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Beady Eye opened The Other stage this morning (11am), with frontman Liam Gallagher declaring during a rendition of the Oasis favourite ‘Rock N Roll Star‘: “Tonight, I’m a rock ‘n’ roll star – at 11.30 in the fucking morning,” before leaving the stage with: “I’ve given you a headache; you’ve been amazing – but not as good as us.”
Liam Gallagher goes from snarling to storming in this not-so-secret gig on the Other stage
It's the first proper morning of Glastonbury: you're tired, you're hungover and there's mud in some truly unexpected places. Let's face it, you're not exactly going to call James Blake to solve this situation, are you? Beady Eye, on the other hand, are just the tonic we need. Liam Gallagher swaggers up with the expression of someone about to invite the microphone to step outside – then just stands there, staring, snarling, reminding the crowd that he's one of the few rock stars around with real star charisma. It's a brilliant opening to the Other stage's bill – even if the "secret" element of their appearance was rather ruined by a massive Beady Eye banner that had been draped across the stage.
The brassy Sitek brass of BE tracks such as Second Bite of the Apple power the set along, and when things begin to lull, during an inadvisable space rock wig-out, Liam unleashes a couple of Oasis songs: Rock'n'roll Star (dedicated to sons Lennon and Gene) is as menacing as the clouds circling the stage, and produces the excellent ad lib: "I'm a rock'n'roll star … at 11.30 in the fucking morning!"
Beady Eye tracks such as The Roller are, it has to be said, shown up by the former bands' glories, but closing track Bring the Light matches their peaks for sheer verve at least.
"You've been amazing," says Liam, and you worry that perhaps he has become a little too obsequious. Then he steps up to the mic again and snarls: "But not as good as us."
Start Anew? - A film about Liam Gallagher and Beady Eye
Noisey Films is proud to present 'Start Anew? : On The Campaign Trail With Beady Eye.'
Over
the past couple of months, Noisey has had exclusive access to one of
the most iconic figures in British music as he tries to step out of the
shadows of Oasis with the release of Beady Eye's second album 'Be.' Will
the discerning choices of Dave Sitek on production and Trevor Jackson
on design allow them to become an artistic endeavor in their own right?
From
rehearsals and interviews to instores and playbacks, Noisey documents
the story of our kid as he and his band attempt to prove that they are
more than the sum of their parts and that this record will take them in a
new direction. In Liam's own words "I wouldn't put it out if I was
nervous. I hope people like it. If they don't they can go fuck
themselves."
Gallagher Brothers among best dressed rockers - Noel on top
NOEL GALLAGHER has outdone his younger brother Liam yet again - he has been named the world's best dressed rock star.
The warring brothers have been trying to one-up each other in the pop charts with their new bands ever since Oasis split following a bust-up between the pair in 2009.
Fashion-conscious Liam is proud of his sartorial elegance and has even launched his own chain of clothes stores - but he will be left seething over news he only ranked fifth in a list of the most stylish rockers while his brother topped the countdown.
Noel beat Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner into second place, while Kasabian guitarist Serge Pizzorno and singer/songwriter Miles Kane are in third and fourth respectively in the survey by designer menswear store www.stuartslondon.com.
The top 10 is rounded out by Pharrell Williams, teen sensation Jake Bugg, The Killers star Brandon Flowers, The Horrors frontman Faris Badwan, and Paul Weller.
Ravi Grewal, owner of Stuarts London, says, "It's good to see that musicians are still looked up to when it comes to their fashion choices, and it seems smartly dressed rockers like Gallagher, Turner and Pizzorno have overtaken scruffy rockers."
Liam Gallagher has done his second U-turn in a month.
He poured p*** on talent shows then appeared on The Voice.
Now he is heading for Glastonbury this weekend with Beady Eye.
Liam and the band will play a surprise gig at the festival on Somerset’s Worthy Farm — after he vowed never to go back.
I know what day and stage their midday set will be on but am NOT giving away the secret.
Oasis headlined at Glasto in 2004 but the event really wound up the frontman Noel once described as “the man with a fork in a world of soup”.
Liam later said: “The sound is s*** and really quiet. You can hear the crowd talking while you’re playing. They don’t put any money into the PA and it’s just full of f***ing idiots.
“Now it’s like Bond Street with mud, with loads of celebrities walking around in their boots and umbrellas.
“I’m not having it.”
Liam Gallagher does not even have his brother Noel’s phone number, the Beady Eye singer has revealed.
The feud between the former Oasis bandmates has raged unabated since Noel walked out of the group in 2009 after claiming he “could not go on working with Liam a day longer”.
In an interview with Radio 5 Live’s Phil Williams, Liam was asked why he did not simply call his brother to talk things through.
“I haven't got his number,” he replied, adding that he doesn’t have a number for his older brother Paul, despite the fact they are still speaking.
“I haven’t got me other brother’s number that I talk to, either. I haven’t got many people’s numbers,” he said.
Liam went on to talk about his bitter relationship with Noel.
“I’ve got nothing to say to him. Not interested in the slightest right now,” he said.
“I’ve not banished him. He hasn’t seen my kids, I haven't seen his kids, and that happens when two people who are stupid talk s**** about each other.
“It's not like Noel’s knocking at my door with a box of chocolates and a bunch of flowers going ‘Speak to me’ and I’m going ‘No’. We’re just not getting on at the moment.”
In a recent interview with the Independent on Sunday, Liam claimed that Noel had been planning Oasis’s split “for years”.
Other promotional engagements for Beady Eye’s new album BE have seen Liam hurl insults at rapper Kanye West and old enemy Robbie Williams.
But Williams hit back this week, saying: “The interviews are better than the records at the minute. I really enjoy the interviews. Liam is like an episode of Star Stories.”
On Beady Eye’s new album, BE, Liam Gallagher takes the biggest risk of his career.
For two decades, the former Oasis frontman has done what he knows best – sing straight-up ‘60s-influenced rock ‘n’ roll songs.
When Oasis imploded in 2009, Liam – and latter-day Oasis members Andy Bell, Gem Archer and drummer Chris Sharrock – saw no reason to stray from that formula.
While Noel, the man behind the band’s biggest hits, went out on his own as Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, the remaining three formed Beady Eye.
Their first offering was the solid-but-safe, Steve Lillywhite-produced debut, Different Gear Still Speeding. Featuring the catchy Instant Karma-sounding single “The Roller” it was, like Liam, ‘60s-obsessed.
However, after a muted response to Different Gear, which was critically and commercially overshadowed by Noel’s album, Beady Eye began to rethink.
According to drummer Chris Sharrock, it was time for a change. Enter TV On The Radio guitarist and trailblazing indie producer, Dave Sitek.
“We didn’t really know much about him,” Sharrock says. “His name was put to us, as in, you know, this guy could be interested.”
Sitek is best known for his production work with hip New Yorkers Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He’s also worked with Foals, Liars and Santigold, and so it would be fair to say, at least on paper, Dave Sitek and Beady Eye have little in common.
“We thought we’d meet him and check him out,” Sharrock continues. “Well, actually we kind of met him 20 minutes before we started recording. And we didn’t really listen to anything he’d done before because we didn’t wanna go in with any … if he’d done something that we didn’t like, you know, it would have been all over.”
Unsurprisingly, working with the experimentally-minded Sitek was vastly different to making their debut.
“He challenged us more,” Sharrock explains. “He said, ‘here you are guys, what about this?’ and ‘why don’t you try that?’”
According to Sharrock, Different Gear Still Speeding producer Steve Lillywhite “didn’t stick it out to the end anyway”, and left the band “running around like headless chickens”. On the other hand, Sitek became like Beady Eye’s “fifth member”.
“He had his little corner of the studio going on and we had our corner. We’d meet in the middle over the coffee machine.”
In the lead-up to the release of this album, Liam Gallagher was typically bold. BE, he said, was the album Oasis should have made after their mega-selling magnum opus, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?
In production terms, at least, he’s right. BE is the sound a band freed from the shackles of commercial expectations – out of their comfort zone, but loving it.
Take the futuristic album opener, “Flick Of The Finger”, with its aggressive horns, thumping Velvet Underground-like drums, and seize-the-moment lyricism. The same goes for the modern-sounding “Soul Love”, a dark, brooding song Oasis would never have recorded in their pomp. That sense of musical adventure is further explored on spacey tracks like “Don’t Brother Me” and the closing ballad, “Start Anew”.
Essentially, BE showcases a band hungry to carve out their own creative path, an opportunity afforded to them by the departure of Noel.
“Everyone has to step up and bring more songs in as opposed to just learning them,” Sharrock says. “There’s a lot of creativity going on, we’re always jamming. We’ve got three or four new tunes already – they’re very rough sort of jams but there’s something there. There’s three writers in the band so there’s never a shortage of songs.”
Sharrock continues: “After the last gig on the last tour we said, ‘right we’re gonna have three months off’. After about a week and a half everyone was like, ‘should we do something, should we get together?’ We can never leave it alone for too long, this is just what we do.”
Their unshakable enthusiasm is impressive given that, for part of 2011, the band was like a “rudderless ship”.
“The last management bailed in the middle of that tour,” Sharrock explains. “We went a couple of weeks without management. It was a shit thing to do but I didn’t really look at them as management anyway. They were just people who booked my cab and train. There was no love lost for me.”
Either way, things are well truly back on track now. The band is getting set to hit the road for a string of UK shows and festivals. Having missed Australia on their previous world tour (and on the last Oasis tour), Sharrock confirms that the band is “definitely” coming here this time around.
Not only that, they’ll coming with a couple of Oasis songs up their sleeves – they’ve been rehearsing “Morning Glory” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” – and with new touring bassist and former Kasabian member Jay Mehler.
“He’s a great guy,” Sharrock says. “We were sorry to lose Jeff [Wooten] because he was kind of there from the start, but Jay’s doing a great job. We know him anyway, we’ve known him a few years through Kasabian and it’s great having him around.”
Meanwhile, with the album and tour cycle in full swing, Liam has been whipping up a storm in the British tabloids. Notable stories include his claim he could’ve written Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” in an hour, and reports he tried to ride a dog during a particularly boozy night at the pub.
“I wasn’t with him that night but I heard him talking about it,” Sharrock says, already laughing. “He was like, ‘fuckin’ hell this is a load of bollocks. It wasn’t a dog, it was a pig’. You never know with him. You never stop laughing, laughing or crying.”
And as for the constant ‘will they, won’t they?’ Oasis reformation rumours, Sharrock says he’s not the man with the answer.
“I’m kind of last on the list,” he laughs. “I’ll go with the flow. We never speak about it and we never think about it amongst ourselves. Especially me, it’s got nothing really to do with me.” But if they’re getting back together, I’m available.”
Beady Eye might always be known as Oasis minus Noel Gallagher, but as they’re now proving, that needn’t be a disadvantage. Instead, it can be an exciting point of difference.
Having just reignited his famous feud with Robbie Williams on the first night of Beady Eye's short UK tour, Liam Gallagher is still very much the swaggering, sharp-tongued frontman we know and love.
Last night (20th June), in the same week as Robbie's four massive shows at Manchester City's Etihad Stadium, an understandably envious Mr Gallagher and his band were again playing a much smaller venue.
But don't feel blue Liam – bigger doesn't always mean better.
Feeling: London's Camden Centre is the hottest town hall in the country tonight, for more reason than one. It's absolutely sweltering and there wasn't a dry sideburn in sight.
There are Liam lookalikes everywhere and the rowdy atmosphere is reminiscent of the Oasis glory days everyone in the room (including the main man) really miss.
Look: It's a simple setup, but if you were hoping for lasers and smoke cannons you're really at the wrong show.
LG is rocking his Pretty Green clobber and somehow keeps his parka jacket zipped up right to the top. So cool he defies heat.
Tunes: Beady Eye kicked-off with their epic album opener Flick of the Finger with a brass section standing to Liam's left. As you'd expect they played several tracks off their new record BE, which was narrowly beaten to No.1 last week by reformed rock legends Black Sabbath.
Fans are singing loud and proud, chanting Liam's name like a football crowd between songs, with their hero saluting and applauding them.
And the place erupts when the band perform Oasis classics Rock 'n' Roll Star and Morning Glory.
Banter: Liam said very little and seemed quite subdued, but his moody stares at the front row were brilliant.
He drank a large bottle of water throughout their set and stood completely still like a statue during a couple of tracks, taking in the music with his eyes closed.
Celeb Spots: Liam's missus Nicole Appleton was in attendance, dancing on the balcony alongside blonde tele presenters Holly Willoughby and Kate Thornton.
But blowing them all out of the water, our best spot of the night has to be Maggot from Welsh rappers Goldie Lookin Chain!
Sweat Factor: As humid as a sauna – even the bar staff were melting. Gigs don't get much hotter than this.
Summary: Liam is worshipped and rightly so, because nobody in rock pulls off endearing arrogance quite like him. And tonight his voice sounded awesome.
He badly wants Oasis to get back together next year to mark the 20th anniversary of their amazing debut album Definitely Maybe, but that inevitable reunion doesn't need to happen anytime soon.
Who needs Noel when Beady Eye's gigs are this good?
By Ben Lowe @mtvuknews
Beady Eye setlist:
Flick of the Finger
Face the Crowd
Millionaire
Four Letter Word
Soul Love
Second Bite of the Apple
Iz Rite
Shine a Light
Rock 'n' Roll Star
The World's Not Set in Stone
I'm Just Saying
Morning Glory
Soon Come Tomorrow
The Roller
Start Anew
Liam Gallagher: I'm not hurting anymore... We could get back together.
Beady Eye frontman Liam Gallagher says he's eyeing up an Oasis comeback following Stone Roses success
THE Stone Roses have inspired Liam Gallagher to leave the door open for an Oasis comeback as he gets ready to play Glasgow gig.
The Beady Eye frontman says he is still angry with brother Noel over the band’s split in 2009 but believes the wounds are already healing.
As I caught up with the singer ahead of Beady Eye’s gig at Glasgow’s ABC tomorrow night, Liam said: “What the Stone Roses said about never reforming is what you say when you are still hurting.
“It’s what Noel has said and it is what I have said about Oasis.
“It’s what you say when you are still p***ed off with someone but you can change your mind.
“I’m not hurting any more.
“I am p***ed off but I am getting through it so anything could happen.”
“We could get back together.
“I haven’t spoken to our kid since 2009 so it’s a long way off.”
He added: “Outside a band, he’s cool as f***.
“As brothers in a band, me and him don’t get on.
“He’s surrounded by idiots and I’m not.
“Until he loses a few clowns he’ll remain in idiotville. We’ll get over it though.
“I’m doing Beady Eye and he is doing whatever he is doing.
“I’m buzzing now. I’m musically satisfied.”
Beady Eye are back with their second album BE riding high in the charts, and Liam insists Noel should hear it – because he’ll be impressed.
Liam and Noel in the early days of Oasis Liam and Noel in the early days of Oasis
“He’ll probably have a listen to this album,” he told me.
“He should do because it is really good. It’s not perfect, but it is a step up for us in places.
“Noel has mastered the art of writing songs for years.
“I’m still learning. He’s way ahead when it comes to music without a doubt.
“But I p*** all over him vocally. I destroy him.”
Sipping sparkling water in Glasgow’s Radisson Blu Hotel, the singer admits he is looking forward to returning to Glasgow for tomorrow night’s gig.
The Sauchiehall Street venue is a stone’s throw from Glasgow’s King Tut’s – where Oasis landed their record deal, in 1993.
And for the first time, Liam has given his take on what happened that night when the band reportedly fought their way on to the stage and impressed Creation Records boss Alan McGee enough for him to offer them a contract on the spot.
“It’s all your fault that we got signed,” he joked. “Blame it on the Glaswegians.
“All I know is that we were rehearsing with a girl band called Sister Lovers at the Boardwalk [in Manchester] and they said they were going up to support some band.
“I think it might have been 18 Wheeler.
“Sister Lovers suggested we come up and see if we could get a gig, so we were like, ‘All right, cool’.
“We got a splitter van, jumped into it with a couple of mates and drove up to Scotland.
“We had a nice day, got here.
“As far as can remember the geezer was going, ‘Who the f*** are you lot? You’re not going on’.
“There was no fighting or us threatening to burn the building down or anything.
“We just said, ‘Come on, mate, just let us go on as soon as the doors open’. That was it. I said, ‘We’re cool as f***’. There might have a been a bit of an argument, but we weren’t there telling him we were going to give him a paper cut or anything like that.
“I said, ‘Come on, man. We’re doing I Am The Walrus, we can’t be that bad’.
“That got said and he let us go on.”
Amazingly, Liam had no idea who McGee was, let alone that he was in the audience.
“He was there, but I had never even heard of Alan McGee,” Liam said.
“I’d never even heard of Creation Records, because none of my favourite bands were on the label.
“When we came backstage, some guy with ginger hair asked us if we wanted a record deal.
“We were like, why not? We went down to London and did the deal.”
Hundreds claim to have been at the gig, though Liam says the venue was empty and they performed to a handful of people.
“It was like Knebworth, wasn’t it?” he joked. “In reality, there was nobody there when we played except for Alan McGee.
“There was nobody there for 18 Wheeler either.”
Last week, Beady Eye were in Scotland for an album signing session and gig at Glasgow’s HMV store in Buchanan Street — a far cry from the record-breaking outdoor gigs Liam played with Oasis.
“You’ve got to go and take it to the people, man,” he said.
“If the powers that be aren’t letting it happen, you get in your van and get
out there.
“People say I wouldn’t have done that in Oasis. I would have done it in Oasis.
“It’s nice to get closer rather than just being onstage. I enjoyed it at HMV. It was a lot more relaxed than the proper gigs, which are a lot more intense.
“It was a lot more chilled and you could hear more of the music. At the gigs, I’m fighting for air.”
He added: “There were top kids and geezers there.
“The funniest thing was this bloke who asked me what aftershave I was wearing.
“He said, ‘I’m not a queer or anything, but let me tell you this. You smell delightful. You smell f***ing delicious’. It freaked me out, man. I thought, ‘Has the world gone mad? There’s a Glaswegian bloke who looks hard as nails asking me what aftershave I’m wearing’.”
Two nights after the in-store, Beady Eye appeared as special guests on TV talent show The Voice, generating some criticism.
“If no one’s playing our tunes on the radio and our videos ain’t getting on MTV, as far as I am concerned it is only like doing CD:UK,” Liam told me.
“Sometimes you’ve got to go toe to toe with the bulls***.
“You get a lot of kids sitting in their little bedsits going, ‘Oh, guitar music’s dead’.
“I’ll tell you why it’s dead, because you are all living in cool school — so I don’t care what people think.
“Britain’s Got Talent is dogs and cats and The X Factor is Simon Cowell, but as far as The Voice goes, you’ve got to do it, man.”
Meanwhile, he insists he’ll carry on singing into his old age, even if his voice changes as he goes along.
“I don’t think it is even a choice,” he said. “You just do it.
“As long as what you are doing is half-decent if not the b******* or the best thing you think you’ve done, and as long as you still look half decent and people still want to hear you sing.
“As you get older you are not going to be as good as what you were.
“Your voice isn’t going to be as strong as it was, but as long as it is not b*******.
“No one can sing like they did when they were 20.
“You get a little bit better and a little more refined when you get to about 30.
“No one’s going to be able to belt it out at 70, but my voice is getting better.
“You have to work your voice around the music. I can still sing rock ’n’ roll songs, but I can also sing softer songs.
“With this album, there is a bit more ambience. There are still some rock ’n’ roll tunes on it.
“We are looking back at it. Different Gear, Still Speeding was pretty uptight, rock ’n’ roll, crash bang wallop.
“This one you can sit back and enjoy. It is looser and has more depth to it. I like it.”
Former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher says his new band Beady Eye should be playing big stadiums like the Etihad rather than "fat idiot" Robbie Williams.
Beady Eye played the first of three intimate shows at the Manchester Ritz last night (June 19).
Walking on stage accompanied by a four-piece brass section, the band began with 'Flick Of The Finger' before ripping through a set consisting largely of songs form their new album, 'BE'. It entered the charts at NUmber Two last Sunday, beaten to the top spot by Black Sabbath's comeback '13'. Elsewhere, 'The Roller' and 'Four Letter Word' drew some of the biggest cheers of the night.
Liam Gallagher was in subdued mood throughout, barely engaging with the crowd. He did, however, make a point of dedicating the two Oasis songs in the set, 'Rock 'N' Roll Star' and 'Morning Glory', to Oasis' former guitarist Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs. Later on, he also thanked the crowd for singing throughout the gig.
"You've been in good voice. Nice one for coming out, thanks," he said before leaving the stage for the first time after 'Start Anew'. He and the rest of the band returned for a two-song encore of the band's debut single 'Bring The Light' – which Liam introduced by asking if there were any punk rockers in the audience – and a lengthy version of 'Wigwam', taken from their first album 'Different Gear, Still Speeding'.
Beady Eye will perform at London's Camden Centre tonight (June 20) and Glasgow's ABC on June 22.
Beady Eye played:
'Flick Of The Finger'
'Face The Crowd'
'Millionaire'
'Four Letter Word'
'Soul Love'
'Second Bite Of The Apple'
'Iz Rite'
'Shine A Light'
'Rock 'N' Roll Star'
'Don't Brother Me'
'I'm Just Saying'
'Morning Glory'
'Soon Come Tomorrow'
'The Roller'
'Start Anew'
'Bring The Light'
'Wigwam'
LIAM GALLAGHER is ready to dip into the OASIS back catalogue of “Nineties’ sh*t” for his BEADY EYE tour.
The band have only ever played live two tracks written by Liam’s brother NOEL – Morning Glory and Rock ’n’ Roll Star.
But talking about the Oasis songs – and using them on their tour which kicked off in Manchester yesterday – guitarist GEM ARCHER said: “They’re always there and we know that we can use them.
“I’m sure a lot of fans would want to hear them. Hung In A Bad Place would be a good one live, as would The Meaning Of Soul.
“There’s even stuff like Liam’s Boy With The Blues that Oasis never played live which I think would work.”
Liam had previously sneered: “People shouldn’t be coming to hear Oasis songs. They should be coming to hear Beady Eye. There’ll be nights when we’ll go, ‘Look, you don’t deserve it so you’re not getting any of that Nineties sh*t’.”
Noel Gallagher helps raise funds for women battling addiction
Noel Gallagher and his wife Sarah MacDonald celebrated their second wedding anniversary last night supporting singer Lisa Moorish helping to raise funds for charity Diversity In Care at a charity auction at Bond Street's Opera Gallery in London. The charity aim to help women of all ages battling addiction by developing specialist services and campaigns to change the way care is viewed and treated in the UK.
Noel Gallagher and his wife Sarah MacDonald celebrate their anniversary at charity auction in London (Supplied by WENN)
The ex-Oasis front man came out to support singer and mother to Liam Gallagher's daughter Molly, Lisa Moorish who has faced her own struggles with addiction and substance abuse. Although sources claim Noel and his wife left the bash before bidding for the art began.
Lisa who was the host of the evening and trustee of the charity explained: “I myself an in recovery so it's something I have an understanding of”.
Other guest who attended last night's charity auction included Russell Brand, designer Jack French, Giant Digital's Andy Day and model Jack Guiness.
Beady Eye have topped this week’s UK Record Store Chart with their second studio album ‘BE‘.
Black Sabbath, who finished ahead of Beady Eye on the main rundown, place at #3 with their comeback LP ‘13‘, while Boards Of Canada are another high new entry at no.2.
Last week’s number one, Queens Of The Stone Age‘s ‘…Like Clockwork‘, drops a few positions to #4 and Miles Kane is this week at #11 on the chart which is compiled entirely from sales registered at Britain’s independent record shops.
UK Record Store Chart, Top 20:
1/ Beady Eye – ‘BE’
2/ Boards Of Canada – ‘Tomorrow’s Harvest’
3/ Black Sabbath – ’13′
4/ Queens Of The Stone Age – ‘…Like Clockwork’
5/ Daft Punk – ‘Random Access Memories’
6/ KT Tunstall – ‘Invisible Empire/Crescent Moon’
7/ Disclosure – ‘Settle’
8/ The National – ‘Trouble Will Find Me’
9/ Laura Marling – ‘Once I Was An Eagle’
10/ Jagwar Ma – ‘Howlin’
11/ Miles Kane – ‘Don’t Forget Who You Are’
12/ The Wonder Years – ‘The Greatest Generation’
13/ Vampire Weekend – ‘Modern Vampires Of The City’
14/ These New Puritans – ‘Field Of Reeds’
15/ Rod Stewart – ‘Time’
16/ Camera Obscura – ‘Desire Lines’
17/ Caro Emerald – ‘The Shocking Miss Emerald’
18/ Savages – ‘Silence Yourself’
19/ Agnetha Faltskog – ‘A’
20/ David Bowie – ‘The Next Day’
Liam Gallagher was with friends on Saturday night after performing on BBC show The Voice.
Host Holly Willoughby and husband Dan Baldwin drank with Liam and his missus Nicole Appleton at a house party -- and they ended up recording a version of Oasis track Songbird.
Ex-EastEnder Tamzin Outhwaite was also at the tear-up along with Beady Eye's Andy Bell, his wife Shiarra Bell, bandmate Gem Archer and his missus Lou.
At 2am yesterday, Andy posted a link online to their version of Songbird.
The group also posted a tracklist they partied to, including Daft Punk's Get Lucky and The White Stripes' Fell In Love With A Girl.
But they paid for the party yesterday -- with Andy's wife writing on Twitter: "Ouch."
Tabloid alert: Rock-n-roll hellraiser Liam Gallagher was forced to scale back plans for a booze-fuelled aftershow party at The Voice last night - after refusing to cough-up for a mammoth drinks order.
The former Oasis star - who performed live on the BBC1 show last night - had requested thousands of pounds worth of alcohol on a rider list for his band Beady Eye.
But he was told the only free refreshments on offer were Water and fruit.
He had ordered several bottles of Verve champagne, spirits and crates of beer from the studio bar.
But after the Champagne Supernova singer, 40, was delivered a bill by Pinewood Studios totalling around £2,000, they had to send most of the booze back.
A source said: “Liam and his management had initially ordered copious amounts of champagne and spirits for a booze session after their performance on The Voice.
"They planned a lavish party for a load of his friends and family at the studio bar.
“From his hell-raising days with Oasis, Liam is used to huge amounts of alcohol and treats being laid on during world tours.
"They’d draw up a list of want they wanted and it would all be complimentary.
“But it’s a bit different when you’re doing a gig at the BBC - they are very conscious about keeping a tight budget. The only thing free is water and fruit.
“They obviously got a bit carried away with the amount of booze they had pre-ordered and when the bill came in, they had to halve it, taking off a lot of the champagne and spirits.
“They were left with just a lot of beer.
"They’ve all been getting very hyped up about the performance so it was a bit disappointing when they realised they were going to have to fork out so much money for the booze.”
Liam performed Beady Eye’s new single Second Bit Of The Apple for the live semi-final of the BBC1 show.
Robbie Williams, 39, and Dizzee Rascal, 27, were also at the studios doing a pre-record of their single Goin’ Crazy for next week’s final.
Voice host Holly Willoughby, 32, was so looking forward to the drinking session that she tweeted the band’s guitarist Andy Bell, 42, and said: “Cant wait, lots of fun to be had! #tequila?”
Meanwhile Voice coach Will.I.Am, 38, doesn’t order a rider when he performs because he doesn’t want to waste money.
The show insider added: “Will would not be impressed with Liam Gallagher’s long rider list.
"He’s been trying to teach the artists that there’s no need to spend money on crazy elaborate requests for backstage.”
Noisey Film Documentary with Liam Gallagher and Beady Eye
Noisey Films is proud to present the trailer for their new documentary with Liam Gallagher and Beady Eye. Over the past couple of months, Noisey has had exclusive access to one of the most iconic figures in British music as he tries to step out of the shadows of Oasis with the release of Beady Eye's second album 'Be.' Will the discerning choices of Dave Sitek on production and Trevor Jackson on design allow them to become an artistic endeavor in their own right?
From rehearsals and interviews to instores and playbacks, Noisey documents the story of our kid as he and his band attempt to prove that they are more than the sum of their parts and that this record will take them in a new direction. In Liam's own words "I wouldn't put it out if I was nervous. I hope people like it. If they don't they can go fuck themselves."
The full-length film will premiere on Noisey next week.
Liam Gallagher has tips for Kanye West on how to walk
Liam Gallagher, opinionated as always, had some choice words for Kanye West in a recent interview with British GQ.
When asked what he thought about West titling his new album Yeezus (out next week), Gallagher (ostensibly there to promote Beady Eye's new album BE… although I think we all know why you really sit Liam Gallagher down for an interview these days, right?) responded with yet another sound bite for the ages.
Says Gallagher:
"I couldn't give a fuck what that fuckin' clown gets up to. Have you seen when he bumped his head? He's coming out of the gym with that bird and there are geezers taking pictures. You have to put your head up and carry on walking. He's gone [mimes putting his head down] and walked straight into a fuckking pole. You hear it go "dink" and him tell people to stop taking pictures. Put your head up so you know what you're doing! Smashed his head up: he's a fucking idiot. You'll never see Jesus banging his head."
With Beady Eye's second album BE having been released this week, we've got special live footage of the band performing Start Anew – the final track from BE – live last week in Kingston-upon-Thames
Beady Eye Keeping Busy - To Perform on BBC's 'The Voice'
Softened up hardman Liam Gallagher has defended his reality turn ahead of his band Beady Eye’s performance on reality show The Voice.
The former swaggering Oasis frontman says he’s not going cheesy mainstream but instead out to prove he can really sing live when his group perform their new single Second Bite of the Apple on the BBC show’s semi-finals this weekend.
‘Really looking forward to doing The Voice – it’s been a life-long ambition,’ insisted the former Brit pop hellraiser.
Defending his commercial turn to fans, the 40-year-old said: ‘If being asked to sing live and in tune on a programme that promotes the voice is a crime then shoot me.’
Meanwhile, his band’s new album BE is in a chart battle with Black Sabbath’s comeback record 13 for no.1 album this week.
Ozzy Osbourne, 64, is up for the fight, who said: ‘I can’t believe Black Sabbath may have its first #1 album in 43 years.’
Beady Eye invited 30 fans to London
to hear BE in full before its release, and surprised them by performing
an unexpected show in their rehearsal studio.
Oasis‘ 1995 smash hit ‘Wonderwall‘ has been voted ‘the biggest song of the last 20 years’ by listeners of Australian radio station Triple J.
Nearly one million votes were cast for the rundown with ‘Wonderwall’, which reached number one in Australia, coming out on top ahead of The White Stripes‘ ‘Seven Nation Army‘.
Jeff Buckley‘s ‘Last Goodbye‘ came third, while local favourites Hilltop Hoods and The Verve‘s own Nineties classic ‘Bittersweet Symphony‘ completed the Top 5.
Top 20:
1/ Oasis – ‘Wonderwall’ 2/ The White Stripes – ‘Seven Nation Army’ 3/ Jeff Buckley – ‘Last Goodbye’ 4/ Hilltop Hoods – ‘The Nosebleed Section’ 5/ The Verve – ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ 6/ Foo Fighters – ‘Everlong’ 7/ The Killers – ‘Mr. Brightside’ 8/ Powderfinger – ‘These Days’ 9/ Gotyte – ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ 10/ Powderfinger – ‘My Happiness’ 11/ Queens Of The Stone Age – ‘No One Knows’ 12/ Gotye – ‘Heart’s a Mess’ 13/ Radiohead – ‘Paranoid Android’ 14/ Mumford & Sons – ‘Little Lion Man’ 15/ Prodigy – ‘Breathe’ 16/ Bon Iver – ‘Skinny Love’ 17/ Silverchair – ‘Tomorrow’ 18/ Outkast – ‘Hey Ya’ 19/ Blink 182 – ‘Dammit’ 20/ The Living End – ‘Prisoner Of Society’
"This
will go out into the world, and our work is done, and that's our
primary responsibility. And the gift that we get from doing something
like this is, is the present. Like, when we press play. "
"That's
the highest gift anyone can have, it's like "woah, f*ck", we made
something happen. I mean, life is about growth, it's about change."
All songs written by Gallagher, Archer, Bell.
Published By Sony ATV
Produced by Dave Sitek and Beady Eye
Engineered by Zephyrus Sowers and Gem Archer
Assisted by Manon Grandjean and Paul 'Spooner' Heywood
Recorded at State of the Ark studios, Richmond, London
Mixed by Mark 'Spike' Stent
Assisted by Geoff Swann
Mastered by Ted Jensen at Stirling Sound, NYC.
Beady Eye will be in-store at Rough Trade East in London on release day and HMV Market St, Manchester on Tuesday to sign copies of the album. You can find Beady Eye's other live dates on the band's events list.
The last great rock ‘n’ roll star in Britain is in the room. And he is – to borrow a phrase – ’aving it.
Bounding up the stairs of a rehearsal studio opposite HMP Pentonville in north London, Liam Gallagher is all barely suppressed energy – pulling at a cigarette, his finger jabbing, jaw jutting and piercing blue eyes unwavering.
And he’s not afraid to spring a surprise, either.
“I would reform Oasis,” he says, speaking, as he does about everything, with absolute, unshakeable conviction. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m not desperate to. But if it was right, I’d do it. I’d do it for nothing, I’d do it for the music.”
Pause. Eye contact. Drag on the cigarette. Matter-of-fact finger point.
“I don’t think we’d get another album out. I don’t think I could work with Our Kid again – I don’t think he’d work with me again.
“But to do a tour for an anniversary thing, I’m up for that. I’d do a tour, I’d be up for the tour. Why f**king not, man? But afterwards, I’d definitely go back to Beady Eye cos I’m all about chilling and harmony right now.”
And breathe.
Now 40, Liam is at once exactly as you’d expect, yet also not what you’d expect at all. Yes, he’s every inch the mad-for-it Mancunian force of nature, whose face – that belligerent jaw, those menacing eyes, that much-copied (never bettered) hair – came to dominate the culture of a whole generation. The swagger is still untouchable, the aggression still perfectly channelled. He owns the space around him. Nineteen years after Oasis’ debut album Definitely Maybe definitively changed Britain’s musical landscape forever, Liam remains a complete one-off.
Watching his post-Oasis band Beady Eye rehearsing songs from their new album, BE, is to see a group fully immersed in their own power, with a singer at least as committed as he ever was. Though they’re effectively playing to an audience of one, the intensity doesn’t drop for a second. Liam still approaches the microphone like he’s going to physically assault it, still spits out every syllable of every lyric like his life depends upon it.
And yet – he’s also polite, funny and smarter than he gets credit for. Charming, even. Later, at the MF photo shoot, he’s all handshakes and backslaps and “f**kin’ nice one”s to everyone from the editor to the boy who delivered the bacon butties.
While the rest of the band – guitarists Andy Bell and Gem Archer and new bassist Jay Mehler, freshly joined from Kasabian (drummer Chris Sharrock is absent today) – are reserved, chatting among themselves, content to fade into the background, Liam works the room.
“Oi, Mr Fabulous!” he shouts. “You smoke, or what? You want a cigarette?”
Mr MF, Liam. Technically this is MF magazine. Fabulous is for the ladies.
“Yeah, but ‘Mr MF’ sounds s**t. Mr Fabulous – that’s a f**kin’ name, man. Mr F**kin’ Fabulous. That’s who you are.”
We’re not quite sure if he means it or he’s taking the mickey. Which is Liam all over.
Gem and Andy are well-used to this, of course. Before Beady Eye, they were both members of Oasis, along with drummer Chris (“What’s the difference between Oasis and Beady Eye?” asks Andy. “About 20 per cent, I’d say.”). But it’s telling that after the spectacular implosion of that band in 2009, it was Liam they followed, and not his older brother, Noel, 46.
Beady Eye were born from the ashes of Oasis and if their first album, 2011’s Different Gear, Still Speeding, sounded like it, this time around there’s a different feeling in the air. The band are more relaxed: in the post-Noel era, songwriting duties are shared between Liam, Andy and Gem, and they’re happy to admit they prefer it that way.
“When something works,” says Gem, “it works because we all make it work. And when it doesn’t work, we keep at it until it does.”
There’s another advantage to having a personality like Liam in the band, of course.
“We get the best of both worlds,” says Andy. “One night, we could be playing an arena in front of thousands, then the next day I’ll walk into HMV and nobody will recognise me...”
“Unless it was an HMV next to the arena, maybe,” chips in Gem.
“Or I was hanging out by the ‘O’ section. Which of course I do. A lot,” Andy replies.
Nevertheless, the spectre of Noel hangs over everything Beady Eye do. You can’t help thinking, no matter what they say, Big Brother is watching.
So, Liam, how are things different for you now?
All our songs are our songs. There’s no one telling me what to do. And nothing on the album that I don’t like.
Does that mean there were Oasis songs you didn’t like?
Well, I was just sort of given those Oasis songs and told to sing them, and mostly I’d go: “Yeah, all right, it’s a good song.” There might be some bits where you’re not sure and you say: “You know what, I don’t know about that bit there...” But all that happens then is you just get the f**king Hitler tut. You’re like: “That bit there, what about taking that out?” and it’s just: “You, f**k off and sing it.” But then, that’s life. We did all right with that formula so, I can’t complain, right? I guess after Oasis there was a part of us that thought: “Right, f**k that, he’s left, they all think we’re gonna go work in f**king Sainsbury’s.” But the truth is, we just wanted to keep rocking.
And what did you think of the Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds album?
I haven’t listened to it. I’ve heard what’s been on the radio and some of it’s all right. I didn’t like that What A Life! tune, that’s just ridiculous. I don’t know what the f**k he was on. I’m glad that he wrote that on his solo album. I don’t think I could have borne that at a f**king Oasis gig, f**king hell. Would it sound better if I was singing it? That song would sound s**t, full stop. I wouldn’t go near it. Some of the others would have sounded great though. The Death of You And Me, Everybody’s On The Run – I’d have nailed them all, man.
Has there been any reconciliation?
I see Noel at Manchester City matches every now and then, but that’s it. We’re not speaking. I don’t really see his kids [Anais, 13, Donovan, five, and Sonny, two], he doesn’t see mine [Molly, 15, Lennon, 13, and Gene, 11] that much, either. My mum’s not happy, but that’s life, know what I mean? We don’t get on, we’re two different people. It is what it is. It’s not the f**king Brady Bunch.
But if there were to be an Oasis reunion, you’d have to start talking again at some point, right? And there’s no doubting the public appetite for it...
Yeah, I can go with that. We shouldn’t have split up in the first place. We should have weathered the storm, know what I mean? And that’s why I think Noel just wanted out. We’d had bigger arguments about bigger things and carried on, but I think Noel had done his time. I think he’d stumbled on a batch of songs that he thought were amazing and he wanted to do it all himself. That’s basically it in a nutshell. He’ll sit there and say: “Oh, this was thrust upon me and we’re all in it together, I didn’t want to be a frontman...” B******s. You always did, mate. He wanted to be a frontman for a long time. He auditioned to be a frontman for the Inspiral Carpets [in 1989]. So if you’ve got that bug, it doesn’t go away, know what I mean? He just didn’t have the balls to sack me.
So if not the High Flying Birds, what have you been listening to? Daft Punk?
F**k that. Nothing. I don’t listen to any music at the moment. I don’t need music to inspire me. I’m inspired by life, know what I mean? If you’re living life, you’re inspired. Anyway, there’s nothing good out there, man. Oh, I’ll tell you what I like – that Bruno Mars song. The ballad-y one [When I Was Your Man]. That’s a f**king good song, that.
Really? You’ll be confessing to a secret love of One Direction next!
Well at least Harry Styles is having a good time, right? And that’s part and parcel of it. You want your rock ‘n’ roll stars to have a good time. When I see Harry out and about having it I think: “Go on, lad.” The music’s s**t, but at least he’s living it. It’s equally important as writing a good song. If you write a good song and you’re just a stiff and a square then you can just f**k off in my book.
Excuse us for saying so, but that doesn’t sound like a grown-up, responsible 40-year-old father of three speaking...
Listen, 40 is the new 13 as far as I’m concerned. What is a grown-up anyway? If it means becoming a f**king square, then not a chance. Rock ’n’ roll stars never grow up and if they do they’ve been f**king faking it, man. You’ve got to have some fun. You’ve got to live your life to make the music interesting. You’ve got to get up to some mad f**king scrapes. You gotta experience things.
The latest “mad scrape” reportedly involved being ejected from a London pub for drunkenly attempting to, ahem, ride a dog.
F**k man, I dunno where they got that from. I was at a pub and we’re having a drink and I don’t remember much about a dog. People say to me: “Liam, you’re p**sed,” and I’m like: “Yeah, that’s what you do, when you have a drink.” And at some point, if you have too many, it starts getting hold of you and you start getting a bit wheeyyyy... But where’s the dog, man? Show me the f**king dog. But I like the story. It’s a funny story. There’s been a few recently. What was that one about the gardens? The Garden Centre? What’s it f**king called? The Chelsea Garden Show? Chelsea Flower Show, that’s it. The story was that I’d applied for tickets and I was gonna f**king go there and f**king have it cos I love... flowers. Apparently. Obviously someone’s taken acid before writing that one. I don’t get upset, man. They can say what they want, as long as it’s not malicious. It’s all part of the game, I let them get on with it. I know what I’ve got to do. I’ve got to sing great songs and write great music. I’ve got a role to look f**king cool. And that’s exactly as I want it. I’m not doing it for anyone else, I’m doing it for me. I’m a f**king rock ‘n’ roll star – it’s my duty. And that’s how I like it.
With the second Beady Eye record released this week, is it fair to say you’re excited about music again?
I always get excited about a record, me. I love being in a band, that’s my gig, that’s what I do, that’s what I live for. But this is different – it’s something we’ve never done before, either in Beady Eye or Oasis. We’ve gone through a door with this record. Know what I mean? We’ve gone through the f**king door and we’ve f**king stayed for lunch. We’ve not gone: “Oh I’ll have a bit of that,” and then f**ked off. We’re like: “F**king hell, it’s nice in here, innit?” We’ve hung about for lunch. Maybe the next album we’ll stay and have dinner too, know what I mean?
To be honest, we’re not sure we do know exactly what Liam means, but we get the idea. And if there is a Liam-shaped hole in rock ‘n’ roll at the moment, despite the best efforts of Mr Styles, then any return to form by the modern master of having it large has to be welcomed. Whether with a reformed Oasis or a newly energised Beady Eye.
Meanwhile, after another round of handshakes, backslaps and exhortations to “stay f**king fabulous,” Liam Gallagher has one last piece of wisdom to dispense to us.
“Once you’re in, you’re in, man,” he says, referring to the rock ‘n’ roll game. “You can’t give up. Never. Once you’re in, you’re f**king in for good.”
Pictures of the band from the article can be found here.
"Cheeky bastard." Liam Gallagher is glowering – I think so, anyway – behind his stay-put Ray-Bans. But who is the subject of his ire this time? Is it traitorous brother Noel? Is it Mumford & Sons, this mouth-almighty's current favourite whipping boys ("Looks like they've got fucking nits and eat lentil soup")? It it, perhaps, Sir Alex Ferguson, who, on the day of our meeting in a north London rehearsal facility, has announced his triumphant retirement as manager of Manchester United, enemies of Liam's cherished City? Or is Liam addressing me?
The answer: none of the above. Right now, Liam's goat is got by a sweet.
"It was a fucking blue M&M," tuts Beady Eye's frontman, and readers should presume from hereon that every other utterance out of the Gallagher gob contains a "fuck", "fucking" or "fucker". Or, rather, via a Manc accent undimmed by 20 years 'avin' it in London, a "fook", "fooking" or "fooker".
"I was out," continues this stoutly, proudly unreconstructed rock star, "had a peanut M&M, the next thing I know, me mouth went weird. Felt like I'd been stung. Go to the toilet to have some hot water – and my mouth had swelled up, breathing got all weird, head went… Went to the doctor and they gave me a blood test and they said, 'Peanut allergy.' Never had that, mate," Liam grumps in his staccato, blunt-weapon speaking style. "Got to go back this week [to see] if there's anything else, but it's proper pickled my head for over a week. So I've got a prescription for the needles. Not good, man."
Head-pickling upset aside, Liam Gallagher is today in great and fighting form. He should be 'n' all. The 40-year-old is in the happy thick of rehearsals for the first shows in support of the second album by Beady Eye, the band formed by the rump of Oasis left after Noel exited stage-right-angry in August 2009. (The reasons proffered by the elder Gallagher, in a peanutshell: one argument too many with his brother.)
Titled with quasi-cosmic simplicity BE (see what they did there?), it's a cracker. No, really. Following the meat'n'potatoes stodge of their hastily recorded debut Different Gear, Still Speeding, Beady Eyes's follow-up is an entirely tastier proposition.
Gallagher and his bandmates Andy Bell and Gem Archer have together written an album of songs that fly with sky-scraping electronic adventurism, rootle around with poppy psychedelia, and generally have a right old ding-dong with the four-square trad-rock that bogged down the past decade or so of the principals' musical day jobs.
Liam's voice vibrates with close-mic intimacy and bristles with ragged glory. In particular "Flick of the Finger" and "Second Bite of the Apple", the first songs released from the album, explode with a vigour not heard round these parts since… well, since (What's the Story) Morning Glory?. And that came out 18 years ago.
"I've always dreamed of using the studio in a free way," states Bell, the guitarist who joined Oasis on bass in 1999, "and this was freedom. And the key to that was Dave," he adds of the London recording sessions produced by Dave Sitek, the out-there American who plays guitar in the band TV on the Radio and who has previously worked his wayward studio magic for Scarlett Johansson and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
"He came in and just put the key in that door and opened it wide," adds Bell. "But what he brought to it worked because we came in like a crack commando team with 21 songs that we'd rehearsed like bastards for ages."
To the thumpingly pragmatic Liam, Sitek could be a little too out-there, however. "We'd have to sort of go, 'Earth to Dave, get back to making some noise.'"
"There's a lot of people out there who maybe we could have or should have worked with," adds Archer, the guitarist who joined Oasis shortly before Bell. "But this is where we're at. And the idea of throwing Dave into the situation may have been a disaster – or glorious."
There are, then, ebullience and forward-looking good vibes in the room when I talk, first to Liam, and then to Archer and Bell together. But there is, of course, a ghost at the table. Someone who will always haunt Liam Gallagher…
Liam, what if Dave Sitek had produced 'Be Here Now' (Oasis's huge-selling but cocaine-clouded and much-maligned third album). Would that have worked?
"Yeah. It would have, definitely. Why not?"
Was adventurousness lacking in Oasis?
"Without a doubt."
Why? Did size take over?
"Maybe. I don't know, mate. There was always a bit of stiffness about Oasis that pissed me right off. It was a bit like, 'No, we're not doing it that way. We're doing it this way.' It's like, come on man, we're better than that. That's not having a pop at Noel, that's the way it was."
You describe 'BE' song 'Don't Brother Me' ('Sick of all your lying, your scheming and your crying…') as containing 'a diss… but it's not a hatred song'. Has Noel heard it?
"Don't speak to him, so I don't know. Sure, he's been fishing about for it… but I don't think he cares. But who knows? I don't know where Our Kid's head is at the moment. You see him and he looks like he's had a make-over, doesn't he?"
Did 'The Death of You and Me' (as featured on Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' self-titled debut) bother you?
"Not one bit. The title's good, though – when I first heard it I thought, 'You cheeky…' But that's life, innit? 'Don't Brother Me' is not a dig – it's not slagging. There's a lot of love in there."
It's not a character assassination?
"No, I'll leave that to this [points to tape recorder]. I don't need to do it through music. Once I've got everything off my chest and people get it, then I'll be quiet. There are still a few things that, with Our Kid, people have just got blinkers on about…"
Like what?
"He wanted the band split up. End of. And he was planning it for years. Cos I heard it, him and his manager [Marcus Russell, Oasis's manager, who quit as Beady Eye's manager during their last tour; he still manages Noel], I heard them planning it backstage at Bridlington Spa [the week before Noel left the band]. There was just bullshit going around. He'd been trying to get his little solo thing for ages." k
Did he have some of the tunes already written?
"Without a doubt. Loads of 'em. We recorded loads for the last [Oasis] album and he whipped 'em off – he went, 'Oh no, we're gonna keep that back.' I can't remember which ones but there was a few [on High Flying Birds]. He's just a sneaky little… I was hard work to work with, cos, whatever… But you don't just wake up in the morning and go, 'Oh, this is all a bit too rock'n'roll for me now.' That's what we built our career on, what you on about? So, yeah, once I've got everything off me chest – which I'm coming to a point [of doing] – I'll crack on and shut me mouth. But he is a conniving little bastard. He's always wanted to be a solo star. It was always in his head. He loved his little moment in the spotlight when he did his little thing [in the middle of Oasis sets]."
Why didn't he come out and split the band earlier?
"Cos he's a shitbag. He sacked Bonehead [Paul Arthurs, original Oasis bass player, pushed out in 1999], he sacked Guigsy [bass player Paul McGuigan, also out the door in 1999], he sacked Whitey [drummer Alan White, out on his ear as of 2004]. Next thing is, 'Oh, I'm gonna get rid of the fucking singer… Well, I'm not gonna get rid of him cos he's gonna knock me clean out. So what do I do? I just… conjure shit up.' That's in my head anyway."
Gem Archer was out socially with Noel Gallagher the other week. They went to see a band, Temples. They've maintained a friendship in the teeth of the brothers' mutual hostility. Bell, too, retains "enormous love and respect" for the man who led Oasis from their formation in 1991. Both guitarists miss Noel, and would love to see a fraternal reunion. What about an Oasis reunion? "I'm not hanging on for it," says Bell. "If it happened, I'd damn well enjoy it," nods Archer. "But if it didn't, I wouldn't be gutted." Liam, meanwhile, insists he doesn't miss Noel – not as a musical foil, not even as a brother. "I don't miss all the bullshit."
Do your kids miss him as an uncle, Liam?
"Never really knew him, mate. I don't know his kids either."
Would you recommend life in a band to your sons (Lennon, aged 13, and Gene, 11)?
"Without a doubt. I'd recommend it to anyone. It's the best gig in the world, man. Gene is up in his room drumming every day. Oh, mate, he loves it. Lennon does guitar lessons in school, and fancies himself as a bit of a singer."
Does he have your vocal skills?
"I don't know, mate. His life's a bit easier than mine – he's got to wait for something to piss him off. I've still got the arse. And that's what comes out in the voice."
Where did your teenage anger come from?
"Fuck knows, man. But I can do both – I can sing beautiful at home, but when it comes to guitars and live, when you're in a rock'n'roll band, you've got to be belting it out. I just sing every song like it's the last time I'm ever gonna sing it."
What music do your boys like?
"Lennon's a massive Who fan. It's got nothing to do with me, he's just obsessed with Quadrophenia."
No Justin Bieber?
"No. They have their moments, though – a lot of their mates are into Rizzle Kicks, shit like that."
What if Gene comes in and says, 'Dad, I love Mumford & Sons'?
"Right, well, you've got to let kids do what they gotta do. Obviously I'd have a laugh and go, 'Fuck that!' But Mumford & Sons write some good songs, man. They just look like gyppos."
Are they a good choice for a Glastonbury headline slot?
"Is that where they're playing? Headlining? About time. They've done well, man."
What about the Rolling Stones?
"Never seen them, ever. Am I interested? Not at £500 a pop. Tried to get on the guest list [for the O2], couldn't. I was not having it. Fuck that, mate, it's not rock'n'roll paying all that money for a ticket. I wouldn't pay £500 to see anyone."
Right now, Beady Eye are in training for a tour that all concerned hope will be a long one. Liam Gallagher is even up for having another crack at America – "Yep, but with the right stab," he qualifies, "without getting caught up in licking arse" – even though his antics (missing planes, spitting on stage) helped sabotage Oasis's attempts at "breaking" the US.
At the studio, Bell and Archer have been putting new bass player Jay Mehler, formerly of Kasabian, through his paces (Oasis's final drummer Chris Sharrock completes the line-up), and working out how to translate the imaginative textures of BE into a live show. The core trio ring with the raring-to-go enthusiasm of a band who have, rather against the odds, proved themselves.
Liam has been working on his match fitness by maintaining his near-daily running routine: one hour, 6am to 7am, Hampstead Heath, before heading home to make breakfast and do the school run. Interspersed, it must be noted, with the occasional appearance of the traditional Liam dust-up: some argy-bargy with actor Idris Elba after February's NME Awards and, the following month, being ejected from Crouch End pub The Queens for drunkenness – twice in one week. He is, in vintage Liam Gallagher style, living it large in every corner of his life. But now, at last, he's once again punting music that's equally entertaining.
Given Beady Eye's dietary requirements (Bell is also allergic to nuts), have you been giving your rider the once over?
"It's just the usual: vodka, tequila. I like tequila – there's no hangover. After a gig I can drink a whole bottle on me jack. Then at 12 o'clock the next day, I'm on it again. It's red wine and Guinness that make you feel crap the next day."
Do you still do drugs?
"Every now and again, mate. Don't want to be going on about it. Not as much as I used to. It's shit, isn't it – there's no good stuff out there. I will when a new batch comes in. But it takes me three days to recover. I try not to anyway. A good night for me is going out and coming home pissed, and knowing I haven't touched the gear."
Will Beady Eye still be touring this time next year?
"It's [down to] whether people dig BE. I've got a feeling that a lot of people are just like, 'Fuck off, whatever.' They're just not into it. They just want Oasis back together."
Do you want Oasis back together?
"No."
Never?
"No. Not yet. But I don't think about it, man. I want Beady Eye to be successful so we don't have to go down that road ever again. But if… you know… we'll see how it goes."
You'll never see Liam Gallagher at a One Direction gig.
But you could bet on him crashing the afterparty. Especially as he’s revealed he’s a big fan of Harry Styles's tear-ups.
The Beady Eye frontman said: “You want your rock ’n’ roll stars to have a good time. When I see Harry out and about having it I think, ‘Go on, lad’.
“The music’s s***, but at least he’s living it. It’s equally important as writing a good song.
“If you write a good song and you’re just a stiff and a square then you can just f*** off in my book. At least Harry is having a good time, right?”
Liam said recently he sees Harry and co as his band’s direct competition — but he wouldn’t know what their songs sounded like.
In fact, he wouldn’t know what any band’s tracks sound like — he has sacked off listening to current music altogether.
He told the men’s section of Fabulous magazine, free with tomorrow’s Sun: “I don’t listen to any music at the moment. I don’t need music to inspire me.
“I’m inspired by life, know what I mean? If you’re living life, you’re inspired. Anyway, there’s nothing good out there, man. Oh, I’ll tell you what I like — that BRUNO MARS song. The ballady one. That’s a f***ing good song, that.”
Never had Liam down as a Bruno fan.
Liam’s not been one to mince his words over the years — but it’s not his language the label are censoring on the new Beady Eye album BE, it’s the cover.
The uncensored artwork was shot by a chap called Harri Peccinotti, who’s famous for the Pirelli calendars in the late Sixties. It features a picture of his missus not wearing very much.
But bigwigs at record label Sony have been told that if they don’t censor her assets then supermarkets will refuse to stock it.
Beady Eye have just returned with their second album, Be and it's a
record that may make their detractors re-evaluate Liam Gallagher's
post-Oasis band. Alan Corr talks to Beady Eye guitarist Andy Bell about
giving the sixties a good monstering.
Beady Eye have just returned with their second album, Be and it’s a
record that may make their detractors re-evaluate Liam Gallagher’s
post-Oasis band. Alan Corr talks to Beady Eye guitarist Andy Bell about
giving the sixties a good monstering, Liam, Noel and working with
producer Dave Sitek
Andy Bell, well-spoken Oxford gent and hip young-ish guitar slinger,
first encountered Oasis during his time with Hurricane #1 in the
mid-90s. The former Ride guitarist clicked with the Gallagher brothers
and while his own fortunes waned, he was said to enjoy partying with the
then hell-raising Mancs.
After Hurricane #1, a band who owed a serious debut to Oasis, blew out,
Bell had a brief spell with the much-maligned Gay Dad before he and Gem
Archer were invited to join the Gallaghers after the departure of Oasis
founding members, Bonehead and Guigsy. Bell spent ten years in their
ranks, enjoying premier league rock band success for the first time and
stoically enduring the ups but mostly downs of Liam and Noel’s
relationship.
When the brothers eventually fell out for good after a very ugly
stand-off in Paris in 2009, Bell decided to take part in Liam’s plans
for a post-Oasis comeback. Apparently Noel hasn’t spoken to Bell since.
Now Beady Eye have released their second album Be on which Bell has
written three songs. And guess what? They’re the best songs on the
album.
Alan Corr: Is it true that when producer Dave Sitek met Beady Eye first he told you were stuck in 1969?
Andy Bell: “Well he didn’t say it in so many words but we were thinking
the same thing ourselves. We knew we were in a bit of a sixties vibe and
I think we always will be but we’re also open to that being enhanced or
changed. What we did with Dave was very complimentary to our fallback
style. I still think the new album is very sixties and I can hear all
that in there. I don’t think our musical style got changed. I think it
got broadened.”
If not 1969, the spirit of ’68 informs at least one song on the album
– Flick The Finger which samples a speech by at an anti-Vietnam War
rally in London
“Absolutely right. That speech is from a sample we used on a demo and
it’s from a television programme about 1968. There is not much of that
sense of revolution these days. It’s definitely there in the world but
not necessarily in our soap opera and X Factor society. it’s definitely
not in music anyway. Bobby Gillespie said recently that there was no
rebellion in music right now and I was thinking well Flick The Finger is
out now and that’s at least one song with a bit of rebellion in it. I
think people like us and Primal Scream there’s anger in our music in the
rock `n’ roll we do and that comes from a counterculture legacy. It
comes very naturally to me and with Bob, it’s more in his lyrics and his
interviews. In terms of other bands doing that, I’m sure there are lots
of them but I don’t see many.”
You’ve written three songs on Be. In terms of the division of labour,
I know there were rumblings from Noel when you were Oasis about song
writing but it seems there’s a very democratic set-up when it comes to
writing in Beady Eye
“There is. When we’re demoing songs, we rotate though Liam, Gem and
myself. We’ll bring a song in that maybe needs a bit of work and make
the demo. Every song gets a lot of love and we help each other. It
really does show that in some bands teamwork is the way. No one in the
band would claim to be a complete song writer in the way that Noel
Gallagher obviously is, he’s the whole package. In our band, it’s
between the three of us. None of us can deliver everything on our own
and we know that.”
So compared to Noel’s Angry Birds, you really want to have a united front as a band
“It’s the reality. It is a band. It’s as simple as that. We’ve been
playing together for years, just in two different bands so that I think
does come through. Me, Gem and Chris have a beautiful sound together
which really works especially live. For our tour, we have a keyboard
player called Matt Jones, but we’re being joined by Jay Mehler from
Kasabian as a bass player and he’s bringing in something new too.”
One of your songs, Soon Come Tomorrow, initially sounds like a pretty
conventional rock song but there are some very interesting things going
on underneath it all
“I know, it’s crazy. That’s the one where I have no idea what is going
on with it, what’s going on with the atmospheric s. We recorded our
version and then Dave started whipping up this atmospheric soup around
it and it really suits the tune, it lifts it and puts you in a certain
headspace which fits the lyrics. He did a great job but I couldn’t tell
you what he did with it. He uses an early synthesiser for strings called
a solina which was a fake orchestra keyboard thing that was out in the
late seventies.”
The cover art for Be is shockingly retro – a beautiful girl in
profile lying down bathed in the kind of sunlight that only existed in
1974. She is also naked. Are you worried that some American retailers
might take a dim view of this?
"I think the use of a well-placed sticker will cover up any offending
areas and when people get home they’ll pull the sticker off and be
confronted with the full horror of a human body. We thought we were
being quite risqué but nobody seems to have batted an eyelid. The
sticker thing has just solved it without it becoming an issue and even
in Japan they’ve released it.”
Have there been any concerns about Liam’s voice? After years of well,
cigarettes and alcohol and singing with Oasis and Beady Eye, is it
showing signs of wear?
“There has been no concern whatsoever about Liam’s voice. Liam’s got an
amazing voice. In fact, on this album we wanted to take away the effects
we had been using so the voice is a lot more bare and intimate and it’s
double-tracked so much, so it’s in the room with you feeling and that
suits the introspective tunes on the album. Lots of singers’ voices get
tired on tour and Liam really belts it out so he gets tired. He can’t do
three gigs on the bounce and that’s one of the things we have to
observe on tour. His voice is not shot in any way – he is singing
beautifully and I’ll tell you what, check out the session we did in
Abbey Road for Absolute Radio. It’s Liam singing unadorned and he sings
like a little lark.”
The reviews for Be in the British media have been uniformly three out
of five. Do you think journalists constantly hedge their bets when it
comes to Beady Eye?
“Yeah. I’m just pleased that the reviews are generally positive but I
don’t expect to get the gushing ten out of ten type things. This band
has a lot of baggage and I think that’s probably the main reason. I
think the album is great, if only I was reviewing it! The media may not
be fans. It doesn’t bother me as long as we connect with our audience
and I think this time more than the last that’s happening. I have a
feeling that people we are reaching out to our there.”
Even though it’s four years since Oasis split, even now the battle
lines are being redrawn between Noel and Liam. How hard is that to rise
above?
“It’s a weird one. Liam said it pretty well the other day. His favourite
band is The Stone Roses and they’re one of my favourite bands too and
when they broke up, nobody felt the temptation to take sides. Bands
break up and it’s a natural thing especially after 10, 12, 15 years
together. All I can really do is take it as a compliment and take it as
love for Oasis’ music.”
And is Liam - in the words of Noel - still a man with a fork in a world of soup?
Help choose play list for Liam Gallagher special on BBC Radio 6
BBC Radio 6 are doing a special two hour show this Sunday dedicated to Liam Gallagher, his music , influences, influecees and people he's worked with. Every tune is going to be chosen by fans and we'd love you get involved and help spread the word so your followers can help pick the music.
Liam Gallagher: I just want people to dig my songs. Don't need an award for it.
Liam Gallagher interview excerpt from NME magazine
NME: One thing that doesn't make the papers so much now Is the rift with Noel - he doesn't seem to be fueling it any more. He told NME that he likes your new stuff…
Liam: "Good, It's good music. But he'll say anything to you. Deep down he probably hates it, but he's never gonna tell you the truth. He just walks around in wolf's clothes, man. I wear my heart on my sleeve. Or maybe he's mellow and it's just me."
He won an Ivor last week.
"Bet he's happy with that, isn't he?"
And you?
"I don't give a fuck what awards he gets. Ivor Novello Award? What is it?" Oasis won two of them. It's the industry award.
"I Don't want anything to do with that shit"
He got it for his song collection. What would that mean to you, to be recognised as a songwriter?
"I've got a lot to learn about song writing, but I'm learning fucking fast man, believe you me. I just want people to dig my songs, I don't need an award for it." Noel seems to have been welcomed into rock's elder statesmen club, that sort of Ray Davies, Roger Daltrey and Paul McCartney world, where you haven't.
"Yeah, poor bastard. He wears it well, all that gear. He's a civilised kind of chap. He doesn't want to know about that rock'n'roll stuff any more "
Liam Gallagher on Oasis reunion gigs: "We could bury the hatchet for a quick lap of honour.”
Liam Gallagher has admitted he would tour again with Oasis ‘for nowt’, but believes the scenario is unlikely to ever happen.
As Liam, along with three other former Oasis members, prepares to release the second Beady Eye album ‘BE‘, the frontman has been quizzed again by NME on the likelihood of a return for their previous band, which disbanded in 2009 after the departure of guitarist and lead songwriter Noel Gallagher.
“There’s unfinished business there,” he states. “People ask would I get Oasis back together. I’d do it for nowt, but if someone’s going to drop a load of fucking money, I’d do it for that too. I don’t think we’d ever make another record. I doubt we’ll ever get back together.”
“If we do, it’d be nice to do that fucking thing that’s coming up I’d be up for that,” Liam continues, referring either to the 20th birthday of ‘Definitely Maybe‘ next year, or the already much-discussed 2015 anniversary of its follow-up ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?‘.
“But I’d still go back to Beady Eye and Noel would go back to his thing. We could bury the hatchet for a quick lap of honour.”
Liam Gallagher and his band Beady Eye speak to Pete Donaldson at the iconic Abbey Road Studios ahead of their exclusive acoustic session for us there.
Liam talks about that hat incident involving Idris Elba, he hints he'd be up for a judging role on The X Factor and says he was shocked when his beloved Manchester City sacked manager Roberto Mancini.
This story was re-posted in error and has been removed. Google news published it as a new story today but it originally ran in October of 2012. You can read the original story in our archives . Sorry for any confusion this might have caused.
