(WHAT'S THE STORY) MORNING GLORY? (Creation)

Noel and NME journalist Andy Richardson sit down and talk through each track.

Hello

This opening track was premiered at Glastonbury and borrows the riff from Gary Glitter's 'It's Good To Be Back'. "It's one of the three songs on the album that's not about anything. I spend as much time on the lyrics as I do on the music. I'd like our kid to spend more time on them but he spends no time at all. Obviously, everyone is going on about the Gary Glitter thing, but I just had that in for a laugh "

Roll With It

"It's about f-- all. I like the sentiments of that song. It's just a simple rock 'n' roll tune. And it sold alright."

Wonderwall

This track is a strong contender for release as Oasis' next single. "People ask me why we had 'Roll with it' instead of 'Wonderwall' as the single. It seems to be everybody's favourite. It's about my girlfriend, Meg Matthews. She had a company which folded and she was feeling a bit sorry for herself. The sentiment is that there was no point in her feeling down, she has to sort my life out for me because I'm in bits had the time. We have an ordinary relationship. I met her at Christmas so I've always been a pop star since I've known her. Right now we've got the best part of a month off so, while I'm rehearsing, she's at work. When we get home we just sit down and have a couple of drinks."

Don't Look Back In Anger

"It's about not being upset about the things you might have said or done yesterday, which is quite appropriate at the moment. It's about looking forward rather than looking back. I hate people who look back on the past or talk about what might have been."

Hey Now!

"This is about being in a group. It's a massive step forward for us. Some people aren't going to like it because they're just going to want more songs like 'Cigarettes And Alcohol' or 'Supersonic'. The band has changed a lot there's a deferent vibe. We released Tony (McCarroll, drummer) because he wasn't that good. We had some of the best drum tutors in the country and they just said he wasn't very good. There's still me and our kid and Bonehead and Guigsy and of course Marcus (Russell, Oasis' manager). But I believe in fate. It had to happen for us from the first sessions of 'Definitely Maybe'."

Some Might Say

"That was the gin 'n' tonic getting the better of me. I had a guy in Swiss Cottage who came up to me when the single was Number One. He said, 'That song really meant a lot to me' because he's a Christian. And I asked if he'd heard the group at all and he hadn't. So I told him we had this song called 'Cigarettes And Alcohol' and being a Christian he wouldn't really dig that. He seemed like a really down-to-earth bloke. And he's telling me a song means a lot to him as a Christian and I'm having a conversation with him when I'm drugged up to the eyeballs. It's a laugh, man."

Cast No Shadow

"It was inspired by Richard (Ashcroft) from The Verve. I sussed Richard wasn't very happy for a while so I wrote it for him and about three weeks later he quit. It's about songwriters in general who are desperately trying to say something. I'd like to be able to write really meaningful lyrics but I always end up talking about drugs or sex. People tend to ask my advice about a lot of things. I'm good at giving it but I'm shit at taking it. But people like Richard and Paul (Weller) will look after me they'll make sure I'm conscious in a chair or that I can get home."

She's Electric

"It was the first song we wrote for the album. Someone asked me if it was about Blur, but it's not. It's like a Small Faces song or something by The Kinks."

Morning Glory

"It's a cynical song about drugs."

Champagne Supernova

"Some of the lyrics were written when I was out of it. There's the words: 'Someday you will find me/ Caught beneath a landslide/ ln a Champagne Supernova in the sky'. That's probably as psychedelic as I'll ever get. It means different things when I'm in different moods. When I'm in a bad mood being caught beneath a landslide is like being suffocated. The song is a bit of an epic. It's about when you're young and you see people in groups and you think about what they did for you and they did nothing. As a kid, you always believed the Sex Pistols were going to conquer the world and kill everybody in the process. Bands like The Clash just petered out. Punk rock was supposed to be the revolution but what did it do? F all. The Manchester thing was going to be the greatest movement on earth but it was f all. When we started we decided we weren't going to do anything for anybody, we just thought we'd leave a bunch of great songs. But some of the words are about nothing. One is about Bracket The Butler who used to be on Camberwick Green, or Chipley or Trumpton or something. He used to take about 20 minutes to go down the hall. And then I couldn't think of anything that rhymed with 'hall' apart from 'cannonball'. So I wrote 'Slowly walking down the hall/ Faster than a cannonball' and people were like, 'Wow, f*** man'. There's also the line 'Where were you while we were getting high?' because that's what we always say to each other. But the number of people who've started clubs called Champagne Supernova is f***ing unbelievable. And the album isn't even released yet."

Vinyl copies of '(What's The Story) Morning Glory' have an extra track 'Bonehead's Bank Holiday' which was written by Bonehead and Noel and features Noel on vocals.

• New Musical Express Album & Single Reviews

c 1998 Andrew Turner

aturner@interalpha.co.uk

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