Oasis Interviews Archive

A shitload of interviews from all the various members of Oasis and selected associates from the start of their career right up to the present day. These transcripts have been taken from various websites, forums and newsgroups over the years. Credit goes to those people who took the time to put these words online.

Saturday, April 27, 1996

Noel & Liam Gallagher - Melody Maker - 27th April 1996

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE. This weekend Oasis write another major chapter in the story of their extraordinary success when they play their biggest ever shows, at Manchester City's Maine Road stadium. Here Liam and Noel reminisce about the band's early days, rock'n'roll madness, the lost art of hotel wrecking, fame, ambition and American hospitality and how to deal with it.

The clatter of transcription: Jim Shelley
Brotherly love: Tom Sheehan



LIAM

What have the last couple of years been like, how would you describe it?

"Mad. It's been hard. But it's gotta be done. There's nothing else to do is there? It's our band, and if we want it to be as big as we want it to be, then we've got to keep on doing it. Keep plugging away."

Has it surprised you, what's happened to the band?
"No not at all; and that's not arrogance, it's just that I'm not here to be surprised. I knew, as soon as we had the first single out, what was gonna happen. Suede were the only big band in Britain at the time and although we weren't doing gigs - we were stuck in a room all day, getting better and better, and I just knew that if we did a few gigs and got a bit of interest, that'd be it. It would just go fookin' mad. And as soon as Supersonic come out, it did."

Do you feel happy with your life, with the way things are?
"Most of the time, yeah. Totally. I have me bad days, but that's life innit? I had good days when I was on the dole and I had bad days when I was on the dole. I have great days being here and I have bad days being here. As long as I know there's a gig coming up, I'm Sweet As. That's what it's about, you know."

Do you ever miss the dole?
"Not at all."

Do you think that in some ways you had more freedom on the dole?
"On the dole, I had nothing. No motivation, nothing. I just used to watch TV and dream, just sit there thinking, 'What's the point?' Now, with everything that's happening your life's not your own anymore - but you know what it's gonna be like before you get into it dont'cha? Like, you're expected to sign autographs - but that's all right. The fans are great. They're the people who give you your dreams, who buy your records."

As you get bigger and bigger, so do the venues you have to play. Do you have any worries about playing stadiums?
"To be honest, I don't really want to do stadiums. But people want to see you, and its sometimes the only way to do it. You don't sell out when you play stadiums, do you? It's just a bigger venue, and wherever you play, there's always a space between you and the fans. That's just the way it is, like the world is round."

How have you changed since Oasis started?
"I don't think I've changed at all."

You must have.
"I haven't. I've got a better singer. I've got more into me own little world, in there, in me own little world, which is alright. And I feel at one in me own little world, and that's what I've always wanted. Simple as that."

What about fame though, Liam?
"Signing autographs doesn't change ya. Just me writing 'LIAM'. I wouldn't not be in a band, never. No matter what the price of fame was. That's what I'm here for - to play music. When I go on, at a gig at night, all that shit, fame and stuff, just goes out your head."

What have been the real low points for you?
"Black moods are always there, aren't they? At the back of your mind. And that geezer who jumped onstage and whacked Our Kid. That done me head in, a thing like that. Just a fookin' mad head. He either loves the band, or he hates the band - you can't sit around and think about that can ya?"

Do you have any plans to start writing songs?
"Not for Oasis, no. Not right now, anyway. When I've got time to chill out and all that, get a bit of a gaff, I might start writing a bit of shit, putting it down, see how it goes. If I wrote a mega, mega, mega tune, then put it to Our Kid, and if he said, 'No, we're not doing it', then we wouldn't do it. And the other thing is, if I do one, then Bonehead will want to do one. It gets all cluttered then, doesn't it?"

What about lyrics?
"I don't think so, no. I'm happy with our Kid's lyrics. I think they are great. He writes them better than I me."

What can you tell me about Noel?
"He's just got right into it - he's got right into being a guitarist, and a songwriter. After the first lot of success, you know it's for real then, and he got really focused, got wised up, really serious. Stopped smashing things up. You've got to do it right. And I'm just totally into being a singer now, and that's what I'm about. I don't want to be a lyricist, I don't want to be a fookin' songwriter. I just want to be a singer. Not a frontman, not work the crowd or jump up or down and all that shit. That's not what I'm about. Elvis never wrote a song in his life, did he? I don't reckon he was the king, though - I reckon john Lennon was the King. I just like Lennon's rawness, but then again McCartney wrote Helter Skelter which was a top fookin' tune. I'm on that, me. Totally. The Beatles talk to me totally. I mean they don't talk to me, the music just channels in though, especially Lennon."

Don't you even think Imagine is horrendous?
I like Imagine. Totally. One of the best songs ever. In fact, it's one of the most scary songs ever written. I agree Lennon lost it later on, oh yeah, totally - when she came in. He must have seen something in her."

What about the Pistols?
"The Pistols? Top. Mad for it. Totally. Me favourite? Bodies. Me second favourite band, cos it wasn't meant to be music-based. Top band. Lennon and Lydon, innit?"

What sort of people come backstage to meet you?
"I've come across John McEnroe. Came to New York, backstage. Had a spliff. Mad bastard. Fookin' proper mad-head. Had his guitar with him, cos he's got a band. He was playing us these songs. [Impersonates McEnroe shouting/strumming] 'Was it in or was it out? Dum-dum-dum-dum-ding-ding-ding.' Off his head. 'You cannot be serious, dum-dum.' Double faults hurt me head. Proper mad. Simon Le Bon came back, too. Freaky. Pretty strange, him and John McEnroe in the same room. Adam Clayton sent us a cactus - on Oasis desert fookin' cactus."

Do you like U2?
"The music's OK, but I reckon they're just in their own little world's and that, U2."

Is it difficult to maintain a steady relationship when you're on the road so much?
"In the beginning, I never wanted one. I used to see a few girls and that, but I couldn't really be arsed. Sitting on the phone all night in me hotel room, in America. 'How are ya, have you got to got to work tomorrow in HMV and that?' You know, she's fookin' gutted and I'm bombing about, buzzing."

Do you ever feel like slowing down, taking it easier?
"If you want it, you gotta get right into it. Gotta let it suck you right in. I had a month off and it did me head right in."



NOEL

Do you ever worry about the way some bands go away to the States, plug away over there and when they come back it's not the way it was when they left?
"Inspiral Carpets was like that. Bands like fookin' Ned's Atomic Dustbin were on a roll. Time moves so fookin' fast - like The Stone Roses come back and it wasn't really a big deal. The kids move on so fast now."

Has there been a lot of pressure on you to tour even more in America than you have been?
"You get to a certain level, the record company are gonna want you to come and fookin' camp here and that's physically not possible. No matter how big we are, if it comes down to England and America, it's like, 'Fook you guys.' I'd rather just stay big in England. Financially, it's no problem. We're not gonna sacrifice everything just for America. We're from England. And there's Japan, Europe, Australia. Japan is as inportant to me as America."

Yeah, but Americans have this thing about the history of rock'n'roll and America being the place it all started.
"Yeah, but it's the kids that are important. And there's kids in Japan too. So we start getting into the realm of world tours. And then people just wanna gear the same old songs and the fact is, we're moving faster than they can keep up with us. But I'm not gonna gig with the same old songs. I've been playing some of 'em four years- Rock'n'Roll Star, Live Forever, Cigarettes and Alcohol. To be honest, it's getting a bit fookin' tedious."

Have you really got a masterplan?
"Nah. Anything can happen. I literally don't know what's gonna fookin' happen next week."

You're where you want to be though?
"Oh, yeah. All the goals we set when we started the band, we broke 'em so fast."

Is there a price to pay for becoming so successful, so quickly?
"I wouldn't say I envy bands who've not had the success we did but...I still liked it better when we 'ad to go and prove ourselves to people and didn't have a Number One album, when that was something to reach for. Everything seems to be coming really fookin' easy at the moment. I've only got to fookin' fart and it gets into the Top 10. It stifles the interest at times - you what's going to happen to it before it comes out."

Is it easy to get complacent in that situation?
"Yeah. When the wolf's never at the door, some people get like, 'Well put an album out when we feel like it.' I'm sure we'll get to that stage. We'll just have to deal with it when it happens."

Are you going to continue doing what used to be called EPs?
"Yeah, definitely. It's just that tradition - Adam and the Ants, The Jam, Madness, you know."

It means you're throwing some amazing songs away on B-sides.
"Yeah, Acquiesce, was going to be a single. I wrote it on the train on the way to the studio. By the time it was recorded, it was like, 'This should have been a single!' But I liked that thing The Jam and The Smiths had - classic B-sides."

What pisses you off most about America?
"All that fookin' moshing bollocks. At home, a song like Live Forever, people do actually listen to it. Here, it's fighting, moshing and stage diving with a great big hole behind the three front rows, people bashing into each other. You stand there thinking, 'You really don't get it do ya? You really haven't got a clue.' If it was Bring It On Down or Headshrinker or Fade Away, maybe, just maybe - but NOT Live Forever. It's not a fighting tune."

Who makes the important decisions on behalf of the band?
"Me and Marcus, the manager, we'll talk. Sometimes I'll just make the decision and that'll be the end of it. But Marcus and me, we operate totally on the same wavelength."

How would you describe the last couple of years?
"Erm...[15 seconds pause]...for me, personally, I was mouthing off to every c***, saying we were the dog's knackers. Man, everyone was so fed up. But I'm quite proud that everyhting I said was quite justified and came true. Other than that, just like fookin' mind-blowing, and a total and utter fookin' laugh, just takin' the piss, all the wind-ups. We read all the old interviews and just laugh our heads off. From Supersonic to the first album, we were seriously fookin' out of control. People at Creation and managers of other bands were all saying 'These guys aint gonna last a year. They're either gonna die or kill each other."

You never seem to tire of talking about all that hotel stuff. So tell some of it, Noel. Go on.
"Well it was just such a fookin' laugh. All of us - me and Bonehead - would just walk into a hotel and just empty it out the window. Guigsy used to be completely and utterly stoned 24 hours a day - I don't think he spoke to me for eight months - and me and Our Kid were just like fookin' Punch and Judy."

I thought Bonehead did all the hotels - we might as well get it on record.
"The first one [laughing], I can't remember the first one because there were so many. I think why, was that he watched a bit too much TV one night and had a bit too much to drink and he was getting serious encoragement from the rest of the band - 'Go on man, do it, what are you, a man or a mouse yer c***, throw it out the window!' So he did. Iused to be doing interviews in either my hotel room or the bar of a hotel - and I only cottoned on to this after the third time they did it - and halfway through the interview, someone would walk in through the bar or wherever and say ' Have you got a light?' I didn't suss out that they were actually checking to see whether we were positioned by the window. I'd be sat with my back to the window and I'd be saying to the journalist, 'No, no, mate, it's all bullshit,' playing it all down, 'we really don't.' And there's be tables whizzing past and the journalist'd be thinking 'I'm sure I've just seen a fookin' television fly past.' I;d just be saying 'It's about music, man, it's not about smashing up hotels' - and the hotel manager would be walking in with broken tables. The hotels never did anything cos we used to pay for it. Or Bonehead did. It's a bit of a cliche now - the novelty wears off. But I've got to tell you man, it was fookin' fun."

What was the best one?
"The best one was Sweden - in the hotel with primal Scream amd the Verve. We got deported and banned. Thirty grand damage. All fookin' great memories."

Being on the road is meant to drive you mad isn't it?
"Oh yeah, totally. You go insane, go bananas. The first two tours, at the height of it, there was five in the band and all the equipment in a van with two roadies - no tour manager or driver. They used to book us into these hotels on our own, we'd check ourselves in and pay for our own extras. We were on tour with Whiteout. It was like we were a bunch of Vikings, invading England for the first time! Whiteout had had a single and were signed to Silvertone. They had a massiv etour bus, we had the van. They had a proper lighting rig and crew, and all the kids were knocking on their van thinking it wasa ours. They'd send us out each week, on the road with this bag of money as a float, and literally three quarters of an hour after putting the money in my hands, it was gone. On drugs, usually."

So who was telling you when to be in the lobby, when to check out, etc?
"Oh that was me. I was. But no-one was ever there! We used to get the van round and I'd be at the counter, putting extras on the bill, being really co-operative, counting them onto the bus and then we'd drive it round the corner with the engine running. They'd say '390 quid plus two table lamos etc,' and I'd be like 'Oh, I've left me cheque book in the van.' Our travel agents had to pick up all the bills and charge it back to us. We got banned from four separate chains of hotels. In the end, we used to do gigs and stay 20 miles outside the city. When we were checking into the hotel for Glastonbury, I'd done this pre-recorded interview saying, 'If it's not nailed down, we'll have it!' And as luck would have it, as we were checking in, the manager saw it. So he was like, 'You lot, out now.' We got barred from The Columbia when someone threw something out a window and it went through the window of the manager's Mercedes."

How has all this touring affected your health?
"Once, I'd had two days, doing gigs. No food, loads of drugs, loads of drink. I flaked out withchest pains and stayed overnight in a hospital in Detroit. The doctor said, 'You're 27, it's a good job you're not 47, cos you'd be dead.' He said, 'Look lid, you wanna just calm down.' So I've been trying to get a bit more sleep and eat a bit since."

Does the band have it's own doctor?
"Band fookin' psychiatrist, more like. I've been to this rock'n'roll doctor in Harley Street - last tome I was in there, ha ha, it was hardly rock'n'roll. Jason Donovan was in there and Craig McLachlan from Grease. Three of us. Very rock'n'roll. I have a lot of trouble with me ears - I play so loud, me ears are shot to bits."

Have you learned anything from them though, the doctors?
"I only ever had one problem with drugs and that was why I gave up smoking pot. I developed really low blood pressure - every time I had a fookin' spliff, I used to fookin' faint. When you jave a draw, it lowers your heartbeat and it can't pumpo the blood round so fast, so i used to get a bit dizzy and have trouble breathing. I used to smoke fookin' loads of it all the time. The doctor said, 'Basically, you're all right with anything that gets you going. You're cool. Because you need that!' [laughs] I love my doctor."

What about cocaine?
"I used to do a coupla days and then kick it in the head. On the last American tour, I had to take the rest of the band aside and tell 'em to get rid of it and stop, cos they don't know when to stop. Or rather they did - when they ran out. Everyone's chilled out now. It used to go on for days and days - we used to plough through loads of it."

Not that you'd actually know, but, hypothetically, how would you get sorted if you were playing, say, Nowheresville, Missouri?
"Well, I imagine you get to the gig and you go to the promoter and say to him, 'It would be in your best interests for you to sort out some exotic substances for the lads, because if you don't they're gonna be in a pretty bad mood and the gig might not be all it could be."

You wouldn't expect the record company to sort you out?
"We don't even speak to them. The less we have to depend on the record company in America, the better for us. It always comes back to you in the end. So we never asked for anything off the record company."

Do you do any of all this 'meet and greet' nonsense they go in for in America?
"All that 'Maybe I'll come back later and introduce you to my wife!' It's just like, 'What the fookin' 'ell do I wanna meet yer wife for?!' They don't even get offended. I never said 'I'm gonna change this, i'm gonna change that.' But what I said, and I meant it - as a roadie, I've seen how it all works - and I fervently and fookin' 100 per cent believe that you don't have to do 'meet and greets'. I don't give a shit about that. To me, bands come over here and because the band that came over before did it, then it's expected of them to do it. I just got to the point where I said, ' I ain't doing it. My band ain't doing it.' I don't give a fook about meeting a guy from Tower Records for this territory or that territory, in Bogarse or somewhere, that's sold two copies of our CD and will display it or put it on heavy rotation or whatever. I always say to 'em, 'Are you seriously saying that if I don't go and pat his arse, you're not gonna do your job, because if you're saying you're not gonna do your job, then I'll have you for breach of contract, you fooker, and make no mistake about that.' Then they go, 'The kid's got a point there.' We owe it to the next generation of bands who come here - someone will say to them, 'Well Oasis never done it, so you don't have to do it.'"

You do namechecks, and radio interviews and stuff though.
"They say to me and Our Kid, [does LA accent], 'We're gonna open the show with you and Liam having a mock fight.' We say, 'Well, why don't we just fight with you?' And they go, 'Great idea guys! After five, you pretend that you two are beating the shit out of me!' And I'll go, 'No, we're serious. If you want us to beat fook out of you, we will. We'll break your nose.' On Canada's equivalent of MTV, this woman says, 'When the show starts, can you have me in a headlock?' And I was going 'No.' And she said, 'It'll be a laugh.' And I said, 'Well I'm not in it for a fookin' laugh, you know what I mean?' It's like, these people thewy think Sonic Youth are punk. Er, no way. I don't think so. Green Day are just a modern-day version of The Dickies."

What do you think you'll end up being or doing?
"I don't know. I wanna realise the band's potential. I wouldn't want to call it a day when we could've done more but didn't do it. You've gotta fulfill your potential. Have a go. Pulp said to me: 'Only twats play stadiums.' But you know..."

Can you keep the quality up?
"The Smiths and The Jam didn't split up early. The Smiths did five albums, high quality, same line-up. That's impressive. Their timing was good in terms of quitting."

Can you last five albums though?
"I always said it would be three. Like the Jam, they never waited around long enough to be shit. I'd say realistically it will be five. I'd rather it was three."

Then what would you do?
"I'd never be a session musician, nah. There's loads of songs that I can't sing and our Liam can't sing - not in our vocal range. Keep writing songs for Rod Stewart or someone. Maybe start a label, be a producer, or start a band that I write the songs for but I'm not in! Also, I reckon the time is right for the first post-Seventies supergroup."

Who with?
"Me, Johnny Marr, Paul Weller - one album and a tour would be a blast. Asia was the last one, someone shite. Paul weller singing and playing keyboards, me playing rhythm guitar, Johnny on lead guitar. Drums and bass? Reni from The Roses on drums. I'd like a big band - like Sly and The Family Stone, a 15-piece band."

You could get Jean-Jacques Burnel on bass...
"Fook off."

I still think Some Might Say is the best thing you've done, the most raucous and threatening. Where'd that come from?
"We were recording Whatever. I was living in Chiswick at the time, and the rest of the band was living at The Columbia. We finished at Maison Rouge one night and had to be there at 11 the next morning. They all go back and get completely shitfaced, get barred from the hotel, and stay up all night. I get to the studio at 11 on the dot. No one turns up until eight at fookin' night. By two, I was bored shitless, so I just sat down and wrote that song."

So it is creative, all the debauchery. Have you written others like that?
"Talk Tonight was the same, except we were in Texas - we were recording the B-sides for Whatever. Me and Owen got to the studio on time - at one o'clock. The rest got there at four. We'd recorder it before they got there."

What about Acquiesce?
"It was written on the way to the sessions for Some Might say. I needed one more. I had the first riff. On the train, there I was panicking a bit, and the train stops in the Severn Tunnel - we were in there for fookin' two and a half hours. I had my acoustic guitar. By the time I got there, it was written. There was only one woman in the compartment. She said [snooty voice] 'What are you doing?' I went, 'I'm writing a song actually.' 'Gosh!' she says. 'Are you in a pop group?' 'Yeah, I'm in Oasis actually.' She goes, ' I suppose my daughter's probably heard of you.' I thought, 'Yeah, I've probably shagged her.' All of them songs were written out of boredom, really."

You don't like writing lyrics, do you?
"The lyrics - in an ideal world I wouldn't write them, I can't stand it. It's the one thing that pisses me off."

Are there any lyrics about Liam?
"Yeah, 'Too big for your boots,' ha ha. Take Me Away - he was doing my head in. 'you could be me, pretty soon you will be.'"

What about 'Cos we need each other/We believe in one another' from Acquiesce?
"Well Liam would think that was. He grasped this concept that it was me and him singing to each other. I was like, 'You cheesy bastard, it's about me girlfriend. I don't need you, you daft c***.'"

What can you tell me about Liam?
"Big mouth. Big mouth strikes again. He's just a bit stupid half the time. Like one night, he was threatening to leave the band cos nobody would go out. I don't like going out. I'm not a going out type of person. There's nothing to do, especially in America. You either go to some bar full of stagedivers who'll just be in your face all night or another bar full of old people, which is even less fun. He makes me laugh."

What did you say when he threatened to leave?
"I said [resigned voice, like someone's Mum]: 'All right, then. If it means that much to you...you can leave the band.' And he knows that if anybody had turned up with a big bag of drugs, we'd have all gone out."

How's he changed in the last year?
"He's just got more stupid. His statements have got more outrageous - he outdoes himself each time. I'll be sitting there during one of his rants, thinking, 'Well, I've seen it all now and if I don't throttle the bastard now, I never will.' And the next day, he's surpassed himself again. I say to him, 'What is it you're trying to say?' He can't express himself the way he means, and he'll just say 'Fookin' meat and potato pies mate.'"

What was he like at school?
"I was leaving when he was joining. He was just a child then, really, a young kid - he was quite normal. Now he's definitely mad, he's mental. He's not mad like mark E. Smith from the Fall. That fooker's mad. Mad. He's madder than mad. He's just mad. Here's a funny story, actually. Mark E. Smith, right. I'm ranting away about fookin' scousers and how they never shut their mouths, they just talk incessantly for hours. On and on. And he's not saying anything. Then he looks at me, and goes, 'The wife's a scouser.' So, I thought, well I could either apologise and look like a c*** or stick to me guns. So I said, 'I bet she never shuts up.' And he went, 'You can't get a fookin' word in edgeways.'"

What about the whole star thing, what do you think it's doing to him?
"It's making him more mad. It's the same for us all really - maybe not the other three so much."
He's the frontman so he gets more attention?
"He gets a lot of girls after him. I get all the spotty students who try and dissect the lyrics. I'm a lot older than him. I don't know what goes on inside his head."

He seems to think everyone is looking at him. I guess they are.
"Yeah, but he's the one going on in the press saying he was a star the day he was born. He's the one saying Kurt Cobain blew his head off because he was a sad c*** who couldn't handle the fame. If it fucks his head up, then he's no different from Kurt Cobain, is he? So he shouldn't make statements like that."

He's a bit like Frankenstein's monster though, isn't he?
"[grinning] Yeah."

What would it do to him if tomorrow you just said, 'That's it, I've done it.
I'm going to write songs for other people, be a producer, open a trout farm.'? "Oh, he'd be devastated. the only reason I don't, the only reason I keep it on, is that me mam would bollock me. Cos he can't do anything else. Ionly keep the band going for me mam's sake. So he can pay me mam the rent."

It seems the road to Liam has become normal life. But it's not. You can do whatever you like on the road - especially you lot.
"It isn't mormal. He understands that. But he's out all the time and he can't take a joke. I get it in London all the time. You don't just go to places that play Oasis records. Him, he does. It's all right when all the girls come up to you, but thre's always one idiot who comes over and says, 'I think you're band's shit.' Me I'll just say , 'I'm arsed.' They'll say to me, 'You're a cocky c*** too.' And I'm like getting a 50 pound note out and saying 'Suppose you won't be wanting a drink then, will yer?' Liam'll take it personal."

He's a bit like a lamb to slaughter.
"He'll live."

What's he gonna do then?
"I don't fookin' know. To be quite honest, I couldn't give a fook."

Have you got any other ideas?
"Yeah, I'm gonna write a book soon. It's the chronicles of Oasis. And I've got a top title for it, man. It's gonna be called: 'Sad But True, The Rise and Fall of Oasis.'"

If there was a meet and greet tonight would you go?
"Don't be stupid. Me and Our Kid went to one, the last one I ever went to. we walked into the room and they all stood up and applauded. I was like, 'fuck off.' This guy stands up and says, 'I'd like to thank LELAND and NORTON for coming.' I looked at this bloke and said, 'You callin' me a motorbike, yer c***?' And he's looking at me saying, 'What?' And Our Kid's saying, 'Yeah. You calling Our Kid a motorbike?' As far as I'm concerned, if they can't be bothered to get me fookin' name right it's 'Goodnight from Noel and Liam.' They always tell you what a great job they've done for you and how you should be proud of the whole team. I say, 'Hang on a minute, I wrote the fookin' songs, MATE. So I aint being proud of no c***. except me and my band. I'm certainly not proud of you.' Or they say, 'I really want you guys to know I'm doing a great job for your band.' Fine, what the fook do I pay you for?! You're paid to do a great job you fookin' idiot.'"

And what's their response?
"You British! And your sense of humour, it's so John Cleese!"

So that was your last meet and greet?
There was one more after that - in the middle of fookin' nowhere. The record company had put on this dinner. We had nowhere to go and eat, so I thought, 'Fook it, go to this thing for a meal.' I walk into this big room, a bit after everyone else is there. they knew the rest of the band was coming, but didn't think I was, so they were all 'Thanks so much.' I said, 'I'm here to fookin' eat. Iaint saying nothing to nobody.' At the end of the dinner, this bloke gave a speech and said, 'Thanks to the band. Nobody speak to Noel.' And they all started clapping."

Out of interest, do you have a separate manager for America?
"No. It's like every band in England has got an English manager for England and an American manager for America. Except us. We were like, 'WHY?! We've got a manager. Why pay someone else 20 per cent?' We don't even have a contract with him, we just shook hands with him and that was it. That handshake meant more than a piece of paper."

What if he left with half the money?
"I'd sue him."

Yeah, but there's no contract to break
"Well, I'd burn his house down. And he knows I would. I might not get the money, but neither would he."



NOEL PICKS HIS TOP TITLES

Albums
1.The Beatles - 67-70
2.Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks
3.The Jam - Snap!
4.The Who - Greatest Hits
5.The Small Faces - Ogden's Nut Gone Flake
6.Paul Weller - Stanley Road
7.Primal Scream - Screamadelica
8.The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
9.The La's - The La's
10.Happy Mondays - Pills Thrills and bellyaches
11. The Stooges- The Stooges

Singles
All singles by the above

Books
I don't read books

Films
Once Upon A Time in America
Scarface
King Of Comedy
Taxi Driver
Dirty Harry
Reservoir Dogs
Yellow submarine


LIAM PICKS HIS TOP TITLES

Albums
Everything by The Bleedin' Beatles

Tracks
1.The Beatles - Across The Universe
2.Bob Marley - Natural Mystic
3.The La's - There She Goes
4.The Small Faces - Afterglow
5.Paul Weller - Wildwood
6.The Stone Roses - I Am The resurrection

Reading matter
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

Films
Quadrophenia
Trainspotting
Seven
Scarface


BONEHEAD

Albums
1.The Beatles - The White Album
2.Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
3.Various - The Harder They Come
4.The Who - Live At Leeds

Tracks
1.The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever
2.Bob Marley - Redemption Song
3.The Kinks - Sunny Afternoon
4.The Verve - History
5.The Beatles - Helter Skelter

Books
Trainspotting
Peter & Jane school books

Films
Blue Velvet
The Good The Bad And The Ugly


ALAN WHITE

Albums
1.The Who - My Generation
2.The Small Faces - Ogden's Nut Gone Flake
3.The Beatles - The White Album
4.The Beatles - Revolver

Tracks
1.The Who - My Generation
2.The Small Faces - All Or Nothing
3.The Small Faces - Afterglow

Books
Playboy

Films
Italian Job
Casino
American Werewolf In London


PAUL MCGUIGAN

Albums
1.The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland
2.The Beatles - Revolver
3.Bob Marley - Uprisins
4.The Who - Quadrophenia
5.The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper
6.The Who - My Generation

Tracks
1.Bob Marley - Natural Mystic
2.Booker T and The MG's - Green Onions
3.The Beatles - Hey Jude
4.The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever
5.Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze
6.The Who - Squeezebox

Films
Star Wars
The Godfather
Raging Bull

Friday, April 05, 1996

Noel Gallagher - Channel 4/TFI Friday - 5th April 1996

Part 1




Part 2




Part 3

Monday, April 01, 1996

Noel & Liam Gallagher + Guigsy - Alternative Rock Monthly - April 1996

Q- DM was overexposed and slagged by the press when it became successful. Plus you were misquoted several times in many established UK magazines. How's it been going with album number two?
A- "Publicity is never a factor for us when we have an album," responds Noel, who's much more jovial than his snarly younger brother. "Sure we get a lot of press seeing that it is an album and all, something new, but we never rely on it. I'd rather they slag you off than not write about us, y'know what I mean."

Q- So just how has the band grown? Are things coming easier second time around?
A- "The lyrics get harder and the music gets easier," says Noel. "I'd say it has been a growth for us. We worked hard to put this together and it doesn't stop as we are set to move onto the third record already. The lyrics, however seem to hold us back. That seems to be the problem we have had to deal with while recording-other that that everything has been alright. You try to better yourself each time. With each one being classic the next gets harder to do, but that's the standard you set and what you have to overcome."

Q- Has the legendary sibling rivalry between Liam and Noel affected the way Oasis has had to create material?
A- Liam answers, "Things happen in a band. They are supposed to happen-especially betwwen brothers. But with music it's music isn't it? What we create is more important than what happens within this band."

Q-What's it like being successful?
A- Liam responds, "It's a pain in the ass. Actually, it makes things a lot more stable than it was."

Q- Is Oasis out to conquer the world?
A- "Our aspiration is to conquer the planet," says Liam. "North America is just part of that."

Q- Is it hard to crack North America wiht the British sound seeing that most British acts have done poor album sales here so far?
A- "It's not that hard to crack if you have the right music," states bassist McGuigan. Liam interjects and says, "You just have to do it a bit at a time. We need to play here and get the fans, then come back and win them over. That's the plan."