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Oasis are celebrating the holidays by hitting the road for a North American tour, which kicks off December 3rd in Oakland, California. There's much to be festive about: the band put out their finest album in a decade in Dig Out Your Soul and guitarist/songwriter Noel Gallagher has fully recovered from being attacked on stage in Toronto in September.
You've said yourself that you don't really need hits in
America. Why do you still tour here?
I like the vastness of this country. In between each city when
you're on that tour bus some of the stuff you see is stunning. It
just took me awhile to understand the corporate nature of the music
business over here. I never really understood why I would have to
get up at nine o'clock in the morning, go down and see the guy who
owned the local record shop and meet his fucking wife and fat
kids.
What do you think the band has offer to an American
teenager who is seeing you for the first time?
Nothing. Don't come and see us if you're expecting anything. I
can't offer anybody anything apart from the music that's coming out
of the speakers. And if they listen to that and they find some
meaning in the songs, good for them.
OK, so you're not a spokesperson. What does the band
have to offer?
Power. Musical power. Volume. Impeccable shoes. I speak for myself,
by the way.
You and your touring partner Ryan Adams are both pretty
opinionated guys with healthy egos. Do you get
along?
Well, I'm pretty and he's opinionated. I got a lot of respect for
the man. He's a great guitar player. He's a little eccentric. He
wears stripy socks and platform shoes, but not everybody's perfect.
I wouldn't be on tour with him if I didn't like him.
What did you find out about that guy who attacked you in
Toronto?
Nobody knows why he did what he did. There's a legal case going on
so they tell me I'm not supposed to talk about it. I'm sure the
footage on YouTube says enough.
Has that kind of thing happened to you
before?
No. I've never been violently attacked. Maybe by my girlfriend a
couple of times when I stayed out later than I should've.
How did it affect you, other than...
Other than the fact that I got three broken ribs and I had five
weeks off? Do you mean I wake up sweating in the middle of the
night and think the guy stood over me? That kind of shit? Oh, no,
not in the fucking slightest. It's a meaningless act. Something
always happens to me on Oasis tours. I was in a car crash. If it's
not that, it's getting fucking busted. If it's not that, it's
coming down with some ancient fucking disease that's not been got
by anybody for the last 600 years.
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Is there something in particular that you'd like to
achieve with this tour?
Five million dollars. Besides that, not really.
Have you pulled out any songs that you haven't played in
awhile?
Yeah. "Slide Away," "The Masterplan," "Supersonic." We're not going
to turn any new people on to Oasis. Oasis is a band that you either
get it or you don't. Everybody knows who we are. You have to see us
in league with the Rolling Stones now. Everybody's heard of the
Stones, everybody knows what they sound like, everybody knows what
they do. You either go because you like it or you don't. It's
easy.
There was a time when the band didn't seem to be
enjoying themselves in concert that much.
Well, I'm not sure about that. There was a few years where I really
should've traveled the world with my girlfriend and shit like that
but we decided to carry on putting out records. But I love being on
stage. It's the one place where there's no bullshit. Don't get me
wrong: It looks like I'm having a bad time. But that's because I'm
not a fucking asshole that feels like I have to talk to the crowd
every two minutes or put on a big smile or run up and down the
stage like an idiot. I like to play that guitar. I have to stare at
it while I?m playing it because I'm not very good at playing
it.
What gets you off at a show?
If I'm singing well and I'm playing well, then that's enough for
me. Obviously there are nights where you go off stage and think,
"Well, that was a bit fucking shit" because there were technical
problems. But I can assure you this: I am fucking brilliant every
night I go out there. I could give a fuck about anybody else in the
band. They look after themselves. But I am always cooking
on a solid eight-and-a-half out of 10.
What do you do to do that?
I'm afraid I was born with it. It's not something you go out to
Wal-Mart and buy. "Can I buy some brilliance please?" They don't
sell that shit over the counter. You either got it or you
don't.
How do you get back the high that drugs gave
you?
Drugs brainwash you into thinking you can't survive without them. I
was never in a mess mentally or physically. I have the constitution
of a large ox. If anything, it was the people that I had
surrounding me that were very uncool. I never needed to be
on drugs. I just wanted to be on drugs because it was fucking
brilliant. But then there came a point where I didn't want this
anymore. So I wanted to be straight. And then there comes a point
where you maybe want to be somewhere in between, which is where
we're at now I think.
That you're able to take them occasionally and it's
fine?
Well, I wouldn't say I take them at any point. But when I gave them
up I gave up drinking and everything. But now I drink like a
fucking fish and I smoke like a chimney. I've always been a
magnificent drunk. I've been told by hundreds of people I'm
actually a better person when I'm drunk.