So, with
Oasis in mind (and as I am writing this I am just four days away from going to
see the band at Wembley) I’m thinking about my own Soulful Story, and how this
relates to writing and music and the people that I have crossed paths with. I
am also just a few months away from having my thirty-fifth book published, but
who’s counting?
In 2013 I
co-wrote a book called Supersonic, it was the follow up to my first bestselling
book Thick as Thieves, which Paul Weller provided the foreword for, adding that
it was the best book he’d seen written about The Jam. A similar styled book on
another important band to me, Oasis, was a given, and this became Supersonic.
Supersonic
did okay at the time, if it was being published this year, I’d possibly be
writing this from a hotel in Barbados, but I’m not, I’m at home in Kent and it’s
raining outside.
It was soon
after Supersonic that I got to work on a book called Paul Weller: Sounds from
The Studio. This book provided ample opportunity to include voices from people
that Weller had worked with over his career through The Jam, The Style Council
and his solo years, and Noel Gallagher pops up often.
I asked Noel
if he’d be happy to be included in the book and agreed and invited me to meet
him at his management offices. I remember the door to the offices opening and being
ushered to a small room where the interview with Noel would take place. A few minutes
later Noel walked in, we shook hands, and he said, ‘remind me again what the
interview’s about?’ To which I replied ‘Paul Weller’ to which he returns ‘Paul
Weller, Paul Weller, people are always asking me about Paul Weller’. And we
both laughed.
It was a great
interview, and Noel was happy to talk (even about Paul Weller) and below are
some of the excerpts from that book.
I went on to
see Noel and interview him for other reasons and we’d have the occasional text
message ‘Happy New Year Snowflake’ was one of them. I also sent him a message
after the announcement came about Oasis reforming, and he sent an image back of
the hand straps inside a car suggesting ‘hold on’.
But right up
there, as an experience and an opportunity is something that happened back in
2020. It was a Sunday night, around 8pm when I get a text from Noel saying ‘Snowy,
someone from Oasis management will call you tomorrow’. That was it, nothing
more, no context, no extra information.
The call
came that Monday and it turned out Noel wanted me to be the interviewer for a
documentary he wanted to make, where he’d go back to Rockfield Studios in
Wales, as it was the twenty-fifth anniversary of What’s The Story, and that’s where
the album was recorded. Wow, what an opportunity!
My wife and
We Offer Wellness Co-founder Loz went with me, and we spent a couple of days with
Noel and his fab team, and the film crew and the two-part documentary was made
and released as a YouTube film. It was great to do and to spend time with Noel talking
to him about those anthemic songs from such an incredible album.
Viva Oasis.
Viva Rock n Roll!
Excerpts
from Sounds From the Studio:
Noel Gallagher ‘Every time I work with Paul the process is
different. But above all else it’s always really interesting and enjoyable. And
sometimes it’s doesn’t even work. We’ve got a few songs that are just hanging
in the air, for whatever reason they’ve never been finished off. But it’ always
a good laugh and it’s easier now than it used to be, from when he was drinking.
Being in the studio then could be pretty fucking mental. You’d have Paul and
Cradock speaking in catchphrases and you just wouldn’t know what the fuck they
were talking about. You’d have to be pissed yourself to get it Paul has an open
mind. He likes to throw a lot of stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. In
contrast I never go into the studio without a song that is fully finished. I
never go into the studio to just see what happens. But Paul is the opposite.
Even though you think his songs are well structured and already written in the
comfort of his home in front of the fire, they’re not. Maybe in The Jam and
Style Council days they were, but nowadays I think they’re pretty much all
written in the studio.’
Noel Gallagher ‘Paul asked me to narrate the God track but I
told him no because I’m not in any way into God. But he kept asking and giving
me loads of reasons why I should do it. But in the end, I turned to him and said,
‘here’s a fucking idea why don’t you do it?’ To which he said, ‘no I’m not
doing it.’ But if he’d said to me ‘I think Gods a Manc-I would have done it!’
Noel Gallagher ‘Paul recorded Illumination at my Wheelers End Studios. I remember when Paul
called me up and asked me if he could use the studios. I told him that of
course he could. On the first day, me and Gem went round to his house to pick
him up. He came out of his house, wearing a hat (another hat), with a 12 twelve
string guitar in a plastic bag and it was pissing down. In the car we had a
book that had just come out about The Beatles gear which we showed Paul to
which he replied, ‘what they’ve written a fucking book about the drugs that The
Beatles took.’ But we explained to him that it was about the equipment the band
used, not gear as in drugs.
Noel Gallagher ‘I was in Manor Studios when Paul was doing Stanley Road. I was only there for a
couple of nights, but the others were there for months on end. They obviously
felt some kind of magic there. For me, I’ve gotta say, it was just another
studio. But I guess if you’re in a studio and you’re recording what you feel is
your best work, you’re gonna feel something for that studio. It was a good studio
and I had a good time down there doing I Walk On Gilded Splinters. And it was
great being around hearing the coming together of Stanley Road months before anyone else and thinking wow it’s gone
somewhere else again since Wild Wood.
It was like a real privilege. But all those old residential studios are gone
now; it’s a whole part of the music making culture that’s died. All of those
great bands that we were brought up loving like Led Zeppelin would all stay in
those studios and spend four months recording those albums. But nowadays it’s
just a matter of record something-well crack on sharpish. And I think it affects
the quality of the music. And Paul’s from the 70’s so it’s in his DNA to be
like those bands and approach recording in that way too.
I was mixing a live Oasis concert and I using the Rolling
Stones mobile studio, which at that time was parked up at the Manor House
Studios. I needed to go down and oversee some mix and was told Paul was booked
into the Manor House at the same time. So, I thought great, it couldn’t be any
better. I’m there doing my stuff and he’s doing his and we’re hanging out an
then Paul asks if I wanted to play on a track, to which I was like ‘yeah, do
I.’ Paul then says ‘do you know Dr. John?’ to which I’m saying ‘well yeah,
course.’ But I’d never fucking heard of Dr. John. Then Paul asks if I knew the
Gilded Splinters song, to which I replied ‘of course’ whilst thinking to myself
I don’t have a fucking clue what he’s going on about, and this was in the days
before you could quickly check your I phone and look the song up and come back
with a ‘yeah, what a belter, one of my favourites.’
Noel Gallagher’s Return to Rockfield (part one) YouTube link
