A Night Out With Liam Gallagher














Sauntering along Central Park West, Liam Gallagher looked as if he’d just stepped off Carnaby Street in London circa 1969. Turned out in a black velvet jacket with an upturned collar, skinny scarf around his neck and hair combed forward all modlike, the former Oasis frontman would have fit in well alongside Brian Jones and Ray Davies in their heyday.

“Not a lot of people look cool these days — like my cool,” said Mr. Gallagher, 37, who turned more than a few heads when sidling up to the bar in the Ritz-Carlton. “Everybody plays it down, don’t they?”

The Englishman was in New York promoting his clothing line, Pretty Green, which was introduced in Europe last year and in the United States in April. The name was lifted from a song about money by the mod revivalists The Jam because of a lyric that rings true for Mr. Gallagher: “And they didn’t teach me that in school/It’s something that I learnt on my own.”

“They didn’t teach Liam how to be a rock star,” said Steve Allen, his business partner and longtime friend. When it comes to his clothing line, Mr. Gallagher is the first to admit he is winging it. Pretty Green represents his personal style — parkas, desert boots and paisley scarves — and is popular in England with musicians and soccer players.

“I don’t want just anybody wearing it,” said Mr. Gallagher, who won’t put his name on any item of clothing that he himself would not wear. “And people go, ‘Oh, beggars can’t be choosers.’ Well, I ain’t a beggar, you know what I mean?” he said.

Nor is he the type who aims to be seen in the front row of fashion shows. He is, as he put it, “not Victoria Beckham.” Though they are both fixtures in the British press. The implosion of his band Oasis last year racked up quite a few column inches. A sibling squabble backstage in Paris ended with his brother, the guitarist Noel Gallagher, walking out on the band they had started some 18 years earlier, for what he said would be the last time.

“In hindsight it was the best thing that’s ever happened, because we’re free to do whatever we want,” said Liam Gallagher, who still has not spoken to Noel.

He plans to unveil his new band later this year, and for now is enjoying his recent anointing as the Greatest Frontman of All Time by the British rock magazine Q. Is there an up-and-comer on the music scene to whom he is ready to pass the baton? Not yet — if ever, he said. “They gotta mug me for it.”

A version of this article appeared in print on May 30, 2010, on page ST11 of the New York edition.

Source: www.nytimes.com

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