Noel Gallagher was a guest of BBC Radio 4’s ‘Desert Island Discs’, where he talked about the relationship with his brother, Oasis and the Britpop era. On his status as a songwriter he said: “Put it this way, I am not as revered by the press as Thom Yorke or Damon Albarn. That is just a fact.”
Noel then talked about the Nineties and the impact the band has still nowadays: “On our day we were great. People are there now at my concerts that weren’t even born then and they are crying at Oasis songs. All all over the world people are still in massively in love with that band – and none more so than me.”
About the rows with his brother and the end of Oasis, he stated: “The way it worked was, when were not slagging each other off, that’s when were telling each other that we loved each other. That’s it. Clearly there was a point where he was the greatest singer in the world and it was great. It just so happens that the two of us we like to call a spade a spade. But it was very sarcastic mud-slinging.” But the pair had a good relationship as children in Burnage: “He was an irritant though, because we shared a bedroom. When you are 10 and your brother is five it is a lifetime away and so I never hung out with any of his friends, but, yeah, we got on.” In the band, their sibling status was a mixed blessing, he adds. “You can gain some strength from being in a band with your brother when everyone else is a stranger, but as time goes on it becomes your achilles heel because you know how to push each other’s buttons.”
In 1998 he realised the last three Oasis albums had all been created “on drugs”. “Not all of Oasis were on drugs, though. Just effectively me and Liam,” he says. A move out to the country was followed by “a moment of clarity” when he found a stranger in his kitchen the morning after a party and decided to give up drugs. “I have good willpower. It was one of the greatest things I have ever done.”
Recalling the Nineties and the Britpop era, he said: “What people are refusing to accept is that the 90s were brilliant. Think about that time, with Thatcher being ushered out and New Labour coming in. And Oasis, Blur and Pulp all those bands in the top five all the time. They were great days.”
Source: The Guardian