Noel Gallagher - Milk - February 2006

Oasis chooses swallowing over quarrelling

Ever seen Oasis in a cheerful and friendly mood? Yes? Well you're in luck - I guess we all were!
Last week, I took the priviledge to talk to Noel Gallagher, boss of one of UK's biggest rock groups, Oasis. To everyone's surprise he was happy and chatty the whole time. Although throwing in the f word between every other syllable of a sentence, Noel didn't show any attitude, didn't frown or stare and talked at length to have all the questions covered - how nice!

Meanwhile, not only did Liam put on a great vocal without causing any mayhem, he even performed some of his never-seen-before, amazing swallowing tricks. I just couldn't think of a better word than 'luck' to explain why we were treated with honour to this wonderful side of Oasis.

Noel's interview:

How does it feel coming to Hong Kong again?
I can't remember any of it so I don't know! Well we went crusing last night and the city looked great! Better than New York even!

Did anything fun last night?
Yeah, we went to a Chinese restaurant, it was fooking brilliant! We finally got to have some proper Chinese food!

What did you have?
Err...pasta! (reporters burst into laughter) Well I didn't dare to ask man! I don't wanna find out that we were actually eating fooking monkeys' balls you know what I mean!? Well but everything just taste like chicken and fish to me so I don't know what we had.

Did you get recognized on the streets?
I haven't had a chance to go out, but I'd be really sad if I don't!

Been watching any good shows lately?
Yeah I love The Office, and I get to be really friendly with Richard Gervais. I appeared in his music video once, but I didn't do it on purpose, I was just being fooking pissed.

What do you think of the Arctic Monkeys phenomenon?
Well I wouldn't call it a phenomenon. Both their singles made it to no.1, which is something we weren't able to do for a while! I suppose they're alright, it's doing some good for the British music scene on a whole. They're great lads and they don't have this obsession with the tabloids. They might be going a bit quickly but it's better than the fooking Babyshambles! Without them we'd still be suck with bloody Pete Doherty, you know what I mean? He's just a junkie and thinks too much of himself, and his music is rubbish! Oh and Franz Ferdinand isn't any better either!

How do you feel about Eminem now?
6 years ago I thought he was an idiot who could only write songs about his wife and kids. He's still an idiot now if you ask me.

So come on, do we really need to wait so long for the next album?
We've been fooking stuck with each other for a whole damn year! It's just too much! I wouldn't fancy going back to the studio now, it's gonna kill me! I do love music but I won't put myself into such a state, if you know what I mean. We're fortunate that we don't have to work for a living anymore. My life's not all about work, I'd love to spend more time with my family...so when we're done with the tour in April, we'll take a few months off and watch the World Cup. And when it's all cold in miserable in the winter we might go back into the studio again! We'd probably start recording sometime next year and may be put a record out in the summer the year after that.

What do you think is holding the band together?
First of all, we all love being in a band. Second, we enjoy making music. We'd be doing this for many years if we still manage to look cool (laughs)! Actually, I can't put it in words how good it is to be on a tour. We've been to a lot of places this year, hell we've even came to Hong Kong! Also, if I'm not making music, I wouldn't have a fooking clue of what I'd be doing. I can't act, I can't paint and I can't fooking write! Apart from music, all we could do is watch fooking football and smoke fags. You can't really make a living out of that can you? So we're just left with making music again!

What are the difficulties you face in deciding the setlist?
Liam being a fooking dick! He's always going on about not wanting to sing a particular song. And I say to him, it's the same setlist as the last show you twat! And we've had different memebers in the last two tours so we're a bit limited in the songs we can play. Well yes we could spend more time rehearsing but we just can't be arsed!

Do you still feel thrilled when playing songs like Don't look back in anger?
If we'd record those songs again they'd sound so much fooking better. Like this one, I didn't know how I wrote it. I was pissed as fook at 5am in the morning and I just came up with the song! I can't even remember how I got the name! Don't look back in anger? Why? What for? Not a fooking clue. So everytime I sing this I'll try to remember what was going on when I wrote it (laughs)! Yeah it's becoming more important than Wonderwall to me.

Is Live Forever your all-time favourite?
I'd have to say yes because Liam would be pissed off if I say it's the Masterplan, cos he didn't fooking sing that one. So yeah it's Live Forever alrite. There're loads of great songs on the new album but the fans like the old stuff better, probably cos I was in my twenties when I wrote them and people can more easily relate to them.

How do you think the band is evolving?
Well we'd just keep sacking people and hiring new ones, how's that? (chuckles) Musically we're not going to try anything too radical. We aren't the type of people who spend all the time doing crazy experimental stuff, cos that'd just fooking screw you up! Everyone knows that U2, Coldplay and Oasis are the three greatest bands in the last two decades, cos we've got great songs with fooking great lyrics. The same goes for the Artic Monkeys and Radiohead - they wouldn't still be here if not for their bloody lyrics!