Noel Gallagher - T In The Park Interview by Danny O'Connor

Danny O'Connor caught up with Noel who was there to perform with Paul Weller and check out the bands. Danny last spoke to Noel in May and was keen to find out what has happened with the new Oasis album since they last met...

Looking at the line-up there are very few Americans...
Yeah, there must be no American bands with albums out. Last year it was Limp Bizkit and all that lot. It's probably because lots of British bands have albums out, next year will be back to American bands, I think. The Strokes are on.

Did you enjoy them?
They are just the most important band since my band, I suppose. If they inspire a load of kids to pick up guitars, like John Thunders when they came to London in the 70s and inspired the Sex Pistols. All the bull s**t the media was writing yesterday about the new music is going to happen. I like them, I think they are fantastic, but there is a lot resting on their shoulders. If there is ten kids out there that's seen that and start bands and do it with a bit of energy and edge - fair play to them.

Lead singer Julian kind of reminds me of Liam with the swagger and the nonchalance...
He was going around the stage looking for a full can of beer and it took him about two minutes to find one, our kid would have had it immediately as he has an in-built homing device in the top of his forehead. You could put 600 empty cans of beer on a stage and one full, and he's find it first go. He'll learn, he's a good front man actually.

Tell me about the last week? You've become an uncle again...
Liam celebrated in style, didn't he? It's weird when being an uncle because it's not yours, you can do all that stuff and give it back. Liam's fine, Nicky looks great - it's quite unbelievable she's had a baby.

Has he got over his trouble with the press?
I went to see him that day, and then the next day I got up and was watching Sky News with the sound down and there was a picture of Liam offering a photographer out. The caption said 'Liam celebrated birth of new child', I laughed for a full five minutes at that. It's like f*****g typical, in the throws of fatherhood with another son, and what has he done - kicking people's heads in on the footpath.

Talk me through the bands here...
Stereophonics - I haven't actually seen them live, and haven't seen Kelly for a while so it will be good to see him and take the p**s out of him before he goes on stage to wind him up... I'm looking forward to playing with Paul Weller. Catatonia, I've never seen them live, so will stick around for them. Then probably get drunk.

Tell me about the Weller set, have you got anything specific lined up?
He's done what he always does. He phoned me yesterday and said 'we are doing A Town Called Malice and it's in B, I'll see you there'. I went to see him the other night at Shepherds' Bush Empire and he does about four Jam songs and a few Style Council numbers. I'm looking forward to that it will be a good old sing-song.

We spoke last in America about the Oasis record, has anything moved on since then?
Absolutely not a f******g crotchet, not a plectrum has been lifted in anger. We were supposed to record last week, then Nicky had [baby] Gene, so we decided to sack it. We are going to rehearse for the next two weeks for going to Japan. When we come back we promise we'll start on the record, if Liam can be bothered. Liam's got a lot of catching up to do, but the plan is to get something out by the end of the year. It's all becoming a bit of a rush now but I think we work better under pressure. I'm looking forward to it.

How was The Black Crowes and the Neil Young thing?
The Black Crowes tour was five weeks and we did every single gig and it was really really good. It did us a lot of good just to get out there, just to play without having the pressure of promoting an album. It was all that I expected it to be and little bit more. We made some really good friends, and we are thinking about doing it next year and maybe getting The Black Crowes over to Europe. I think everybody was waiting for something controversial to happen, but the most controversial thing to happen was we finished the tour without falling out. The Neil Young gig - I'm not sure whether we played too good or not, we just winged it and didn't really rehearse. But he was just fantastic. Just to watch him do his thing 10 foot away on stage is something else - grown men cry and stuff like that.

So the mood is good in the camp?
We haven't seen each other properly since we've come back from the States. Andy has been making babies and stuff, I've been moving house, and Alan has been trying to get his thumb right. We are all back to work on Monday, so the mood is as good as it's ever been. We were sort of drifting a bit with the album. Because we were producing it ourselves it was like we'll finish it when we finish it, and our manager has gone 'we've got to have it finished by October', so now we've got a deadline to work towards. The trouble is now everybody is just writing so the album I was talking to you two months ago is completely different. There are more songs to record and better songs than was on it originally. It's going to be intense over the next three or four months.

What is the song-writing breakdown?
Liam has written the most. I think I'm up to about ten, I haven't finished some of the lyrics yet. There is definitely one of Liam's going on the album, probably two. I think we've recorded two of Gem's and two of Andy's. The boys are a bit shy about presenting their stuff, because they are the new guys in the band you have to drag it out of them a bit. It's good just to hear other people's songs which sound like the thing that you do that isn't written by you, which is really good for me. I feel they are both really good songwriters, they've just not been in the right bands - it's as simple as that. I think you'll be surprised at Andy's songs especially. I don't think they've been given the respect they deserve, especially for Andy in Ride - they were a pretty seminal band. I hope the fans listen to it for it is and not think 'it's not Noel's song so we'll just skip through it'.

The tour?
People keep saying are you going to come up with a title for the tour - since when have we had a title for a tour. We haven't played in-doors since Morning Glory, so this is tiny gigs. It's going to be interesting to see if we can hear ourselves again. It's good to get back to that because when you play outdoors you get massive monitors and that, we are just taking the stuff we use in the rehearsal rooms on tour. You can feel already it's going to be great. We are going to be doing new stuff, it's going to be a long set as well. Everyone is really looking forward to it, it seems to have captured people's imagination as well. It's funny to think that ten years down the line we are still here and people are still bothered about us. I was talking to Tim Booth from James and he said 'Do you feel old?' and I was going 'I am old'. It's going to be good to get sweaty again.

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