The band in colour appear on the cover with Noel & Liam in suede and cord peaked hats; inside are pictures of Liam and Noel in Kangol parkas, together and separate, and in colour and in black and white

cover picture by Roger Sargent

inside pictures by Kevin Westerberg

Oasis. Here. Now. It’s the album everyone’s been waiting for. It’s the interview everyone’s been waiting for. It’s the Oasis story so far. Ted Kessler brings you everything you ever wanted to know about the most important rock’n’roll band of this generation.

They need to be themselves, they can’t be no-one else. Well, maybe. Right now, bustling through the photo studio’s huge steel doors in a flurry of green and blue, Noel and Liam Gallagher are each other. Same hair, same scowl, same swagger, same security guards: brothers. In matching Kangol parkas.

"I swear I didn’t know he was going to wear his," says Noel, fingering his designer logo. "Do you think I’d have turned up wearing the same clobber as that c*** on purpose?"

"Yeah, right," smirks Liam, "you were on the phone to Pats going, 'What’s he wearing, what’s he wearing? I’ve got to make sure it matches'."

Noel rolls his eyes. "Er, right. We should make sure we get some money off Kangol for this."

"Too right! Can’t wear anything these days."

"Yeah," agrees Noel. "Can’t wear anything these days without someone trying to give us money for it. Bloody terrible that is.

Do you want a sarnie?"

"No, but I’m mad for a beer." Liam swivels round looking for his security guard. "Get us a couple of beers, mate. I’m going to hit f***ing Paris tonight! I’ve been in for three days and nights doing f*** all, just watching Neighbours twice a day. I’m getting a thing for Helen f***ing Daniels and it’s not healthy! I am gasping for a proper night out. It’s going to be top!" Noel momentarily brightens. It’s not been a great morning but the future smells sweeter.

"Yeah," he says, nudging his brother, "just you and me in Paris! We’re going to have a right party! Patsy and Meg will be panicking, ringing the hotel rooms, wondering where we are and we won’t be there. We’ll be out!"

"Yeah," agrees Liam decisively, "we’ll be right out!" But first, perhaps, a little more time in. We only have a few hours before the train pulls out of Waterloo, but these will be hours well spent, on the last day in June in a north London studio, staring out a photographer with glacial cool, before taking turns to impart wild nonsense and steel sense into a microphone. It will be time spent reflecting upon what it means and how it feels to be the two figureheads in the biggest and best rock’n’roll band of our generation as they prepare to unleash another epic record. It will be time too, for Oasis to step back into the ring and casually take a huge bite out of their opponents’ ears.

"I see Hurricane #1 went in at Number 35," notes Noel, chomping into his BLT and nodding at his press officer. This is not a congratulation, but an opening jab at labelmates who recently and foolishly lashed out at Liam in NME. "That’s 35 places to high in my book."

"Hurricane #1?" queries Liam, sauntering over. "He copies my haircut and then slags me off! What’s that about? But I ain’t into this bickering between bands now. I’m a married man. I’ll just blank the c***."

"No you won’t, you’ll batter the c***!"

"Who’ll I batter? Hurricane #1? Never heard of them. Isn’t that some indie band with the guy from Erasure in them?"

THEY’RE BACK, then. Two years, millions of sales, a thousand tabloid column inches of wild speculation, a few fights and two Knebworth shows since their last album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? and the most famous British brothers since the Charltons finally have a new single out. If you own a radio you’ll have already heard D’You Know What I Mean?’s seven sprawling minutes of anthemic psychedelia. You’ll also know that it’s Oasis’ most ambitious work to date, and amongst their most satisfying.

"Yeah," agrees it’s author, Noel as he watches his brother, the singer and rock’n’roll star, being snapped. "I just wish the rest of the album sounded like that. It’s good, but the next one will be better."

Well, the guitarist is a bit grumpy right now. He’ll cheer up later with the assistance of a couple of Orange Hoochs though, and talk proudly of how Oasis’ forthcoming album, Be Here Now, is a mixture of the best aspects of their previous two albums. He’ll explain about how it’s the third and final chapter in the first part of the Oasis story and how he plans to radically overhaul the band’s sound for the next album. He’ll confidently outline his future strategy, talk honestly about how close Oasis came to splitting last year, and about all the rest of their recent history too - confirming or denying all relevant gossip - and offer his opinion on everything from press intrusion and drugs to God and Goldie. Right now, though, he’s just going to finish his sandwich.

Liam, meanwhile, is in fine fettle. A constant whirl of movement and jabber, he’s a bit like The Fast Show character who reckons everything’s brilliant. Only he’s not so sure that everything is brilliant.

"Do you like sleeping?" he asks out of the blue.

Er, yeah.

"I f***ing hate sleeping, me. Boring! I wish I didn’t have to sleep, it’s such a waste or time. I’d rather be up, living."

"But," says one of his entourage, "what about when you’re in bed with your woman and holding her tight, that’s alright isn’t it?"

"Yeah," argues Liam, "but then you fall asleep and it makes no difference. You’re off to the land of f***ing nod, dreaming of f***ing dinosaurs and Manchester. I’d rather be out, except I can’t even do that at the moment. I get agoraphobia sometimes when I’m out.

"Like, I went to Oxford Street the other day to buy a suit and I got the fear. I was surrounded by people asking me for things so I sacked the suit and jumped in a cab and nailed the doors down. It’s bad, man. If I’m pissed, though, it’s OK. I can monkey about with them and get on with business. That’s the trick. Always be a little bit pissed."

He shrugs and wanders over to join his brother having his photo taken. As they stand together Liam starts singing ‘I Can’t Stand The Rain’. By Tina Turner.

"You what?" says Noel.

"Tina Turner is top!"

"What, even ‘Private Dancer’?"

"Top tune!"

"It’s shit! What about, ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero’?"

"Top f---ing tune!"

"It’s shit!"

"‘River Deep Mountain High’! Top tune!"

"Ah," grimaces Noel, "you’re right. That is a top tune."

A few minutes later Liam wanders back.

"Right," he says, "are we going to have this interview? I’m mad for a bit of chat."

LIAM GALLAGHER: the man with the child in his eyes. Funny, unpredictable, hyperactive, bewitching and electric. The pitch-perfect but raw and emotional voice of his generation. The man of a thousand moods, mad for many different things. Here are just some of the things about which he is mad this morning: the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Association’s finals, of which he has been watching much of between Neighbours. It’s top, and he’s going to the final. Patsy Kensit, his wife. She’s lovely and he loves her. Marriage: it’s top. Patsy’s young son, James, his stepson. They do everything together, they’re mates. It’s top.

What else? Hooch, he has just discovered, is a pretty nifty drink. It tastes of orange squash, but it gets you pissed. Got to be a good thing. The island of Capri, where he recently vacationed, is a place of much beauty, tranquillity andmystery. And the word c***. One of his favourites.

"C*** is a great word. I’m a c***, you’re a c***, he’s a c***. Top swear word. C***!"

So, yeah, Liam is mad for many things, but chat?

"No, I’m mad for that."

And he is, he’s mad for chat. Mad for it right up until he sits down in the brightly lit make-up room and gets himself involved in the question-and-answer thing. He’s polite and accommodating, he’ll answer any question asked. But if he can answer it in one word, then he will. See, he’s also pretty mad for getting out of here and going to Paris. Contrivance isn’t really his bag.

Last time NME interviewed you, you said you loved being a pop star, is that still the case?

"No, I’m not a pop star. I’m a rock’n’roll star. And I’m mad for it."

Even with all the tabloid press and TV intrusion you suffered?

"I like that, I need them, need them to give me a kick up the arse. Otherwise I’d just be sat in getting fat, counting all me money. It’s good people living on your doorstep and looking through your bins. Gives you energy."

What happened then, when you left that last American tour at Heathrow, claiming that you had to go look for a house?

"I went to get a house."

Why did you wait until then?

"Because we’d just sold the house that day, right, and we had to get out in the next ten days. I thought, ‘F*** it, I’m not going to America if I’ve got nowhere to live, spending two weeks in a hotel in America and then coming back and going to a hotel in England.’ It’s not on. No chance. Loads of people staring at you onstage all the time and you’ve got nowhere to live? You need a f***ing home. Everybody does. It’s the most important thing in life."

Were you surprised about all the fuss it caused in the papers and on television?

"Yeah! Saying I don’t give a shit about America! ‘Cos I do! But we should’ve sacked that tour anyway. Should have stayed at home and had some time off. Stayed at home and made the album."

Are you pleased with Noel’s new songs?

"Top! The album is great, just great. Once we’re all together as a band then that is normality. The rest of it is bollocks. Loads of f***ing knobs who don’t know how to shag chasing you around with cameras. Should be home with their wives, taking the dog for a walk."

What do you think the single is about?

"Dunno. It’s personal. I can’t tell you what it’s about. If I say it’s about people putting shooters to your head and he (Noel) comes and says something else, then it’s whatever. You gotta decide yourself. But it’s top. It’s Oasis."

What’s a typical Liam Gallagher day like, what do you get up to?

"Get up at six o’clock in the morning. Jog around the park, Shit and fart all day. No. Just sit in, really. Do a bit of shopping and try and keep it as normal as possible. I am normal, I’m just a normal lad, but life’s fast. You’ve just got to take it easy, calm it down. Watch Neighbours. I’m sick of Neighbours though. We did those gigs in America. Came home. Chilled out. Didn’t play golf. Just being a good husband really."

How is marriage?

"King top!"

Your marriage was a pretty tricky manoeuvre.

"All that tabloid stuff is a pain in the arse, isn’t it? Gotta be done, I suppose, got f*** all else to write about. I’d rather they wrote about me than some other dick. I’m interesting."

Do you want to have kids?

"Yeah! I want 20! Sell 16 and keep four! Take the eyebrows off, though, they don’t come with the eyebrows!"

If you had three wishes what would they be?

"To live forever. No I don’t want to live forever. I will live forever. Love and peace, I’m a hippy, me. And I want to get a few quid in the back pocket and chill, know what I mean? I’m happy now, got everything I want, done everything I want to do. I’m 24 years old, from Burnage, Manchester, it’s more than I could ever imagine. But they aliens might land in 1999. You never know, do you?"

Do you believe in aliens?

"Mmmm. Course I do.. I’m not frightened by them though, I’m as smart as them. Probably thick as f***, aren’t’ they? Big goggly-eyed big head, man, they haven’t got a f***ing clue, if they did they would come out and sort us out because we’re as thick as f***. I’m not frightened of them."

Do you fancy space travel?

"I’m well up for it. Only if I could get back, though, I wouldn’t want to get lost in space. Fancy just nipping in and nipping out, just check it out. I’d do their f***in’ heads in, them aliens, man. Freak ‘em right out. They’d be like (puts on Mash Means Smash alien voice), ‘Farking hell, farking hell! Let’s get back to Planet Knob!’ I’d do their heads in, me, frighten the life out of them! That’s why they haven’t landed yet. They’re going (for some reason these now are Cockney aliens) ‘F*** that, cant’ land while he’s about!’ I’d take them out and get them f***ing slaughtered. I would make them turn green then!"

How are you and Noel getting on?

"Smashing. Still have the odd fight... actually I want to smack him now! Right in the kipper! No, great. Everything’s fine. We’ll never split up, we’re brothers. And if Oasis ends, then it’ll end on a high. Who knows? We might still be together in 50 years, still playing music, which’ll be nice." Have you learnt to play guitar yet?

"No, I’m getting there, though. I wrote something on it the other day, on me Hummingbird. It’s called ‘The Lost Chord’. I’ve not really wrote it, I’ve wrote the tune, I’ll start on the lyrics next. Do you know ‘Scarface’? It’s like that, moody as f***. I don’t know whether to have a skiffly beat, or a slow one, keep changing it.

"Whatever happens in the future is good, though. I’m an optimistic bastard, me. There’s a lyric on the record that goes, ‘They’re trying hard to put me in my place, but the future’s mine, it’s your disgrace’. That’s us, man."

And that’s Liam Gallagher, off to the pub with his minders before catching a train to Paris to get pissed. A normal millionaire heartthrob from Burnage, Manchester, a regular lad who’d so far ahead of the opposition now that he’s had to start a slanging match with bands from outer space.

Go to Part 2

• New Musical Express Interview Articles - index

c 1998 Andrew Turner

aturner@interalpha.co.uk

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