0:00:25 > 0:00:28'Noel Gallagher always loved the Beatles
0:00:28 > 0:00:33'and the compliment was returned when George Martin, the Fab Four's producer,
0:00:33 > 0:00:36'described Gallagher as the best songwriter of his generation.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41'And in sales and acclaim, Oasis became the Beatles of the 1990s.
0:00:41 > 0:00:46'Their album Be Here Now was the fastest-selling British album of all time.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48'Noel was always in the headlines,
0:00:48 > 0:00:51'beating Blur, meeting Blair.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53'Oasis split up in 2009
0:00:53 > 0:00:59'after violent disagreements between Noel and his brother Liam, the band's singer.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02'The senior sibling has begun a solo career with an album and tour
0:01:02 > 0:01:06'under the name Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.'
0:01:09 > 0:01:14In a lot of what's written or said about you now, people say post-Oasis or ex-Oasis.
0:01:14 > 0:01:19Is that how you see it? Do you see it as leading towards that and away from it?
0:01:20 > 0:01:26I wouldn't like to be moving away from Oasis.
0:01:27 > 0:01:32It was so brilliant and so big
0:01:32 > 0:01:35and meant so much to so many people
0:01:35 > 0:01:40that to suddenly just say, "Well, that was then and this is now" would be a bit rude, I think.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44I still play some of those songs, cos they're my songs and I wrote them.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47And, er...
0:01:47 > 0:01:49I enjoyed my time in Oasis
0:01:49 > 0:01:54right up until 15 minutes before I walked out of the dressing room and never went back.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57I thought it was great. And I still think it's great
0:01:57 > 0:02:00and I think what we... what we did
0:02:00 > 0:02:06from being just a load of lads on a council estate with some second-hand guitars was incredible.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09And the fact that we stayed together so long was a miracle
0:02:09 > 0:02:15and I think, you know, I think the records stand up and I think....
0:02:15 > 0:02:21You know, I meet people on a regular basis that, you know, go on about Oasis
0:02:21 > 0:02:25and it was a big part of people's lives and I'm proud of that.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29And when you perform Oasis songs now as a solo performer,
0:02:29 > 0:02:34I suppose they are yours because you wrote them, but are you making them yours even more?
0:02:34 > 0:02:36Er...
0:02:37 > 0:02:39I... Yeah.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42Well, I guess, cos I'm a completely different singer than Liam is
0:02:42 > 0:02:45and when I'm singing those songs,
0:02:45 > 0:02:49I know what those words mean to me and I can deliver them...
0:02:50 > 0:02:54..I wouldn't say better, but I can deliver them in the way that they were written.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58So I know what Wonderwall is about.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02Even if it's about nothing, I know what kind of nothing it's about, you know.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04# I don't know how
0:03:05 > 0:03:09# I said maybe
0:03:09 > 0:03:14# You're gonna be the one that saves me
0:03:14 > 0:03:17# And after all
0:03:18 > 0:03:21# You're my wonderwall #
0:03:21 > 0:03:24Would Liam discuss meanings with you?
0:03:24 > 0:03:27- No.- He just did them?
0:03:27 > 0:03:30No, we didn't discuss meaning. No.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33No, not once. Not "Who's this about?" or "What's it about?"
0:03:33 > 0:03:36It wasn't that kind of band. You know? It wasn't art school
0:03:36 > 0:03:41or, you know, "What are you trying to say here, man?" It was nothing like that.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45It was, "These are the words." And it would...
0:03:45 > 0:03:50He would generally, you know, just sing it, you know.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54And then the arguments would start of him saying, "I'm going to sing it like this"
0:03:54 > 0:03:57and I'd be like, "Yeah, but it goes like that."
0:03:57 > 0:04:01And he'd say, "Well, I'm going to sing it like this" and I'd be like,
0:04:01 > 0:04:03"But it goes like that. That's what it goes like."
0:04:03 > 0:04:07And we'd get to a place where it was acceptable.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09But he never asked what it was about.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13- Do you find it easy to write songs? - I find it easy to write the melody and the music.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17That's in me. I don't know where that comes from. It's easy.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20I was doing that this morning.
0:04:20 > 0:04:25The words, trying to hang the words around the melody I find quite difficult.
0:04:25 > 0:04:30I used to struggle with it. I used to get not down about it but I used to get frustrated about it.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34And now I don't chase it any more. If it happens, it happens, if it doesn't, it doesn't.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38I'm not in any particular rush to write another record.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41If I didn't write another song from today onwards,
0:04:41 > 0:04:44I would look back and think, "I smashed it, yeah."
0:04:44 > 0:04:48But you don't read or write music.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52- No, I couldn't read music. - No.- Or write music. I don't know anybody that does.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56But how do you... So when you're writing a song, how do you put it to... What's the process?
0:04:56 > 0:05:02I just play my guitar and I might be playing a set of chords for three months
0:05:02 > 0:05:05and I will just be fascinated by the chords and nothing will happen,
0:05:05 > 0:05:09and then one day, if I persevere with it enough,
0:05:09 > 0:05:11a melody will arrive. And then...
0:05:12 > 0:05:17..the lyrics will evolve, er, and then to get a band to play it...
0:05:19 > 0:05:23..I come from the school of music, well, we all did in Oasis,
0:05:23 > 0:05:26where you would just say, "Right, it goes like this".
0:05:26 > 0:05:29I don't know... I know the chord E.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32I know quite a few chords, the major chords now and the minor chords,
0:05:32 > 0:05:36but when you get into suspended, augmented things and all that,
0:05:36 > 0:05:39I find that... I don't know what they all are.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43But, yeah, it was more the punk ethic.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46It goes like this. Just play along. Copy it.
0:05:46 > 0:05:52And psychologically, being a solo performer now and being on stage on your own, is it an easy adjustment?
0:05:52 > 0:05:56It's easier than I thought it was going to be. I thought I'd be...
0:05:57 > 0:06:00I really thought I'd be a grumpy old man about it
0:06:00 > 0:06:02and I'd just be, "Ohh, I'll just play these songs
0:06:02 > 0:06:07"and if they like them, they like them, and if they don't, bugger them," do you know what I mean?
0:06:07 > 0:06:12But I kind of feel strangely relaxed about it cos I know I'm in control of it.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16So if I mess up, I'm only letting myself down.
0:06:16 > 0:06:22Whereas when you were in Oasis, if anybody messed up, you're kind of letting everybody else down.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25I'm strangely... I'm enjoying it.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32# Let's run away to sea
0:06:32 > 0:06:35# Forever we'd be free
0:06:35 > 0:06:39# Free to spend our whole lives running
0:06:39 > 0:06:41# From people who would be
0:06:41 > 0:06:43# The death of you and me
0:06:43 > 0:06:47# Cos I can feel the storm clouds coming
0:06:47 > 0:06:51When Robbie Williams went solo, he just became Robbie Williams,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54whereas you've done something kind of in the middle,
0:06:54 > 0:06:57you've become Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds,
0:06:57 > 0:07:01- which sounds like a band that isn't. - Yeah.- Why did you not just become Noel Gallagher?
0:07:01 > 0:07:05I didn't think it was showbiz enough.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11I thought it was, you know, it's hardly Ziggy Stardust, you know.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13But then Robbie Williams isn't, is it?
0:07:13 > 0:07:16Well, no, it's not. No, it's not.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19But I didn't see my name in lights, you know?
0:07:19 > 0:07:24I was passing Shepherd's Bush Empire one night and someone was on and I was thinking, "I just don't see it."
0:07:24 > 0:07:30And, er, about a few months later, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac was on the radio and I thought,
0:07:30 > 0:07:32"Ah, what if I was called Noel Gallagher's something?"
0:07:32 > 0:07:35And then a few weeks after that,
0:07:35 > 0:07:38I was listening to Jefferson Airplane's first album
0:07:38 > 0:07:43and there was a track on it called High Flying Bird, there you go.
0:07:43 > 0:07:48- And it's moveable as a band. It's whoever you play with at any time. - Yeah.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52I mean, if I ever get... I don't envisage having a stable line-up, but if I ever do,
0:07:52 > 0:07:58I might drop the Noel Gallagher and be the High Flying Birds. It's a cop-out. I can be one or the other.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02It's still got my name on it, you know? So people know it's me.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05But I see it as a fluid, changing line-up.
0:08:06 > 0:08:12# Someday you might find your hero
0:08:14 > 0:08:19# Some say you might lose your mind
0:08:21 > 0:08:25# I'm keeping my head down now for the summer
0:08:25 > 0:08:29# I'm out of my mind, let me pull the other
0:08:29 > 0:08:35# I'm gonna take that tiger outside for a ride
0:08:37 > 0:08:39# What a life...
0:08:39 > 0:08:44This is, erm, your brother Paul writing about you as a child in Manchester in the 1970s.
0:08:44 > 0:08:50- "Noel was a likeable if quietish kid, friendly to the last." - That's nice of him, isn't it?
0:08:50 > 0:08:54"But prone to bouts of moodiness, a trait he's carried on through to adulthood."
0:08:54 > 0:08:57- Do you recognise that? - NOEL LAUGHS
0:08:57 > 0:09:02It's nice to know that one's likeable. Yeah, a likeable chap.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04Erm, people do say I'm moody.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07Yeah. I don't know where that...
0:09:07 > 0:09:10You know, I... I do frown a lot.
0:09:10 > 0:09:15I don't like smiling. I don't know why. I've not got a nice smile. I don't know.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20I can get... I can be moody, yeah. I put it down to being a Gemini.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24The account goes on. "He used to love his Action Man,
0:09:24 > 0:09:28"taking it everywhere with him when he was younger, like some sort of security blanket.
0:09:28 > 0:09:35"He was very military-minded between the ages of three and seven, with loads of toy soldiers and tanks."
0:09:35 > 0:09:40I do have an unhealthy obsession with the Second World War, I've got to say.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44And that Action Man was a bloody good friend to me in the 70s.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48He had moveable eyes. He was a great guy.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51- I wonder where he is. I think he ended up in rehab. - MARK LAUGHS
0:09:51 > 0:09:56And this was your mother in the same book about you.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59"A bit of a daydreamer and a right storyteller."
0:09:59 > 0:10:02Yes. Thanks, Mam. Yeah.
0:10:02 > 0:10:08- Does that sound pretty much right? - Absolutely, yeah. My favourite thing in the world
0:10:08 > 0:10:11apart from my wife and children
0:10:11 > 0:10:14and cat and all that,
0:10:14 > 0:10:18my favourite pastime is starting out the window.
0:10:20 > 0:10:22When I get on tour,
0:10:22 > 0:10:25I can spend hours and hours just staring out the window,
0:10:25 > 0:10:29just thinking of nothing. I love all that.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32And a storyteller.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34Yeah. Well, here we are.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38Well, I mean, the example she gave was that, apparently, for three weeks
0:10:38 > 0:10:41you went out to school every morning with your satchel,
0:10:41 > 0:10:45came home in the evening, gave her a detailed account of your day,
0:10:45 > 0:10:47- even what you'd had for dinner... - Yeah.
0:10:47 > 0:10:53- ..and then she got a phone call from the school saying you hadn't been in school for three weeks.- Yeah.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57I had other things going on. I was busy.
0:10:57 > 0:11:03- I was busy trying to put a militia together and take over the next... - Invade Liverpool.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06- HE LAUGHS - Take over the next street.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09Yeah. But school I found...
0:11:09 > 0:11:13Once you can read and write, really, you know, do you need to learn French?
0:11:13 > 0:11:16- You just didn't like school? - I didn't really think...
0:11:16 > 0:11:19I liked drawing. I liked art.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23And everybody likes PE and football and all that. And, erm...
0:11:25 > 0:11:29French, what's all that about? I don't need to learn French.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32And, erm, I was in...
0:11:32 > 0:11:38See, what happened, when I joined my secondary school,
0:11:38 > 0:11:44for some reason, they put me in the top classes by accident.
0:11:44 > 0:11:46So I was in there for the first...
0:11:46 > 0:11:51Until there was, like, a holiday, and someone said, "Hang on a minute, he's not supposed to be in here."
0:11:51 > 0:11:56And there was another Gallagher, I think it was David Gallagher, and he was with all the oiks.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00I don't think he's ever recovered. Probably had a nervous breakdown.
0:12:00 > 0:12:05So then when I got down, I was like, "Oh, this is my kind of people here, this mob sat at the back."
0:12:05 > 0:12:10And, er, I was just too interested in other things, you know.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14And it was very easy not to go to school.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18Magic mushrooms. There was a lot of them knocking about. Somebody needs to pick them.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23So when you were playing truant, you were just out on the streets all day, were you?
0:12:23 > 0:12:27Or round at people's houses whose mams and dads were at work.
0:12:27 > 0:12:33It wasn't just me, like some hobo kind of dragging a satchel round,
0:12:33 > 0:12:36you know, dreaming of military manoeuvres.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39You know, there used to be a few of us, do you know what I mean?
0:12:39 > 0:12:43- It was... It was a social thing. - HE LAUGHS - Everybody did it.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47And there was a few of us.
0:12:48 > 0:12:53Strangely enough, we were all obsessed about music and we'd listen to records at people's houses.
0:12:53 > 0:12:58But, erm, I went to a massive, like, you know, secondary school
0:12:58 > 0:13:02and it was Catholic and... You know.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04I felt sorry for my mam, cos she was a dinner lady,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07so I'd have to, kind of, come in for dinner
0:13:07 > 0:13:10and pretend everything was all right.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14And then I'd leave again immediately after dinner, so I was getting well fed.
0:13:14 > 0:13:19- So you just went in for meals? - Yeah. So she'd see me, you see. And she was none the wiser.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22And it became quite an art form to get in
0:13:22 > 0:13:27without being seen by the teachers and then get out again.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31I enjoyed that. I enjoyed that side of it. It was all good. It's all good, clean fun.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34- Did she get angry with you? - Oh, yeah, she went berserk.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37Yeah, she went mental. Yeah.
0:13:37 > 0:13:41Like I would with my children if you'd found out they weren't going to school,
0:13:41 > 0:13:44you'd think, "What are you doing?" do you know what I mean?
0:13:44 > 0:13:48I don't... I wouldn't be surprised if it was the lies
0:13:48 > 0:13:55or the fact that she was conned and made a fool out of which was what angered her more than anything.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57I, erm...
0:13:58 > 0:14:01Yeah, that's probably it more than anything.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04But I was destined never to need French or metalwork.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07I'm sorry, but where we came from,
0:14:07 > 0:14:09you were working on the buildings and that was it.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13You're not going to be a French metalworker, are you?
0:14:13 > 0:14:17And then you were thrown out of school for a quite minor crime.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20On the last day, I was expelled, as I remember it.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24Which I found quite petty, do you know what I mean? I'm leaving at two.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27- Well, there was no point, yeah. - What's the point?
0:14:27 > 0:14:32But the teachers, they didn't really like me that much.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35They didn't hate me, but I was always getting the strap,
0:14:35 > 0:14:38forever in the headmaster's office getting the strap.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40Anything that ever went wrong in that school
0:14:40 > 0:14:44was somehow connected to me somewhere down the line.
0:14:44 > 0:14:50I'm not saying I was wrongly accused of anything, it was usually connected to me somewhere.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53But I was forever doing this. Yeah.
0:14:53 > 0:14:58And, er, I think... I don't know, some flour got thrown at a teacher.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02- A flour bomb, yeah. - And, of course...- Did you throw it?
0:15:07 > 0:15:12I'm not sure whether I did. And I'm not just saying this cos my lawyer's not present.
0:15:12 > 0:15:18I'm not sure whether I did, but I was definitely there laughing my bollocks off when it happened.
0:15:18 > 0:15:24- But I just thought that was a bit petty. I didn't even get a leaving certificate.- Mm.- Rubbish.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26And did they used to give you the talk,
0:15:26 > 0:15:32"You're obviously a very bright boy, you could do something with this" or did they just ignore you?
0:15:32 > 0:15:37I've got to say, I wasn't... I didn't show any promise at school in any of the art forms.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40- Not even English?- No, not at all.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43I wasn't really interested in anything at school.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47I was interested in music, listening to it, but I didn't, you know...
0:15:47 > 0:15:50I didn't harbour any ambitions for anything. I wasn't...
0:15:50 > 0:15:54I was terrible at spelling and writing and reading.
0:15:54 > 0:15:59It wasn't until I left school that I really... I was a late developer, do you know what I mean?
0:15:59 > 0:16:03I've never been a child prodigy. I didn't pick up the guitar till late in the day.
0:16:03 > 0:16:08I didn't join a band till I was 24. I didn't have a record deal till I was 27.
0:16:08 > 0:16:13They all die at 27. I was only just kind of limbering up then.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16- The 27 club, yeah. - Yeah. I was limbering up. So, erm...
0:16:16 > 0:16:20Yeah, I just wasn't interested at school. I just didn't...
0:16:20 > 0:16:24For some reason, I didn't connect with it at all.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27The standard view in books and profiles
0:16:27 > 0:16:33is that you were scarred by your childhood and that you've channelled that into song writing.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35Is that how you see it?
0:16:37 > 0:16:39Er, I wouldn't say I was scarred,
0:16:39 > 0:16:42but everybody's childhood makes them what they are.
0:16:42 > 0:16:47- And yours was pretty rough, wasn't it?- Well, it was... The times were rough, do you know what I mean?
0:16:47 > 0:16:52It was the 70s and the 80s and it was working-class Manchester and Thatcher and all that.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55And we were all on the dole. My dad was on the dole at some points.
0:16:55 > 0:17:00My friends were on the dole, as were their dads. It was a pretty bleak time.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05And, erm... But it was no different that anybody else's.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08And music was an escape for me. Not for any...
0:17:08 > 0:17:12I never thought, "Well, I'm going to be a pop star one day."
0:17:12 > 0:17:16They didn't come from where we come from. They came from somewhere else.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20They were bused into the BBC from somewhere else. They were not from Manchester.
0:17:21 > 0:17:27Music was an escape for me. It was kind of, that three minutes would take you somewhere else,
0:17:27 > 0:17:31out of the drudgery of cold northern England in November.
0:17:31 > 0:17:37You say it was just like anyone else, but your dad is depicted as quite a scary character.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39Yeah. I wouldn't say he was a monster.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42- I would just say he was a shit dad. - And violent.
0:17:42 > 0:17:47- Yeah, prone to it, yeah. - And that, you suffered that.- Yeah.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49Yeah.
0:17:49 > 0:17:53But you must be affected by that. Cos that's not normal, is it?
0:17:53 > 0:17:57Well, I've never sat down on a couch with a psychiatrist until now.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01And I don't know. I've never written a song about my childhood,
0:18:01 > 0:18:06about any of that. And I wouldn't really...
0:18:08 > 0:18:11- I wouldn't really feel comfortable doing it.- No.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14I don't mind talking about it, because I...
0:18:14 > 0:18:18I'm all right with it. I dare say that most of the kids on my street,
0:18:18 > 0:18:22their upbringing was quite the same, you know.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27I think... I mean, you know, we weren't...
0:18:27 > 0:18:31I wasn't the model son, do you know what I mean? I was out half the night.
0:18:31 > 0:18:35I was sniffing glue and doing mushrooms and all sorts, do you know what I mean?
0:18:36 > 0:18:41And robbing stuff and all that. It wasn't like I was, you know, Aled Jones.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44- HE LAUGHS - You know, being leathered for having a great voice.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47I was... I was a tricky customer.
0:18:47 > 0:18:52I was a bit lippy, you know. And, erm, I don't... You know...
0:18:52 > 0:18:55I don't really look back on it and think, "Well, if only..."
0:18:55 > 0:18:59It kind of gave me a drive to be... To go somewhere else, I think.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04And do you think about your father, or have you put him out of your mind?
0:19:04 > 0:19:07No, I don't think of it at all. I don't have any opinion on it.
0:19:07 > 0:19:12I don't think bad things or good things or I don't think, "Maybe I should go and see him"
0:19:12 > 0:19:19or I don't think, "Maybe I should go and wag my finger at him" and all that. It's his loss, not mine.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23The News Of The World, a late newspaper, they tried to put you in contact with him, didn't they?
0:19:23 > 0:19:28- They brought him to a hotel. - Yeah, yeah. Quite a tricky evening.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32Yeah. Liam overreacted and went absolutely mental
0:19:32 > 0:19:35and I was of the opinion,
0:19:35 > 0:19:40I was just like, just ignore them, do you know what I mean? Just ignore them. There's no point...
0:19:40 > 0:19:43The party was in full swing and it was a great night
0:19:43 > 0:19:47and all of a sudden, it kind of came crashing down.
0:19:47 > 0:19:49I don't take anything like that seriously.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52I think it's just water off a duck's back to me.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55- And you don't know where he is now. - I know exactly where he is.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59He's still living in the house that my mam left him in. He's still there.
0:19:59 > 0:20:04He lives about a mile and a half away from where my mam moved us to.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09And all my mam's sisters, we all grew up in the same place,
0:20:09 > 0:20:15everybody still sees him, it's a very... Nobody cares any more. It's a long time ago.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19- But you don't see him, though?- I don't see him, no, I live in London.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23When you became a father yourself, having kids, was that difficult
0:20:23 > 0:20:26because you'd never seen a good example of it, had you?
0:20:26 > 0:20:32No. I'd never seen a good example of any kind of parenting until I met Sarah,
0:20:32 > 0:20:35who is an incredible...
0:20:36 > 0:20:39..mother to the children.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44I've learnt so much from her because she had great parents.
0:20:44 > 0:20:49Her mam and dad have been married for 150 years or something and they're still together.
0:20:49 > 0:20:51And, erm...
0:20:51 > 0:20:55So she takes that and brings it into that with our children.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59Of course, I come from a dysfunctional family so, erm...
0:21:01 > 0:21:04I'm good with the kids now, I love it,
0:21:04 > 0:21:07but at first, with my older daughter, I was like...
0:21:08 > 0:21:10I don't know.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13You didn't know how to behave?
0:21:13 > 0:21:19- NOEL LAUGHS - I didn't have the tools instinctively. Fathers don't.- Mm.
0:21:19 > 0:21:21And I wasn't with her mam.
0:21:21 > 0:21:26So fathers don't have those instinctive tools.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28Women, mothers do.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30Or should do, you know.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35So, yeah, it was a bit, kind of... It was a bit tricky at the beginning.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38But now it's great. I love it.
0:21:38 > 0:21:43From what I've read about your mother, she did everything she could for you.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45- She looked out for you. - Yeah. She was...
0:21:46 > 0:21:50She's very loyal, my mam, and she would always stand by us
0:21:50 > 0:21:53and she never tried to push us to do one thing or the other.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57She was just like, "Whatever you do, you have make it happen for yourself.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00"No-one's going to give you anything."
0:22:01 > 0:22:07I remember playing the guitar at home and, er,
0:22:07 > 0:22:10she never said, "Go and get a proper job" or anything like that.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14It was just, "If that's what you're happy doing, then be the best at it that you can."
0:22:14 > 0:22:20And that was it. She never pushed us into any particular avenues, or you should do this or should do that,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23it was just, like, you know, be happy.
0:22:23 > 0:22:29She was mortified, I remember the day when I was 21 and I said that I was leaving home.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31Just like, "Why?"
0:22:31 > 0:22:34I said, "I met this girl, we've got a flat in town."
0:22:34 > 0:22:37"OK. Why are you leaving home?" "I'm 21."
0:22:37 > 0:22:39"So what? Your brother's 23."
0:22:39 > 0:22:42"It's about time though, isn't it?" "No."
0:22:42 > 0:22:45They get offended, Irish mams.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49But you moved house in the middle of the night once, didn't you? I mean, she just moved you out.
0:22:49 > 0:22:54Yeah, when she left me old fella, yeah. Middle of the night. Yeah.
0:22:54 > 0:22:59It was, er... It was an undercover operation. Yeah.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03I wonder what would've happened if me old fella had come back.
0:23:03 > 0:23:05There would have been bedlam.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07But she was very, erm...
0:23:09 > 0:23:13When I think of those times, she kind of brought us up on our own, really.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17And three lads, particularly one of them being Liam, very tricky.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19The others one being me and our Paul,
0:23:19 > 0:23:23who wasn't as much trouble as me and Liam, but he had his moments.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29Yeah. I mean, she's kind of...
0:23:29 > 0:23:33She did it, she gave it all up for us, do you know what I mean?
0:23:33 > 0:23:37It was by total and utter chance,
0:23:37 > 0:23:40I would say it's because she's got great karma,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43that two of her children go on to be
0:23:43 > 0:23:49two of the biggest rock stars that England ever produced and... You know?
0:23:49 > 0:23:53And all that goes with it. All she got was a new garden gate.
0:23:53 > 0:23:58- MARK LAUGHS - Liam offered to buy her a castle somewhere in Alderley Edge.
0:23:59 > 0:24:04And the garden gate at the council house had a squeak on it for years.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08Changed it. Put a gold number five on it. That was it. Still there.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12- She still lives in the same council house. - Is that all she wanted from you?
0:24:12 > 0:24:16Yeah, she's like, one of a family of 11, so she's got seven sisters.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19They all live within a two-mile radius of each other.
0:24:19 > 0:24:24And she's just who she is and she knows who she is and she's not really...
0:24:24 > 0:24:29She doesn't buy into all what goes on down here in London, do you know what I mean?
0:24:29 > 0:24:33She's from... She still lives in the same house, doing the same thing.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37The same routines. She sees her sisters and her grandkids and she loves it.
0:24:37 > 0:24:43- Does your... Has you mother taken sides in the disputes...- Between me and Liam?- ..between you and Liam?
0:24:43 > 0:24:46Erm, no, she doesn't, no.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49Like, she furiously will not take sides.
0:24:49 > 0:24:54- Furiously will not take sides. - Which, as a parent, you can see is the proper thing to do.
0:24:54 > 0:24:58Of course, of course. That's what parents are. They're neutral referees, aren't they?
0:24:58 > 0:25:02I'll be the same with my two lads. I won't take sides.
0:25:02 > 0:25:07- Does she ever say, in the way mothers do sometimes, "Can't you two just get along?"- Of course!
0:25:07 > 0:25:10Yeah, she was at my house at Christmas and we had this very conversation.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14And it never resolves to anything, do you know what I mean?
0:25:14 > 0:25:19She says, "Well, I've said this to Liam, and I've said that to you, and why can't you both just..."
0:25:19 > 0:25:21blah, blah, blah. And it's, you know...
0:25:21 > 0:25:26I kind of do what all northerners do. Say, "Do you want a cup of tea?"
0:25:28 > 0:25:30That sorts everything out up north. Tea? Yes.
0:25:31 > 0:25:36And it was a Catholic upbringing. There's a picture of you at your first Holy Communion.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39Yeah, went to church for a long time, yeah.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41You know, erm, every Sunday.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44Until my mam stopped going. I think she'd had enough.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48And then we were, like, thank God for that.
0:25:48 > 0:25:50Church is a bit mad, isn't it?
0:25:50 > 0:25:54But God comes up in the songs quite a lot, or has done.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58But it's great imagery, gods and angels is great imagery.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01And, you know, my wife is an angel.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07My children are angels. Those things are not supposed to be taken literally.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11But God is a fascinating concept. You know.
0:26:12 > 0:26:19I don't think anyone in their right mind would believe it's a guy with a beard in a one-piece tunic,
0:26:19 > 0:26:22living on a cloud, playing a harp.
0:26:23 > 0:26:28But seemingly everybody has their own perception of what it is.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32I don't know what my perception of it is.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36I don't know whether God is within you and it's just...
0:26:38 > 0:26:41..your own version of it in your soul or what.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44But I do write about it, I do write about the word God a lot,
0:26:44 > 0:26:49because it's great to put in a song.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52# Cos you're the only
0:26:52 > 0:26:55# God that I'll ever need
0:26:55 > 0:27:00# I'm holding on and waiting for the moment
0:27:00 > 0:27:03# To find me
0:27:05 > 0:27:09There lots of theories about the position in a family and the difference it makes.
0:27:09 > 0:27:14- You're the middle child. - Yeah.- So they're supposed to get neglected and overlooked
0:27:14 > 0:27:17and then the youngest one is supposed to be spoilt.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21Well, the eldest is always the eldest and the baby is always the baby,
0:27:21 > 0:27:25and the one in the middle looks after themselves, so they say.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29But I know quite a few middle children.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33We're all the same, very self-contained.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37Just do it ourselves.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42Not really mithered about anything other than just getting on with it.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46And was it always difficult between you and Liam from early on?
0:27:46 > 0:27:50No. It was only difficult when, er...
0:27:52 > 0:27:54..towards...
0:27:56 > 0:28:01..from '94, '95, from when the band got famous, really.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04There was always a power struggle there.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08And before we got a manager and actually signed the record deal...
0:28:09 > 0:28:12..all anybody had was my phone number.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14So I did all the talking for the band.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16And that just carried on.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20And maybe the others felt a bit neglected by that.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24I can understand that, but, erm...
0:28:25 > 0:28:30- You know, what can I say? - But you didn't fight as kids?- No.
0:28:30 > 0:28:35Five years is a big difference when you're... When I'm 15 and he's ten that's like,
0:28:35 > 0:28:38he's just out of short trousers, do you know what I mean?
0:28:38 > 0:28:40Now, the difference is nothing.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44It doesn't make any difference now, but we didn't fight as children, no.
0:28:44 > 0:28:49I shared a bedroom with him for years, he was too busy cadging money off me is what he was doing.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52He was perennially borrowing a fiver.
0:28:52 > 0:28:54Always. And never got it back.
0:28:56 > 0:29:01The two common dreams of young boys are to be a professional footballer and a rock star.
0:29:01 > 0:29:03- Did you have both of those?- Yeah.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07The rock star thing was only afterwards.
0:29:09 > 0:29:11The footballer, growing up in Manchester...
0:29:13 > 0:29:15..that's really all you want to do.
0:29:15 > 0:29:20And I would love to have been a footballer,
0:29:20 > 0:29:23played for City.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27- Were you good?- No. No, I was...
0:29:29 > 0:29:32I was... No, I'm not an athlete.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35You didn't like being tackled according to your elder brother.
0:29:35 > 0:29:39Right. He also has referred to me as a military genius,
0:29:39 > 0:29:45- so I wouldn't take whatever he says with any great... You know?- Mm.
0:29:45 > 0:29:49The other thing that might have happened is you could have ended up as a criminal
0:29:49 > 0:29:52because you had your theft charge and probation.
0:29:52 > 0:29:58Were you, erm... When that happened, did you feel shame at what had happened?
0:30:01 > 0:30:03I felt bad for getting caught.
0:30:05 > 0:30:07- What can I say? - Just that it was dumb.
0:30:07 > 0:30:11They were trying to punish you. Did you feel you'd done something...
0:30:11 > 0:30:14Yeah, yeah. You knew what you were getting into.
0:30:14 > 0:30:18If you go robbing stuff and you get caught, you know you're going to get punished.
0:30:18 > 0:30:23- Just glad I didn't go to Borstal. - It had an effect on you? - I wasn't a great criminal.
0:30:23 > 0:30:25- I was caught, I was nicked pretty early.- Mm.
0:30:25 > 0:30:27And I was like, "It's not for me."
0:30:27 > 0:30:32"I haven't got the criminal gene. I'll try something a bit more artistic, I think."
0:30:34 > 0:30:36I'm not great at crime.
0:30:36 > 0:30:41The musical ambitions, it is said they came from seeing The Smiths on TV, but is that right?
0:30:41 > 0:30:45Well, it's a gradual thing with music.
0:30:45 > 0:30:47The Beatles have always been there.
0:30:47 > 0:30:51Somebody asked me the other day, "When did you first listen to The Beatles?"
0:30:51 > 0:30:56I said "When does anybody first listen to The Beatles? They're just always there."
0:30:56 > 0:31:00Top Of The Pops was a massive influence on people from my generation.
0:31:00 > 0:31:06I went from seeing T-Rex and David Bowie all the way through to the 80s,
0:31:06 > 0:31:09and, you know, appearing on it,
0:31:09 > 0:31:13so it's a huge deal for me, or was a huge deal for me, Top Of The Pops.
0:31:13 > 0:31:18Well, you know, it's like, The Sex Pistols I was into, I was just too young for them,
0:31:18 > 0:31:23but the first band that I'd seen and had a connection with was The Jam
0:31:23 > 0:31:26on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
0:31:26 > 0:31:28And after that it was The Smiths and New Order
0:31:28 > 0:31:32and they were from Manchester and that was mind-blowing. And then, er...
0:31:32 > 0:31:39But the first band that I'd seen that I thought, "I can do that" was The Stone Roses.
0:31:39 > 0:31:44And I thought I could do it. And then it took off from there, really.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02# Maybe
0:32:02 > 0:32:05# I don't really wanna know
0:32:05 > 0:32:07# How your garden grows
0:32:07 > 0:32:10# I just want to fly
0:32:11 > 0:32:16And in that spell where you were doing various jobs, working for your dad and his concrete company
0:32:16 > 0:32:21and then other jobs, were you one of those people who thought that you would get out of it,
0:32:21 > 0:32:23that you would make something of it, or that that was it?
0:32:23 > 0:32:27I never had any ambitions because it just didn't happen to people like me.
0:32:27 > 0:32:31There was nobody like me on TV, so how could it possibly happen?
0:32:31 > 0:32:36Where I come from in Burnage, I was the only person
0:32:36 > 0:32:38in the whole of that area,
0:32:38 > 0:32:42seemingly, that was interested in anything other than City.
0:32:42 > 0:32:49And I used to go in... When everyone else was, kind of, experimenting with cars and drinking lager,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52I was going into town to see bands and stuff like that,
0:32:52 > 0:32:55and they thought I was a weirdo, do you know what I mean?
0:32:55 > 0:32:58And, er, a chance meeting took place one night
0:32:58 > 0:33:01when I was at a Stone Roses gig
0:33:01 > 0:33:04and I noticed there was a guy on the balcony with a Walkman. Remember those?
0:33:04 > 0:33:07- Mm.- Fascinating things.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11And there was a red light on and he was bootlegging the gig and I went up and I asked him,
0:33:11 > 0:33:14cos the Stone Roses hadn't put an album out then,
0:33:14 > 0:33:18I loved them and I needed to hear those songs, kind of thing.
0:33:18 > 0:33:20And I asked him for a tape.
0:33:20 > 0:33:24And he was a guitarist, we got talking, he asked what other bands I liked,
0:33:24 > 0:33:28- and I said this band Inspiral Carpets. Turns out he was the guitarist.- Graham Lambert.
0:33:28 > 0:33:33He was Graham Lambert, yeah. And I didn't recognise him and I'd seen them a lot.
0:33:33 > 0:33:39I'd been to see them. So he said that their singer at the time was leaving
0:33:39 > 0:33:43and would I audition to be the singer because I knew the songs.
0:33:43 > 0:33:46And I said, "Yeah. Wow. Great."
0:33:47 > 0:33:49And I didn't get it.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54Obviously. I couldn't really sing till about four years ago,
0:33:54 > 0:33:58and I was only 21 at the time, but they asked me to be their roadie.
0:33:58 > 0:34:02And then that's where it kind of took off for me.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07Then I met... Cos where I came from, nobody was in the music game.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10Nobody at all. Nobody came from Burnage, no-one.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13And, er, then I just met...
0:34:13 > 0:34:17It's where I met Mark Coyle, on the tour bus. He produced our first album.
0:34:17 > 0:34:20It's where I met...
0:34:20 > 0:34:24..loads of people. And once you're round like-minded people, that's when it starts.
0:34:24 > 0:34:29And then when I was sound-checking equipment, and, er...
0:34:31 > 0:34:34..then I had, I wouldn't call it a dream, but I thought,
0:34:34 > 0:34:38"I could easily do this. I've just got to find the right people."
0:34:38 > 0:34:40And is that when you started writing songs?
0:34:40 > 0:34:45No. I started writing songs maybe before that but not only...
0:34:45 > 0:34:49You know, I started playing the guitar. There was a guitar in our house behind a door.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53Still nobody's got to the bottom of why that guitar was there, cos nobody could play it,
0:34:53 > 0:34:57unless my mam had a secret bluegrass thing. I don't know.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01And I used to get grounded a lot,
0:35:01 > 0:35:03for robbing and stuff and not being at school,
0:35:03 > 0:35:09and I learned to play Joy Division basslines on one string and then it went to two strings, and then...
0:35:10 > 0:35:13The first thing I could play was House Of The Rising Sun.
0:35:13 > 0:35:17So once you can play a few chords, the next thing is to write a song.
0:35:17 > 0:35:23But I didn't really start writing songs with any seriousness until I joined Oasis.
0:35:24 > 0:35:30So when you were roadie for Inspiral Carpets on a US tour, you came back, it was Liam that got you into the...
0:35:30 > 0:35:34Well, it wasn't in the States, it was a European tour, it was in Munich,
0:35:34 > 0:35:37and I called home, the weekly phone call.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41Asked my mam how everything was.
0:35:41 > 0:35:43And I asked how Liam was.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46Maybe the only time I've ever asked how Liam was ever in a phone call.
0:35:46 > 0:35:49And she said, "Oh, he's out rehearsing."
0:35:49 > 0:35:53And I was kind of, "What? Rehearsing what?"
0:35:53 > 0:35:55She said, "He's in a band and he's the singer."
0:35:55 > 0:35:58And I laughed. I couldn't believe it. You know?
0:35:58 > 0:36:01All those years I'd spent sharing a room with him
0:36:01 > 0:36:04and I'd be playing the guitar and he'd be sat staring at me going,
0:36:04 > 0:36:09"Lend us a fiver. Lend us a fiver. Lend us a fiver. Lend us a fiver." I'd say, "Get out!"
0:36:09 > 0:36:12Fiver! And, erm,
0:36:12 > 0:36:15never dawned on either of us that, you know...
0:36:15 > 0:36:17And I was like, "He's a singer in a band?"
0:36:17 > 0:36:20By the time I got back to Manchester,
0:36:20 > 0:36:24they were doing a gig, and I went to see them and I thought they had something.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28They had a couple of songs and I thought... I thought they were good.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31And I was shocked at him on stage
0:36:31 > 0:36:35and I was like, "Wow! Doesn't look out of place," you know.
0:36:35 > 0:36:40And, er, one thing led to another, they asked me to be their manager.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43I was like, "I don't want to be a manager."
0:36:43 > 0:36:49And, erm, they badgered me into going to rehearse with them for a while.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52And then one Sunday, I just went, you know, and...
0:36:53 > 0:36:56..joined in. And the rest is history.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59Well, we have to talk about some of that history.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03It was control. I mean, even from early on, it was about who would be in charge.
0:37:03 > 0:37:09Well, there is, that's a great story and we all might have played that up at the beginning.
0:37:09 > 0:37:14But I... Our first ever gig, there is a cassette of it going round somewhere,
0:37:14 > 0:37:18it's not all my songs, it's mostly their songs and maybe two of mine.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21And, erm...
0:37:21 > 0:37:27But I got the bug pretty quickly. When I, when I, er, heard...
0:37:28 > 0:37:32..my songs being played back to me by this band in a room...
0:37:34 > 0:37:37..something happened, and then I started to write furiously.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40And the next day I was like, "Try this."
0:37:40 > 0:37:44And then I got on such a mission with it
0:37:44 > 0:37:47that it quickly became apparent that, you know,
0:37:47 > 0:37:50I was writing so many songs, I became the songwriter.
0:37:50 > 0:37:54But there is the myth that I went in and said, "Before we go any further,
0:37:54 > 0:37:57"I want you to know that I'll be writing all the songs."
0:37:57 > 0:38:00That was a great story at the time, but not strictly true.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03And everybody was quite prepared to let me do it at the time.
0:38:03 > 0:38:08But it is one of the fault lines, isn't it? Because in a lot of these splits in bands,
0:38:08 > 0:38:12there just is this division between the songwriter, or songwriters, and the rest,
0:38:12 > 0:38:16because, for a start, they make a lot more money.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19- Mm.- And it's very hard to avoid that in bands, isn't it?
0:38:20 > 0:38:24Er, I guess. You'd have to speak to the others, do you know what I mean?
0:38:25 > 0:38:30Saying that, yeah, but in my... What I will say to that is
0:38:30 > 0:38:35I never said to anybody else, "You are not allowed to write songs, this is my thing."
0:38:35 > 0:38:40Nobody was bothered up until 1999.
0:38:40 > 0:38:42Or year 2000 when Liam wrote his first song.
0:38:42 > 0:38:45They'd have done me a favour if they'd wrote some B-sides.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48The third album would've been a lot better.
0:38:48 > 0:38:53Another of the great stories from the early days which will be in when they make the movie about Oasis
0:38:53 > 0:38:59is that the 1993 gig that you played and Alan McGee, Creation Records, came to it,
0:38:59 > 0:39:03- that you almost didn't play that gig.- Yeah. - That is true, is it?- It is true.
0:39:03 > 0:39:08The true story is we shared a rehearsal space in a club called the Boardwalk in Manchester
0:39:08 > 0:39:14with an all-girl band called Sister Lover.
0:39:14 > 0:39:19So one of the girls, her name was Debbie Turner,
0:39:19 > 0:39:22was either an ex-girlfriend or a girlfriend of Alan McGee's
0:39:22 > 0:39:29and she had a gig supporting a band that Alan McGee had just signed called 18 Wheeler,
0:39:29 > 0:39:31all the way up in Glasgow.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34Why we thought it was a great idea to go all the way to Glasgow...
0:39:35 > 0:39:38..I've still not got to the bottom of that.
0:39:38 > 0:39:40But she said, "Oh, come up and play with us."
0:39:40 > 0:39:44It wasn't her gig, it was someone else's gig. So anyway, by the time we get there,
0:39:44 > 0:39:49they hadn't got a license for three bands or something, they could only have two.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53But we'd come all the way. Now, legend has it that we walked into the promoter's office,
0:39:53 > 0:39:57or the manager's office, and closed the door behind us, and said,
0:39:57 > 0:40:01"We will raise this building to the floor if you don't let us play."
0:40:02 > 0:40:05Anybody who's been up into Glasgow...
0:40:05 > 0:40:08You don't get away with that kind of shit up there. So there was none of that.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12We kind of said, "Look, come on, man, we've come all this way."
0:40:13 > 0:40:18And he said, "You can have 20 minutes as the doors open."
0:40:18 > 0:40:22Luckily for us, Alan McGee turned up early.
0:40:22 > 0:40:24And we played the 20 minutes.
0:40:24 > 0:40:28And I remember walking off stage, the band were still playing,
0:40:28 > 0:40:31we used to do a version of I Am The Walrus by The Beatles,
0:40:31 > 0:40:35and it would go on for ages, and I remember walking off stage.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39And I just bumped into Alan McGee and he said, "What's your band called?"
0:40:39 > 0:40:42I said, "Oasis." And he said, "Have you got a record deal?"
0:40:42 > 0:40:46I said, "No." He said, "Do you want one?" I said, "Yes." That was it.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49# Hey you, up in the sky
0:40:49 > 0:40:52# Learning to fly
0:40:52 > 0:40:53# Do you know why?
0:40:53 > 0:40:56# Do you think you know?
0:40:58 > 0:41:02- Were you ever suspicious of record companies or management?- No.
0:41:02 > 0:41:07I was always of the fact that we should get signed to the biggest record label,
0:41:07 > 0:41:10whoever they are, get the most money as possible.
0:41:10 > 0:41:14I was very confident in our, in our band.
0:41:14 > 0:41:17I was very confident in the songs that I was writing.
0:41:17 > 0:41:23And I thought the record label and what they can give to us is really irrelevant
0:41:23 > 0:41:26because once it's out there, it's out there and it'll be unstoppable.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29I firmly believed that. I believed it.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32Everybody else said the words but I actually believed it.
0:41:32 > 0:41:38When, erm... 93 and 94 and I said we were going to be the biggest band in the world,
0:41:38 > 0:41:42- people did kind of go... - HE CHUCKLES - "Wow." You know?
0:41:42 > 0:41:47I was absolutely 100 percent positive that it was going to happen.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51Was it a complication that either of you could have sung those songs?
0:41:51 > 0:41:54- No, I couldn't sing then.- Right. - I wasn't interested.- Mm.
0:41:54 > 0:41:59I started to sing by default because Liam, you know,
0:41:59 > 0:42:02was a bit erratic in his time-keeping sometimes.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05I put it like that, nicely, you know.
0:42:05 > 0:42:08And, er, I'd sing the odd B-side
0:42:08 > 0:42:14and I gradually grew into it and gradually began to love it, you know?
0:42:16 > 0:42:22And then towards the end of Oasis, round about 2005 time,
0:42:22 > 0:42:28became good at it. It took me a long time but I found my voice, do you know what I mean?
0:42:28 > 0:42:32It wasn't something that came naturally to me or it wasn't an obsession of mine.
0:42:32 > 0:42:34I did it because...
0:42:36 > 0:42:39..Liam needed a break for some reason, you know, halfway through the gig.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42"Rest my voice," you know, like Pavarotti.
0:42:42 > 0:42:46Although he wasn't going to the side and gargling honey and lemon,
0:42:46 > 0:42:48he was having a cigar or something, smoking a pipe.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54Yeah, it's kind of something that just crept up on me. I like it.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56It's a great thing to learn to sing, amazing.
0:42:56 > 0:43:01Another huge stage in the story was the whole Blur versus Oasis thing.
0:43:01 > 0:43:06Was that manufactured by journalists and PR people or was it genuine for you?
0:43:06 > 0:43:11You know, in honesty, and the truth is this, it was manufactured by the NME and...
0:43:12 > 0:43:17..people in Blur's camp, who moved their single to coincide with ours.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22And what really annoyed us at the time is everybody blamed it on us
0:43:22 > 0:43:25because we were seen as media manipulators.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29That's what annoyed me at the time.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33Looking back on it now, it was brilliant.
0:43:33 > 0:43:37Things like that don't happen any more. It was on News At Ten!
0:43:37 > 0:43:39And it was great.
0:43:39 > 0:43:41The episode...
0:43:42 > 0:43:47..where the bands were slagging each other off was unnecessary because we all kind of had a...
0:43:48 > 0:43:51..a certain amount of respect for each other, do you know what I mean?
0:43:51 > 0:43:55I guess we were all too drunk or too high to say otherwise.
0:43:55 > 0:44:01But I make no bones about it, I revelled in the fact of slagging other bands off.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04It was built up by a lot of people into a class thing,
0:44:04 > 0:44:07that you, Oasis, working class, versus Blur, middle class.
0:44:07 > 0:44:12It was even... There were whole articles saying that whether you preferred one band to the other
0:44:12 > 0:44:16revealed what class you were. Were you ever into all that? The class thing?
0:44:16 > 0:44:18Class warfare?
0:44:18 > 0:44:21I might have been a bit more militant when I was on the dole.
0:44:22 > 0:44:29Not really. But with that whole Blur/Oasis thing, it was the media's wet dream.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33You know, it was like we couldn't be any more contrasting.
0:44:33 > 0:44:37There's these lot from Manchester, and there's these lot from Colchester
0:44:37 > 0:44:41and they went to art school, and they were robbing shit.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44It's kind of like... They've both got singles out.
0:44:44 > 0:44:49We all sold a lot of records and became wealthy off the back of it. So I'm not moaning about it now.
0:44:49 > 0:44:53But I met Damon recently, a couple of months ago.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56And I hadn't seen him for years and years, maybe 15 years.
0:44:58 > 0:45:01And we literally bumped into each other in a nightclub.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05And we had a beer and we kind of had a bit of a laugh about it,
0:45:05 > 0:45:08it was like, "Wasn't it... It was great, wasn't it?"
0:45:08 > 0:45:11And we were bemoaning the state of music now
0:45:11 > 0:45:15and how things like that don't get on the News At Ten any more.
0:45:15 > 0:45:19You said in this interview that you were out of your head for quite a bit of the 90s.
0:45:19 > 0:45:24Is that inevitable? It happens to so many people in the music business.
0:45:24 > 0:45:26It's part of the game. It's part of the game.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29I don't want to... You shouldn't...
0:45:31 > 0:45:34..glorify it, because evidently people get messed up.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37Do you know what I mean?
0:45:37 > 0:45:44But it's part of the game, and it was part of the game that I was more than willing to get involved in.
0:45:44 > 0:45:46Free drugs!
0:45:46 > 0:45:50Free! You don't even have to pay for them.
0:45:50 > 0:45:55- Do you regret it at all? - No, cos I came out the other side.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59But, you know, I was wise enough... to come out the other end
0:45:59 > 0:46:02and once I'd done it all, it's like, this is bullshit.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06I'm glad I did it but I'm glad I don't do it, you know what I mean?
0:46:06 > 0:46:11One of the things which is... One of your jobs was to predict, in effect, what the hits would be,
0:46:11 > 0:46:15that you have these songs and you have the album, what the single will be.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18Did you generally know, did you have an instinct for that?
0:46:18 > 0:46:20I lost it for a while, yeah.
0:46:20 > 0:46:22I'm good at it now. I'm good at it now.
0:46:22 > 0:46:28- I would...- Wonderwall, Don't Look Back In Anger, you knew basically that those were hits?- Yeah.
0:46:28 > 0:46:30Yeah, I know enough about music,
0:46:30 > 0:46:33and I've got enough records and read enough music magazines,
0:46:33 > 0:46:38and I was obsessed about it enough from the age of 13, whatever it was,
0:46:38 > 0:46:41to know when I wrote that song, Live Forever,
0:46:41 > 0:46:44I knew that in the canon of songs,
0:46:44 > 0:46:47not just mine, in anybody's, that's a great song.
0:46:47 > 0:46:51And I'm big-headed enough to say it, as well, do you know what I mean? Cos it's a fact.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54And Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger,
0:46:54 > 0:46:58and all the other number one singles, yeah.
0:46:58 > 0:47:04For a while I lost interest in it, around about the time of...
0:47:04 > 0:47:09Between Be Here Now and Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants, I was in a different place with it.
0:47:09 > 0:47:11I'd kind of... My...
0:47:14 > 0:47:19My passion for music had gone somewhat and I was in a different place, I wasn't bothered.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22It was just like doing it for the sake of it, you know?
0:47:22 > 0:47:25But in the early days and now, yeah.
0:47:26 > 0:47:30# So Sally can wait
0:47:30 > 0:47:32# She knows it's too late
0:47:32 > 0:47:36# As we're walking on by
0:47:37 > 0:47:42# My soul slides away
0:47:43 > 0:47:46# Don't look back in anger
0:47:46 > 0:47:48# I heard you say
0:47:53 > 0:47:59The huge gigs, Knebworth and Maine Road, which had obvious huge associations for you
0:47:59 > 0:48:01as Manchester City's ground at that time,
0:48:01 > 0:48:06the sense, the power you had over that crowd and those huge crowds, were you ever frightened by that?
0:48:06 > 0:48:10- No.- Or was it just exhilaration?
0:48:11 > 0:48:14I don't know. I don't get stage fright.
0:48:14 > 0:48:16I get excitement which is a different thing.
0:48:16 > 0:48:20I never... You read stories about people throwing up before they go onstage.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23What's all that about?
0:48:25 > 0:48:28No, they're there to see you.
0:48:28 > 0:48:30They want you to be brilliant.
0:48:30 > 0:48:32Half of them are out of their mind anyway.
0:48:32 > 0:48:36They wouldn't know if you were singing out of tune or playing out of time,
0:48:36 > 0:48:39even if they watched it back on a video.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43No, we could play. We could do it.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46Once you know you can do it, it's fine.
0:48:46 > 0:48:48None of us in that band were shrinking violets.
0:48:48 > 0:48:53Liam wasn't a wallflower. He thought he was the greatest thing since sliced cheese.
0:48:55 > 0:49:01I thought I was the greatest thing since freeze-dried noodles in a plastic container.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05And, er, yeah, we knew we were good.
0:49:05 > 0:49:11And walking out on there is just like, that's it. That is it.
0:49:11 > 0:49:15It doesn't get any better than that, and the stadiums and all that...
0:49:15 > 0:49:20I prefer stadiums than small gigs. Stadiums are an incredible spectacle.
0:49:20 > 0:49:24When I'm on a stage, I'm watching 70,000 people on a night out.
0:49:24 > 0:49:30And I tell you this, it is an unbelievable thing when all that crowd are bouncing at the same time
0:49:30 > 0:49:35to a song that you wrote 10, 15 years ago.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37It's an amazing thing.
0:49:37 > 0:49:39# You gotta roll with it
0:49:39 > 0:49:41# You gotta take your time
0:49:41 > 0:49:43# You gotta say what to say
0:49:43 > 0:49:46# Don't let anybody get in your way
0:49:46 > 0:49:50# Cos it's all too much for me to take
0:49:50 > 0:49:56- Meeting Tony Blair at Number 10. Do you regret that?- No.
0:49:56 > 0:49:591997 it was, I believe.
0:49:59 > 0:50:03I'd only signed off the dole four years earlier.
0:50:03 > 0:50:06And I arrived at 10 Downing Street in a Rolls Royce.
0:50:07 > 0:50:09I laughed all the way there, thinking...
0:50:11 > 0:50:14.."What a trip. What an absolute trip this is."
0:50:14 > 0:50:18The Labour party were only too willing to reach out to the artistic community.
0:50:18 > 0:50:20Well, they were using you, weren't they?
0:50:20 > 0:50:26Using me for what? To get into power. Great. And to bring in the minimum wage. Well, you are welcome.
0:50:26 > 0:50:31- MARK LAUGHS - You know, and they were reaching out to the artistic community
0:50:31 > 0:50:34and Alan McGee got involved with them.
0:50:34 > 0:50:39And, you know, he said, "They want to meet you." And I was like, "And why not?"
0:50:39 > 0:50:42Of course they do. Why wouldn't they want to meet me?
0:50:42 > 0:50:44And he said there was some do going on.
0:50:44 > 0:50:48And I knew I was going to cop a load of flack for it, going there.
0:50:48 > 0:50:54I wasn't going there thinking I'm better than anybody else or, you know...
0:50:54 > 0:50:59I'm only here because I'm me. I can't help that. You know?
0:50:59 > 0:51:05I'm very interested in what you said, thinking about Oasis, because it's commonly written that
0:51:05 > 0:51:10it was always going to blow at some point and the tensions were always there from the beginning.
0:51:10 > 0:51:15But you suggested they weren't, that it only got seriously tricky later on.
0:51:15 > 0:51:17Yeah, the mid, yeah.
0:51:19 > 0:51:22But it was never going to end like REM have ended,
0:51:22 > 0:51:26round a table, all amicable and say, "Yeah, we really should call it a day."
0:51:26 > 0:51:31It was always going to end in a fight of some description. Everybody was aware of that.
0:51:31 > 0:51:35We all wanted it to last forever. I certainly did.
0:51:35 > 0:51:40But I was always aware that, when it came to it, that one of us
0:51:40 > 0:51:43would eventually, you know,
0:51:43 > 0:51:46say, "F you and you and you and you."
0:51:46 > 0:51:49It just happened to be me. It could well have been Liam.
0:51:50 > 0:51:57It's not something I... You can't live your life with regrets like that. It was a great trip.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59I think maybe it was inevitable that I would walk out.
0:51:59 > 0:52:05Cos I've got pretty... I've got a pretty long fuse and thick skin until the day that I haven't.
0:52:05 > 0:52:10And then it's like, "No, no, no, no. I'm out of here."
0:52:10 > 0:52:15- And without going blow by blow, that final, the final encounter, 2009. - The final round.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18Yeah. What was it that took you over the edge?
0:52:18 > 0:52:20HE LAUGHS
0:52:20 > 0:52:26Well, it was a gradual thing that had gone on for most of that tour.
0:52:28 > 0:52:32It was just a lot of personal insults,
0:52:32 > 0:52:35but not to my face, do you know what I mean?
0:52:35 > 0:52:39And my missus was getting brought into it.
0:52:40 > 0:52:43Through no fault of her own.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46It just felt, "This is all really unnecessary,
0:52:46 > 0:52:49"I'm going to do everybody a favour by leaving."
0:52:49 > 0:52:53But the final straw was, he slung a guitar around the dressing room
0:52:53 > 0:52:56and it's dangerous, do you know what I mean?
0:52:56 > 0:52:59And in the end it was like, "You know what?
0:52:59 > 0:53:03"Nobody's enjoying this." Do you know what I mean?
0:53:03 > 0:53:06I do regret not doing the gig. We only had two gigs left,
0:53:06 > 0:53:09I could've just done the gigs and gone away and cooled down a little bit.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13But we're not... We're Mancunians, you know?
0:53:14 > 0:53:18There is something quite special about walking out.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22It was, presumably, pretty emotional to walk out, was it?
0:53:22 > 0:53:24Erm...
0:53:24 > 0:53:28Well, yeah, it's a big decision. I knew... I walked...
0:53:28 > 0:53:33Liam was very, very wound up.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36And angry.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39And, er,
0:53:39 > 0:53:43I was quite calm in the dressing room, which served to wind him up even more.
0:53:43 > 0:53:48If you're furious with someone and someone's quite calm, that annoys you, doesn't it?
0:53:48 > 0:53:52It annoys my wife a great deal.
0:53:53 > 0:53:57But when I left the dressing room, I left the site and sat in the car for five minutes.
0:53:57 > 0:54:03I knew that if I'd said to the driver, "Drive," that was it, the band was over.
0:54:04 > 0:54:08And that was a long five minutes.
0:54:08 > 0:54:12And I was with my security guard who was sat in the front.
0:54:12 > 0:54:18There was a driver, I was sat in the back and he turned round and said, "What we doing, staying or going?"
0:54:20 > 0:54:24And I just said, "Fuck it. Let's go." And that was it.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27And I never thought about the aftermath.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30I never thought about...
0:54:31 > 0:54:33From that second, I'd left and that was it.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36And it was just a case of, you know, erm...
0:54:38 > 0:54:42..going on holiday and taking some time off and seeing what it is I wanted to do.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46And that was it. I never thought about the rest of the lads.
0:54:46 > 0:54:52I never thought about the people in the field waiting for us to go on. We were due on in five minutes.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56I never thought about them or the crew or what it meant to people
0:54:56 > 0:55:01or the legal storm that it would bring after all that.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05I never thought of any of that. I've quit and that's it, I'm gone.
0:55:05 > 0:55:10- Did you cry? - No. I only cry at football matches.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13Yeah, I shed a tear when we beat United in the semifinal of the FA Cup
0:55:13 > 0:55:17and when my children were born, but crying, that's for girls, isn't it?
0:55:17 > 0:55:21- HE LAUGHS - Final question on Liam, you'll be relieved to know,
0:55:21 > 0:55:25but do you exchange Christmas cards and texts, or is it total silence?
0:55:25 > 0:55:27No, we never did. We're not that kind of family.
0:55:28 > 0:55:33We seen each other on a regular basis in the band,
0:55:33 > 0:55:38and, you know, when you're not in the band, you're spending time with your family.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42So there's no contact?
0:55:42 > 0:55:45No. No.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48None of any significance.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52Much to my mother's disgust, I have to say. But there you go.
0:55:53 > 0:55:58We're big boys now and all that. She can't tell us what to do forever, can she?
0:55:58 > 0:56:00Do you accept that that's it, probably?
0:56:00 > 0:56:05No, of course it won't be the last time I'm ever going to speak to him. Of course I'm going to speak to him.
0:56:05 > 0:56:07It's just I'm busy.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10I'm doing my thing, he's doing his thing.
0:56:10 > 0:56:12There's no need
0:56:12 > 0:56:16to get involved in any of that at the moment.
0:56:16 > 0:56:18Do you know what I mean?
0:56:18 > 0:56:21Do you accept that nothing you do can be as big as Oasis?
0:56:21 > 0:56:25Absolutely. Nothing anybody does can be as big as Oasis.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29Not Coldplay, not Kasabian, not The Arctic Monkeys,
0:56:29 > 0:56:31in this country, not U2, not any of them.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35It's as simple as that.
0:56:35 > 0:56:40It's not only me that lives up to that legacy, it's everybody else who's got to live it down.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43We were the last. We were the greatest.
0:56:43 > 0:56:45The end.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48Finally, looking back at your career, the creation of Oasis,
0:56:48 > 0:56:54you were ambitious and you were driven and you went out and you worked very hard for it.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57Are you still ambitious or are you satisfied now?
0:56:59 > 0:57:03In the early days, I was ambitious that we were going to become the biggest band in the world,
0:57:03 > 0:57:07and for a brief point, we were the biggest band in the world.
0:57:07 > 0:57:12We sold the most tickets and sold the most records, ergo, the biggest band in the world.
0:57:12 > 0:57:17Done it then, and then it was just like, I just want to enjoy it now. You know?
0:57:17 > 0:57:22But I've never been one, or wasn't in the early days,
0:57:22 > 0:57:24for sticking it out and seeing what happens.
0:57:24 > 0:57:29I was single-minded in we were going to take it to the top,
0:57:29 > 0:57:33cos what could be worse, I felt, than having all this potential...
0:57:35 > 0:57:41..and it just come to nothing like the Libertines or something like that, you know?
0:57:41 > 0:57:45Potentially could've been one of the greats but there's drugs and booze,
0:57:45 > 0:57:48and can't be arsed, just blew it, do you know what I mean?
0:57:50 > 0:57:52I was, erm,
0:57:52 > 0:57:54I was determined that we weren't going to blow it.
0:57:54 > 0:57:59And I've got... I've had this reputation since the band split up
0:57:59 > 0:58:02of being called a control freak and all that kind of thing.
0:58:03 > 0:58:07And I was. And I controlled them all the way to Knebworth, to Wembley,
0:58:07 > 0:58:10and all the way to the top of the charts.
0:58:12 > 0:58:14So you're welcome.
0:58:14 > 0:58:17- Noel Gallagher, thank you. - Thank you very much.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:28 > 0:58:31# Tonight
0:58:31 > 0:58:34# I'm a rock and roll star
0:58:35 > 0:58:38# Tonight
0:58:38 > 0:58:41# I'm a rock and roll star
0:58:42 > 0:58:45# Tonight #
0:58:45 > 0:58:45.