Beady Eye Australian Interview

Liam Gallagher's new band is a lot like his old band - only happy, writes Bernard Zuel.

Liam Gallagher arrives early, coming towards us with the splayed-foot, from-the-hips, laid-back-even-as-he-walks style he's made his own. Expecting surly, we are surprised by the nod and the polite, even dare we say it, cheery, ''orright?''

He takes a cup of tea alongside bandmates Gem Archer and Chris Sharrock and, while not exactly cracking a smile, keeps making dry comments that leave everyone in the room grinning.

There's no getting away from it - cocky we expect, mouthy is a given, but the Liam Gallagher before us is relaxed and happy. Maybe more so than at any time since Oasis - the band he formed and then ceded to his older brother, Noel - became the defining English band of the 1990s.

Advertisement: Story continues below ''I've never laughed so much at interviews and that's what f---ing life's about, innit?'' Liam says. ''If you can laugh your bollocks off, have a great time and you've got some great f---ing music to top it off, now you f---ing know that's heaven to me, man.''

The thing is, it shouldn't make any sense. When Noel quit and, in effect, ended Oasis two years ago, the accepted wisdom was that he would go on as a heavyweight songwriter while baby brother and the remaining members of the band, guitarist Archer, drummer Sharrock and bass player Andy Bell, would trickle away without their leader.

Although Liam, Archer and Bell had contributed songs to Oasis albums in the past decade (Sharrock, a live contributor, had never actually played on an Oasis album before the split), no one would have called their contributions significant. No one expected that to change, either.

However, almost immediately, the rest of the band decided to go on together, calling themselves Beady Eye and recording a debut album that is surprisingly varied and strong. ''We decided to meet up in a couple of months to see what we got but we couldn't wait that long and met up a week later and got stuck into it,'' Gallagher says. ''We didn't have to work at it, you know what I mean? If we had to try really f---ing hard, sweat our balls off for it, we wouldn't be f---ing doing it.''

Confidence didn't take long to appear in its wake and they feel good enough not to play any Oasis songs on stage because, Archer says, ''you can't dip in and out of the past. Spiritually, it's not healthy, man.'' And, Gallagher says, ''people respect that … we drew the f---ing line and we are f---ing getting on with it.''

It's clear this band seems more democratic than most - Archer and Sharrock nod at this comment - but there is a view that bands can't exist as democracies. That the best way for a band to operate is that there is a leader who makes the final decision. Is there an ultimate, decision-maker in Beady Eye? All three almost simultaneously answer no, before Gallagher explains why and takes a dig at the brother with whom he had a famously fractious relationship.

''The reason we are f---ing here is we are all f---ing leaders,'' he says. ''It's all well having a leader in the band, right yeah, taking care of everything, right. But if you are going to come to f---ing work with a f---ing face like a nun in pain, you know what I mean, because you are taking the weight of the world, everyone knows it.''

Right then. Life much the same in the Gallagher family. But not everything is the same in Beady Eye. Listen to Beady Eye's album Different Gear, Still Speeding and one of the first things you'll notice is how Gallagher's vocals sound less sharp and strained, the result being easily the best singing he's ever done. ''It's a sign of the times, man: I felt relaxed in the studio,'' he says. ''That's how I sing, man, around the house with my guitar.''

Source: www.smh.com.au

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