Oasis star 'freaked out'
2005-10-28 14:53
Paris - Oasis songwriting legend Noel Gallagher, currently on tour after the release of the band's sixth album, thinks the only thing that might put an end to live performances by the chart-topping group is the health of younger brother Liam's hair.
"The masterstroke in this band was having a singer five years younger than anyone else. As long as he doesn't go bald, we'll be around for a bit," 38-year-old Noel told AFP before a performance in Paris.
The surly Gallagher brothers, famed for their thick Manchester accents and bitter sibling rivalry, burst onto the British music scene more than a decade ago before going on to sell millions of records worldwide.
Their volatile relationship, fights, drug problems, celebrity relationships - and their prodigious talent for producing catchy pop songs - have filled thousands of news pages the world over.
But the fact that Noel is now joking about ageing and baldness suggests that he may have come to terms with the end of his hell-raising days. Despite a long and much-publicised history of fraternal friction, Noel says he hasn't had a proper fight with Liam "for a few years".
"All those stupid fights about f---ing whose jackets was better than the other's have all gone," he says.
He admits though that seeing teenagers in the audience singing along to some of the band's early releases "freaks him out".
"There's kids singing along to Rock 'n' Roll star and they would have been like six when it came out," he says. "That took me like two months (of the tour) to get used to. Before, I wouldn't look young people in the eye."
Return to public favour
The latest album Don't Believe The Truth has been well received by fans, and the return to public favour was cemented when Oasis picked up the Best Album award at Britain's prestigious Q music awards in early October.
The album is a return to a well-tested formula: Liam's strained, nasal vocals laid over powerful guitar chords, coupled with catchy choruses in both rock and ballad formats.
After six albums, it's clear Oasis are not about to reinvent themselves.
"I'm not going to develop anymore after 38. It's as simple as that," says Noel.
Does Noel have another Wonderwall or Live Forever in him, two of the band's most enduringly popular songs?
"I used to write five songs a day. But now you've got baggage and when you get older you've got things to do," he says. "I don't write as much as I used to, but I write often enough to satisfy my interest."
Not the talk of someone who's still got things to prove. Fatherhood, for one thing, has sapped some of his energy, he says.
Lost none of his cockiness
But the singer/songwriter has lost none of his cockiness or taste for feuding with fellow musicians. Nor has bringing up a daughter curbed his colourful language.
Noel dismisses, for example, the revival of guitar-based pop music - called by some "Britpop II" after the Britpop of Oasis and Blur in the mid-1990s - as "f---ing Indie rubbish".
Noel has already publicly mocked British rivals Bloc Party, and he is no less scornful of bands such as Franz Ferdinand and Maximo Park because they perform in modish suits and ties.
Attending the NME music magazine awards in Britain, he said, was like being in a school disco, where rigid jacket-and-tie dress codes are enforced.
"We were the only people there without shirts and ties on. Everyone else was in school uniform," he says. "The first thing we did when got back from school was get that f---ing tie off and get some casual clothes on."
Noel insists on leading a normal life and going to the shops near his home in West London because if not "you end up like Elton John, or f---ing George Michael."
The sight of the Rolling Stones, still touring well into their sixties, is "f---ing sad," he said.
Not to be neglected in Noel's litany of abuse was Oasis nemesis and British pop rival, Robbie Williams.
"I wouldn't walk a mile in his shoes because he seems to be a very lonely, unhappy, very confused young man," he says.
More surprising is Noel's readiness to loosen his grip on the direction of the band, something over which he has always maintained absolute control.
Noel wrote only half the new album. Band members Andy Bell and Gem Archer wrote one song each, and Liam did three.
"Liam 's only just started to write songs. He's like a f---ing mad man," he says. "He's writing 10 songs a day. I was like that 20 years ago."
Noel on being a parent? "A f---ing big responsibility," "one of life's greatest things," "a f---ing pain in the arse."