Oasis celebrate its decade by playing a couple of live dates to preview new songs

Oasis, if you missed to notice, became as much gossip fodder as a band loved by millions. We followed Liam and Noel Gallagher’s escapades, knew about their marriage problems and break-ups, band’s splitting and recruiting new members, trials and tribulations but none of it terminated the outfit. They keep on going on and are celebrating a decade in business. (The debut show occurred at the Manchester’s Boardwalk on August 18, 1991.)

The Gallagher brothers love affections have switched from their ‘celeb-wives’ to another ‘star-frau’, Nicole (ex-All Saints) Appleton who bore a child to Liam (his second) while Noel is in a less publicity-grabbing relationship. They also appear to be much less in tabloid focus that many see as the beginning of their downfall.

The band’s new album, planned for release before this Christmas, has been postponed for next year and it will feature songs written by all the members; it is a total reversal of Noel’s solo-songwriting monopoly that got broken on the last (studio) album; ‘Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants’ contained Liam’s songcrafting debut tune ‘Little James’; that might have signalled Noel’s becoming more tolerant towards his born-to-trouble bro.

“I have become (more tolerant)," the older, quieter and wiser Gallagher responds with a sigh, "and the relationship has improved... I just let him get on with his own thing. I used to get really worked up and argue with him but I can’t be bothered to do it anymore. I’m 34, been there, done it, Liam is only 29. He is still going through what I went through and I expect him to be like me when he is 34, but I’ll be 39... Still, you know, all our arguments were nothing mega, just little things, like what’s the best Christmas song of all times, or who has the best shoes on, really childish...”

Playing the 'fame-game'

“Fame is okay for about a year and then it gets on top of you and you either adopt to it or become its victim. I decided to adopt and move out of London because of all the photographs... Not the professional posing but the snapshots; one person would ask me for a pose with them and by the time they got a camera out, set it up, asked somebody to do it, there would be 200 people around and I’d be doing a photo-shot in the street! And, when I’m shopping people are always looking what I’m buying and it puts me right off.”

The biggest mistake you ever made?

“My biggest mistake? There are too many to mention but the first to spring to mind is our album, ‘Be Here Now’... The songs are a bit low... ‘Morning Glory’ might be the best selling album of all
times but I still prefer ‘Definitely Maybe’ because it is a better record. ‘Morning Glory’ has only five good songs but it sells and pays the bills.”

The worst rumour you heard about yourself?

“There was a story about me having a 40,000 pound cocaine habit a week, which is utterly ridiculous. That would be like doing 29-grams a day and considering there are only 24 hours a day, I’d have a nose the size of Eurotunnel! Generally, 90 per cent of the stories written are untrue, made-up...”

Religion and Catholicism (recently discussed with Bono)

“I used to read the Bible and thought it was the best book ever written in a sense that it appeals to everybody on the planet. It is very clever but I don’t think it has any relevance for today’s society, at all. All the wars ever fought are down to religion. All I’m saying is that he is a con... (The Theory of) Evolution seems okay to me... In the Bible, does it mention dinosaurs? No, and they were real, I saw them in the museums...”

“How can I believe in Adam, happily strolling through the garden and coming across Eve, having a shag and that’s how the human race started?! If God were to have invented an animal, would he have come up with a 30-meter monster with a tail the size of Oxford Street? No, I wouldn’t think so. Evolution is real and I don’t believe that there is one guiding force in the universe... What about that comet fragment with a trace of life on Mars? If that was accepted the whole religious thing would collapse and the American society with it because its whole philosophy is based on ‘In God we trust’.

Oasis’ own religion appears to be music and any studio – their cathedral.