Noel Gallagher's Interview With Christian O’Connell Full Transcript

Full transcript of an interview with Noel Gallagher from Christian O’Connell's Breakfast Show on Absolute Radio, listen to the interview or download the podcast on www.absoluteradio.co.uk.

Noel Gallagher: Bloody hell, eh, all this technology, seriously though.

Christian O’Connell: What year are we in?

Noel Gallagher: Who am I speaking to, is this Norfolk Nights?

Christian O’Connell: Hello, mate, its Christian here, how are you?

Noel Gallagher: I’m very well, how are you?

Christian O’Connell: Yeah, very good. It must be a dream come true to spend the day speaking to DJs again about your new material?

Noel Gallagher: Oh I don’t mind, I don’t mind, you know, brightens up your day and everybody else’s.

Christian O’Connell: Oh thank you very much for speaking to the nation, Noel.

Noel Gallagher: Yeah.

Christian O’Connell: So listen, how does it feel now coming out and talking about new material when it’s your own, does it feel more pressurised?

Noel Gallagher: No, because the material’s already in the bag. This is not live is it?

Christian O’Connell: No.

Noel Gallagher: No, hang on a sec. [To someone else] Can somebody switch the phone off because it’s coming through on this. I’m just getting everybody to turn their phones off here, could you hear that your end?

Christian O’Connell: Yes we could, and thank you. Can you make sure they’re fired?

Noel Gallagher: I will. No, I can’t do that. Alright, so it feels, well the material’s already done so there’s no pressure there, and I didn’t put any pressure on myself in the studio. I wouldn’t call it pressure, the pressure will come when I’ve got to play live, because I was in one of the greatest live bands, you know, and to try and recreate that with four or five different people is going to be a challenge, to say the least, not only for me but for the people that come and see us I guess.

Christian O’Connell: And also the tour you’re doing, these are smaller venues than the stadiums you’ve been playing for quite a few years now, do you feel more exposed when you do a smaller, intimate thing like that?

Noel Gallagher: Yeah. To be honest I’ve had bigger after-show parties than most of these gigs, so yeah, I don’t really like the little gigs, you tend to get into inane conversations with people about your shoes and stuff, ‘Where do you get those shoes? Oh, Dolcis? Where do you get your headband? Top Man? Nice one’. So I prefer the bigger gigs where you kind of get less nervous, I would get less nervous at Wembley than I would, say, at Hammersmith Apollo, do you know what I mean?

Christian O’Connell: Yeah, and are you excited about getting the new songs out there, to sort of show what you can do now as a soloist singer and writer?

NG: If I’m being honest I’ve not got that fist clenching, air punching mentality about me anyway, you know, I’m not really that fussed about being a front man, I’m not that fussed about… you know, I’ve got no moves. People are coming, I hope people are not coming to see anything because there’s nothing to see, you know.

Christian O’Connell: I love the way you’re really bigging this, you should call the tour Don’t Come Expecting Anything.

Noel Gallagher: Well, just pay your respects, then leave. I’m not really, you know, because front men, they have 20 years experience of this kind of thing, you know what I mean, even a new band, before you would see a new band with a front man he’s been dancing in front of the mirror for 10 years. So, I mean, I’ve got to learn how to do this in front of a paying, expectant crowd, and the years of me, you know, my young manhood has gone, do you know what I mean, so I’m kind of like ‘Look, let’s just play the songs’. I hope against hope that the songs will carry the night through and I don’t look too grumpy on stage.

Christian O’Connell: And how do you feel now about the split, Noel? Are you in a happy place with it, are you kind of at peace with it all, are you sick to the teeth talking about it?

Noel Gallagher: No. I mean, I’m cool with it, you know, it’s not an ideal situation for me to be in, to kind of start again at my age, 27, but I enjoy writing songs and making records, so therefore I’m obliged to get out on the road and make some more money for my missus to buy shoes with, and I will give it the best shot that I can muster. Yeah, I’m alright with it.

Christian O’Connell: Do you have any regrets about the split now, do you think ‘Oh crikey, if only we’d done this or that’, do you think the band still had more to give or was that heading to an end anyway?

Noel Gallagher: Well I regret when I was sat in the car and I kind of made a snap decision, really, if I had my time again I’d have thought about it a bit more and gone back, done the gig, done the next, there was only two gigs left on the tour, you know what I mean? It was a hasty decision I’ve got to say, and we could maybe have all gone off and done other things for a few years, in my own head the 2015, 20 year anniversary of Morning Glory is looming and we could have maybe come back, made a new album and played that album in its entirety and gone and been the greatest thing ever, but there you go.

Christian O’Connell: Does the end, you know, speaking to Liam a couple of months ago and he said things and I’ve read interviews with you, and I don’t want to dig it all up and get into all that again, but it felt like some kind of Spinal Tap ending, whatever happened, but did it involve some plum?

Noel Gallagher: Well, my version of events is on YouTube for everybody to see, but I don’t really want to diss any particular fruit because one man’s plum is another man’s peach.

Christian O’Connell: It’s going to be one of rock and roll’s greatest ‘what if’ isn’t it, like Colonel Mustard with the lead piping.

Noel Gallagher: If only it had been a banana.

Christian O’Connell: Bananas are funnier than plums.

Noel Gallagher: Said the actress to the bishop.

Christian O’Connell: And how is married life now, you got married a couple of months ago, is your missus looking forward to you getting out the house now and doing a bit of touring?

Noel Gallagher: Yeah, yeah, yeah, there’s all that, but I was saying to her the other day, I was saying ‘Do you know’, I looked at her the other day and I said to her ‘It’s uncanny, but I think you’ve got better looking since I married you’. Seriously. We was at a party the other night and I was like ‘Oh God, she’s beautiful’. I mean, she’s blooming since she married me. I might give it a go in a few years, marrying myself. Seriously, she’s come on great, she’s an amazing woman.

Christian O’Connell: How long do you think it’s going to be to get back out on the road, is that a ball ache to go back out touring again?

Noel Gallagher: No, I like the physical act of touring, it’s amazing, it’s one of the great perks of the job is to travel around on aeroplanes and visit different places, blah blah blah and all that. I mean, I’ve been in a solid band for the last 20 years, I’ve never done a gig without Liam for 20 years, more or less, and with Gem and Andy for like 10 years, that’s going to be the most difficult aspect of it. I’d have thought one of two things is going to happen, it’ll be around the 12th gig, I’ll be sat in the dressing room and I’ll think, after the gig I’ll be thinking ‘Do you know what, I think I’m up there with Elvis, as a performer I think I’m as good as it gets these days. I mean, who’s better than me? Nobody, right?’ Or I’m going to be sitting there thinking ‘Right, how do I break a thumb and get out of this tour, because I don’t like it, I don’t like it, I want to go home’.

Christian O’Connell: With the lamest excuse for a tour cancellation, a broken thumb?

Noel Gallagher: I would like to add a disclaimer to that, if I do break my thumb accidentally please don’t bring this up, don’t bring this up again. Yeah, I could fake my own disappearance, that would be easy enough wouldn’t it?

Christian O’Connell: I’m going to go and put a £1,000 on the 12th gig you’re going to cancel due to a broken thumb, the bookies are going to go ‘You got insider knowledge, mate?’

Noel Gallagher: Yeah.

Christian O’Connell: So the new material, how different is that, of the solo stuff we’ve heard you do before, with Oasis and your own little solo songs and that, Noel, is it going to be…?

Noel Gallagher: Little solos?

Christian O’Connell: Do you like that?

Noel Gallagher: Your own little solo songs? That’s like something you’d say to your child isn’t it, ‘Oh have you written a little song, oh well done. Go and play it to your mom, there you go’.

Christian O’Connell: That’s how I introduce your songs, always go ‘Here’s another little solo song from…’

Noel Gallagher: And here’s Noel Gallagher’s little High Flying Birds’.

Christian O’Connell: Yeah, there you go. No, but is it a different feel to it, is it more melancholic, what’s the kind of feel to the new stuff?

NG: I mean, there’s echoes of Oasis in there because I wrote most of the songs, so the choruses are quite euphoric and the verses are quite miserable, yeah. It’s good though, you’ll like it. It’s really difficult to talk about your own music isn’t it other than to say that each track is well worth 79p of anybody’s money.

Christian O’Connell: And as you become a little bit older and you become happier…

Noel Gallagher: 28, 28.

Christian O’Connell: 28? I thought it was 29 earlier, you’re getting younger.

Noel Gallagher: No, no, stopped at 27.

Christian O’Connell: You’re like Benjamin Button, at the end of this interview you’ll be 10. As your life goes on and you’re obviously happily married now, do you find it harder to write songs?

Noel Gallagher: The actual physical, no, I don’t find it difficult. When I start it’s great because I’m inspired by music, but I don’t have like a study at home or a music room or anything, so I rarely get a chance to sit and play a guitar for like five minutes without someone walking into the room and going ‘Look, dad, I spotted her, whey!’ and it’s just like ‘Oh wow, I was just doing this’, my son going ‘Are you doing a little song?’ ‘Yeah, I’m doing a little solo song, yeah, just go and play with your brother please’. So it’s finding the time, you know, it’s finding the time, and then I kind of do a lot of writing when I’m… I do a lot when I’m on tour, but then the words I’ll kind of cobble together on the way, but it works for me, it’s always been that way.

Christian O’Connell: Are you excited about getting the new stuff out into the world and for people to hear it?

Noel Gallagher: Yeah, I’m excited. The record’s great, it’s the best I could have done, you know, with what little talent I have, and I think people are going to like it, there’s something on there for everybody, apart from heavy metal fans, I think people will like it. You know, the track that’s out there at the minute, The Death of You and Me, is not like the next track, that’s going to be before the record, which is not like the third single, do you know what I mean? It’s all quite varied, but they’re all very memorable tunes, I’ve got to say.

Christian O’Connell: And what new stuff have you heard recently that excites you, because I know you’re into your new music and champion new bands?

Noel Gallagher: I like the Arctic Monkeys album, I’ve got to say, it seems like they’re back. The new Kasabian record which is coming is pretty good. What else? Contemporary new records? Yeah, I don’t think I’ve heard one for a while to be honest, but the new… oh, some of the new Coldplay stuff is good, I’ve got to say.

Christian O’Connell: Crikey, look at that, everyone’s getting grown-up now, people are being nice to Coldplay again, everyone’s being nice to Chris Martin, that’s nice.

Noel Gallagher: I’ve always been a fan of Coldplay, I’ve liked them since I heard that track, Yellow. I do like them, the new stuff’s good I think.

Christian O’Connell: Have you played anybody else, any other fellow musicians, your new stuff?

Noel Gallagher: Not famous ones, I’ve got friends who are kind of scrambling round the bottom of the musical ladder, I’ve played it to them, you know, yeah, but everybody seems to like it. But let me leave you with these words, I played it to a person, they said ‘Good God, that’s so good, that’s probably the best stuff you’ve ever done, this easily puts you in the same bracket at Bowie, McCartney and Elvis Costello’. And do you know who said that? My mom.

Christian O’Connell: And that’s all the validation you need.

Noel Gallagher: And she would know because she’s heard all my stuff.

Christian O’Connell: Listen, Noel, thank you very much for chatting to us, hopefully we’re going to see you in October when the new album is out.

Noel Gallagher: Alright, mate.