BROTHERLY LOVE “Maybe Noel isn’t as rock and roll as he once was ... and wants to take things a little bit easier and sit on his hill and be Bob Dylan,” says Liam Gallagher. “That’s fucking fine mate, but you’re never gonna get me sitting on a fucking stool playing acoustic guitar.” |
Damon Albarn, these days dabbling in film scores, operas, and the occasional Blur 7-inch release, must be sitting back pretty bemused by the long overdue implosion of his onetime rivals in Oasis. The Gallagher brothers, who with no one left to strike out at but Kaiser Chiefs and Jay-Z, finally turned on each other and laid waste to one of remaining marquee Britpop acts leftover from the '90s in grand fashion prior to taking the stage two years ago this month at a gig in Paris.Younger sibling Liam was the first to strike out on his own, kind of; he brought everyone else from Oasis not named Noel under the umbrella of Beady Eye -- a name ostensibly designed to sidle up to The Beatles catalog in record shops. Along with Andy Bell, Gem Archer and Chris Sharrock, it not surprisingly it sounds a good deal like his prior band, and though the debut Different Gear, Still Speeding didn't exactly light up the charts, a handful of June stateside dates sold out immediately, and a second round are scheduled for late fall, including a stop at our House of Blues December 10.
Back in March, I caught up with Liam post-soundcheck in Paris, when he called to talk about his new gig, Noel taking credit for the success of Oasis, and how he is scaling back the partying -- but not to Chris Martin of Coldplay levels. At the time, we were still months away from a much ballyhooed news conference where his brother talked up his own project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, leading to the best tweet of the year – a simple "SHITBAG" -- which Liam fired off immediately following the presser. Gregarious and talkative, with a rock star vibe translating even across transatlantic phone signals, here's the uncut discussion.
Michael Christopher: Coming out of one of the biggest bands in the history of the UK, were there any reservations starting from scratch with a new outfit?
Liam Gallagher: I didn't have any worries. This is what we got dealt with – do you know what I mean? I loved Oasis, but to split Oasis up was out of my hands; I'd have carried on doing Oasis, but you've got to do what you got to do. I love music, Gem was making music and Andy and Chris. Our musical journey doesn't stop because Noel Gallagher jumped ship. We've got to get back on track and I was never nervous about it really.
There were a lot of people out there, both critics and fans, who didn't want to likeDifferent Gear, Still Speeding, because they wanted Oasis. But so far, the response has been pretty positive – does that surprise you?
