Catastrophic riffs, crushing heaviness, extreme violence, hearts of fucking darkness, and my own damn self.
Exclusive: Noel Gallagher interview
NME's Oasis chat is online now - in full!
16.Feb.07 10:58am
Noel Gallagher spoke with NME exclusive around this year's BRIT awards as Oasis picked up the Outstanding Contribution To Music Award.
Here now on NME.COM exclusively is the full interview with the guitarist:
How do the NME Awards compare with the Brits?
"The NME Awards are more natural. You get in there, get pissed, go off and get more pissed."
How important was the NME to your success?
"I think we should be proud, but so should the NME. I used to read it every week back in the 80s, and it would always say: 'Keep a look out for this lot, they'll take over the world' - for once it actually happened! We're the band that came out of those pages, took indie into the mainstream, gave every single band of the day ambition and inspired a whole generation of kids of who are coming through now. Enjoy it, it may never happen again. To paraphrase Elvis, I'm just glad I was lucky enough to be Elvis."
When did you realise Oasis were going to be so huge?
"When we released 'Cigarettes And Alcohol'. I was dead against releasing a fourth single from the album but it became the biggest selling single off 'Definitely Maybe'! I think that album had the same effect as 'Never Mind The Bollocks'. Those two albums were the most important albums of the last 40 years. Bands are still forming because of both those albums."
Where do you see your musical legacy in the current scene?
"It's difficult to say, but it's there because you get told how many bands formed because of that album. When I first met the Arctic Monkeys they came in our dressing room and Alex was saying he got a guitar because of Oasis. So I asked him 'How old were you when 'Definitely Maybe' came out?'. He was nine! That fucking bent my head."
People are calling your Britpop rival Damon Albarn the Bowie of his generation - what does that make you?
"He's Bowie because he's always changing? Oh well, we're Slade - I'm Noddy Holder! (laughs). I've got a lot of respect for Damon, I really do mean it. Because I'm indifferent to Damon he thinks that I think he's a cunt. Our Liam will talk to him, I won't because he's just another singer in a band to me, but I don't think he's a cunt. Good luck to him!"
Dizzee Rascal; Arctic Monkeys; Dinosaur Jr.; Entombed; Radiohead; Stars of the Lid; Architect; The Good, The Bad, and the Queen; One Dead, Three Wounded; Tim Armstrong
Cuaron y Del Toro
Friends. Danger Mouse. Fresh Prince.
Dave Eggers. Cormac McCarthy. JK Rowling. Murakami.
Valentino.