The Interior Life of Noel Gallagher: A Speculative History

http://www.nme.com/news/noel-gallagher/69195?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=blur50

Gallagher, standing in for The Who's Roger Daltrey, has curated a week of huge shows at the London venue, including headline appearances from Kasabian, Paul Weller, Primal Scream and Noel himself. Speaking to Shortlist about how he arranged the all-star bill, Gallagher said that he had spoken to artists personally backstage at festivals during the summer of 2012 and had verbal agreements from lots of artists who subsequently "wriggled out" of appearing.

"I'd talk to Ed Sheeran and Mumford And Sons thinking, 'I'll just do the fucking seven nights myself, what the fuck am I asking these people for?' and I got turned down a lot. Everybody says yes to your face. Everybody. And then the agent will call, and their management will call and then their PR will call and say, 'Ah, they're going to be in Australia at the time.' Really? Well they never said that to me. What's interesting is all the working class bands said yes straight off the bat, no fucking inkling of when it was. The middle class bands said yes and wriggled out of it. I dunno what that means, but it must mean something. It was an interesting summer. But I will say, if the people that blew me off but said they'll do it next year actually do it, it might be the greatest event since Woodstock.

it must mean something.

"working class bands"

that horny-handed son of toil Bobby Gillespie

one out of three ain't bad

Kasabian, Paul Weller and Primal Scream? How did Noel think of asking them?

next he'll be saying he's keen on the Beatles!

"But I will say, if (Ed Sheeran and Mumford And Sons) actually do it, it might be the greatest event since Woodstock."

Led Zep and the Beatles were the Ed Sheerans and Mumfords of Woodstock

Cancelled Acts
Jeff Beck Group (The band broke up in July, forcing cancellation)
Iron Butterfly (Stuck at the airport, their manager demanded helicopters and special arrangements just for them. Were wired back and told, as impolitely as Western Union would allow, "to get lost", but in other 'words'.)
Joni Mitchell (Joni's agent put her on "The Dick Cavett Show" instead)
Lighthouse (Feared that it would be a "bad scene".)
Ethan Brown (Arrested for LSD three days before the event.)

Declined Invitations
The Beatles (John Lennon said he couldn't get them together)
Led Zeppelin (Got a higher paying gig at the Asbury Park Convention Hall in New Jersey that weekend)
Bob Dylan (Turned it down because of his disgust of the hippies hanging around his house)
The Byrds (Turned it down because of a melee during their performance at the first Atlanta International Pop Festival, held at the Atlanta International Raceway on July 4 and July 5, 1969)
Tommy James & the Shondells (Turned it down because of being misinformed about the size and scope of the event)
Jethro Tull (Turned it down because they thought it wouldn't be a big deal.)
The Moody Blues were included in the original posters as performers, but backed out after taking a gig in Paris on the same weekend.
Spirit (they had other shows planned and did not want to back out of their commitments; not knowing how big that Woodstock would ultimately become)
Mind Garage (Declined because they thought it wouldn't be a big deal and had a higher paying gig elsewhere)

who is ethan brown?

Ethan Brown was a solo guitarist highly admired by the 'hippie' youth, but he was arrested three days before the festival on LSD related charges. He is known best for his earlier childhood friendship with The Doors piano player, Ray Manzarek.

huh. thanks. nothing on allmusic.... did he ever record?

No idea - any search for him brings up the same couple of sentences being repeated on lots of websites. Maybe if he hadn't dropped that acid tab he'd be a household name.

iirc noel referred to robbie williams as a fat karaoke singer from stoke, but every word out his mouth is a jewel so the details hardly matter

robbie williams as a fat karaoke singer from stoke

Lol
I know ppl that live in the uk have a lot of oasis baggage, but trust me if you live in the u.s. where they are no better remembered than like semisonic or gin blossoms these dudes are super hilarious and I wish they did interviews every day

So do they.

This stuff writes itself!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21916688

Former Britpop rivals Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn have buried the hatchet and performed together at a charity concert.

Oasis guitarist Gallagher joined Blur singer Albarn and his bandmate Graham Coxon at a Teenage Cancer Trust gig at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Paul Weller completed the supergroup, who performed Blur's 1999 track Tender.

Oasis and Blur were famously engaged in a feud in the mid-1990s as the biggest bands of the Britpop era.

Noel Gallagher caused controversy when he said in 1995 that he hoped Albarn and Blur bassist Alex James would "catch Aids and die".

But Gallagher and Albarn have recently made peace. They shared a table at this year's Brit Awards, with Gallagher later saying they bonded over a dislike of boy band One Direction.

Ha ha ha these fuckin guys

And I said ‘I’m sorry mate, I actually don’t.’

can vividly picture noel saying this. every expression - one eyebrow raised as he says 'sorry mate', flicker of a smirk round the edges of his mouth as he says 'don't'. eyes darting about, waiting expectantly for peals of laughter at yet another classic no-nonsense wit-drenched bon mot from the big noelly g

not on topic but it is depressing as sin how noel has taken on the role of 'voice of the working class' when he's the ultimate NIMBY small c conservative. same goes for the enemy et al

I know ppl that live in the uk have a lot of oasis baggage, but trust me if you live in the u.s. where they are no better remembered than like semisonic or gin blossoms these dudes are super hilarious and I wish they did interviews every day

― ums (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, March 23, 2013 7:35 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

otm

lol at the thought of nimby small c conservative not being the voice of the working class

um ok. (is this more of that fabled darragh banter?)

if you mean warmed-up barely digested daily mail bollox then probably

Ha rein em in folks (or not, as the case may be i spose) but no, bantlessly i put forth the contention that blokey noel may be very much the voice of the working class. I can't figure out if it's his bantz or mine that are the warmed up daily mail bollox etc but i'm not sure it stands as solid refute in either case.

More interior life, pls.

;)

And I'd contend that's a pretty fucking narrow and clueless take on the "voice" of the working class tbh, but there you go eh? xp

Ha fine then, there is no 'voice of the working class' dry yr shorts. If there were it would certainly be a highly educated liberal but not in any paternalistic way.

Frustrated much btw? Just a message board thread about noel gallagher, working class boy done good.

Xp fair enough schwantz

noel wondered why he couldnt be working class and rich and a bit tory all at the same time. Or why, being so, this made some people angry. It were all a bit strange, that.

Noel lit a cigarette. "A real, proper fucking cigarette," he thought. "Not one of those poncey electronic jobs."

How long can you go without writing?
Oh, fuckin' 10 months. I don't chase it any more, doesn't bother me in the slightest. It only really dawns on me when I'm out with Weller. He'll say, "Have you written any songs recently?", and I'll say, "Actually no, I haven't." He'll say, "When was the last time you wrote?" and I'll say, "Oh fuck, nine months ago." We'll have an argument about that or something or other and he'll say, "Get your fuckin' finger out, you lazy …" – all that. From when I joined Oasis to when we became a real big, fuck-off band – when you fall into that cycle of album, tour, a year off, so it's once every three years – I was on a mission. All that Definitely Maybe, Morning Glory and Be Here Now stuff was all written while I was on the dole. After that other shit gets in the way, like going on tour for a year and a half. It slows you down a bit. It comes with age, kids: you don't get the time to devote to it any more.

When the band needed a first single you just went into a room and wrote "Supersonic".
That just appeared. We were doing "Bring It on Down" because Creation wanted it as the first single and it was just fuckin' rubbish. Instead of scrapping the session somebody said, "Just go and write a song." I had the chords and that, it was just magic, and I've never done it since. It was amazing, that night. I wrote the whole song in less than half an hour, recorded it and mixed it that night, played it to Creation and that was it – fuckin' hell, great.

Do you think in traditional structures when you're writing?
I only listen to music derived or from the 60s. I'm not interested in jazz or hip-hop or whatever's going round at the minute; indie shit. I don't loathe it but I don't listen to it. My education as a songwriter was from listening to the Kinks and the Who and the Beatles. I don't listen to avant-garde landscapes and think, "I could do that." I'm not a fan of Brian Eno. It's Ray Davies, John Lennon and Pete Townshend for me.

Where would that education take you? Was it listening and absorbing or thinking, "What's Ray Davies doing here?"
No, I'm not that clever. I would play along at home to "Dead End Street" and "Waterloo Sunset" but that's it. I taught myself to play the guitar; it's just a tool for me to write songs. I'm not a great guitarist. I don't study it. It frustrates me sometimes. I'll never be the super session guy: I can do sessions for Oasis. It would take all the magic out of it to break down "I Am the Walrus" to its basic components. I listen to it and go, "It's fucking amazing; why is it amazing? I don't know, it just is." That's why I find journalists such joyless fucking idiots. They have to break music down and pull it apart until there's nothing left, until they know it all; they analyse it down until it's bland nonsense. They don't listen to music like the rest of us.

Is it a default when you're stuck for ideas: rain, shine?
I'm not one of the world's greatest thinkers. Damon Albarn said this once in an interview: he can "see four black dudes playing cards in a pub in Notting Hill and write a symphony about it". I would see the same four black dudes and to me it's just four black dudes playing cards. It's just how you perceive things in life. I'm not a great reader of books; I'm not a great art lover. What I know is street life and street talk and football and drugs. I am probably the only songwriter in the entire world that hasn't written a song about 9/11.

god, i find this bloke so entirely depressing

He wasn't always like that but it sure explains why Oasis turned to utter shit once they discovered the Beatles and mythology.

it's all awful then he gives you that damon quote which almost is worse.

i can't find any source for the damon quote other than noel, so i'm not massively convinced that's what he said or, you know, at least how he said it?

I am probably the only songwriter in the entire world that hasn't written a song about 9/11.

don't think i've ever heard anyone mention a song about 9/11, ever.

Neither has Noel probably

McCartney has done it. Springsteen has done it. Neil Young has done it. These are Noel's peers tbf

in his dreams

Oasis turned to utter shit once they discovered the Beatles

So... before they started Oasis, then? Sounds about right.

my thoughts exactly

Depressing, I wasn't sure about him after escaping the bubble of Oasis but it seems his perspective if anything has narrowed rather than the other way

Gallagher's a churl who isn't worth a moment's attention but i want to say as a side note that i don't think a gleeful eclecticism of influence is necessarily better for an artist than a handful of fixed references. a creative imagination doesn't need a vast range of inputs - they just need to be creative and imaginative.

agreed - though purposefully blinkering oneself from anything that's not white and holding a guitar and from the 60s probably is a strong indicator that said artist is unlikely to be creative or imaginative.

It doesn't seem to occur to Noel that even his boring old moth-eaten heroes were not as incurious and ignorant about music as he is, albeit as shit and boring as they are.

I'm not interested in jazz or hip-hop or whatever's going round at the minute; indie shit.

not sure what's going on w/ the punctuation here but I like to think that he's bracketing jazz and hip-hop as "indie shit"

Hey guys have you taken a second to contemplate how horrific Noel's jazz or hip hop influenced music would be?

There was some experimentation: "D'You Know What I Mean?" contains a slowed down loop from N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton",[17] while "Magic Pie" features psychedelically arranged vocal harmonies and a mellotron. According to Noel, "All I did was run my elbows across the keys and this mad jazz came out and everyone laughed."[18]

"All I did was run my elbows across the keys and this mad jazz came out and everyone laughed"

That's probably a result of Goldie giving him some advice.

imagining him going out for a piss straight after that and everyone else in the studio sort of looking at each other and all wanting to broach the subject of when are we going to stop being so craven and just tell him that his ideas are terrible and this wasn't "mad jazz" but the sound that anyone would make if they ran their elbows across a keyboard but all of them also knowing that this is a great life and why do anything that would even moderately dent it

That is probably the closest to the bone post on here in terms of Noel's True Interior Life.