into a jam involving the riff from Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" and a reprise of "F***in' In The Bushes" (itself reminiscent of Zeppelin's "The Immigrant Song").

Backstage after the gig, the atmosphere and circumstances were much as they had been before, with the band returning to the same table in the hospitality room and celebrating well into the early hours, remaining after most others had left.

The band seemed unanimously pleased with the performance. Guitarist Gem Archer, asked for his verdict on the show, laughed, "Not guilty!", then admitted, "I loved it. I love it every night. Some nights more than others, but I love it every night."

Bassist Andy Bell was similarly passionate, enthusing: "it was great, it's always great, but I thought the encore tonight ["Champagne Supernova and "Rock'N'Roll Star"] was just that bit special."

Liam seemed in a sociable mood, but when asked how he thought the gig had gone, he shrugged: "it was all right. But it's never gonna be the some, is it?" He then broke into a brief rendition of the chorus of "Hello", the opening track on "(What's The Story) Morning Glory?", singing the line, "It's never gonna be the same".

Primal Scream's Mani had no doubts that Liam could carry Oasis on his own if need be. "Course he can! He's a big personality. Easy! Piece of piss for him, that. I can understand why Noel did it, as well, he's got a young kid and he wants to spend time at home. Once you've done them European tours eight times, it must really get on your tits. He'll be all right. Don't worry about Oasis."

Noel Gallagher - Boston Globe - 14th April 2000

He stands by his band

Up the mountain, then down it. That's been the path of British rock in the last decade - and Oasis has seen both sides of that mountain. The Beatles-sounding band, starring brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher, sold 29 million albums in the mid-'90s, but has struggled with its latest release, ''Standing on the Shoulders of Giants,'' which slumped to No. 185 in Billboard this week after just five weeks.

What's going on?

''All of these things come in cycles, don't they?'' says Noel Gallagher, the band's guitarist and chief songwriter. ''When we first started, people said that British guitar music was dead because everything was American grunge with Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and the Smashing Pumpkins. But then we came along, and all the American rock died down for a while. But now it's back with Korn and that type of music. Five years from now, you might be having a conversation and jazz might be back in vogue. Who knows?

''I think after about six months of this [new] album being out, we'll find out where we truly stand,'' adds Gallagher, whose group headlines the Orpheum on April 27. ''We've just come out of this whirlwind phenomenon that was Oasis between 1994 and 1997. The world was fascinated by British music and we were at the forefront of that. It has sort of tailed off over the last couple of years while we've been away, but everyone in the [Oasis] camp is still really positive about getting out and doing the gigs and then going on to make another record.''

Although record sales have dropped, Oasis is still selling oodles of concert tickets. The Orpheum show is sold out, as was a recent tour of Japan. The group will head back this summer to England, where it plays football stadiums and has already sold out two nights at Wembley Stadium, which holds 76,000 people.

''The new album is not a very singles-oriented album, so we weren't expecting it to be that successful in terms of record sales, but we're still a successful rock 'n' roll band,'' says Gallagher. ''To be successful is not just all about selling records.''

The new album, named for a saying on the two-pound British coin, is, frankly, not Oasis's best, and not up to the 10-million-selling ''(What's the Story) Morning Glory?'' CD, which put the band on the international map. Some new songs work, such as the single ''Go Let It Out'' and the psychedelic ''Who Feels Love?'' (with a ''Dear Prudence''- style riff), but some others are surprisingly inert, and one, ''Little James'' (written by Liam about his son), has the goofy lyric, ''Live for your toys, even though they make noise.''

Still, Noel retains a wonderfully carefree attitude toward the band's current sales malaise. ''I'm not in this for the career. I'm in it because I don't want to sit at home,'' he says. ''If this ended tomorrow, I'd just go and do something else. But I'd do something else with a guitar on my back. Even if it was decorating at home, I'd still have a guitar while doing it.''

Yet he's not unaware of the pressure heaped upon Oasis.

''We're the biggest band in England, but I always feel that we get an unfair amount of pressure that we have to do something ground-breaking. Whoever said that music had to always move forward? Who came up with that notion? To me, it's like I'm good at playing a Les Paul [guitar] through a Marshall stack. That's what I do. I can't be a member of Kraftwerk, you know? I like the way that I sound and I love the way that we sound. I don't see that I should have to change it because of some fanciful notion that music should always have to be moving in a certain direction.''

Oasis has two new members this tour - rhythm guitarist Gem Archer and bassist Andy Bell. ''We're just a better overall band now. It's as simple as that, and hopefully that will translate into the recording studio the next time,'' says Gallagher.

As for his famously tempestuous relationship with Liam, Noel says, ''It's the same as it always is. When he's sober, he's great. When he's drunk, he's a [jerk]. At the moment, he's more sober than drunk. Six days out of seven he's great; and on the seventh day, it's just batten down the hatches and walk in the total opposite direction from where he is.''

As to life outside Oasis, Noel and his wife recently moved to the country from London and had their first child, a daughter. ''I started having babies and started a farm! It's all gone wrong!'' he says kiddingly.

A country gentleman? Is he turning into George Harrison or something? ''Well, I haven't gotten his beard yet, but that's definitely on the list,'' Gallagher says, chuckling again.

Noel Gallagher - Guitar World - April 2000

"Top Of The Pops"

Oasis is a huge deal in the U.K., enormous in the U.S.-and that's as it should be, says band leader Noel Gallagher.

"I think they're all too English for their own good," says Noel Gallagher. "They trade on their Englishness." Oasis' guitarist and sole songwriter is sitting in a Manhattan hotel lobby, nursing a cold with hot tea and pontificating about why his contemporaries in the Brit-Pop scene - Blur, Suede, Stone Roses et al. - have all failed in their efforts to conquer America.

"People in England think that if they're big over there, they have a divine right to be big over here, because the Beatles came from England. But nobody owes anybody anything. It's the songs that matter. Play us a song. Is it any good? No, I didn't think so-fuck off! Next!"
Like so many denizens of the hype-heavy British scene, Gallagher is a self-promoter par excellence. The words "we're better than the Beatles" have passed, without a trace of irony, through his lips more than once. "It's like a game of baseball," he explains. "The press hold the ball, but you hold the bat. So they toss you the ball now and again, and it's up to you to knock it for a home run and run around the stadium."

What sets Manchester's Oasis apart from the rest of the Brit braggarts is that Gallagher's loose cannon is loaded with live ammunition. He writes world-class hooks in the best British Invasion tradition and builds songs around them with deft popcraft, turning a chorus into a three-chord mantra that loops around in one's head all day long. While few would call him a true original-one song on Oasis' new album contains not-so-subtle lifts from Lennon, Dylan and Mott The Hoople-his gift for melody is undeniable. "When we get time off from the band, everyone else goes on `oliday, but I just start writing. I went away once over the summer, and our management wouldn't let me take a guitar with me-they locked 'em all up. They're afraid of me burning myself out."

Noel got his start as a roadie for the Inspiral Carpets, also from Manchester, who enjoyed a 15-minute heyday in the early Nineties. While on tour in America, he received a call from his mother who informed him that his younger brother Liam was singing in a band. When Noel returned home and attended one of their gigs, he was thoroughly unimpressed, but saw potential in Liam's snotty tunefulness and cocksure presence. According to legend, he told the band, "You either let me write the songs, and we go for superstardom, or you stay here in Manchester for the rest of your lives like sad cunts."

Noel joined the band and was promptly handed the reins. Two years later, Oasis was signed to Creation. An increasingly successful string of singles set the stage for their 1994 debut, Definitely Maybe, which entered the British charts at #1 and became the fastest-selling debut in UK pop history. That year's (What's The Story) Morning Glory, powered by the impossibly infectious "Wonderwall," is flying off the shelves here in America. In the same way that Led Zeppelin's Norse god posturing was enhanced by their domination of rock radio during the Seventies, Oasis' success fuels their excesses. With every sold-out tour, their anthemic choruses sound less bombastic, and 100,000 albums sold, their arrogance becomes more quaint and romantic.

Your love of certain bands is obvious in your music. Do you consider yourself a fan who writes songs, or a songwriter who happens to be a fan?
A fan who writes songs, definitely. I'm a fan of music who's celebrating that fact in my songwriting. I'm not saying, "I'm the greatest songwriter in the world. Listen to me." Usually, I'm saying, "These are the greatest songwriters in the world. And I'm gonna put them all in this song."

Your chord progressions and melodies bear more resemblance to those of people like John Lennon, Ray Davies and Ian Hunter than to anything that's come out lately.
The only person I have any respect for as a songwriter over the last 10 years is Kurt Cobain. He was the perfect cross between Lennon and McCartney. He belted it out like Lennon, but his melodies were so Paul McCartney. They were dead bouncy up and down-jolly melodies-but he was a miserable fuck at the same time. A lot of people have likened my songwriting style to Kurt Cobain's, which I tend to agree with most of the time. We both use basic chord structures-dead simple, no more than four chords. What's the point in fuckin' about? Then the melody slopes in and out and up. It goes up an extra bit and then down two bits. If you were to write out the music in sheet form, some of Cobain's songs would look exactly like mine, and vice versa.

You have a reputation for "borrowing" a hook or two. Do you ever stick other bands' riffs in a song so people will accuse you of nicking them from somewhere?
Yeah, of course! That's half the game. I want people to know where the inspiration for the song comes from. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. That really winds up other bands in England. They'll go, "Don't you feel guilty about having so much success by blatantly pinching riffs?" I'll go, "No. I don't feel guilty. But you feel pissed off because you didn't do it first." We have a saying: Why write your own songs when you can use someone else's? [laughs] If anyone has any doubt that the end of "Electric" comes from "With a Little Help From My Friends," they're being too generous. They all start off as jokes, but we can't get rid of them in the studio. It's like that Gary Glitter bit in "Hello" - we always meant to change that, but the damn thing wouldn't go away, and in the end we just said fuck it, man. It's a laugh.

What did you listen to as a kid?
The Sex Pistols, the Jam, the Beatles, the Who, the Damned, the Stooges, Small Faces. The first gig I went to was the Damned at the Manchester Apollo in 1980. I couldn't believe how loud it was and how tall the stage was. I'd only seen concerts on TV, where the camera is level with the band. When I saw the stage all the way up there, I was really struck. That was the moment when I said, "This is what I want to do."

After you joined Oasis, how long did it take to get to the point where you felt ready?
We were ready straight away! But we played to virtually nobody for two years before we got signed. And after we got signed we still played for nobody for almost six months. Then it sorta went [snaps his fingers] like that. We've done our apprenticeship, if you like.

Many of the songs on (What's The Story) Morning Glory? are played at a slow and dragging tempo.
Everything's so hundred-miles-an-hour these days. Everyone should slow down and get back into the groove. I always loved the pace of "I Am the Walrus." That's ace. Anyone can dance to that - "Hey Jude" and "Let It Be," too. But if you put 10 tracks like that on an album, it's gonna sound boring. That's why we try to change the pace. But we never go super-ballistic-over-the-top fast.

You have a very lyrical lead guitar style, not unlike [Mott The Hoople guitarist] Mick Ralphs or a latter-period George Harrison.
Yeah, some people say it's like Mick Ronson, too. I take them all as compliments! When I can, I follow the vocal melody. Or on something like "Champagne Supernova," I go completely over the top. When we're in the studio, the solo is the last thing to get worked out. For "Don't Look Back in Anger," I sat down and did it in one take. But I'm getting quite bored of hearing my guitar playing at the moment-it's really doing me in. I might start taking lessons or something. I always end up playing the same fookin' thing all the time. Everyone goes, "No, no! You're a great guitarist!" but I've jammed with [ex-Jam leader] Paul Weller, man, who is fookin' phenomenal, and it puts me to shame. I sit there thinking, "I wish I could play guitar like that."

Have you always played Les Pauls?
I've dodged between Les Pauls and Epiphone Rivieras. I've gone back to Rivieras at the moment.

Do you stuff them with cotton to keep them from feeding back?
I love feedback! Some people tape up the f-holes, don't they? I don't do anything like that.

You use a number of full Marshall stacks live. What do you record with?
I've got a lot of amplifiers. For most of the guitar parts, I use a WEM Dominator-a little 25-watt English amp that David Bowie used to use - a Marshall Bluesbreaker and a Vox AC30, which I use for all the rhythm parts. For the solos, I play a customized Firebird through Marshall stacks, to get that sustain. I've got a guy in England, Bill Puplett, who makes pickups for us. I brought him these Seymour Duncans that were the loudest fookin' things I'd ever heard. I said to him, "Make me ones just like these, only louder." I've got them in my Les Paul, and they're great. I regret having put them in my Firebird, though - I shouldn't have fooked with the guitar, man. I was gonna get some fitted into my Riviera, but that would just be too mental.

Your second album followed closely on the heels of the first. Do you feel you're racing against time?
If the songs are in there, I've got to get them out before I forget them all. I'm probably the only songwriter in the history of rock and roll who can't operate a four-track machine. I've got no recording devices at home at all.

Not even a one-track?
I don't even use that! I sit down, get a chord structure, then a melody and keep playing it every morning when I get up, or every spare moment, until it's locked in there [taps his head]. Then I write the words. The record company bought me an eight-track in a massive flight case. But I never use it. It took me two days to switch it on!

In many of your interviews around the time of Definitely Maybe you guys were a little, shall I say, immodest.
[pauses] You mean we were a bit arrogant? Well, yeah! In England, in that little NME [New Musical Express], Melody Maker world, you're supposed to be happy with your lot and ashamed of success. And that's been bred into kids and reinforced by the likes of Eddie Vedder-feeling guilty for selling millions of records. We were the first ones to come along and say, "What the hell is wrong with that? I'm selling millions of records, and I've got loads of money in the bank." If you've earned it, why feel guilty about it? If someone's making money, it might as well be me. But more than that, we were the first band to come along and go [points around the room] "You're shit, you're shit, you're overpaid for a start, you've got one song, and you, you're not ever gonna write even one of my worst songs." And people were like, "You can't say that!" We turned the whole thing upside down. [laughs] Of course, now everyone's getting into it. But I think it's OK; bands should be honest. We went a bit over the top - 30% was tongue in cheek, but 70% we meant.

Morning Glory got some negative reviews in England. Do you feel any kind of backlash coming?
Well, they're trying their hardest to start one, but fuck it, who cares? [laughs]

Do you want to ride this out for as long as you can?
I want to ride it out for as long as I think I'm good enough to do it. When I see myself slipping, or when I've written two bad records in a row, then I'll probably call it a day. But until I've written a bad record, I probably won't even think about giving it up. I'll know when the time comes. I want to get bored of it.

Liam Gallagher - Uncut - April 2000

Rumours of Liam Gallagher's transformation into a drug'n'drink free rock'n'roll saint have been greatly exaggerated. He's just as foul mouthed and furious as ever, as Carol Clerk found out when she met him for Part 2 of Uncuts Oasis special.

The location is Londons flashy Landmark Hotel, a place where palm trees loom over drinkers in the lobby and there's a better class of toiletry in your bathroom. We meet in a private suite, not long before Christmas. Liam Gallagher enters, perfectly, in a flurry of swearing about "fucking caffeine" and "fucking cocaine." He's not the tallest man in the world, but his pressence is colossal. He orders tea from room service, sits on the opposite side of a small table and streches his legs.

The things you notice first are the things that become transfixing, the tinted glasses, of course; the tuft of mischievous, Rod Stewart sprigs at the top of a head of newly washed hair; the drawstrings dangling down his pants; the parka done up to it's fur trimmed neck.

During the next hour, Liam is everything you want him to be, and a few things you never expected. By turns, he's impatient, angry, indignant, uncompromising, confessional and confrontational. He's driven, passionate to bursting point about everything that Oasis were, are and will be.

He's also suprising intense, hanging on to every word of every question as though he can barely wait to leap into his answers.

Exhibiting, none of his brother's diplomacy, Liam smiles rarely and is quite oblivious to everything except the thoughts that must be uttered. That they are rising directly from his emotions says everything about qualities like honesty and honour.

Which is why Liam Gallagher, important beyond Oasis, is the only proper rock star in this country.

He is the living, breathing, ranting, raving spirit of rock 'n' roll.

How has your life changed since your son Lennon was born?
l'm probably still in shock, you know what I mean, cos he's just a baby at the moment. I suppose he has changed my life, but not as in cleaned it changed it, you know what I mean? He's just made me aware that I can't be what I used to be.

Have you seen any changes in yourself as a person?
Little bits, little bits yeah. Well, I packed in the booze for a start.

Do you think you might have become a nicer person?
Yeah, I am a bit nicer, yeah. I'm nice round him. I've always been a nice person, you know. I have bad days, but I've always been a pleasant kind of guy.

Is anything bigger than having a baby?
No. It's gotta be the best thing. That's what we're here for, innit?

Were you at the birth?
Yeah, oh aye. We were still recording, and I got in a car and came home. And like, it was a month early, the baby, ancl I got a call saying I gotta go to the hospital and I was like, 'Fucking hell'.. . and she was there, having these pains and that stuff. And then he [the doctor] goes, 'Right, get your gear on.' I was like, 'Oh, what gear?"'

The hospital clothes! Were you shocked at how quickly everything was happening?
Yeah, I was pretty shocked. I was shitting it, actually. But it was good. I was there at the birth.

What did you feel like when you looked at Lennon for the first time?
I don't know. I can't explain it. Just buzzing. And I were a bit worried and all, make sure he was all right. But no, it was great.

How is your mum enjoying her first grandchild?
She doesn't like me anymore. She don't come down to visit me. And l'll tell you how it's changed me, how it has changed, yeah, is that before he was born, I was the most important person in my world. You know, I did what I wanted. I'm not the most important person in my world any more. He is.

You have to put yourself second.
Yeah, yeah, oh definitely. And it's like with me mam, I mean, she goes, 'Oh, I'm coming down next week,' and, I'm, 'WelI, you know, I'm not gonna be here,'and she's going,, 'I don't want to see you. I want to see him.

Have you written "Little Lennon" yet?
I've wrote one about him. 'Born On A Different Cloud' it's called, but I've not finished it, though.

Are we going hear it one day?
Yeah. When it's finished, yeah. it's good, man. On the piano and that.

Do you write on the piano?
I have been doing. But see, I can't really play it that well. I can do little bits, You know what I mean? I can get a tune out of it, but then I can't get a change. I leave that up to Noel. I get the gist of it and then I get the change in my head and I know how it's meant to go. It's just the way I write. I'll need help with it."

Noel polishes it up for you.
Yeah. Like with 'Little James'. With writing and that, I'm just doing it for myself at the moment. Mv main role is singing, and if I get a little song, every now and again, that's fine. And if Noel likes it, that's fine. And if he don't like it, I'm big enough to go,'Right, cool. it's shit.

Getting back to Lennon, there's been a lot of interest in his name. Did you see Paul McCartney on The Big Breakfast saying that he hopes his son has a boy and names him Lennon so he can be called Lennon McCartney?
I heard about it. Yeah, I thought it was amusing....but the funny thing about that is . I just got a phone call off Yoko Ono last night. She rang me.

What did she say?
She wants to meet me next week. She's staying in Claridges. What happened, she sent us this card about a week after he was born, like a little postcard with pictures - John Lennon used to draw pictures of him, her and Sean - and it's got, 'From the Lennon family'. It's got, 'To Lennon, welcome to the world, love, love, love, Yoko 99.' So I was fucking freaked, I was going 'Fucking hcll', went and showed it to everyone ...

Then a big box of baby clothes come from New York, cos she's doing online baby gear for kids and that. I was thinking, 'Fuckin hell, l'm gonna have to write a thank you letter.' "So now I'm thinkin, How the fuck ... [scratches head and mimes trying to write a letter]

'Dcar Yoko' . . . And I went,'Fuck it, I can't write that!' l didn't just want to write, like, 'Thank you for the clothes,' I wanted to write a bit more without sounding, like a fucking knobhead. So then I left it at that, and she's in London now and so we were rehearsing yesterday and I got this call saying,'Shc wants to meet you.'

So I got back last night and I rang her, the number was there, I got straight through. I said,'Is that Yoko?' She said,'Yeah who's that?' Oh, it's Liam.' She goes 'I'm in London for a bit.' I said, 'Anyway, thanks for all the gear you sent.'

"She does, 'Oh, the reason why I'm ringing is I'm getting more footage on John, Iike, Lennon when they were doing Imagine [for Gimme Some Truth, the new film about the making of the album]. She's in Abbey Road next week, but I'm away in America. She goes,'l wanted you to come and see it.' I said 'oh, I'm not going to be here.' She goes, 'oh, I'll send it to you anyway for Christmas and that.' She goes, 'But I'm back soon and if you want to come over for tea and biscuits and that, and bring the baby, I'd love it.

Have you changed your opinion of her?
"I never had an opinion on her. I'm not one of them who goes,'Oh, she split The Beatles.'They split themselves up, you know what I mean? She seemed dead nice on the phone and, like, listen, I love him, I've got respect for him, and I'm sure he was a c***, he had his moments, but if he was into her, then they're both the same person, I reckon. I'm not one of them who goes, 'That fucking Yoko.' I've got no problems.

Was it a challenging experience, working outside Oasis for the first time, with Steve Cradock on the "Carnation" single?
Well, I was a bit scared, you know what I mean? I didn't do it to be a single or anything like that. It was in Sweden or somewhere, I think, with Ocean Colour Scene when they supported us, and we were pissed and we was going on about the fucking Jam things. The Jam are all right, you know what I mean, but I was too young for them...

I never thought of you as a massive Jam fan.
No, I'm not. But I like some of the tracks, and I like Weller now. So we were speakin, about The Jam and mods and all this nonsense, so I went, 'oh, "Carnation" is the fucking best tune,' and Steve goes, 'Oh, that's my favourite tune. I'd love to do a cover of it one day.'

"So anyway, he went away and done this version and sent me a tape. He goes, 'I'm in London next week - do you want to sing on it?' l was going,'Oh fuck that,' so I kept ignoring his phone calls, and Patsy's going, 'Ring him back.' I'm going,'No cos I can't sing with anyone else, you know, I've never done it before.

I ended up, I got my fucking shit together and I went down there to Primal Scream's studio and we done it in the afternoon. And that was it. And no one ever mentioned putting out [the Jam tribute album] Fire And Skill. I don't even think that was thought of.

So the track existed before the idea of the album.
Yeah. Yeah. And that was, like, done last year [1998].

How was it different to working with Oasis?
Just length in trousers, I reckon. Ours are 34 Iegss, theirs are, like, fucking up there (points to calf), cos they're mods and they like to show their ankles.

Once it was released as a single, did you want a Number One?
No. No. I was gonna do Top Of The Pops and all that, cos we were getting back into the Oasis thing and I thought, 'Yeah, fucking, why not?' And then I thought, 'Well, it's a good song, I'm well happy with it, it's better than anything else around at the moment.' If it had gonr in at number one, yeah, great, but I get Number Ones with Oasis. Once you've had a Number One, you've had a Number One, You know. I'd have been disappointed if it hadn't got in the Top 10, only cos it was a good song.

Noel got involved in your TV appearances. Was he there to give you moral support or was he there as a mate of Paul Weller and Steve Craddock?
He was gagging for it. No, he was just there for the piss up, you know what I mean? It's a gathering, of the lads, leave the wives at home, have a good drink...

A lads' night out, really.
That's what it was.

When Bonehead left Oasis, the papers said he'd had a row with Noel over, Bonehead's drinking in France, where you were recording the album. is there any truth in that?
Not really, no. The thing was, right, no one turned round to anyone specifically and said,'Look, there's no drinking except for Noel with me. We were rehearsing the album a week before we went to France, and every fucking two minutes I was in the pub, and every time we'd have a break, I'd go 'fuck that,' go to the pub. And everyone was sitting about, fuckin, listening to it back, and i'd just go to the pub. And then I'd come back, do a bit more rehearsing, and I'd be a bit pissed up, and then a little argument would fucking start and that, so basically, the call was for me. Noel goes, 'Look, if you're going to be fucking pissed in France, don't bother coming.

And I was like,'You fuck . . .' and then I had a row with him on the phone, and I put the phone down and I went away and Patsy calmed me down. She went, 'Look, he's fucking right. And I'm glad someones' finally fucking told you.' Cos it seem, like no one really tells me, like, 'Fucking stop drinking,' when I'm being a c*** and that, and she goes, 'You're a knobhead when you drink.'

So I listened to her and went,'Right, fuck it!' So I said to Marcus [Russell, band manager], 'Ring him back and tell him I'll be fucking sweet. I'll be sober.' So I went there sober. There was no argument with Bonehead at all. There was no arguments with anyone. Bonehead was drinking, Whitey was drinking, everyone drinks."

Do you think the papers were looking for a sensational reason for Bonehead's departure?
Yeah, well, there was this big thing in the papers saying that Noel's banned booze and all this nonsense, he's banned drugs and 'They're going back to their fucking roots'. I mean, roots, what, in a £50 million fucking mansion, you know what I mean? That's going back to our roots!

And the thing was, when we were recording the album, everybody was fine, everyone was happy, he [Bonehead] is moving house in Manchester, he's done his bits dead quick, he goes,'Right, I'm going home to move house. I'll be back.' Now, if there was something going on behind the scenes, I don't know. I can only say what I saw. Everyone was happy, everyone was into the music, everyone was listening to it back, buzzin, having a drink, going "Wey, we're fucking top,' and 'Wey, that's great.' And then we get a phone call saying he's done his bits and he's leaving the band.

What was your reaction to that?
"At first I was thinking, 'Right, let it be for a bit, it'll be sweet.' You know, these things happen all the time in Oasis. Everyone gets the needle and goes home for a week and then they calm down, and then they miss it, and they go, 'Right...'

So we went, 'Ah, fuck it, he's got the fuckin, hump about something,' or maybe he just dosn't want to sort it. We can't tell unless we're speaking to him, cos he spoke to Marcus. So we carried on with our bits, we finished the album and came home. Then we carried on trying to get in touch with him and he was still going, 'Oh, no, I've had enough of touring. I want to be with my kids."'

Have you spoken to him yourself?
I've not spoken to him, no. He's tried to call me and that but, you know, I'm busy. Now, that's the thing. He lives in Manchester and we're not that close as the band used to be. We're all married, you know what i mean, and we meet up every now and again. They don't go to parties. I don't really go to parties, Noel's the party one, and we'd only meet up when we were rehearsing or doing a video or something, and now that that's not happening... if they're not into a band with me, then I've not got nothing in common with them.

So you feel hurt by Bonehead leaving?
Yeah. I feel hurt because if he's got a problem, which I don't think he had, with the band, then he should've been able to speak to us about it. Cos we'd been in it so long I thought we were that fucking close. When we were together, the band, we talked about things. if I had a problem with the band, I'd say it. If Noel did, and if Whitey did, they did say it. And I just feel a bit gutted that they [Bonehead and Guigsy] mustn't have felt like we were mates, or something, that they couldn't come out and go, 'Oh, I got a problem'.

Wasn't Bonehead your main drinking partner on tour?
Yeah. And Whitey as well. And Noel. Noel's a fucking drinker and all. No, everyone was a drinker. The only one that really didn't drink was Guigs. We were all mates, you know what I mean? And I'm gutted that they couldn't speak about it then.

Did Guigsy also cut out without telling you himself?
Yeah, he cut out without telling us, yeah.

What did you think about that?
Well, I thought cos they were two mates together from previous, that that was it.

He went out in solidarity?
"Well, maybe, yeah. I think it was a bit of a like, 'I'll leave and then we'll both get back in,' or something. Do you know what I mean? It was like like maybe a little bit of a fucking 'We'll see how far we can push them.' But it was like, if you leave the fucking band, you Ieave the band, that's the end of it. If you don't want to be in it, then you don't want to be in it. We've got no time to be fucking cuddling each other and going fucking 'Oh, what's up, what's up?', do you know what I mean? We've done all that. We're here to fucking start a band, we're here to go on tour. Fucking, we're not social workers. I'm not your mam. I'm not your fucking dad. We do the fucking album, and it sounds hard, but you're there to work, do the fucking album, go on fucking tour. That's what it's always has been. If you've got a fucking problem, go and see your psychiatrist or something. Cos I've gotta go in there and do my bit to support my kids.

So it's like, if they don't want to he in the band that's it. Fucking see you later. We'll go and get someone who is into being in the band.

How did [Bonehead's replacement] Gem come into the picture?
Gem was someone that we knew. He'd supported us and that. We thought, 'Right, Heavy Stereo have been dropped off Creation' ... We didn't want to go and fucking poach him. We just went,'Look, what's Heavy Stereo up to?' And he's going,'Oh, we're writing songs,' and he's going, 'Why?' And we're going 'Well, we need a guitarist. Do you fancy being the guitarist?' And he went, Yeah, yeah.' We didn't go, 'Leave your fucking band.' It was only meant for the December dates, but he said, 'Yeah, I'm fucking in."

What made him a better person for Oasis than any of the other people that were considered?
We didn't consider anyone else. People were talking about Johnny Marr and fucking Aziz out of fucking Stono Roses. I don't fucking think so. You know what I mean - if you can't get it together in The Stone Roses, what fucking chance have you of getting it together in fucking Oasis? And [former The Vereve guitarist] Nick McCabe, it's the same for him. If he can't get it together in his own fucking band, he's got no chance of fucking getting it together in ours.

It was widely believed that David Potts from Monaco was joining on bass.
Right, that was Peter Hook talking. The bass player, we were a bit struggling. We tried, like, four bass players out, no one knows their names, and that didn't get out. And then we tried Pottsy, he came down to rehearse with us, and Peter Hook went blabbing to the fucking papers

He said it on the radio.
Yeah, and it was all over Manchester that Pottsy's got the job. Now, I feel sorry for him cos he's gotta go back up to Manchester and go I'm not in.' But that's not our problem, you know, what I mean?

Andy Bell joining on bass came as a surprise.
So what it was, I didn't rehearse with Pottsy cos I had the flu and that, but they were rehearsing and I was at home and Pottsy was good, but he just ... in the nicest possible way, he just didn't look the part. And it's essential, I think. No matter how daft it sounds, you've gotta look fucking right, you know what I mean.

And then with Andy Bell, I got home and we got a phone call saying Andy Bell had joined Gay Dad and I was having none of that. I went, 'Fuck that.' So we got his phone number and rang him up and said, 'Look, do you fancy doing it?' And he went,'Yeah.'

You don't like Gay Dad, then.
I've heard of their name. That's terrible. That'll do me.

Didn't you slag him off, Andy Bell, when he was in Hurricane #1?
Yeah. Yeah, cos he deserved it. I slagged him off, battered his singer, and that was it, yeah.

You battered Alex Lowe?
Yeah, well, he deserved it. He was slagging us off. We were on the same label and he was giving, it all this fucking nonsense. You don't shit on your own doorstep. I'd never slag any band off on Creation, whether I liked them or not. It's something that I wouldn't do, you know. And he's fuckin, definitely not doing it to me, the dick, without getting a slap. And then we had a bit of a scuffle and that was it. And Andy's cool as fuck, you know what I mean? He's a rock'n'roIler.

Did it feel odd playing for the first time with two people who weren't Bonehead and Guigsy?
I didn't think it did feel any different. No, it didn't feel odd, man. No, because I'm not like that. I don't dwell on the past. That part of Oasis is over. It's gone and it's dead and dusted, through them, not me. I walked in there that day, walked into the rehearsing rooms, two guys there, Gem was playing there. 'Right, where's my mic? Set me up. Let's fucking go.' And that was it. I'm not going to go, 'Oooh [mimes crying], having visions. They made the choice to leave the band anci that's the fucking end of it. And I'm here to fucking get it on. They're there to get it on. Let's get it on. And that's the way it is and that's the way it fucking should be, man.

Someone said that, with the new members, it was like a Creation supergroup.
A Creation supergroup? What, Heavy Stereo and fucking Hurricane? What's super about that? Nothing super about fucking Hurricane #1, except for Andy Bell, who's now in Oasis. And there was nothing really super about Heavy Stereo, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. it's an Oasis supergroup.

What is the balance of power now in Oasis?
Noel's in charge, full stop.

He's still The Chief.
Yeah, man. He writes the songs and he does the business side of things. He's the one who sits up and makes all the decisions. You know, I don't want to know the business side of it or the fucking covering artwork and all that, I just want'to sing. Alan wants to play drums. Gem wants to play his things you know, and Andy wants to play his bass. And I feel sorry sometimes for Noel, but he's the one who wants to do that, so let him do it. But I'm The Chief in my position, which is in front of the microphone. And he's in charge of his bit, you know, but he writes the songs. That's it.

Looking back at the Nineties, Oasis are one of the major events of the whole decade, not just musically but as a cultural phenomenon.
Yeah. I'd like to think so.

Has the novelty worn off?
"The last tour [1997/98] got a bit boring, you know what I mean? I personally wanted to come off tour. I couldn't be bothered with it, cos it was doing me head in. I was singing fucking rubbish towards the end and I was getting in too much fucking trouble outside the band, and that was not what it was about.

You built up a reputation as the wildest man in rock. Did you ever feel as though you were?
No. No.

You did fly the flag quite well.
Well, I probably was at the time. It depends, You know ... I just liked getting on the piss and fucking having a laugh and that. I weren't the wildest man in rock, it's just that every flucker else in a band was BORING.

I'd agree with that.
Brett Anderson, you know. Boring as fuck. Who else? They're all boring. Damon Albarn, boring as fuck. We called him Dermot Oblong

Throughout the whole period of Definitely Maybe and (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, it was like Oasis could do no wrong. Do you think you had it really easy during that period?
I think we worked, man. It didn't come to us on a plate. We were gigging everywhere, weren't we? We were getting up to things that no other band was. And it's because everyone else around at the time was fucking shit and boring. We're a great band and we're an exciting band and there's people in the band that arc exciting.

Do you think you can ever get that kind of acclaim back, where people think you walk on water?
Er ... yeah. Yeah, but it won't be on that scale, You know, because we were new then. When we'd been around a bit, we were in everyones faces, we were in the paper every fucking day. And people get bored with that. And that's sad, people knowing exactly fucking what move you're making and what you're doing. So you'll never get that sense of mysteriousness about the band back again, but all you can do is go on and make better records and that's all i'm about now, and that's all the band is about now. And then we were about fucking getting off our tits, losing it, and all the music side of it was getting fucking missed, you know. It was all about fucking what we're wearing, who we're fucking, shagging, who, we're rucking with. And that was right for a young band, I think.

Now that you've eased off on all the revelling and quaffing do you see anybody out there who can carry on from wherer you left off?
No. No, just me. I'll still be doing it every now and then. Mmm. I'll still be there, but not as much. [As if on cue, Liam embarked on his famous "Lost Weekend" just two days later, after learning that Alan McGee was ditching was ditching Creation ]

What do you think about the fans that actually don't want you to be sane and sober?
Well, fuck them.

Because there are people who expect that from you, aren't there?
Well fuck them. l've got a kid now. l don't want to die. l don't want to be an alcoholic. Cos they'll be getting on my case when they come to see me, I'm 50 fucking stone, I've got a big fucking beard and I'm taking loads of fucking slimming tablets and all that. They'll be moaning then, won't they? And I've got no teeth and look like Shane MacGowan. So fuck them, I'll be fucking rocking mate. If they want to come and see me, they're going to come and see a rock'n'roll show, and if they don't like that, they can fuck right off and go and see Robbie Williams or something.

Throughout '96 and '97, you had the paparazzi living in your hedge. Was there any parts of that constant attention that you secretly liked, or was it a pain in the arse the whole time?
It was a pain in the arse,man

Did you ever take them out a cup of tea?
I like the attention, when it's to do with the music and the band. When I'm going gigging and there's loads of fans around, you know, I love that. When everyone's going, 'Yeah!', you know, fucking there, at the gigs and all that. When I'm walking down the street, it's nice when people 'All right?' You know, I like that and I'd be a liar not to say it.

But when there's fucking paparazzi outside your house, and there's people writing on your fucking wall outside your house, and there's people slagging your missus off outside your house, then I don't like it. I fucking hate it. But the rest of the being in a rock'n'roll band, all that adulation, I love it. Oh yeah. And I want more it.

Do you every worry about losing it all or does that not even enter into your thinking?
No. Well, the only way I'd lose it is if I booze, you know what I mean?

So it's that big a threat to you?
Yeah, that's the biggest threat, because I'd get pissed and I'd have an argument with Noel, and I'd stick by my guns and he'd stick by his guns. I was wrong, he'd be right and that'd be it. Now, if I've got an argument where I'm sober with Noel, I can win it. If I've got an argument with Noel when I'm pissed, then he can go,'You're fucking pissed, you're a c***, you're singing shit,' and when I wake up sober in the morning, I go,'Oh, he's right.' You can always get blamed for things when you're drunk, even when you're doing something right. When things do go wrong and you're pissed, people can get on your case. When you're sober and things go wrong, they can't get on your case. That's the only way I could lose it, if I get into the bottle. Other than that, I'm rocking.

Do you feel Iike the biggest British rock star of the nineties, which you were?
I still am. But I don't walk down the road doing it, no. I walk down the road going, 'Fucking hell, I hope I can get on with my business.'

You allowed photographers to take pictures of Lennon, when you were walking around a park with him.
Yeah, well, I just didn't want to get fucking stressed out with my kid. I didn't want to he getting into big fucking verbal arguments with these photographers when I've got a two-month-old baby. I wanted to keep my cool. So I just said, 'Look, stay over there. If you're gonna fucking mither me, mither me from over there, but if you come near me, then . . .' They could've come near me and took pictures and nought I could have done about it.

Did you read in the papers a little while back that there was a poll of the most miserable people in Britain...
Yeah.

... and you and Noel where both in it. How close to the truth could that be?
You know, they must have fuck all else to do with their lives. It's pretty miserable, innit, for someone to sit down and go, 'Right then, today my quest is finding out who's the most miserable person in the world. 'What kind of fucking kick he gets out of life, writing about the most miserable people in the world - he's the miserable one. What, cos I don't walk down the road smiling and I don't smile for cameras? What, cos I tell people to fuck off cos they've got a camera pointing in my baby's face, and they're getting on my wife's case and they're getting on my case? And they're writing bullshit stories about me? Yeah,then l'm the most miserable person. If you ask anyone else, I'm fucking up for it all the time. Funny as fuck. I'm a jolly boy,man. A jolly lad.

Have you read Paolo Hewitt 's book, Forever The People?
No, I don't read his books.

It was all about his experiences on the Be Here Now tour.
What did he fucking know? He was in bed all the fucking time, the lightweight bastard.

I was amazed that Paolo went on the road with Oasis, because he was never a drinker.
He still wasn't. He's a lightweight.. So all the shit he writes about, saying what we was up to, he wouldn't fucking know cos he was in bed at fucking 10 o'clock every night, the LIGHTWEIGHT. I don't approve of it, to tell you the truth. But someone's gotta do it, you know.

Well, anyway, he suggested that Oasis were shocked and bewildered when Be Here Now started getting a kicking.
No. That's bullshit. Noel, bee's knees as a songwriter, he might have been shocked. I think it's a fucking great album. I think it was overproduced, there was a lot of cocaine going on, loads of drinkin,. We were getting followed to the studio by the paparazzi, five cars from my house to the studio, waiting outside, five cars back. It was like fucking 'Band On The Run.'

To me, that's no way to go to work. You know what I mean? If you're stressed out when you go to work, it's gonna show in your work. So I was stressed out, and that was happening to everyone. That's the only problem I've got with Be Here Now. It was better than any other fucker's album around. There was a lot of cocaine doing on, there was a lot of fucking hangers on in the studios, and it shows. But other than that, it was a great album.

You've defended the album before but Noel has said that, looking back, he' doesn't think it's that great.
Yeah, but he would do, because he's like that, Noel. He's one of them that go, 'oh, forget it,' you know. It's a fucking great album. If it weren't a great album, why did he fucking record it? And he pisses me off when he says that. He's saying it just to agree with the fucking people who slag him off. But fuck that. It was a great album and he knows it was great, cos I seen him when he was writing it. He was loving it.

But when you look back at it, it was a bit crazy. The producer [Owen Morris] was just as mad as us, you know what I mean, he was drinking as much as us. It was just we weren't concentrating on the job that we were doing. But the songs are fucking great. I don't particularly think my singing was good cos I was off it and that, but other than that, it was a fucking great album. You know, it's not a fucking shit album. it's the Phantom Menace of albums. Listen, it was the album we were out to do and that was the way it was done. I'm not saying it's the best, but it's definitely not the worst. Maybe we didn't go any further, maybe we didn't take a step forward, but we didn't take a step back.

And going down to the sales, it sold six million copies. People say it's poor sales . . . six million people fucking liked it, so what are you talking about?

You've been away for a while and during that time, bands like the Manics, Stereophonics and Catatonia have been on the rise. How do you rate them as competition?
I don't rate them as a competetion. No.

How about Travis, who have a massive album?
Travis are a beautiful band, I love Travis, right, and they've got great songs. I don't think of them as competetion. They're definitely not, although they're a great band. And like Catatonia, for a fucking start, they ain't no fucking competition, right. Fuck them. I'm arsed about her either, right.

The Manic Street Preachers are a good band. They're not in competition with me. Stereophonics, I like his voice. The rest's a bit Bryan Adams. They're not competition, but I hope they do well.

Let's talk about Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants. When you were recording it, did you feel any pressure to deliver, given the slagging dealt out to Be Here Now?
No, honest to God, no. Cos when I heard the songs.....I'm totally, 100 percent behind Noel's songwriting ability. No question at all. The pressure could be on Noel, cos he's the guy who writes the songs, and people go, 'Oh, they're shit.' I'd be disappointed, you know what I mean, but I'm sure he'll be more disappointed, cos he's opening up to the people with his songs. I'll be disappointed if people don't like 'Little James' right, cos it's my first attempt and I'd like itif people like it, so I'll be a bit disappointed if they don't, but it won't fucking kill me.

Do you think that this album will restore the band's critical reputation?
I don't know and I don't really give a fuck, to tell you the truth, because at the end of the day, it's like with Be Here Now. All right, yeah, it might have got a bit of a slagging, but they loved it at first and then they fucking hated it, and I'm not a psy-fucking-chiatrist, I can't get into the mind of a fucking person who reviews. That's their problem, not mine. And this album, I'm into it, I'm happy with it, I'm happy with it, and whether they like it or not, it's still going to get toured.

Did it turn out the way that you personally envisaged?
Yeah. Yeah.

I remember, I think it was on the Steve Lamacq show ages ago, you were saying you wanted it to be a bit psychedelic, and you said something like you wanted to splash a bit of paint over the music. Is this what you meant?
Yeah. You know, you've gotta have a good song before you go fucking weird and all that. 'I Am The Walrus' was a great song on acoustic guitar. You can strip it down and it's there. I just wanted it to be not so fucking rock'n'roll. I wanted to put a bit of colour into it, and I think we've done it. Whether people like it or not, I don't know, but we're writing for us. You can't fucking write for the critics or the fans.

Do you think you're going to take some stick over 'Little James' being so sentimental - "Wild Man Of Rock IN Soppy Sod Shock" Or do you think people will listen to it in the spirit in which you wrote it?
Hopefully. People who've got any soul, people who know who they are on a day-to-day basis, will actually realise that there is a day when you go home and put your feet up and cuddle your kids. there is a day when you watch fucking TV. Now, if anyone slags it off, they've either got no heart or they fucking don't know what the meaning of life is. THey just fucking go out and fucking do-do-do-do the same thing every day. So fuck them, you know what I mean.

What does James think of it?
He thinks it's hilarious.

And what does Patsy think?
She thinks it's lovely. What it's about, it's about me and him, right, and his mum. And it's about 'It won't be long before everyone has gone,' it's like explaining to a little kid, you know, you've got all them fucking slags outside the house, the press and that...

Are they still there?
No, they're not there no more, not at the momoent, but it's like, I've got to go outside the house with him, cuddling him, through all these people, so when he got a little bit older, he's going. 'Whoare all them people?' It's weird, you know. I just had to tell him it won't be long before all them people have gone.

It seems to be inspired by a combination of Lennon's 'Beautiful Boy' and The Beatles 'Hey Jude'.
Yeah, a bit of both. More Beautiful Boy. Music's music you know. And you can't win with these people. You know, they're going, 'You're the wild man of rock, you're fucking this , you don't fucking care,' and when you do show a bit of fucking caring, then they fucking call you a poof.

I suppose that's being Liam Gallagher, isn't it?
Well, it's not my problem. It's theirs.

Are you happy that the song was built up into a big production ballad at the end?
Yeah, yeah. Well I just wanted it to be acoustic. Have you heard Lennon's demos? And they're just, like, dead crackly, like, and it's just on a guitar and that's the way I'd like to write music. But if he's gonna go on an Oasis album, it's gotta be a bit big, hasn't it? So then I played it to him [Noel] and he just went away with the band and he goes, 'What do you think of this?' And I went 'It's fucking top.'

It's the same thing with Noel's ballad, 'Sunday Morning Call'. It's got the big treatment, too hasn't it?
Yeah.

That's the feel of the album, really. There's quite a grandeur about it.
Yeah. I like it.

Are Oasis becoming more at home in the studio?
It sounds like you really enjoyed using the studio this time.Yeah well, we are. We're getting right into it now.

Can you go too far with that, or do you think you've found the right balance?
No, I think we're ready now, you know , to spend a lot of time in the studio and really get right into it, wheras we didn't do that before cos we were just rocking - 'Do, doo, doo, let's get out and let's play.' And I'm not saying we're spending two years in the studio making cos we don't do that. I'm on about like, really getting to fucking grips with what's around in the studio.

The lyrics of Little James are quite joyous and that's different to a lot of Noel's lyrics on this album. They're dark in some ways, and a bit depressive.
Oh aye, yeah.

Is that the way Noel was feeling when he wrote this album?
Probably, yeah.

Do you ever talk to him about his lyrics?
He doesn't explain them does he? He just won't explain.

Do you have to interpret them in you own way, then, when you're singing?
Yeah, I've got my own things, yeah. I don't like to talk about other people's songs, cos they're not mine, but when I sing 'em, I sing them about what I'm thinking about.

Do you think that Noel is alright with fame, cos quite a lot of the lyrics on this album seem to be a bit disillusioned?
With fame? If he didn't want to do it, I don't think he'd do it. He's a clever man, he knows exactly what he wants.

He's having a go at certain people on this album.
I don't think he's having a go at friends. It's not necessarily, like ... what do you mean, like fame as in what?

Well the trappings of it. The hangers-on.
It's just goes to show, doesn't it, 'You try and sit around my table but you never bring a chair,' It's about the liggers. That's what I get from it.

You don't put up with them.
With what?

With the hangers-on.
No, I don't. My house is a home house. It's not a party house. I think they're all dicks anyway, to tell you the truth. All celebrities are all fucking knobheads. And I'm sure they think the same thing about me, but I'm not the one wanking it about with everyone else. They're the ones that are all wanking around each other, saying how great each other is, and slagging each other off from behind their backs. I tell them to their face when I see them - they're all knobs.

There isn't anything on the album that's really optimistic like 'Live Forever' or a huge celebration like 'Champagne Supernova'.
You can't do that all the time, can you? Life's not great all the time, is it?

Moving on to 'Go Let It Out' - it's quite a laid back song for a comeback single, isn't it?
Yeah.

Did you want to come back subtly rather than with a big bang?
I don't know, you know. I wanted to come back with 'Fuckin' In the Bushes', to tell you the truth.

That's a mad song. I have no idea what it's about.
Neither do I. I don't think there is an idea what it's about.

Tell me about the voices on the samples.
It's 'We put this festival on you bastards, we waited for one year for you pigs, you wanna break our walls down, well you go to hell' And it's from the festival on the Isle of Wight, when all the hippies were trying to break the walls down. And there's a bit in it going, 'Kids are running around naked, fucking in the bushes.' And then there's a bit at the end, where an old lady's going, 'Music, love, loife, beautiful, I'm all for it.'

It's a very dramatic opening to the album.
I fucking love it, man. I think that should've been the single. But it wasn't gonna get anywhere, it's not gonna get any airplay is it? It's just fucking rocking, man. You ain't gonna get a better rocker that that. Now that, right, to me, is the ultimate fucking rock'n'roll song. I know for a fact, me personally, I'll die happy being involved with such a song like that. It's just fucking mental. It's rocking, man. I love it.

The video for 'Go Let It Out' is a bit Magical Mystery Tour.
No, it's not as good as that. The video's fucking shit. I hate videos. It's all right. We're no good at videos, you know what I mean? We're not there to make ground breaking videos, but we're trying our best. It's all right, it's nothing fucking amazing. I think the weirdo's on the video should've looked at bit weirder, but it's all right...

But Go Let It Out, to me is like, fucking jesters and little clowns that capewr and sawdust rings and...

The Big Top.
Yeah, I love it. I know, I know, its a slow one, and wheather it was the one to come back with, I don't know. But it's all part and parcel of the album.

Do you think that Oasis fans will be suprised by the album? I know I was.
Oh right. What, in a good way?

I expected Oasis to get back to some straightforward rock songs, really. After the criticisms of Be Here Now, I thought you might react by simplifying everything.
Well everyone wants Definitely Maybe, do you know what I mean?

I didn't say I wanted Definitely Maybe.
No, no, I know that, but, like, with you saying about the fans and that, how will they react. I don't know, but every fan I speak to, they go, 'Oh, I don't like your first album.' Yeah so did I, but you can't fucking stand still. And I don't want to.

Is that really what they expect?
Yeah, but it's like I said before, we're not writing for the fans. I hope they like what we're doing but if they don't, then they don't. They can do and fucking listen to Stereophonics or whatever. You know, it's not my problem. I like the album and.... you know, there'll be someone who'll like it. But it's just what we want to do. I think it's fucking great and I love it. I love the sound of it.

There aren't too many songs here that jump straight out at you. It takes a lot of listening.
Yeah, Well I think that's a good thing, actually. Music's about listening to innit?

Do you think that could work against you?
Oh, probably will

Are you ready for the slings and arrows this time?
There might not be any. But I'm ready for anything.

You're pretty bulletproof, aren't you?
The thing is, if they slag it, they slag it, you get on and do the next one. That's what it's about. It's not gonna knock me dead. we've wrote half the next album anyway. We've got fucking loads of songs. We're always writing man. Soon as we finish touring next, we're back in there, you know, and write the next one.

With this one, certain Oasis trademarks are missing, like the irresistible melodies of Som Might Say or the big singalong anthems of D'You Know What I Mean. It's a lot darker and denser in many ways isn't it?
Yeah, Yeah.

Do you like that?
I do, yeah, I just think that it's time for that. You can't keep writing anthems all the fucking time. That's up for someomne else to be doing now. As a young band, you know, we were brand new, everything was fucking great, you're famous, you've got all this money, you're fuckin out at all these parties - that's when your anthems are coming out. We're seeing the shitty side of it now.

Do you think this is a more drown-up album than anything you've done before?
Yeah, a well grown up album. When you see the shit we've seen... That's for fucking new bands to be writing all these 'Life's fucking great, it's fucking mega, wehey...' They don't know what's coming. That's for them to be rejoicing. They don't know that if they get to where we were, that it can get a bit shitty. So that's for them to be writing the anthems. We're where we are now, and life's a bit shit sometimes cos of what's going on, and that's coming out in the music. And all you can write is how you feel. And that's how Noel's obviously feeling. See, if people give this really good reviews and all that and treat us really nice, then we'll write a nice anthem album next time.

This isn't a commercial album, full of obvious singles.
You've gotta listen to it more.

Was this a concern for you?
No, Not at all. Otherwise we'd be writing hit singles. I think it's a new stage in our life. If it's not gonna get on the radio, I'm arsed, you know. Maybe that's what the problem is with music today. They're always looking for that big, fucking hook. We're going back to fucking proper rock'n'roll music. I mean, it's a proper fucking rock'n'roll album.

Do you think it will go to Number One?
Yeah, Definitely. Don't know if it'll stay there, though. Course it'll go to fucking Number One. It's Oasis, man.

Is it a perseve album to put out at this stage? Some of the songs are quite long and there are long instrumental passages, which are things that people criticised about Be Here Now.
Do you mean it's the same?

No. But there are certain things that people thought you shouldn't do and you're doing them again.
Yeah, well, fuck them. So you're saying what? Who's saying we shouldn't do that? The press?

Including the press.
Right, the press, right, because the press are saying. 'Don't do that', I'm not writing fucking music for some knobhead who couldn't tie his fucking shoelaces, let alone play a guitar or write a fucking song. Do you know what I mean? That's the fucking bottom line of it. If they don't like it, then that's fucking fine. If they slag it off, that's fine. We're the musicians, they're the fucking knobheads who write about it.

If Oasis' previous albums were fulled by booze and white lines, would you say that this is more of a spliff album?
Yeah, I think so, yeah. Definitely: I'd say so. Not that we've been spliffing it. It's a listening album man. It's not fucking chaos.

Is it a satisfying album for you as a singer?
Yeah, Oh yeah.

Even though there's a lot of instrumental work in it?
Yeah, I think I'm singing pretty well.

Do you approve of Noel singing?
Yeah.

You don't mind him having a couple of songs on every album?
They're his fucking songs, aren't they?

Are you not dying to sing them?
No, I'm not really dying to sing thingy; 'Where Did It All Go Wrong', to tell you the truth.

You would sound good on "Sunday Morning Call"
Well, I tried singing it, but I think that's Noel's favourite, his little beauty. I think it means a lot to him.

It's the most melodic song on the album.
Yeah, well, I sang it and it's like I was singing it a bit too hard. I can't sing soft.

You can still carry a ballad.
Yeah, I know, but, anyway. I think that was his thing - 'I want that, I want to do that,' so I done it and even if it was probably good, he probably went. 'Oh, no, no, I don't like that, you're singing like a bumble bee. I'll do it.' And then he done his version of it and I went, 'A, fuck, I'm not gonna get in an argument about it.

The future of British rock depends on this album.
Does it?

Probably.
No, you can't put that weight on us baby.

Is it too much responsibility for you?
The future of British rock revoloves on fucking bands, mate.

People are waiting for this album, Liam.
Well, I'm sorry, darling, that's to do with fucking dickhead writers who slag people off before they've given them a chance, do you know what I mean? It don't depend on us, mate. This album is for us and for the fans who like it. British rock's for fucking people who've joined bands and are writing shit music. That's what British rock depends on.

But there's a lot of people holding their breath for this album, and that's a compliment.
Well that's good, yeah, but that, fucking, that can go against you man. And I'm not having none of that.

Everything can go against you in this business, though.
Well whatever you want. The future of British rock will not go against that album. If people don't like that album, that'll go against us.

Do you think Oasis are still the biggest and best?
I think we are, yeah. Well I think we're the biggest... We've been away for two years - it's different, do you know what I mean? We were the biggest when we left off, and I'm gonna carry on where we left off.

Can you do that?
I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't think the glory can go on. You know I wouldn't be here today if I didn't think we can get bigger and better. And whether people come in around us, you know, and it get's other bands rocking again, then that's fine, but I'm not arsed about it. I couldn't give a flying fuck about the future of British rock. Listen, all I'm bothered about is Oasis. I've done my bit for the fucking futures of British rock.