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Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds Book Mexico Dates
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds are pleased to announce they will be heading to Mexico next April to play two dates in Monterrey and Mexico City. The two concerts will mark the band's first visit to the country. Noel Gallagher was last in Mexico with Oasis in November 2008 when they played in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey.
The confirmed gigs are:
10/04/2012 - Monterrey, Auditorio Banamex
11/04/2012 - Mexico City, Teatro Metropolitan
There will be a pre-sale available to Mexican fans registered here at www.NoelGallagher.com. If you're not already a member of the site you can sign up HERE! Instructions to apply for the pre-sale will be emailed to fans Thursday evening.
Tickets go on General sale Wednesday 9th November at 11am (local time):
MONTERREY: Ticketmaster.com.mx and all Ticketmaster locations, Auditorio Banamex box office, and charge by phone - 83699199
MEXICO CITY: Ticketmaster.com.mx and all Ticketmaster locations, Teatro Metropolitan box office, and charge by phone - 9138.1350 x.1202
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds have confirmed several forthcoming dates including tours of UK and Ireland, North America, Europe and Japan. To keep up to date on the band's tour announcements sign up to the mailing list HERE!
As he takes the stage at this, the fifth gig of his first, post-Oasis tour, Noel Gallagher's solo debut album has been available for just 14 days. Enough time, it seems, for tonight's sold-out crowd to learn every word of his new songs. It's perhaps just as well, as nine of this evening's 20 tracks are culled from Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.Having eased open the door to this new, live chapter with a spooky (It's Good) To Be Free and a pugilistic Mucky Fingers, album opener Everybody's On The Run begins a run of six new songs, each a muscular, jet-propelled version of their LP counterpart.
Last Monday we announced that Andy had given us three exclusive new mixes, the first of which - 'What The World Is Waiting For...' - was posted last week.
This week's mix - 'Yesterday, Where Is My Mind?' - is now available to listen to below. The mix, featuring great tunes from the likes of The Horrors, Little Barrie and Lana Del Ray - is the second of the three mixes.
Andy told us:
'Here is a mix made up of (mainly new) music that the band have been listening to recently. Little Barrie is a friend of ours and guitarist in Primal Scream ... Hippy Mafia (band formed in Toronto by Gaz Whelan from the Mondays and friends) will be supporting us on the forthcoming UK tour ... Arcade Fire = Best live band I've seen all year ... Cults are our favourite new band ... Cheap Freaks supported us in Dublin ... anyway ... Enjoy! We're off to South America. AB.'
Little Barrie - Tip It Over
Hippy Mafia - 4th and 5th
Colourmusic - Yes!
Susan Christie - Yesterday, Where Is My Mind?
The Horrors - Still Life
The War on Drugs - I Was There
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Cults - Go Outside
Lana Del Rey - Video Games
Lil Millet and his Creoles - Rich Woman
Cheap Freaks - Cruel World
Dungen - Fredag
Death In Vegas - Sons of Rother
Pearls Before Swine - Another Time
Gila - This Morning
Ravi Shankar - Raga Desh
The Parsley Sound - Ease Yourself and Glide
Noel Gallagher Nervous About Amorphous Androgynous Album
Noel Gallagher has confessed that he's nervous about releasing his second solo album.
The former Oasis chief released his first individual LP 'Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' on October 17, and saw the album enter the UK charts at Number One after it clocked up sales of over 120,000 in its first week of release (October 23). Read more »
Noel Gallagher Felt Privileged to Play For London Fans
Noel Gallagher told fans it was an ''absolute privilege'' to play for them during a concert with his High Flying Birds project in London on Saturday night (29.10.11).
The former Oasis guitarist gave the fourth concert of his debut tour as Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds at the Hammersmith Apollo and said he was blown away by the rapturous reception he received from the sell-out crowd.
Before playing his final song, 2002 Oasis single 'Little by Little', he said: "This has been an absolute privilege to play for you people tonight.
Jokingly referring to people from Liverpool and the re-setting of the clocks for British winter time, he added: "This has very different connotations for Scousers but make sure you put your watches back tonight and your clocks."
Noel Gallagher's London O2 Arena Tix Sell Out in 3 Minutes
Tabloid Alert
Things just get better for Noel Gallagher.
First, Man City thumped Man United and his solo album went to No1 on Sunday. And yesterday standing tickets for his gig at London's O2 Arena in February sold out in three minutes.
Three United players won't get a look-in if they go sniffing for freebie tickets though – they blew him out at his gig in Manchester on Wednesday.
Noel said: "All last week they were 'Bang up for it,' they 'Couldn't wait to see me,' and all that b*******. Then one of them mysteriously developed 'food poisoning,' another one had 'forgot it was half-term' – whatever that means.
"Then just to add insult to injury the last, and probably most famous of all the dirty Reds, sez, 'Something's come up and I have to deal with it.'
Something's come up? What? Like a bit of sick that's been in there since Sunday?"
Noel played a brilliant sell-out gig in Edinburgh on Thursday.
Noel talks about his documentary, the new albums, the High Flying Birds band members, why he does not feel the need to drive and the always populartopics: brother Liam & Oasis.
Intimate Noel Gallagher Gig to be Broadcast on BBC Radio 2
Thursday November 3rd
20:00-22-00 (UK Time) on BBC Radio 2.
Jo Whiley presents a headline gig with Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, live from the BBC Radio Theatre in London. She also has a live session from special guest Seasick Steve.
Noel talks to Jo before the gig, in which he's performing classic Oasis hits and songs from Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, in front of an audience of 300 Radio 2 listeners.
After Oasis ended in a flurry of kung-fu kicks and punches, Noel Gallagher went away and quietly made a solo record, which could just be his finest collection of songs yet. In a revealing interview with Stuart Clark, he talks about new beginnings, making babies, Amy Winehouse, Morrissey, John Lydon, the Queen and that violent night in Paris with Liam.
The Tower Bridge Business Complex in Bermondsey, London SE16 seems an unlikely place for a scurvy rock hack and his faithful snapper companion to be heading, but tucked in among all the industrial units is Backline, the famous rehearsal space where Noel Gallagher is preparing for his first tour at the helm of new outfit The High
Flying Birds.
Walking into reception myself and the boy Keogh are greeted by a sign bearing a bastardisation of the old Hunter S. Thompson quotation, to whit: “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. But there is a negative side.”
Ah, the good doctor always did have a way with words. Walking down the corridor to the outside terrace where Mr. Gallagher is holding court, we see evidence of the warren-like building having previously been occupied by Joan Jett, Corine Bailey Rae, Jimmy Page, Robbie Williams, the Manics, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Massive Attack, The Raconteurs, Coldplay, Duffy, Kylie, Amy Winehouse, Rod Stewart, Muse, Paul McCartney and – cue swelling of national pride – Boyzone.
I’ve met Noel on eight or nine previous occasions and, while greeted with a firm handshake and smiley “hello”, he’s not his usual super-ebullient self today.
Maybe the ten-hour stints in the studio are getting to him or he’s worried about what sort of reception his first post-Oasis album, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, is going to get.
It’s only after we’ve made good our escape from Bermondsey that we hear the breaking news – Liam Gallagher has filed a High Court action over Noel’s claims that he pulled out of a 2009 festival appearance because of a hangover. He’d been severely pissed off about it in February when the K-monster and myself met him and the rest of Beady Eye in a rather more salubrious part of London.
“I’ve never cancelled a gig out of stubbornness, only if I can’t speak,” Liam growled. “Singers do get sore throats but some people haven’t copped on. If you can’t speak, you can’t fucking sing.”
A professional, polished and entirely risk-free return from the former Oasis man
Like them or loathe them, these hoary old Oasis standards are now folk songs, ingrained in the culture, and he rather cleverly played them as such
Noel Gallagher is hardly renowned for his willingness to stand on the precipice and leap into the unknown. A songwriter happy to work well within his own limitations, he has embarked upon his solo career (don’t be fooled by the “High Flying Birds” shtick; this is a star-plus-hired-hands job) with due caution. Indeed, his new album conforms so precisely to the preconceived notion of what a solo Noel Gallagher album would sound like you half suspect the whole project may one day be outed as some high-concept prank.
Likewise, last night’s Edinburgh concert was entirely risk-free, with no hint of the hard line stance Gallagher’s pal Paul Weller took after breaking up The Jam, turning his back on his most famous songs for close to a decade to focus exclusively on new horizons.
Instead, Gallagher and his low-key, well-drilled four-piece backing band divided the set pretty much half and half between songs from his first solo record and old Oasis material. It was often hard to see the join, which depending on your point of view was either rather depressing, or else testament to the fact that he can still knock out a decent tune with admirable ease.
From Noel Gallagher's Tales from the Middle of Nowhere Tour Diary
So… Manchester last night? It was great. Thanks for coming. The thing that fuckin' annoys me though is these "celebrity" Man United fans. 3 of 'em - who shall remain nameless - blew me out last night.
All last week they were "Bang up for it", the "Couldn't wait to see me", and all that bollocks. Then one of them mysteriously developed "food poisoning", another one had "forgot" it was "half term" - whatever that means - and just to add insult to injury the last, and probably most famous of all the dirty reds sez, "Something's come up and I have to deal with it" …SOMETHING'S COME UP? What… like a little bit of sick that's been in there since Sunday? Tut, tut lads.
Anyway, am currently sat on the tarmac - not ACTUALLY sat on the tarmac - at Manchester airport on our way to Edinburgh.
Fuckin' flight's been delayed once now already. We've been just SAT here for the last 30 minutes! What a fuckin' liberty.
And it's pissing down. And the plane's got propellers!!
Noel Gallagher made a triumphant return to Manchester last night for the first time since Oasis split.
The songwriter and guitarist immediately divided the sell-out audience as he swayed onto the stage to the Manchester City anthem Blue Moon.
His outing at the Apollo was the first gig on home soil for the Burnage-raised star’s new outfit Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
They were formed in the wreckage of Oasis, who split amid rumours of tossed guitars and hurled fruit in 2009.
Brother Liam has already toured with his new band Beady Eye (Oasis without Noel) – playing the same venue in March.
Outside the Ardwick venue, touts were asking for up to £250 for spare tickets, but there were few takers.
With more than a hint of irony, Noel kicked things off with Oasis track It’s Good To Be Free. New song Mucky Fingers was lapped up by an energetic crowd.
Although the band’s eponymous album was released only two weeks ago, the audience seemed to know every word to the anthemic Everybody’s On The Run.
But the showstopper was a haunting acoustic version of Oasis favourite Wonderwall, backed by just a piano.
It was immediately followed by an equally low-fi Supersonic, the crowd almost drowning out the lyrics with chants of ‘Noel, Noel’ echoing through the venue.
The singer replied by asking: “You all got your Stone Roses tickets then?”
The Apollo gig was intended as a warm-up for a host of UK arena dates, giving a lucky few the chance to see their hero in relatively small surroundings.
When Noel heads home again, on February 13, it will be in front of thousands more at the M.E.N. Arena.
Based on this performance he won’t have many looking back in anger.
The director of an upcoming Beatles biopic has said that Liam Gallagher has been cast in the film.
The Beady Eye frontman will appear in the big screen adaptation of Richard DiLello's book The Longest Cocktail Party, which charts the final days of the Fab Four at their Apple Corps record label.
Michael Winterbottom will helm the project, having previously directed 24 Hour Party People, a 2002 film about the Factory Records label.
He told Contactmusic: "Liam will have a part in it. He's all over it. It's about the mad chaos of Apple, so it's not dissimilar to 24 Hour Party People... I've met him (Gallagher) a few times. He seems like a nice guy."
The Longest Cocktail Party is scheduled for release late in 2012.
From Noel Gallagher's "Tales From the Middle of Nowhere" Vol 2 Tour Diary
Yes comrades.
How art thou? So... we fuckin' smashed it, eh?
It was a nice surprise, the HFB album going in at #1. Thanks for that. A proud moment. Commiserations to young Mr. Cardle, whom I met the other night. Nice lad. Lovely hat AND scarf!!
The big story of the last few days was, of course, the righteous Man City's total and utter humiliation of The Evil Empire. A result so shocking my 4 year old, who knows nothing about anything that isn't a dinosaur, said, "That's really bad, isn't it dad?" To which I laughed into his face and raised him aloft like a human world cup until he requested that I put him down. A result so awe-inspiring that it rendered the 1st NGHFB gig almost irrelevant.
Was it any good? Don't ask me. I felt like it flew by in about 30 mins! I enjoyed it, mind. It did leave me with a bit of food for thought regarding the set list. All good though.
Legged it straight off stage to the airport where my private jet THE G-FIRM was fired up and ready to fly home to London. Had to be on top form at them Q awards. Got myself a nice little Q ICON award and more importantly, and somewhat surprisingly, a blimmin' standing ovation!!!! I liked it a lot!!!! More of those, please.
Spent the rest of the day drinking and smoking my arse off. Which meant yesterday was spent on the couch watching the repeats of the total and utter humiliation of Man United (which was where aforementioned child-lifting took place).
I am currently on a high-speed train up north heading to the great city of Manchester. Playing the Apollo tonight. Coming on to 'Blue Moon'. Should be interesting!!!
Perhaps the biggest mistake Liam Gallagher has made with Beady Eye – a band containing four-fifths of Oasis's final lineup – is to refuse to play any Oasis songs live. Not only have Beady Eye's live shows consequently lacked the fist-punching highs of his former band's sets, but too distinct a line was drawn between the two acts, leaving Liam struggling to bring Oasis's fan base along with him. Not so Noel Gallagher. On Sunday night, Liam's elder brother performed several Oasis songs at the first live outing of his High Flying Birds solo project, in Dublin. As fan-filmed videos at youtube.com/beadyeysis prove, even played acoustically and sung by the wrong Gallagher, Supersonic and Wonderwall can prompt mass, beery singalongs. So, too, do the best of Noel's new songs – particularly the barrelling AKA… What a Life. Not surprising, then, that Noel has just announced a date at London's 20,000-capacity O2 Arena, while Beady Eye have yet to sell out November's 5,000-capacity Brixton Academy show.
Want to attend a special screening of "It's Never Too Late To Be What U Might Have Been - The Making of Noel Gallagher and His High Flying Birds?" Well you're in luck because FILTER is inviting you to do just that!
The film follows the process of the making of the new album, out 11/8 on Mercury Records.
Please RSVP and arrive early, as seating will be limited, RSVP DOES NOT guarantee entry. Look below for the full list of cities and venues.
Between his debut solo album topping both the UK and Irish albums charts which, after only one week of sales, is already outselling Beady Eye’s Different Gear, Still Speeding – and opening his first ever solo tour in his ancestral hometown of Dublin, Noel Gallagher has reason to swagger on stage at the Olympia Theatre. Add to this the result of the Manchester derby and the former guitarist and chief songwriter in Oasis has no reason not to be in great form.
Indeed, Gallagher is in playful mood tonight, initiating banter between audience members, despite his advance warning in press interviews that he was an uncomfortable and inexperienced frontman. He opens the set, confidently, with an Oasis B-side, ‘(It’s Good) To Be Free’, the title and chorus of which, alone, carry symbolic and rhetorical weight to the nature of the night’s event and is, no doubt, a gift to the red-tops who are still generating stories and interest from Oasis’s messy split two years ago. During a successive run, half a dozen or so songs in, of ‘Everybody’s On The Run’, ‘Dream On’, ‘If I Had A Gun’, ‘The Good Rebel’, ‘The Death Of You And Me’, and a heavy, early Kinks-sounding untitled new track, one realizes that Gallagher has not only the tunes, but also the backing band to go the distance. Mike Rowe, who played keyboards during Oasis’ Be Here Now world tour, is a key player in the band, skillfully negotiating the middle eight of ‘The Death Of You And Me’, which on record features a New Orleans-style marching band, but tonight is convincingly replaced with the twinkling sound of a bar-room piano.
What work best tonight are the dynamics, a sign of the old stager that he is. After a blazing run through the first eight songs with his full band, he brings the feel of the set down a couple of gears and reduces the line-up to just himself on acoustic guitar, drummer / percussionist Jeremy Stacy and Rowe. Together, they run through a rejuvenated ‘Wonderwall’, in which Noel blends hallmarks of Ryan Adams 2004 cover version of the track with his own distinctive tenor voice. This is followed by the most surprising song choice of the night; an acoustic version of Oasis’ 1994 debut single, ‘Supersonic’, which lends an insight into how it might have sounded when he first wrote the song on an acoustic guitar all those years ago in his Manchester flat.
There’s no question that Gallagher is playing to a home crowd of dedicated Oasis fans, some of whom may have attended and may have distinct memories of Oasis’s December 4th & 5th nights in The Point Depot in 1997, when Noel took over lead vocal duties from a missing-in-action Liam. Tonight, however, the songs which elicit the loudest cheers and sing-alongs of the night aside from ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, which appeal to casual fans and die-hard fans alike, are those B-sides that are held in such high regard with Oasis devotees such as ‘Half The World Away’ and ‘Talk Tonight’.
The night ends, somewhat predictably, with a definitive, three song encore of some of Oasis’ most successful stadium rock anthems. An acoustic-led ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, an excellent band performance of ‘The Importance Of Being Idle’ and ‘Little By Little’, which, when played tonight, feels close in sentiment and style to some of the tracks on Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and satisfy Oasis fans even if ending on those songs threaten to eclipse his current solo songs. However, it’s a mark of the wealth of material that Gallagher can draw from over the past 18 years that many of his band era songs, such as ‘Sunday Morning Call’, ‘Where Did It All Go Wrong’ and ‘Let’s All Make Believe’ – all of which would have gelled well with the sound and feel of his current solo material – are sadly omitted from the night’s set. But with Gallagher’s falsetto hitting all the notes, a versatile and ambitious backing band and a set list of choice cuts that successfully tie together a broad and prolific songwriting career, it’s not a bad way to open his live account at all.
Expect two new mixes from Andy to lead up to the UK tour in November. However he has been in touch over the weekend to give us this brand new mix - 'What The World Is Waiting For...' - and asked that it be uploaded first.
The other two mixes will also be released in the coming weeks so be sure to keep checking back to www.BeadyEyeMusic.com for all the details.
Noel Gallagher has won the Q Icon award at the Q Awards 2011, that took place this afternoon.
Speaking before the show, the elder Gallagher brother played down the success of his debut solo album, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, which topped the UK chart on Sunday.
"I've got to say, the football overshadowed everything yesterday," he said, in reference to Manchester City's 6-1 victory over rivals Manchester United.
His acceptance speech was similarly self-effacing: "I've had a lot of awards over the years but this is the most recent".
The awards at London's Grosvenor House Hotel also saw rock legends Queen given the hall of fame award, in a year which marks the band's 40th anniversary.
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds play nine Oasis songs at live debut in Dublin
Noel Gallagher included nine Oasis songs in his setlist as he played his first ever gig with his High Flying Birds solo band in Dublin last night (October 23).
Kicking off his debut UK and Ireland tour at the city's Olympia Theatre, the singer/guitarist's new group also included a brand new track, titled 'Freaky Teeth', among their 20-song setlist.
After walking onstage to 'Blue Moon' – the anthem of Gallagher's beloved Manchester City, who had beaten arch rivals United 6-1 a few hours before the gig – the band opened up with 1994 Oasis b-side '(It's Good) To Be Free', following it with 'Don't Believe The Truth' track 'Mucky Fingers'.
Later, Gallagher also gave nods to his previous band with renditions of 'Wonderwall', 'Supersonic', 'Talk Tonight' and 'Half The World Away'. Meanwhile, the three song encore was made up entirely of Oasis tracks, starting with 'Don't Look Back In Anger', moving on to 'The Importance Of Being Idle' before closing with 'Little By Little'.
The rest of the set was made up by tracks from Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' self-titled debut album, which went straight to Number One in the UK album chart a couple of hours before the gig.
Singles 'The Death Of You And Me' and 'AKA… What A Life' were met with a rapturous reception from the crowd, who chanted Gallagher's name throughout the gig.
Gallagher also engaged in banter with fans about the aforementioned football result, responding to boos from the crowd by saying: "That's piss poor that is. You should be proud of yourself booing a man at his first gig."
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds played:
'(It's Good) To Be Free'
'Mucky Fingers'
'Everybody's On The Run'
'Dream On'
'If I Had A Gun'
'The Good Rebel'
'The Death Of You And Me'
'Freaky Teeth'
'Wonderwall'
'Supersonic'
'(I Wanna Live In A Dream In My) Record Machine'
'AKA… What A Life'
'Talk Tonight'
'Soldier Boys And Jesus Freaks'
'AKA… Broken Arrow'
'Half The World Away'
'(Stranded On) The Wrong Beach'
'Don't Look Back In Anger'
'The Importance Of Being Idle'
'Little By Little'
The tour continues in Manchester on Wednesday (26), before moving on to Edinburgh the following day (27) and three gigs in London – at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo, HMV Forum and The Roundhouse – before the end of the month.
Gallagher has also announced a larger arena tour for next year, beginning with a huge hometown date at the Manchester Evening News Arena on February 13, 2012.
Setlist for Noel Gallagher's High Flying Bird's in Dublin
On Sunday the 23rd of October 2011, Noel Gallagher and his High Flying Birds embarked on their first live tour promoting their debut album of the same name, which also landed straight in at#1 in the Irish Album Charts upon release on Friday October 21st 2011. This first live concert date took place at The Olympia Theatre of Dame Street in Dublin, Ireland. The intimate Dublin venue is one of Ireland’s finest live music venues, and on this dull Sunday night, 1500 die hard fans and media moguls got to witness the ex Oasis backbone perform live for the first time on stage, to an adoring capacity crowd without the name Oasis being associated with the performance.
After a stunning live performance from Dublin rockers The Minutes – Arriving on stage at approx 9.15pm, a sturdy and confident Gallagher stepped out to work through hits from his debut offering while also, as expected, performing a wide range of classic tracks from his Oasis days. With some family and friends in the exclusive box seats waving down to the ecstatic crowd below, Noel Gallagher was delighted to be back on stage and anyone who thinks he needs his younger brother Liam to take centre stage to belt out the vocals – well, they’re wrong!
Amazing performances of Everybody’s On The Run, AKA What A Life, If I Had A Gun, Little By Little and Don’t Look Back In Anger, left the crowd with minimal or no voices afterwards, and there is no doubt that every single person in the venue will more than likely regard this gig as one of the greatest they have ever witnessed or attended.
We don’t feel the need to go into a huge detailed review of the gig itself, as we believe that fans will mainly want to know what songs were performed on the night - so here goes…
Its Good To Be Free
Mucky Fingers
Everybodys On The Run
Dream On
If I Had A Gun
The Good Rebel
The Death Of You And Me
New Song
Wonderwall
Supersonic
I Wanna Live In A Dream In My Record Machine
AKA What A Life
Talk Tonight
Soldier Boys And Jesus Freaks
AKA Broken Arrow
Half The World Away
Stranded On The Wrong Beach
Dont Look Back In Anger
The Importance Of Being Idle
Little By Little
Noel Gallagher Goes Straight to Number One on UK Album Charts
Liam Gallagher may generate more headlines but his brother Noel has proved more adept at selling records, with his first solo album reaching the top of the Official Charts.
Liam's post-Oasis band, Beady Eye, only reached number three with Different Gear, Still Speeding, last year.
His brother's aptly-named debut release, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, has gone straight to number one, notching up sales of over 120,000 in its first week alone.
The fans who helped Noel soar to the top spot, however, might well ponder whether their support could scotch recent hopes of a reconcilliation in 2015, the 20th anniversary of the album that shot Oasis to fame, (What's The Story) Morning Glory. The band suffered an acrimonious split in 2009.
Liam announced last week that he would consider reuniting for the 20th anniversary, albeit with conditions.
"In 2015, if we can put our shit aside, we can tour and play the album in its entirety for the 20th anniversary," Liam said. "I'd be up for that … but there's got to be two-way respect."
Even by Liam's own logic, Noel's new success as a solo artist makes the possibility of a rapprochment more distant.
"I want to put him out of his misery. I think he [Noel] needs to do his solo thing first and realise he's not that good without his brother," Liam said in an interview last week.
Noel announced in July that he intended to release two solo albums.
The follow up, an 18-track collaboration with Amorphous Androgynous would be more "out there" and will be released in 2012, he said
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds UK and Irish dates
www.NoelGallagher.com is pleased to announce that Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds will be touring the UK and Ireland next February. The band will be featuring songs from their debut album, as well as a selection of Noel Gallagher classics. The band have confirmed the following dates:
13th Feb 12 :: MANCHESTER, MEN Arena 16th Feb 12 :: BELFAST, Odyssey Arena 17th Feb 12 :: DUBLIN, The O2 23rd Feb 12 :: NEWCASTLE, Metro Radio Arena 24th Feb 12 :: GLASGOW, SECC Hall 4 26th Feb 12 :: LONDON, The O2 01st Mar 12 :: BIRMINGHAM, NIA
There will be a pre-sale available to fans registered here at www.NoelGallagher.com. If you're not already a member of the site you can sign up HERE! Instructions to apply for the pre-sale will be emailed to fans Tuesday evening.
Two years and two months after leaving Oasis, Noel Gallagher says that "it's nice to start again and shape things from the bottom up." But he still has ambivalent feelings about becoming a full-fledged frontman with his new solo album, "Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds."
"I wouldn't say I've enjoyed it more or less than when I've been in a band," Gallagher tells Billboard.com. "It can't be more fun being a front man than it is being a guitarist and a backing vocalists. That's the greatest f***ing gig in rock...You don't really have to do anything but play the guitar really f***ing loud and sing harmony. That's easy. That's amazing. To be a front man is going to be a new experience for me."
"...High Flying Birds" is just out in the U.K., where it's pegged for a chart-topping debut, and comes out on Nov. 8 in the U.S. The album includes a pair of songs -- "(I Wanna Live In A Dream) In My Record Machine" and "Stop The Clocks" -- that were demoed for Oasis but never recorded by the band, but that Gallagher felt "were great songs, and...if I don't put them out now I'll never put them out, so now is the time." Some of the other tracks, meanwhile, were written while he was still in Oasis. But you won't find him singing about the group or his bitter relationship with younger brother and former Oasis singer (now Beady Eye frontman) Liam Gallagher.
"I'm not that kind of guy, really," Gallagher explains. "My first instinct when I write songs is not a negative one. It's something positive...Everything I've ever done has some form of hope in it, I think. So I wouldn't write a song about my feelings towards anyone in, let's call them Beady Eye, because I actually like those people."
Gallagher takes his touring lineup of the High Flying Birds on the road starting Oct. 23 in Dublin. An initial North American run kicks off Nov. 7 in Toronto before he returns to Europe at the end of that month, and he promises he'll be doing "a lot" of road work to support the album. "I'm gonna be all over the world," Gallagher promises, including "a bigger, more extensive tour" of North America in 2012. "You're going to be sick of me in about two years. You're gonna think, 'That f***ing guy, is he still here?!'"
The shows will feature Oasis songs, Gallagher says, though he adds that, "I don't think of Oasis songs anymore. They're my songs. Every song that I play I wrote by myself... I won't be doing anything that's synonymous with Liam's voice. I'll only be doing songs that I've sang on records, so it should be OK."
Gallagher will be putting out more music sooner rather than later. He's already completed his next album, a collaboration with the Future Sound of London spin-off Amorphous Androgynous that he hopes to put out next summer. "I don't want to say too much about it yet," he explains, "but it's not an electronic album; it's a psychedelic rock-pop album, and I'm not quite sure how people are going to take it. It's less structured than my traditional English pop music." Gallagher re-recorded four of the songs from "...High Flying Birds," which he says sound "very different," along with 10 new originals.
His game plan for the future, meanwhile, is to make another album with Amorphous Androgynous "because I think we were just getting to know each other's ways of working when the project ended." Gallagher says he'd also like to score a film, but mostly he predicts he'll "just carry on making records, really. I'll just play my music and tour endlessly."
As for any Oasis reunion, he only replies, "Not this year."
Liam Gallagher: I'd Play With the Stone Roses For Nothing
Liam Gallagher, the former Oasis singer, says he would like the band to reform in 2015.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Profile, the Beady Eye singer says he would like to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Oasis's second album, (What's The Story) Morning Glory?
Asked if the plans were fixed he said "It's not definite... but I'm up for it".
Oasis disbanded in August 2009 when Noel Gallagher quit the group following a backstage disagreement with his brother just before the band were due to play a festival.
Liam Gallagher was speaking to Profile for a forthcoming programme about Ian Brown, lead singer of The Stone Roses. The influential Manchester group has announced they are reforming after 15 years apart for a series of gigs in 2012.
"I wouldn't have joined a band if I didn't see The Stone Roses… I'd probably just carried on playing football in the park 'til three in the morning with me top off," Liam Gallagher told Profile presenter Linda Pressly.
Singer says he would tour for anniversary of 'Morning Glory' release - if he and his brother can 'put our s--t aside'
The Stone Roses may not be the only Britpop group gearing up for a reunion. Liam Gallager tells Rolling Stone that he would consider reconciling with his brother Noel to reunite Oasis for the 20th anniversary of the release of (What's The Story) Morning Glory. "In 2015, if we can put our shit aside, we can tour and play the album in its entirety for the 20th anniversary," he says. "I'd be up for that, if it's on our terms. There's got to be two-way respect."
In a radio interview this past August, Noel Gallagher said that breaking up Oasis was a rash decision. "We could maybe have all gone off and done other things for a few years," he said. "In my own head the 2015, 20-year anniversary of Morning Glory is looming and we could have maybe come back, made a new album and played that album in its entirety and gone and been the greatest thing ever, but there you go."
The two brothers no longer speak, but Liam tells Rolling Stone that Noel's public comments got him thinking about the anniversary tour. "He's the one that keeps mentioning it," says Liam. "I want to put him out of his misery. But I think he needs to do his solo thing first and realize he's not that good without his brother. He's got to find out for himself. I'm up for it – I'm not desperate for it. If it doesn't work out, I don't give a shit, I'm quite happy with [current band] Beady Eye."
When Rolling Stone spoke to Noel in August, we asked about him the possibility of an Oasis reunion. "Liam has said that the idea makes him vomit and it would never happen," he said. "So I don't need to add anything to that. I don't need the fucking money, but I think it's a shame that songs like 'Champagne Supernova,' 'Rock and Roll Star,' 'The Importance of Being Idle' and 'The Shock of the Lightning' will never be played again. In a stadium. That kind of fills me with sadness. The money is kind of irrelevant."
He continued: "There's bands that say, 'We don't want to get back together. We'd have to make a new record.' Why? Fuck a new record. No one gives a shit about your new record. Play the fucking old ones. The Led Zeppelin guys are like, 'There will have to be a new record.' Really? Yeah, because that would be fucking great, wouldn't it? Play fucking 'Whole Lotta Love.' Get over it."
Noel Gallagher On Meeting Damon Albarn and That Jay-Z Controversy
Noel Gallagher has ended his notorious rift with rival rocker Damon Albarn, more than 16 years after they fell out.
The former Oasis star and the Blur frontman became arch-enemies in the mid-1990s after trading insults during interviews, and their feud escalated in 1995 when the two bands went head-to-head in the British singles chart.
They've refused to speak to each other ever since, but now Gallagher has revealed the two British stars rebuilt bridges between them after a chance meeting during a recent night out.
Gallagher tells Shortlist magazine, "Funnily enough, when I was out last night, I bumped into him. I literally haven't seen the guy for 15 f**king years and I bump into him in some club. We both went, 'Hey! F**king hell!' and then he said, 'Come on, let's go for a beer'.
"So, we're sitting there, having a beer, just going, 'What the f**k was all that about 15 years ago? That was mental.' Then he said, 'It was a great time, though', and I was like, 'Yeah, it was a f**king good laugh.' It was cool, man."
And Gallagher is adamant the feud between them was blown out of proportion, citing his famous negative comments about Jay-Z playing Britain's Glastonbury festival in 2008 as an example of how his image is often misrepresented.
He adds, "Look, like I said to (Albarn) last night, you can say that you respect someone as an artist a thousand times and it will never get reported. But you call someone a c**t once... you know?
"And it still rings true today. I lose count of the number of times I've had to say about Jay-Z, 'Look, hang on a minute here...' and it never gets f**king printed. But I don't mind. I can live with that."
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds to Make European Debut in Paris
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds have confirmed their first European gig of 2012. The band announced today they will be playing at Le Grand Rex in Paris on 6th March.
Tickets for the gig go on sale Wednesday 26th October at 10am (local time). Fans can buy tickets from:www.alias-production.fr
The gig at Le Grand Rex will mark the second appearance in Paris by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds who are set to play at the Casino de Paris on 6th December. The tickets for their debut gig sold out within hours of going on sale earlier in the year.
The eponymous debut album by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds is out now in France through Noel's own Sour Mash Records. Fans in France can pick up their copy of the album now through:
Noel Gallagher: I Would Have Joined Kasabian in A Heartbeat
"That,” says Noel Gallagher, thrusting his index finger accusingly in the direction of a stray banana skin, “would not last 10 f*cking seconds on my tour bus.”
It’s not that the former Oasis man has an irrational fear of slapstick comedy. He’s just — ShortList is startled to discover — something of a neat freak. His aversion to mess isn’t the only surprising revelation that emerges during the afternoon we spend with the older Gallagher brother. Sat with our Dictaphone perched precariously on his kneecap following an exclusive ShortList photoshoot, Noel is cheerfully letting fly on every subject under the sun, from his new solo project, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, to his distaste for politicians and his late-night lightsaber duels…
You’ve said recently that you’re apprehensive about performing live as a solo artist. Why is that?
I know I can do it — I’m just anxious about what people will expect. It’s inevitably going to be compared to Oasis and I don’t mind that, but Oasis had two frontmen, me and Liam, and now there’s just one. And I’m not really a frontman — I’m a backing vocalist. At Oasis gigs, I would sing one in every six songs — to give Liam’s voice a rest, the poor flower — and that was always a nice change. I just hope people are prepared for me singing for an hour and a half. But I’m trying to get it out of everyone’s heads that I left the band to ‘go solo’. That’s not my preferred explanation for why I’m doing this.
What is your preferred explanation?
I’ve got f*ck all better to do. Seriously, I don’t see it as a career. I’ve never wanted to be a solo artist — I’d still rather be in a band. But you can’t start another band after you’ve been in Oasis. What’s the point? It’s just f*cking ludicrous. I’m doing this because I’m a songwriter and I make records. I’m not going out there to prove anything to anybody.
Liam told ShortList that when people hear your new material, “there’ll be one thing missing — me”. How do you respond to that?
If I was playing live and singing Rock’N’Roll Star and Some Might Say, then people would be thinking, “There’s something missing.” But I’m not — I’m only singing the songs I’m famous for singing. And if people do miss Liam, I’ll bring a little cardboard cut-out of him — a tiny, dwarf-sized one — put a spotlight on it and go, “There he is. Remember him?”
So an Oasis reunion is still the furthest thing from your mind right now?
Liam has said he’d never do it, so I don’t need to add anything more to that.
Have you been working on honing your ‘frontman’ skills?
Well, I’m rooted to the spot because I play guitar. So I won’t be busting any moves on the mic [laughs]. And I hate audience participation in any form. I cringe when I see these bands doing all that “Everybody over here get your hands up!” sh*t. F*ck off. I’m not arsed where I am or even why you lot [the audience] are here. I’ve made a record, you’ve come to see me play it live. The end. Now buy a T-shirt on the way out and f*ck off.
Did you get other bands trying to recruit you after Oasis split? There were rumours that Kasabian asked you to join…
No, that’s nonsense, and I would’ve joined that band in a heartbeat, by the way. But they never asked. I never really got calls off anyone. I never had Bono phoning me, saying, “I’ve always thought The Edge could do with some back-up.” [Laughs] So, if you’re reading this and you’re in a band that sells in excess of 15 to 20 million albums and you need a rhythm guitarist, then… [Coughs and points to himself]. I do interviews, the odd photoshoot, I’m a good laugh and I run a tight tour bus. There you go [laughs].
Have you seen Beady Eye perform live yet?
I’ve seen them on telly. I couldn’t walk into one of their gigs, though, could I? I’d just get f*cking hassled.
This year the event will take place in Stazione Birra in Rome Friday 16 December 2011 and in Deposito Giordani in Pordenone Saturday 17 December 2011. For each day 3 tribute bands will play Oasis songs with videos, merchandising, fanzines, competition... and a dj set from BONEHEAD that will meet and greet the fans.
6 fantastic tribute bands, 2 cities, 1 passion.
The cost for admittance is 12 euro and will include a FREE Fans Pack given away for the first 300 tickets sold for each day. The fans pack include a Wonderwall printed fanzine, postecard, a member card.
In the Gallagher war of words that seems to have been ongoing since the days of cavemen, it is now Liam who has been having his say on comments made by bother Noel saying he felt the latter days of Oasis were “nothing but a sham.”
Liam, who has been touring with new band Beady Eye in Europe, posted a rare tweet to have a pop at his sibling.
“A Sham? Speak for yourself. I never faked anything, go to bed and give me a shout in 2015.”
The comments from Noel were reported by the Sunday Telegraph Magazine in an interview that saw Noel talking candidly about the power struggles within Oasis, and the “indignity” he felt for being a part of the bands last years.
Review: Noel Gallagher Doesn't Stop The Clocks.....
2 / 5 Stars
Noel Gallagher doesn't stop the clocks on his long-threatened solo album. He merely rewinds them. The brains behind Oasis once again presents his impeccable taste in vintage Britrock on a record long on wistful introspection and short on the laddish euphoria that made his old band an occasional joy. High Flying Birds does, however, confirm that when Liam was allowed to write songs for Oasis it was in the interests of the division of labour rather than artistic merit.
Joined by former Oasis pianist Mike Rowe, drummer Jeremy Stacey of The Lemon Trees and percussionist Lenny Castro, Noel's new kids on the flock brings us on a journey (in the non-X Factor sense of the word) back to a happier time where we, the listener, were constantly beseeched to "hold on" and reminded that we "gotta be strong enough for love." This is Everybody's On The Run, the multi-layered opener to High Flying Birds and it's a song that represents the clichés encrusted with thickly applied string sections that make up a large part of the solo Noel's output.
Likewise with Dream On which finds "a songbird is singing" and Noel reverting to the late Oasis' default setting of jaunty Kinks barrelhouse piano and fat woozy brass. Elsewhere, If I Had a Gun is essentially a rewrite of Wonderwall before it falls off a cliff
The ghost of the recent past is never far away, however, and two Oasis cast offs make an appearance on High Lying Birds in the shape of (I Wanna Live in a Dream in My) Record Machine which builds to an exultant guitar solo, and a revisiting of Stop The Clocks which really does sound like something cobbled together to flll out the running time.
Soldier Boys and Jesus Freaks does at least engage with some sort of reality in a song concerned with war and political incompetence and which paints a vivid picture of grieving villagers in Wooton Basset and religious fundies in far flung lands both east and west. Musical leaps forward (in Noel terms) come in the shape of some lovely choral work from The Crouch End Festival Chorus, the use of a saw, and a bloke conjuring up a Ennio Morricone-like effect with the rim of a glass on (Stranded On) The Wrong Beach.
The best thing here by a long shot is AKA . . . What a Life! which has some of the dancefloor rush of Noel's pre-fame Hacienda days and echoes his colourful excursion with The Chemical Brothers on Let Forever Be.
Strangely, for a man who gives the best quotes in rock, Noel has little to say, humorous or otherwise. Where are the kind of bon mots and lairy witticisms that he can delight with? A shame because ever since Liam and Noel stopped singing from the same spreadsheet, Oasis watchers will have pored over their respective lyrics looking for barbed exchanges between the estranged siblings. There's little sign of any here.
Big Brother certainly renews his membership of the village green appreciation society on High Flying Birds but musically a lot of this debut merely sounds like Oasis with clipped wings. The real solo Noel may emerge on next year's collaboration with Amorphous Androgynous, the psychedelic side show from The Future Sound of London but on the basis of High Flying Birds, round one of wibbling rivalry (the return match) goes to our kid's Beady Eye.
It's a likeable enough album from a very likeable bloke but forget any Icarus metaphors - Noel solo is more earthbound than high flying.
Alan Corr
Tracklisting: Everybody's On The Run, Dream On, If I Had a Gun . . . , The Death of You and Me, I Wanna Live in a Dream, AKA What a Life, Soldier Boys and Jesus Freaks, Broken Arrow, (Stranded On) The Wrong Beach, Stop The Clocks
Noel Gallagher's Debut Album Heading Straight To The Top
Noel Gallagher is currently on to go straight in at Number One in the UK album chart on Sunday (October 23) with his debut solo album 'Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds'.
The singer is presently well ahead of X Factor winner Matt Cardle, who is at Number Two with his debut album 'Letters'.
Last week's chart topper Steps are set to fall to Number Three with their 'Ultimate Collection', while Adele is at Number Four and Ed Sheeran at Number Five.
M83 and Jane's Addiction look to enter in the lower reaches of the top 40, with their new LPs at number 34 and 37 respectively
With the launch of his first solo album, Noel Gallagher reflects on life without Liam, turning down The X Factor and giving up the parties.
We're talking about this summer's riots, and Noel Gallagher is in full grumpy-old-man mode, describing some youths he saw interviewed on television when the disturbances hit Manchester. 'They've all got masks on, and sunglasses. And one of them has got a bottle of whisky in his hand. The news reporter says, "Can you tell us why you're out here tonight?" And one of them says, "Because the police, they arrest you for stupid things, innit." And I was sitting there thinking, they arrest you for stupid things? What, like trying to buy a hamburger with a fish? Or, "Come here, sonny Jim. Where did you get that third leg from? Jail!"
'It wasn't about poverty, it was just opportunist kids. They all had mobile phones and Twitter, so they've got some form of income. They were asking me about it in America, and what's to say? These fledgling democracies in the Middle East, they're actually fighting for their freedom. And what are they rioting for in England? Leisurewear.'
Had he not been so successful as a musician, Gallagher could have made a stand-up comedian, or a national newspaper columnist. Whether it's telling stories about his three children or talking about his own lack of prowess on a computer, he makes me laugh out loud several times during our meeting. He'd looked a little nervous in July, at the London press conference at which he announced his solo career, but tonight he's relaxed, articulate and good company, despite being jet-lagged. He's been on a 10-day trip to New York and Los Angeles to make a video, do some promo work, and meet his new US record company. It's not something he's ever done before, this kind of corporate meet-and-greet, but in America especially it is part of the culture, so he's giving it a go.
'When I was with Oasis, we were far too up our own arses to do any of that nonsense. But what harm can it do? The best thing to do, I've realised, is to get a little bit drunk. Not too much so you just talk shit, just enough to be a bit merry and laugh your way through it, really.' When I suggest it might be easier if he had bandmates to support him, he shrugs. 'It would, but it's just the way it is from now on, I'm afraid.'
Oasis split up in August 2009, minutes before they were due on stage in Paris, near the end of a world tour. Noel had a row with his younger brother, Liam. Fruit was thrown. Insults were screamed. A guitar was trashed. None of this was particularly unusual, of course, but for Noel it was one time too many.
'There's always a power struggle in a band, and when you're young and daft and hopped up on drugs and alcohol, it can get violent. But when you're all grown men with kids, it just doesn't feel right. I found it quite undignified. We're supposed to be the elder statesmen now! All this effing and blinding before gigs, and then going up and singing Live Forever. It was all a bit of a sham, really.'
Not that he's complaining, he adds quickly. 'It's not as if we never really fulfilled our potential. For a lad from a council estate with a guitar and his younger brother, we did pretty well!'
Liam and the remaining members – the guitarist Gem Archer, the bassist Andy Bell, and the new drummer Chris Sharrock – disbanded Oasis, and started afresh under the name Beady Eye, playing music similar to that of Oasis but refusing to play any of the Oasis back catalogue. Noel, meanwhile, will be performing some old favourites live – he wrote them, after all. But he didn't want another band. 'The only noble thing to do was to go solo.'
He hasn't spoke to Liam since Paris. Liam has never seen his younger nephew, 10-month-old Sonny, and he wasn't present this summer when Noel married Sara MacDonald, his partner of 11 years and the mother of his two youngest children (he also has a daughter, 11-year-old Anais, from his marriage to Meg Mathews). 'It's no big deal,' Noel shrugs. 'We never used to speak anyway, really.'
There are some regrets. With hindsight, he would have liked to have finished the tour, then put Oasis on hold for a while. What he misses, he says, is being part of something so huge. He embarks on a tour at the end of the month, and admits it's odd not having at least three nights at Wembley Stadium to look forward to.
'In an ideal world, I'd love to be doing this, with Oasis getting back together in 2013 to make another album. It was my life for 20 years, that group. And I don't have that solid anchor any more. But maybe that might turn out to be a good thing. There's an open road now.'
If he were promoting the eighth Oasis album now instead of his new project, he says, there wouldn't be anywhere near the same level of interest. 'People would have already judged it, and it probably would have sounded like all the rest, because when you've got five people trying to paint a picture, the picture tends to look the same [every time]. So the upside is, people are getting excited about this record, they want to see what I've got.'
What he's got is Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. It's not a band as such, he says, more a loose collection of musician friends that will vary depending on what he's doing. He has already recorded the first two albums, which will come out on his own label, Sour Mash. The first, due this month, is recognisably Noel Gallagher: strong songs performed with real emotion, with influences such as Neil Young, Ennio Morricone and – most clearly – Ray Davies, plus a generous helping of melancholy that he attributes to his Irish roots. It is more intimate, less bombastic than his previous work, and although Oasis fans will find a lot to like in it, so will fans of Elbow.
The lyrics are more direct than on many of the songs he wrote for Oasis, more narrative. 'It is different if you know you're going to sing them yourself. You have no inhibitions. With Oasis, I would consciously make them as universal and as vague as possible: if I was writing a song about how much I loved my wife, there's no way Liam could know that's what it was about, or he wouldn't sing it.'
The second album, which will probably come out next summer, is far stranger, made with Amorphous Androgynous, the psychedelic collective who did the most radical remix of the final Oasis single, Falling Down. He started making this one first, he says, but when he went into the studio to hear what they'd done with the song he'd sent them, 'They'd demolished it and turned it into something else. They were taking what I'd done, throwing all the pieces up in the air, and making these psychedelic pop songs. Whereas I like things structured.'
He took back his songs to record them his own way, but he also continued working with the Amorphous crew, giving them material that lent itself better to their experimental approach. It was, he says, interesting to be working on different projects after the constraints of Oasis. He loves the big sound of bands such as U2, Coldplay and the Foo Fighters. 'And if I had never left Oasis, I would have carried on writing stadium rock for ever. But I never stopped writing other kinds of songs. So being able to go between two projects was very liberating. It was a great way of working.'
When we meet, he is five weeks into rehearsals for the tour, and admits he's not a natural frontman. Before, he was always to the side of the stage, able to observe without being the centre of attention. Now, he jokes, he needs wing mirrors, because everyone is behind him. He wonders if the audience will expect him to talk, make jokes or, worst of all dance, especially when he performs the current single, AKA… What a Life, which was inspired by his experiences raving at the Hacienda nightclub in Manchester in the late 1980s. 'I've got no moves!' he laughs. 'I know I'm going to look like a 44-year-old dad of three kids, playing a guitar.' He is aware of his age now, and glad that he doesn't have a major label pressurising him to get an earring or dress younger. 'It dawned on me today that I'm getting old. I had an hour to kill, and I went round Selfridges' men's department. I didn't see a single item of clothing that I thought would suit me. I've moved on. I'm going to have to stop wearing casual shoes and wear proper shoes.'
Still, he thinks he has avoided the kind of midlife crisis he's seen some of his friends go through. 'I've never had cause for it, because my life isn't missing anything. I found Sara at the right time. I love my kids, I love my wife, I've got a great job, so I'm not sitting thinking, "I've got to get a motorbike." '
Gallagher grew up in Burnage, Manchester, the middle son of Irish immigrants, Peggy and Thomas. Tommy was a labourer who also worked as a country & western DJ by night, and could be violent and abusive. Peggy eventually gathered up her three boys, including Paul, who is older than Noel by 18 months – and left, working in the McVitie's factory to support them ('We were never short of a broken Penguin!'). Noel hasn't seen his father for more than 20 years, and if that bothers him, he hides it well. 'There's plenty of men like him in Manchester. It's Irishmen as well. They just get crazy with drinking. I don't really feel anything about that. When I do think about it, it's just, "What an idiot." '
His father would often tell him he was useless, that he'd never amount to anything. But when he took up the guitar at the age of 13, his mother was quietly encouraging. 'She is fiercely loyal to us three,' he says. 'But she was strict, as well. When we were on the dole, she wouldn't let us stay in bed. She would never let us sit round the house, and we were always doing the shopping and that kind of thing. So she taught us the work ethic. It was always, you don't get anything in life for nothing.' Her sons have often tried to buy their mother a house, to get her to move away from the council estate where they grew up, but they've never succeeded. 'She won't leave,' Noel says. 'A new front gate – that was the only thing we got her.'
Riding the wave of Cool Britannia, Oasis were one of the biggest bands of the 1990s, with the kind of sales figures that are rarely seen any more. (After our meeting I sent Noel an email asking how many albums the band sold in total: 'Just the 55 million,' he quipped back.) Having grown up wanting things they couldn't afford, they could suddenly have everything they wanted. And more.
'We were like Viv Nicholson in Spend, Spend, Spend. I was buying stuff like it was going out of fashion. I've still got a lock-up in Buckinghamshire, and I must have half a million pounds' worth of art sitting it in. And I've got no shame or guilt, because I earned that money. I didn't win it in a lottery. It wasn't given to me by a relative. I didn't win it in damages because I'd fallen off a ladder or something. I wrote those songs, I did those gigs.'
When sales of the first two albums passed the 18 million mark, Alan McGee, his record company boss, bought Noel a chocolate-brown vintage Rolls-Royce, because he'd said in an interview that he wanted one. In 1995 Gallagher ordered himself a 1967 Mark 2 Jaguar, paying £110,000 upfront to have it refitted with a new engine and interior. By the time it was ready 18 months later, he'd forgotten all about it. It's been sitting in a garage ever since, with only 12 miles on the clock: he can't drive. 'It was a bit vulgar, but anybody else in my position would have done the same. See the difference between us and the bands that were around at the time – they were middle class. I remember going to Camden, and all these people from Blur and Elastica had holes in their shoes. I had brand-new clothes on, and I was thinking, "You've been to university! Why are you all dressing like poor people?" I couldn't get my head around it at all.'
Take some working-class pride, sprinkle liberally with cocaine and he admits you probably have a recipe for arrogance. 'And we probably played up to it a bit, but that's what those times required. I don't think it required wallflowers. "We just make music for ourselves, and if anybody else likes it, it's a bonus." F*** off! We said, "We're the greatest thing since the king-size Pot Noodle. Now, go and get me another bottle of champagne!" That was the life, it was great. But it would be nonsense now. If I was still behaving like that now, I'd be a bit of a cock.'
Gallagher can pinpoint exactly when he woke up. Germany were playing Italy in the 1998 World Cup, it was half-time, his house in north London was full of people partying as usual, and he'd just got out of bed and greeted the new day by opening a can of Red Stripe and snorting a line of cocaine.
'Up until that point, I thought that's what rock stars did. And I loved it. Then for some reason, I went, "Enough." But I didn't do the rehab thing. I just announced I was giving up drugs. And it's funny, everyone around me was going, "He'll be all right in a few weeks. He's going through a phase." And a week lasted two weeks, two weeks became two months, and then after a few months, it was like, "Right, these people have got to go."
'I guess once that romantic air of danger – we're on the inside doing shitloads of drugs with all these people – becomes just a normal Monday night out, it loses its appeal. It was the end of being lost in showbiz. I spent years in it, and I loved it. But there's only so many parties you can do before you go, "If I see Claudia Schiffer once more…" '
He still smokes, and he loves a good night out, drinking with friends. But he doesn't do it often now – the hangovers are getting worse as the years go by – and if Sara opens a bottle of wine at home, he doesn't share it. 'Drinking is something I do when I'm out. When I'm home, I don't miss it.'
Home is in Maida Vale, north-west London, though he still has a country pile in Buckingham-shire, and life is centred on his family. Anais is at boarding school. It was her mum's idea and he was against it at first, he admits. 'But she loves it. It's been the making of her.'
I ask if it bothers him that his children will grow up middle-class, and he laughs. 'No. I envy them. At least they won't be on the dole. People often ask this in interviews, am I going to send them to private school. Of course I am! I want them to have a better education than I had.'
This year, he had his first big fall-out with Anais, when he turned down the opportunity of being a judge on The X Factor. 'Simon Cowell had left messages for me, and I'd left messages for him, but we kept missing each other. Anais took to calling him Mr Cowell, and every time she came over, it was like, "Did Mr Cowell call?" So eventually we spoke, and said, "We're going to rebrand the show, and we need an alpha male to replace me. Would you be interested?" And I was like, "Look man, you don't want me on that show." ' Cowell was insistent, but Gallagher was equally adamant that he was the wrong man. 'It's just not me. Can you see me on the side of a double-decker bus, with little Louis Walsh? I never considered it seriously, though the devil in me thinks it would have been a laugh. And he's actually chosen one of my songs, Stop Crying Your Heart Out, for the American X Factor.'
Anais, however, didn't take the news well. 'She was screaming in my face, "But it's The X Factor!" ' laughs Gallagher. 'There was real anger. She then told all her mates, and the next time I see them, they're all going, "Huh. Turn down The X Factor then, did you? You idiot!" It was unbelievable.'
He says he's a hands-on dad, reading stories to four-year-old Donovan and providing after-dinner fights and tickles, and changing Sonny's nappies in the morning. 'Nappies are easy now,' he shrugs. 'It's not like the olden days.'
But the person he refers to most in conversation is Sara, whom he clearly adores. He was 32 when they met in Ibiza, and she was 27. Within minutes, he says, it was like they'd known each other all their lives, and he knew he'd found his soulmate.
'I never believed in love at first sight, I never believed in that thunderbolt moment. But it's true. You just know. I made her laugh, without trying. And she made me laugh. If I could hang out with anyone, for lunch, dinner or a night out, she would be the one. I could never envisage life without her.'
Their wedding this summer was an intimate affair in a hotel in the New Forest. Russell Brand did the best man's speech, which, Noel says drily, 'was hilarious if you weren't me'. Kilts were worn in celebration of Sara's Scottish roots, there were bagpipes – 'which is always quite stirring'– and Come On Eileen at the end. 'Then we went on honeymoon to Italy for five days, and ate pizza.'
Financially, of course, he has no need ever to work again, and he could be on honeymoon for ever. But he says that after he'd taken a few months off, Sara started hinting that it was time to book a studio. 'When you're in a band, it's like, "You should spend more time with the children. They're growing up so fast without you." The minute you do, they're like, "You should really go back to work, because – without saying it in so many words – you're beginning to get on my tits." '
He laughs, and says that anyway, he's too young to think about retiring. 'If you've still got it in you, I think you should carry on. I wouldn't know what else to do. Seriously. I've never lost the wonder of writing songs. And I hope I never do.'
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds start their tour in Dublin on October 23. The eponymous album is out now.
Is Noel Gallagher fucked? Less than 100 days since his comeback press conference and he’s been abandoned by Radio 1 (too old), failed to really set the charts alight with any of his new tunes and seen the debut performance with his High Flying Birds on Italian TV lambasted by Oasis fans who said he looked too nervous to pull off being a frontman (sample YouTube comment: “Come on Noel! You’ll get used to it!”).
Noel’s admitted from the off, of course, that the idea of standing centrestage without little bro around to lap up the attention has left him biting his fingernails. But actually hearing him say that is really weird. Why? Because he’s the most brash, outspoken, bolshy and bitchy musician – no, personality – of the last 20 years. To have the guy come across as vulnerable just doesn’t sit right. And that’s exactly what makes this album so crucial, because for the first time since ‘Don’t Believe The Truth’ in 2005, Noel Gallagher actually has something to prove to people. He’ll always have ‘Wonderwall’ to bang his head against, sure, but to start your post-Oasis career with a shitter of a solo album? That’s something that’s definitely not in the manuscript.
But let’s not be prissy here. You’ll have already seen the album’s mark at the end of this review. It’s no monstrosity, no major fuck-up, and no minor fuck-up either. On the contrary, it’s rather brilliant in places. Take the second track, ‘Dream On’. Noel says it’s “throwaway”, which doesn’t do it any favours. It’s a key song here because it’s so goofy. It’s carefree and catchy as hell; catchy the same way ‘Telegram Sam’, ‘Hotel Yorba’ or – hah! – ‘She’s Electric’ were. There’s a great, moronic line in it about all the kids drinking up their lemonade, and it proves that away from the arched-eyebrow seriousness of the past decade (‘Falling Down’, ‘Stop Crying Your Heart Out’, ‘Little By Little’), Noel can still bash out a three-minute guitar-pop gem that sounds at once wonky, blithe and brilliantly stupid. And for a 44-year-old father of three, that’s pretty impressive.
It also takes precisely 52 seconds to get to the chorus, which as any burger-flippin’, jukebox-owning hick from 1950s America will tell you, is the OPTIMUM time in pop to get the masses singing along. Any longer and you’ve lost them. I raise this point for a reason, because structurally Noel’s reined everything in on these 10 tracks. Gone are the days of the three-minute intro (apart from opening track ‘Everybody’s On The Run’, everything here gets down to business within about 20 seconds), and gone are the maddeningly repetitive guitar solos and endless outros.
In fact this is probably the first Noel album since ‘…Morning Glory?’ where you feel the songs never really outstay their welcome, and it’s all the better for it. Weller played the same trick on 2010’s ‘Wake Up The Nation’ (where many of the songs clocked in at around two minutes), and while there’s nothing as brash’n’breezy as that here, it’s still an absolute joy to listen to the songs, think to yourself, ‘THIS is where the vocals need to start’, and then hear Noel’s voice come in. Simple, but effective.
Elsewhere, you’ll have already heard ‘The Death Of You And Me’, which along with ‘If I Had A Gun…’ is the best thing on here. It’s got the much-touted brass section wheezing away at the side (you’d hope Noel takes them on tour), and marks a highpoint of Side A. Just about, that is, because the aforementioned ‘…Gun…’ trumps it. Ever since that scraggy soundcheck bootleg appeared online it’s stood out as something special, so you’ve gotta give its creator credit for fully realising its potential in the studio.
Its chords, capo placing and canter-pace may be nicked from The Book Of Wonderwall, but it’s a far more contemplative piece overall, even sounding faintly glam when the drums and distortion kick in. The yearning, lovelorn chorus of, “Excuse me if I spoke too soon/My eyes have always followed you around the room” is one of the prettiest things Noel’s ever come up with, and it rightfully feels like the album’s centrepiece. By the time the ending saunters in (with a guitar line pinched from ‘Fade Away’), he may as well be off buying guitar-shaped beds and waiting for Chris Martin to cover it at Glasto.
Of course, ‘Stop The Clocks’ and ‘(I Wanna Live In A Dream In My) Record Machine’, both of which have been online in demo form for years, are the two that sound the most Oasis-like. How could they not? The former – now with added choir and ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’-esque guitar solo (the only one on the record, incidentally) – features a chorus dug straight outta the soul of Noddy Holder’s platform boots, while album closer ‘Stop The Clocks’ is an altogether more simplistic muse on what happens when you die (it’s uplifting rather than depressing, because it’s Noel). But then, you already know what they’re like, ’cos you’ve heard them both before.
Their inclusion here is slightly perplexing because of that. Noel says it’s because they’re too good to fall by the wayside, and that they act as a final goodbye to his Oasis years… and you can kind of see his point. But he needs to stick to his guns, because the genuine newbies here (like ‘AKA…What A Life!’ and ‘AKA…Broken Arrow’) show he’s still got enough chops in him to carry off being solo without surviving off his former glories. Now, you want him to run with the idea of change and end up god knows where.
The big question, of course, is does he miss Liam? And yeah, he does at times. Take opener ‘Everybody’s On The Run’. It’s a brilliant song. It’s got a 100-piece Abbey Road choir on it and would sound great bouncing off the walls of Wembley Stadium. But it’s built for Liam Gallagher to wrap his lungs around. Without him, it’s subbed to merely ‘great’ status, and the lingering thought of what it’d be like with its rightful singer in place is tantalisingly frustrating.
They need each other, everyone knows that. But this is a redundant point, as well as a minor quibble. We all know where Noel and Liam stand at present, and things aren’t gonna change between them for at least another album apiece. What Noel’s done on ‘…High Flying Birds’ is test the water, keep the good ship from listing and hand over a collection of tracks of which the best can stand proudly alongside ‘The Importance Of Being Idle ’. Fuck radio, fuck the charts and fuck nerves. Noel’s still got it. Only a fool would write him off.
Noel Gallagher might have joined his brother’s band, Oasis. But he also eventually became its creative force.
His gift for writing hit songs put Oasis on the map in 1994. Their 1995 album, What’s The Story (Morning Glory)?, which featured the hits “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back In Anger,” sold more than 14 million copies worldwide and propelled the band to international stardom.
But from the very beginning, brothers Noel and Liam fought -- usually in the public eye, often via the press. On September 5, 2009, Noel had finally had enough and called it quits. Oasis split into two, with the entire band (minus Noel, of course) joining Liam in the newly formed Beady Eye. Noel went solo.
Noel's debut album, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, which comes out November 8 via Sour Mash/Mercury Records, is distinctly "Noel Gallagher" in that its 10 tracks capture some of the brilliance of Oasis' early hits. In fact, “The Death Of You And Me” and “If I Had A Gun…” could fit nicely on any classic Oasis album.
Over the years, it hasn’t been easy to track down Noel. His not needing to do press is a luxury of being in a massive, internationally famous band. But now with a brand-new solo album, it’s a different story. Luckily, Guitar World grabbed a half-hour of his time during his recent visit to New York. We tried to play catch-up for a few decades of his work, right up to his new album...
