Oasis in '04: "I know what you’re thinking, ‘Gallagher’s talking through his arse again’ – but wait till you hear the new album!"

'04:

When Hot Press contacted Sony to see if we could have a 10th birthday chat with Oasis, the answer was a firm – if scrupulously polite – “No, they’re not doing any Irish press.” Forty-eight hours later it was “to the airport and make it snappy!” as we were told that, seeing as it’s us, Noel would make an exception. After telling us how brilliant 2005’s Don’t Believe The Truth was going to be, we were treated to some fond reminiscences, a celebrity pals story and an epic Alan McGee diss.

“I don’t want to slag Guigs and Bonehead off, but them leaving and Gem and Andy coming in has been the saving of Oasis. I know what you’re thinking - ‘Gallagher’s talking through his arse again’, but wait till you hear the new album!

“The backing-tracks are pretty much done and we’re going to add strings and things next week. Liam, being a law unto himself, turns up at four o’clock in the morning and Alan, whose twin loves are cars and drinking, buggers off as soon as his drum parts are done. Which used to leave me in the studio with Bonehead and Guigsy, who I didn’t have more than an hour’s worth of conversation with in seven years. Now that Andy and Gem are there getting all enthusiastic about stuff, it’s a far more pleasurable experience. Song-wise, Liam’s got three, Andy and Gem have two each and I’ve come up with the rest. I honestly think it’ll be as good as Morning Glory and Definitely Maybe.”

“A moment that sums up the craziness of the past ten years? Band-wise, driving across Knebworth one misty morning in me Rolls Royce. I got out, sat on the roof and thought, ‘Yeah, let’s have it!’ Two sellout shows there later, we’re the biggest band in the world. Another mad one was walking through the doors at No. 10 Downing Street, not as a plumber but an invited guest. I’m glad I did it to have a look, but in terms of New Labour, I recognise now that we were conned. We thought he was John F. Kennedy, when in fact he was John Major with a better PR team!”

“What was really scary was a session I had with Paul Weller, Liam and Messrs. Craddock and Fowler from Ocean Colour Scene. Apart from anything else, they’re completely fascist about their musical taste. Liam’d say he liked such-and-such band and Weller’d go, ‘Yeah, but look at the fucking shoes they’re wearing.’ Our kid’s big thing at the moment is that The Strokes are crap ‘cause their singer’s called Julian. Sure, it is a shit name, but musically they’re fucking spot on.”

“Alan McGee made seventeen million quid out of me, so I don’t feel sorry for him at all. He said a lot of things after Creation collapsed – like how it had summat to do with Oasis – that were really cheeky. I can’t remember exactly how he phrased it, but the inference was that our record sales had suffered because his creative input had been taken away. He never had any creative input! I wrote the fucking songs, I co-produced the record. That’s where it finished. He actually said that ‘Some Might Say’ shouldn’t be a single, and it’s the greatest number one that ever was in the ‘90s.”

Read the full 14-page Oasis feature in the current issue of Hot Press, out now: