British rockers Oasis are Webcasting their sold-out show at Maple Leaf Gardens around the world on Saturday night. But frontman Liam Gallagher doesn't pretend to know why T.O. is hosting the Oasis "Net All Nighter," as it's called. "I don't know anything about it, to tell you the truth," says Gallagher, still under the covers in bed while chatting on the phone from his hotel room in Columbus, Ohio, yesterday. I just show up and sing, keep me mouth shut, and go away."
Still, Saturday night's event has been billed as the world's "first major live broadband Webcast," which essentially means that viewers with a cable modem connection or better, will get a full, video-quality picture and stereo sound. Gallagher, however, appears to have no interest in the Internet despite his young stepson James' playing on a computer at home.
"No, I don't like it, man," he says in his thick Mancunian accent, which, coupled with his horizontal state, makes him harder than usual to understand. "I feel like a f---in' ass with it, to tell you the truth. I don't like computers and it's probably because I can't use them, but I'm just not into it. I'm just an old fart," he adds, joking. Speaking of his family, Gallagher hasn't had any visits since he's been on the road. His own son Lennon, with wife-actress Patsy Kensit, is just seven months old. "He's teething at the moment so I don't think it (the road) would be the best place for him," Gallagher says. "He's got two new teeth so he's really proud of them. But I'll see him when I get back. I do miss him, yeah, but you've got to get on with it, I suppose. I'm not the first person to have a kid. I'm not the first person to have to go off to work."
Gallagher, known in the past for his heavy drinking and outrageous antics, adds too that he's been behaving on this tour despite going off the wagon. "I'm not drinking before I go on, I'm not drinking on stage," he says. "I don't want to get into trouble. I've had enough trouble to last me a lifetime." Still, he was conspicuously absent when Oasis recently appeared on the Jay Leno show. He maintains he was never scheduled to sing, since it was brother Noel's song, Where Did It All Go Wrong?
"These people should just f---ing get their facts straight," Gallagher says of the British tabloids, who reported he stomped off the set. "There's no point in me being there if I'm not singing the f---ing song. I had a lovely day off down at the beach in Santa Monica." (Oasis are scheduled to appear on David Letterman on May 2.)
Better news, reports Gallagher, is that the band, whose latest album, Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, is dwindling, saleswise, after just two months in stores -- is sounding better than ever live. He credits new band members, rhythm guitarist Gem Archer and bassist Andy Bell, along with hot Scottish opening act Travis, for Oasis' revitalized performances.
"It's the best one ever," says Gallagher of their current North American tour, which wraps up May 5. "I think the band's playing the best it's ever played." He said part of the reason is that they are playing smaller, about 2,000-seat venues, although the Toronto show is an exception. Despite Standing's lack-lustre sales -- it's sold 110,000 copies in Canada and about 450,000 copies in the U.S. -- there are five of the new songs, F---in' In The Bushes, Go Let It Out, Who Feels Love?, Where Did It All Go Wrong? and Gas Panic! -- in the current set list.
"It doesn't affect anything," says Gallagher. "That's the album we wrote at that time, that's how we felt. And that's it, you got to put it out, haven't you? Then what you've got to do is tour it 'cause people who have bought it want to hear it. I'm proud of it. I think it's a great album." Oasis will waste no time in recording a followup, though, after their world tour ends in August. "We're going to record it pretty quick," says Gallagher, who expects it to be released in 2001. "Get in there, get it going in a month or something, 'cause we're playing all the songs in the soundcheck now. By the time we finish the tour they'll be pretty tight, so we want to record it live."
The sound of the new material, Gallagher says, will be determined only when Oasis returns to the studio. "We don't know what paint we'll splash on it, you know what I mean?" he says. "They're just f---in' amazing songs. And it's a bit more up. We've got the anthems back."
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