yertle-the-turtle
ONE love, blood, life
Article from local Singapore paper. It's a phone interview. Noel also sorta mentions U2. I'm going to see the band soon, should be something!
From hell to perfect rock
By Andrew Duffy
SOMETHING strange has happened to Oasis.
It was getting fashionable to write it off after two dreary albums and four lost years partying.
The band members spent more time behaving like rock stars than writing music. Great for the image, lousy for the fans. But the times, they are a-changing.
With Heathen Chemistry, released this year, they've produced one of life's near-perfect rock albums.
ANTHEMIC SONGS
As for Noel Gallagher, 35, the stoned, drunken, brawling wild man of rock (and he was the calm one compared to brother Liam, 30) - well, he's kicked the drugs and returned to writing the anthemic rock songs that made Oasis the hottest group in the world, selling 36 million albums.
Oasis will be at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Oct 26.
Given the band's dislike of Robbie Williams (who sent it a funeral wreath after he heard one of their albums), we shouldn't expect a repeat of his trouser-dropping.
But now it is in Japan, and on the phone from Osaka to The New Paper, former wild man Gallagher was cheery, amiable, and entirely approachable.
The man who dismissed his 1997 third album, Be Here Now, as 'the same old pub-rock bollocks' is quietly pleased with Heathen Chemistry.
'Yeah, it's the most consistent album we've done since Definitely Maybe.
'The seven songs we're doing off this album for the tour are better than anything we've done for four or five years.'
The name Heathen Chemistry came from a T-shirt that Gallagher saw in Ibiza. He has no idea what it means, but he liked the sound of it.
Gallagher accepts that Oasis' musical low was all to do with the drugs and the wild lifestyle that started after the success of the second album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?.
He has a good excuse: 'I'd just been paid an extreme amount of money, and I wanted to spend it. There was just so much fun to be had outside the group. I didn't want to spend any time in a studio.'
While he has few regrets about those wild, wasted years, he knows that the effect on the music wasn't good.
'When I was writing Be Here Now, there was nothing to write about, because my life was just going from one party to the next, with supermodels and actors, which was great, the best time of my life, but it's not stuff you can put into words and write songs about.'
In 1998, Gallagher dropped the drugs.
'There just came a point where you want to get a good night's sleep and you have to stop taking drugs,' he said.
HANGOVER
But the hangover continued, creatively at least, into the fourth album.
'Standing On The Shoulder of Giants is a document of all that drugs and divorce and mayhem and being a spokesman for the chemical generation,' he said.
'It was me going 'I'm sick of this, I've had enough now'.
'The main difference between that and Heathen Chemistry is in the first lines of the first song, Hindu Times, which is 'I get up, when I'm down'. It's about saying, well, all that's done with, you know, let's have a look outside.'
The calming came with a price: Oasis is no longer the world's No 1 group.
That award, Gallagher said, goes to U2 - and he sounded curiously relieved that the weight had been taken from Oasis' shoulders.
But some things never change. The famous rivalry between the two brothers hasn't gone away.
There was a legendary fight when Liam realised his big brother was getting much, much richer than he was, because Noel got all the royalties from the song publishing while Liam only got a fifth of the band's album and merchandising sales.
Gallagher gets exasperated at this: 'If I'm sitting up at five in the morning writing an autobiographical tale of my life for the media to dismiss in one sentence, I get paid for that, nobody else,' he told The New Paper.
'Now, if Liam has a problem with that, I suggest he get off his fat arse and write more songs.'
Liam, heeding his brother's good advice, wrote three of the best songs on Heathen Chemistry.
'There you go,' said Gallagher. 'I don't share in any of that.'
The brothers were born and raised in poverty in Manchester.
When they got super-rich, they moved to London - and some fans have said that was the worst thing that ever happened to the Gallagher brothers.
Gallagher sees both sides.
'Sometimes I wish I hadn't moved there, but if I hadn't I wouldn't have met Anais' mum, and I wouldn't have a lovely daughter.
'But I like living in London because I don't know anybody. In Manchester I knew everyone. I sort of like the idea of being an outsider.
'In London, if you put your hood up when you're walking down the street, you're just another ordinary person.'
Now this ordinary person with an estimated $68 million fortune, who recently spent $20 million on a pension plan, is altogether a picture of rock 'n' roll respectability that even Sir Mick Jagger would admire.
And he has no plans to do a Beckham and move back to Manchester, because he wants to be near his daughter, Anais, in London.
His ex-wife, Meg Matthews, got custody of Anais, 2, after the divorce last year, and now Gallagher sees his daughter on Thursdays and Fridays, and every other weekend.
'She's not allowed to live with me. Every time I see her and have to hand her back, it's heartbreaking.
'Yeah, well, I'm a rock star and I travel the world, so it's best she lives with her mum,' he said, with a mix of pride and regret.
THE SECRET DREAM
But even if he's turned his back on Manchester as a place to live, Gallagher still supports Man City.
Man City's manager is Kevin Keegan who, by one of those strange quirks of fate in the celebrity world, once had a bash at being a pop star, and released a single, It Ain't Easy, in 1978.
Would Gallagher ever do a duet with Keegan?
'No!' he said. But then he had a better idea.
'I'll tell you what. I'll let him sing on one of our albums if he lets me play centre forward for one game. Against Man United preferably. I couldn't guarantee not being sent off after 30 seconds, but there you go.'
But wouldn't he look out of place in an English Premier League match?
'I could hold my own. I'm not very fast, but I'm dirty,' he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT IS A WONDERWALL?
There's one thing I've wanted to know for the last seven years, since Wonderwall was released in 1995. And at last, I have the chance to ask the man himself: What is a wonderwall?
'A wonderwall is an imaginary friend. I suppose it's a saviour.
'It's like, I'm a single guy, I haven't got a companion or a girlfriend, and I don't go out on the pull because I'm waiting for somebody to come along and change my life - and that person is a wonderwall.'
Thanks, Noel. That makes it a lot clearer.
From hell to perfect rock
By Andrew Duffy
SOMETHING strange has happened to Oasis.
It was getting fashionable to write it off after two dreary albums and four lost years partying.
The band members spent more time behaving like rock stars than writing music. Great for the image, lousy for the fans. But the times, they are a-changing.
With Heathen Chemistry, released this year, they've produced one of life's near-perfect rock albums.
ANTHEMIC SONGS
As for Noel Gallagher, 35, the stoned, drunken, brawling wild man of rock (and he was the calm one compared to brother Liam, 30) - well, he's kicked the drugs and returned to writing the anthemic rock songs that made Oasis the hottest group in the world, selling 36 million albums.
Oasis will be at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Oct 26.
Given the band's dislike of Robbie Williams (who sent it a funeral wreath after he heard one of their albums), we shouldn't expect a repeat of his trouser-dropping.
But now it is in Japan, and on the phone from Osaka to The New Paper, former wild man Gallagher was cheery, amiable, and entirely approachable.
The man who dismissed his 1997 third album, Be Here Now, as 'the same old pub-rock bollocks' is quietly pleased with Heathen Chemistry.
'Yeah, it's the most consistent album we've done since Definitely Maybe.
'The seven songs we're doing off this album for the tour are better than anything we've done for four or five years.'
The name Heathen Chemistry came from a T-shirt that Gallagher saw in Ibiza. He has no idea what it means, but he liked the sound of it.
Gallagher accepts that Oasis' musical low was all to do with the drugs and the wild lifestyle that started after the success of the second album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?.
He has a good excuse: 'I'd just been paid an extreme amount of money, and I wanted to spend it. There was just so much fun to be had outside the group. I didn't want to spend any time in a studio.'
While he has few regrets about those wild, wasted years, he knows that the effect on the music wasn't good.
'When I was writing Be Here Now, there was nothing to write about, because my life was just going from one party to the next, with supermodels and actors, which was great, the best time of my life, but it's not stuff you can put into words and write songs about.'
In 1998, Gallagher dropped the drugs.
'There just came a point where you want to get a good night's sleep and you have to stop taking drugs,' he said.
HANGOVER
But the hangover continued, creatively at least, into the fourth album.
'Standing On The Shoulder of Giants is a document of all that drugs and divorce and mayhem and being a spokesman for the chemical generation,' he said.
'It was me going 'I'm sick of this, I've had enough now'.
'The main difference between that and Heathen Chemistry is in the first lines of the first song, Hindu Times, which is 'I get up, when I'm down'. It's about saying, well, all that's done with, you know, let's have a look outside.'
The calming came with a price: Oasis is no longer the world's No 1 group.
That award, Gallagher said, goes to U2 - and he sounded curiously relieved that the weight had been taken from Oasis' shoulders.
But some things never change. The famous rivalry between the two brothers hasn't gone away.
There was a legendary fight when Liam realised his big brother was getting much, much richer than he was, because Noel got all the royalties from the song publishing while Liam only got a fifth of the band's album and merchandising sales.
Gallagher gets exasperated at this: 'If I'm sitting up at five in the morning writing an autobiographical tale of my life for the media to dismiss in one sentence, I get paid for that, nobody else,' he told The New Paper.
'Now, if Liam has a problem with that, I suggest he get off his fat arse and write more songs.'
Liam, heeding his brother's good advice, wrote three of the best songs on Heathen Chemistry.
'There you go,' said Gallagher. 'I don't share in any of that.'
The brothers were born and raised in poverty in Manchester.
When they got super-rich, they moved to London - and some fans have said that was the worst thing that ever happened to the Gallagher brothers.
Gallagher sees both sides.
'Sometimes I wish I hadn't moved there, but if I hadn't I wouldn't have met Anais' mum, and I wouldn't have a lovely daughter.
'But I like living in London because I don't know anybody. In Manchester I knew everyone. I sort of like the idea of being an outsider.
'In London, if you put your hood up when you're walking down the street, you're just another ordinary person.'
Now this ordinary person with an estimated $68 million fortune, who recently spent $20 million on a pension plan, is altogether a picture of rock 'n' roll respectability that even Sir Mick Jagger would admire.
And he has no plans to do a Beckham and move back to Manchester, because he wants to be near his daughter, Anais, in London.
His ex-wife, Meg Matthews, got custody of Anais, 2, after the divorce last year, and now Gallagher sees his daughter on Thursdays and Fridays, and every other weekend.
'She's not allowed to live with me. Every time I see her and have to hand her back, it's heartbreaking.
'Yeah, well, I'm a rock star and I travel the world, so it's best she lives with her mum,' he said, with a mix of pride and regret.
THE SECRET DREAM
But even if he's turned his back on Manchester as a place to live, Gallagher still supports Man City.
Man City's manager is Kevin Keegan who, by one of those strange quirks of fate in the celebrity world, once had a bash at being a pop star, and released a single, It Ain't Easy, in 1978.
Would Gallagher ever do a duet with Keegan?
'No!' he said. But then he had a better idea.
'I'll tell you what. I'll let him sing on one of our albums if he lets me play centre forward for one game. Against Man United preferably. I couldn't guarantee not being sent off after 30 seconds, but there you go.'
But wouldn't he look out of place in an English Premier League match?
'I could hold my own. I'm not very fast, but I'm dirty,' he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT IS A WONDERWALL?
There's one thing I've wanted to know for the last seven years, since Wonderwall was released in 1995. And at last, I have the chance to ask the man himself: What is a wonderwall?
'A wonderwall is an imaginary friend. I suppose it's a saviour.
'It's like, I'm a single guy, I haven't got a companion or a girlfriend, and I don't go out on the pull because I'm waiting for somebody to come along and change my life - and that person is a wonderwall.'
Thanks, Noel. That makes it a lot clearer.
