COVER
(pic of Liam and Noel from NME interview shoot few months back)
Oasis (Brothers Grim)
ARTICLE
- Serge Simonart talks with Oasis' song writer about Be Here Now,
musical thievery, & why Sting is a prat.
Oasis have just released Be Here Now, a third album filled with, as
song-writer and guitarist Noel Gallagher calls it, "Neanderthal rock &
roll." It's twelve months after their last British live performance at
Knebworth; eighteen months after the release of (What's The Story)
Morning Glory?; twelve months after Noel's "I hope Damon from Blur dies
of AIDS" comment (for which he later apologized); and ten months after
the 'Blowasis' split rumours that accompanied their abandoned American
tour last fall.
They recently played with U2 on their American tour, which prompted
singer Liam Gallagher's onstage comment "Not bad for a support band, are
we?" Meanwhile, statistics in Britain show that 'Liam' has jumped three
places higher in the annual list of most popular boys' names: More
people are calling their newborn sons Liam because of Oasis'
popularity. It's a fact that, in a way, speaks louder than platinum
records. Unfortunately, Oasis are now so big that Noel Gallagher has
had to buy a number of guard dogs to protect his new house after a
series of attempted burglaries.
Noel is four hours late for our interview, but is in good spirits. When
he bursts into the office, he says to the three journalists present,
"Alright. Line up, queue. Who's first?" He pours a Belgian beer
(Stella), but hardly touches it during out seventy-minute conversation.
SS: I heard you got thrown out of Abbey Road studios - where the Beatles
used to record - because you were too noisy. I thought rock & roll was
supposed to be noisy, and a recording studio was supposed to be able to
handle that.
NG: Yeah, that's what we thought - but there you go. There was this
producer who was recording some classical stuff in one of the other
studios who apparently said our recordings were too loud. It was like
being at school and the headmaster telling you off. In the end we did
three songs at Abbey Road. But it was good to get out of there and go
to a farmhouse to record and act like a band again as opposed to a media
circus. It wasn't only that they complained about the noise, we also
had to deal with the tabloid press and people stealing things from the
studio...leaking the contents of private conversation to the gossip
press and such. It became intolerable.
SS: Every great rock band has this musketeerlike attitude: the
usagainstheworld thing.
NG: We've always felt that, yeah. We still feel like outsiders. Always
have done. We're very popular with the kids, but we're not popular in
the music community in London. There's not a lot of other bands that
like us, which is cool because we think all those bands are shit anyway.
SS: Or jealous.
NG: Whatever word you wanna use. But we've always felt like outsiders,
ever since we were a tiny little band in Manchester. Even back then we
thought we were the best band in the world - although nobody took any
notice of use - and that one day we would get ours, and everybody else
would bow...and subsequently we've been proven right.
SS: I feel the main thing that Oasis has proven is that there are no
rules in rock & roll.
NG: Yeah. I feel we obey our own rules. You make your own
rules...Cheers [raising his beer]. In a way, the music that we make is
very traditional, so we don't break many rules musically. But in the
things that we say and the way that we don't conform to how pop stars
are supposed to act, we have broken all the rules. Actually, we don't
think that we're that outrageous. People seem to think so, but it's
just the normal way we act at home.
SS: When I see Oasis, I'm always reminded of the frank attitude people
like The Who had when they first went to America in the late '60s. You
had some tacky old TV presenter asking Roger Daltrey condescendingly
what his name was, and Daltrey said, "My friends call me Roger...you can
call me John."
NG: Yeah. Great attitude. It's like us cracking America. If we do it,
it'll be on our own terms. We're not going to kiss anybody's arses. If
we've proven that you don't have to kiss arse to make it big time,
that's top.
SS: I know people have been bothering you with endless Beatles'
comparisons, but it must happen sometimes that you unconsciously end up
in territory that has already been covered. For instance, you write a
song and then, a week later, you listen back to that demo and suddenly
realize: "That sounds like 'Let It Be' and I didn't realize it." When
was the last time that happened?
NG: Last week. (laughs) It happens all the time, mate! I don't think
I've ever actually re-written somebody else's song. I've put bits of
other people's songs into my songs, yeah. I stuck a little bit of
'Imagine' on the front of 'Don't Look Back In Anger' - but they're not
the same song, right? But if I do that, I don't do it by accident, I do
it on purpose. When I was writing 'Cigarettes & Alcohol', I wasn't
sitting there going (sings T.Rex riff) and then say, "Fuck me, this
sounds like T. Rex!" Of course that bit sounds like T. Rex - because I
wanted it to sound like T. Rex! I pinched that riff off Marc Bolan..but
he stole it in turn off Howlin' Wolf, who in turn stole it off Robert
Johnson. That riff goes back to the '20s. I mean, the Beatles have
admitted they've nicked stuff. The Beatles were derivative of black
American music - The Shirelles and Buddy Holly and Bill Haley. They
sort of copied some of that stuff up to Rubber Soul. The Beatles, The
Small Faces, the Kinks, The Stooges, The Who, The Sex Pistols, Elvis...I
must have played all those records a thousand times, so it'll always be
an influence. It's true that 'Don't Look Back In Anger' reeks of
Revolver or Rubber Soul or even Abbey Road - but it's an original song.
No composer is ever a virgin. You never start from scratch.
SS: What's it like when you're a kid from Manchester and suddenly you
start making music and, after a while, you're bigger than the people you
used to look up to?
NG: I've had that with every pop star I've met. I had that with The Sex
Pistols, where I was mesmerized with the mythical figure of Johnny
Rotten. When I was eleven years old and I heard Never Mind The Bollocks
- Here's The Sex Pistols for the first time, that was about the most
mindblowing experience I'll ever have. But now I know John Lydon quite
well, and to me he's just John from North London. And he's not let me
down in any way. I mean, everybody is just an ordinary human being, you
know? David Bowie was not a 'Starman'. He's not some alien. He's just
Davey Jones from Battersea Park. When I was queuing up for concerts of
The Smiths in 1983, I was a fan. But I didn't get to meet Johnny Marr
until after I became Noel gallagher of Oasis, biggest band in the world.
SS: Did you ever write a lyric about Liam's behaviour, knowing that we
would be obliged to sing it?
NG : I have never, ever written any lyric at all with Liam in mind. And
I never think of Liam singing anything when I'm writing. I always
picture myself s singing it. People are always saying, "Oh, Noel, you
must have been envisaging Liam singing this lyric because it feels so
natural when he' s singing it." But that's because we're family. We
have the same blood, the same parents, and whatever's going through my
mind is going through his. It's as simple as that. The only problem I
have with Liam over lyrics is that I'm dyslexic, so sometimes I forget
to write down words, or spell them incorrectly. Then when Liam sings
them incorrectly he says, "But it doesn't make any fuckin' sense!" and
then it turns out I forgot half of the sentence.
SS: I'm sure you're familiar with the ultimate rock & roll movie, Spinal
Tap. Was there a moment when you thought, 'Shit, we've ended up in a
'90s version of that movie?'
NG: We were doing a gig in Philadelphia on the last American tour. Now
I don't usually get drunk before I go onstage, but this one particular
gig I was pissed. So I walked onstage and started doing all these
cliched rock & roll poses and signs, totally over the top. But the
crowd went mental and loved it to bits. And I thought, 'This could only
happen in America.' I was pissed - and taking the piss - but the crowd
thought I was being serious. So for the rest of the show I acted like I
was a member of KISS, you know, playing extended guitar solos with my
tongue and all...and everybody seemed to think it was really great.
Looking back, I think that was the moment when I realized it was time to
go home. That's the only time Oasis were ever Spinal Tap. Well, that's
the only time I'll admit that we were Spinal Tap.
SS: It astounds me that there're very few bands of this generation that
seem to have learned from their predecessors' mistakes. We all know
what a terrible time people like The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, The Sex
Pistols, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles had with corrupt managers,
back-stabbing management, shady deals and drugs, yet most new bands keep
making the same mistakes. You had the advantage of starting out in the
music business as a roadie to Inspiral Carpets. Did that give you the
opportunity to suss things out, to prepare your Oasis strategy?
NG: That did give me time to sort of be on the inside without having to
commit myself. And my experience with Inspiral Carpets quickly made me
realize there is a certain way not to do things. I saw others mess up,
and I remembered no to fuck up. I mean, that's why I was down at the
printer's today. I'm a rich rock star. I could have stayed at home and
gotten pissed or played with the dogs or shagged the wife, know what I
mean? But instead I drove two hundred miles...
SS: Ah, now I know you're lying. You couldn't have been driving because
you don't have a driver's license.
NG: Well, someone else drove me, obviously. I'm a rock & roll star, I
don't have to drive myself. But yeah, that's true. They [Sony Music]
gave me a chocolate brown 60,000 pound Roller [Rolls Royce] for
Christmas, but I'm not allowed to drive it. Anyway, so I was at the
printer's today making sure that when the album cover of Be Here Now is
printed, all the colours are matched up correctly. You see, I started
writing this album eighteen months ago, and I just finished the album
this very afternoon! So I've gone from writing to playing the tunes to
producing and taking care of the cover. I've taken as much care as I
can over every aspect. I write it, record it, produce it, play it, sing
it, mix it, I do the artwork...and now I can rest 'cause it's finished.
A lot of other bands don't give a fuck about all those details. I do.
'Cause it's my art, man! That's why I'm in this office every day.
Because I want to make sure that ever decision taken for Oasis is the
right decision. 'Cause it's my and my brother's and my four mates'
careers that we're talking about. And I take as much pride in the
artwork as in being on stage or pissing about at some award ceremony.
And if anyone is going to fuck it up, I'll fuck it up. No other idiot
is gonna fuck it up.
SS: The context of some of your lyrics is fascinating. Like that line
"Don't put your life in the hands of a rock & roll band" in 'Don't Look
Back In Anger'. That line could be a quote from (right-wing
conservative British politician) Mary Whitehouse.
NG: Yeah, it does sound like a warning from a worried parent, doesn't
it? But if the band is Oasis, of course it's okay to put your life in
our hands. But the thing is, I also meant it as a warning. What I was
saying with that particular line was "Okay, Oasis is a great band and
we're real and you can trust us. But do not build your life around us,
'cause any rock band can split up at any time, and if you've built your
life around it, and the band splits up, you'll be left with no life." I
was saying to the fans, "Make sure you've got something else to fall
back on."
SS: You know, Sting once said...
NG: Sting?! He's rubbish! Fuckin' Sting. Fuckin' rainforest! Fuck
trees, man...dogs piss on them. (laughs) Go on, what did fuckin' Sting
say?
SS: Sting said about the band politics in The Police, "You can't argue
with a good song." The band members of The Police always used to fight
over whose song ended up on record, but Sting simply wrote the best
songs so he always won.
NG: That's true. Sting's still a prat, though. Sting wrote 'Message In
A Bottle': good tune. 'So Lonely': top tune. 'Roxanne': good tune.
But he's still a twat. (laughs)
SS: What is the strangest fan mail you ever got?
NG: The weirdest fan mail. That would have to be this girl in...we're
1997 now, right? So this
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geocities.com/sunsetstrip/stage) (
geocities.com/sunsetstrip)