They think you're "wallowing in the limelight" too? They probably do. The way I see it is this: I believe the fans of the band should get a chance to see how these songs are born. They all start with one man sitting in a chair with an acoustic guitar singing into a Walkman. I'll never let it go now.

People presume you're lining up to go solo. Is that your plan? No. Never was, never will be. This is my first band and my first rock'n'roll experience and it'd be my last. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

Despite Wibbling Rivalry, you and Liam do manage to say something nice about one another once in a while. There was an interview recently where he said, "Never one day goes by without me wanting to see our kid." I know what he's saying because I'd like to be in Manchester to look out for him. He's a bigmouth, you know, all front, "I'm gonna shag Justine from Elastica," all that. I wish I did still live up there so I could (mimes locking Liam's head and er his arm, fist in face), "Shurrup, will ya, just shurrup." I miss him now and he misses me. He's the most famous person in Manchester. The poor lad can't walk outside the front door without being Liam Gallagher, if you know what I mean, and getting beaten up or threatened at least.

Why did you leave Manchester? As soon as I got some money, I was out of there. In Manchester I was sick and tired of going into pubs I'd been going into since I was 15 and everyone saying, "Tight bastard! " if I didn't buy the drinks and "Flash Bastard!" if I did. I was sick and tired of young crack heads coming up to me in clubs sticking a screwdriver in me back and saying,"We're doing the merchandising on your next tour" or "We're going to be your security team."

I hate the way anyone from the working class who makes money, the working class turns on them. The people in my band, we'll be working class till we die. We were brought up socialists and we'll die socialists.

Do you enjoy spending money? Oh yeah. I spent too long on the dole not to. I enjoy all the trappings. My biggest vice is guitars.

You've often given the impression that you hoover cocaine by the bucketful and some would suggest that's a vice. Whoever said I'm on a line of cocaine every 40 minutes, I'll sue the fucker. That's out of order. In Oasis, Guigsy, Bonehead and Alan White don't take drugs. Me and our Liam do. We'll take anything that's put in front of us because . . . that's just the kind of guys we are. But we've never been on stage out of it. We've never taken heroin or crack. We do take too many drugs, though, and I wish I'd never started. In fact, I wish I'd never started smoking cigarettes or drinking beer or taking cocaine or ecstasy because I'd have a lot more money now than I do have.

The one thing about us is we're honest. If we're asked whether we take drugs, we say yes. I was brought up by my mam not to be a liar. I take cocaine. Big fucking deal. It's a social thing and I've been doing it since before I was even in a band. But we're in a vicious circle. You become an addict.

You're addicted? No. I'm not. In fact, before tonight I've not even had a drink or any drugs for a week while I've been in Europe. It's a psychological dependence. When you're young and on the dole and got no money, sometimes all you're left with is your snidey fucking drug deal. For five quid every weekend you can maybe escape the place you're in. Then that becomes the norm.

What does your mam make of it? (Groaning sigh) What you've got to understand is that our mam has been trying to deal with her sons' drug habits for 10 years. It's nothing new. She took us to the brink of adulthood and in the end she went (throws hands up). She said, "This is left, this is right, this is black, this white, this is wrong, this is right. I'm telling you that. If you don't accept that, fuck you."

My mam cringes when she reads in the press about drug-taking. It does her head in because she's then got to go and explain it to my grandma. But even my grandma is cool. She understands what it's about: we're not bad lads, we just have to go out and get off it every now and then.

What's your worst nightmare for your immediate future? Now: two Earl's Courts, two triple platinum albums and where do we go from here? In the New Year we take the foot right off the gas. What do we do when we come back? It's a nightmare only because of the standards we've set ourselves.

What about your best dream? I'm not particularly arsed about America, but if we could do the same there as we've done in England .... Actually the big dream is to be U2 (claps hands together) - not a little Britpop phenomenon with the right clothes and trendy haircuts, which is what we are now.

PATRIOTIC COCKLES ARE WARMED. It's a nice thought. A British band the world number one again. Just like the '60s. In fact, just like. . .

"Haven't you finished yet?"The reverie-rupturing enquiry comes from interview widow Meg Matthews. It's midnight and her patience has finally been goaded into something just on the polite side of asperity. Time to go.

There's nobody on the stairs. Nobody singing Roll With It in the front yard. No Mark Chapman waiting at the gate.

Q; February, 1996
author: Phil Sutcliffe