Noel Gallagher

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

Presenter0:10

For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.

Presenter0:34

My castaway this week is Noel Gallagher, songwriter, singer and guitarist. He was the creative engine of the massively successful era-defining band Oasis and has built a highly regarded career in the six years since their infamous split. Oasis had multi-million album sales and record-breaking concert appearances and won piles of awards, six Brits and two Ivan Novellos among them. So far, so rock star. But in truth, his explosive relationship with his brother Liam, the band's lead singer, generated nearly as much interest as the music they made together. They grew up in Manchester in difficult circumstances. Their father was violent and money was short. Their mother bought Noel's first guitar from a catalogue repaying the 30 quid cost in weekly instalments. He says, Music is a thing that changes people's lives. It has the capacity to make young people's lives better. You've got a duty to make music. If you can, you should.

Presenter1:32

So, Noel Gallagher, when did that first occur to you? This idea that music changes people's lives? Was it when you were listening to it and it was changing yours, or when you were making it and it was changing other people's?

Noel Gallagher1:42

I guess the latter, the statement that I made there was only made relatively recently. And you know, the songs that I play have been around for twenty years and there's people that who are teenagers at my gigs who weren't even born when they were coming out and they sing these songs like their lives depend on it. And you just think, what an amazing thing to be able to be involved in that in some part, whether playing it or writing it or performing it.

Noel Gallagher2:06

I still find it a magical thing.

Presenter2:07

It's a very difficult thing to explain the creative process, but as you go through that process of writing a song.

Presenter2:14

Do you know it's a biggie? Do you get that feeling?

Noel Gallagher2:17

There is no golden rule, but there are kind of little signposts that you recognise. If a song comes quickly, it usually means it's good because it's just falling out of the sky.

Noel Gallagher2:27

Don't Look Back in Anger took, you know, 15 minutes. If I'd have known that night that that song would live for so long and become such a thing, I would never have finished it because it would never have been perfect enough to think, oh, in 25 years people are going to be playing this at their weddings. And you know what I mean? It was just another song. And then sometimes a song will require a lot of thought and purity of emotion, you know. And then some songs are just nonsense, that are just throwaway, but they're a great tune. And I think if I spend too much time thinking about it, I'll take away all the magic. You know, I still believe there's just somebody up there and they're just dropping songs all over the place. And if I'm not ready to catch them, Chris Martin's getting them and Bonno's getting them and they've had enough, you know. There's no way they're getting them. So I do it every day. You know what I mean? I'm there every day fishing in the river for the songs, you know.

Presenter3:21

Let's go to the list. It will be much pored over, I am sure. Tell me about the first one we're going to hear this morning.

Noel Gallagher3:26

Well the first track is by the Sex Pistols and it's a track called Pretty Vacant. I would have been eight or something and I remember being on the high street, Bernie's Lane where I come from and seeing a guy with a peroxide skin head kind of hairdo and he had an exclamation mark sprayed on the back of his head.

Noel Gallagher3:47

I remember being with my mum and thinking, wow, what's that?

Noel Gallagher3:53

And I loved it because the music was great. And it's a great pop album. They changed everything. And uh it it was the rebirth of youth culture that was dead. It was pretty much dead.

Speaker 24:10

And so for the next can you get a reply Augustine by a dump design

Speaker 24:17

A reason is not too much Yellow, white, one die

Speaker 24:28

We're so brilliant, so brilliant!

Speaker 24:33

We're very good, but we're so pretty, oh, so pretty.

Presenter4:39

Pretty vacant from the sex pistol. So Noel Gallacher, you have been in the public spotlight now for around about twenty years. You have been with the woman who's now your wife, Sarah, for fifteen years. You're a father of three. You've just celebrated your forty eighth birthday.

Noel Gallagher4:53

Hi I'm Indeed, thank you for mentioning that. You are welcome.

Presenter4:56

The idea of being this sort of anti-establishment hellraiser, you can't do that anymore when you're at your stage. You know, the middle-aged rock star thing, it's a tricky one.

Noel Gallagher5:04

Yeah, I I'm I don't really chase my youth, do you know what I mean? I had a great youth, it was brilliant. And I don't dye my hair, I don't wear earrings, I haven't got any tattoos, I'm not bothered about chasing the girls and all that. I'm in it for the work, you know. And if you did what I did, why wouldn't you do it?

Presenter5:19

I once read you say in an interview, there's a golden sort of four year period when you are making music for people who are just like you because you're still living the same life as the people that you're making music for.

Speaker 15:27

Because

Speaker 15:29

The same life.

Speaker 25:30

Yeah.

Presenter5:32

Now, when you write music, how do you manage to still keep an enthusiasm and a sort of purity to that creative process that there was, you know, back in the beginning?

Noel Gallagher5:44

You just have to stay true to yourself. And you know, when I was writing our first album, I was writing songs about wanting to be a rock star and wanting all the things that came with it, the fast life and all that.

Noel Gallagher5:56

Clearly if you're writing songs like that when you're my age, you've become a bit of a nob, do you know what I mean? There has to be a certain kind of truth in everything that you write. Even if it's just one line in a song that's truthful to you and your situation.

Noel Gallagher6:10

And if it's true to you, then it's going to be true to somebody else, you know. And I tend to write songs now if they're about anything, they're about the the journey of life, I suppose. Tell me about your next song that we're going to hear now then, your your second disc. This is one of my favourite songs of all time by David Bowie, who I put right up there with John Lennon and Bob Dylan and all the greats in the mid eighties, I suppose.

Noel Gallagher6:38

We used to be round at my friend's flat, Paul Kelly, his name was, and we were all on the dole. And the difference between dole culture then and dole culture now is there was nothing to do during the day. Now it's like you can sit in all day and live off benefits, smoking, you know, watching Cash in the Attic. Then you kind of had to amuse yourself, you know, with magic mushrooms and, you know, this, that, and the other. But at the night time, after T V had finished, there would be like prisoner cell block H.

Noel Gallagher7:09

Psychedelic.

Noel Gallagher7:11

And uh I vividly remember one night there was this thing on.

Noel Gallagher7:15

It was called the five-minute profile, David Bowie. And I'd never taken much notice of David Bowie. He didn't really mean a great deal to me.

Noel Gallagher7:22

And I'd never heard the track Heroes before.

Noel Gallagher7:25

And it blew my mind. I was like, wow, this is amazing.

Noel Gallagher7:30

And the only reason that I'm not going to play the track Heroes is because my wife, the lovely Sarah, said to me this morning, you are going to play Let's Dance by David Bowie, aren't you? And I said, I was going to play Heroes. And she said, play Last Dance. You make me listen to it three times a week. You've ruined the song for me. I now hate it because you play it so much. Don't go on Desert Island Discs and not play it.

Speaker 27:54

Put on your red shoes and dance the blue.

Speaker 28:02

To the sound that playing on the radio

Speaker 28:10

Wow, colour lights up your face

Speaker 28:16

Let's sway, sway through the crowd to an empty space.

Presenter8:25

That was David Bowie and uh let's dance. Your brother Paul once said of you know, Gallagher, that you you are a person who doesn't encourage closeness. Do you agree do you agree with him?

Noel Gallagher8:33

Do you agree?

Noel Gallagher8:34

Yeah.

Presenter8:36

Yeah.

Noel Gallagher8:36

Why do you think that is? Don't know?

Noel Gallagher8:38

My two brothers.

Noel Gallagher8:40

To say the three of us come from the same womb, we are all completely different people. I mean, as you can imagine, me and Liam are vastly different.

Presenter8:46

Your happiest memories were the six weeks every year you would spend in County Mayo in was it Charl was it Charlestown?

Noel Gallagher8:50

The children.

Noel Gallagher8:51

Charlestown, yeah. And it is as rural as you can imagine.

Presenter8:51

Yeah.

Noel Gallagher8:56

My grandma's house, for a long time didn't even have electricity, but we loved it. Some uncle would always drive us there from Manchester, so you'd get in a car and uh drive to Holyhead. And this is true, what used to happen was when we used to get to the ferry, they used to put the children on the floor of the car, put blankets over us so we didn't have to pay. That's how poor we were. So we would jib the ferry. It was great. Summers were endless, you know, it's brilliant.

Noel Gallagher9:24

Yeah.

Presenter9:24

Yeah. Yeah.

Noel Gallagher9:24

Seven.

Presenter9:24

The introduction that there was a violent childhood is that fear in it? Is that what you're saying?

Noel Gallagher9:28

Well no, I mean if

Presenter9:29

You can

Noel Gallagher9:29

Gosh, you know.

Noel Gallagher9:30

Compared to what my children's childhood is going to be when they grow up, yeah, it's horrific. But

Noel Gallagher9:36

I will say that my childhood and upbringing and relationship with my dad was no different to any of my friends that I grew up with. That's just the way that it was in the seventies, in the 70s and 80s as well. They were gloomy, dark, fractured times, you know what I mean? For work and the modern man had yet to be born, you know what I mean? Men were men and the women were at home and all that. And it was, they were rough, but that was just the way it was.

Presenter10:03

A poverty-stricken child is one thing. It's not the case that everybody's subject to significant amounts of violence from their dad. That's not the case.

Noel Gallagher10:11

No, no, no, no, no, no, that's not the case. I mean I mean

Presenter10:11

Don't

Noel Gallagher10:15

It's not the kind of thing that you would talk about. But I'm an open book, you know what I mean? And I've got

Noel Gallagher10:20

I don't know why I mentioned it in the first place back in the 90s, but there you go.

Presenter10:23

Yeah.

Noel Gallagher10:23

Did I feel

Presenter10:23

Do you feel that now? Do you feel you'd actually much rather that genie was back in the bottle and it's nobody's business anyway? No, no, no, not at all.

Noel Gallagher10:27

But that's no

Noel Gallagher10:28

Anyway.

Presenter10:31

How do you think it marked you? What do you think?

Noel Gallagher10:33

I think

Noel Gallagher10:37

I'm not sure it did.

Noel Gallagher10:39

I have to say I was a bit concerned when

Noel Gallagher10:43

I started to have children, and I was thinking, what kind of dad am I going to be?

Noel Gallagher10:48

Because I haven't got anything to base this on apart from Milfella.

Noel Gallagher10:54

Who was a bit robbish?

Noel Gallagher10:55

So I was thinking, what if what what how am I going to be and

Noel Gallagher11:00

I mean, I don't need to blow my own trumpet here, but I have got a few mugs that say best dad in the world. I mean, they wouldn't buy them for no reason, would they?

Noel Gallagher11:07

But I love being a dad, you know.

Noel Gallagher11:10

I I think it benefited me in the way that it made me withdraw into my own world and from that came the learning to play the guitar and from that sparked the whatever it was that made me persevere with it and persevere with it until, you know, I become who I am, you know. So

Noel Gallagher11:27

Let's put it this way, I've never felt the ni I don't write about it in my songs, I've never felt the need to go and see somebody about it, that's just the way it is, you know.

Presenter11:36

Let's have your third disc, Noel Gallagher. What are we gonna hear?

Noel Gallagher11:39

I'm gonna play a track by Pink Floyd from the album The Wall. I know every single word. I can sing it.

Noel Gallagher11:49

In sequence at the drop of a hat. And Roger Waters, to me, I'd love to meet him. The songwriting is so simple, and yet the story is so grandiose, and the whole thing is so epic. I wish I could write an album like that, you know, like a concept album. I think I'd have to get extremely pretentious first, you know. But this track called Nobody Home bends my head. I've probably ripped it off at least three times, I can recall. If you're listening, Roger Waters, I am gonna lick your face one day.

Speaker 212:20

Yeah.

Noel Gallagher12:22

Yeah.

Speaker 212:23

A little black book with no poems in

Noel Gallagher12:23

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 212:27

Got a bag, got a toothbrush and a combination.

Speaker 212:31

But I'm a good dog, they song.

Speaker 212:35

Slow me blow me

Speaker 212:40

Elastic birds keeping their shoes on

Speaker 212:44

Got those swollen hair blues Thirteen channels of shit on the TV to choose

Presenter12:54

He's found.

Presenter12:56

That was Pink Floyd, and Nobody Home. So, Noel Gallagher, New Order, The Fall, the Smiths, Joy Division, Buzzcock's, Manchester's Factory Records was not short of stars, and there you were growing up in Among It All Tell me about Mr Sifter's record shop in Burnage.

Speaker 113:06

Yeah.

Noel Gallagher13:06

The web

Noel Gallagher13:12

It was the local record shop. No, it wasn't called Mr. Sifters. I named him Mr. Sifter. And Saturday afternoon used to be just hanging round there. And I vividly remember buying Stand and Deliver by Adam and the Ants, right? And it came wrapped in a poster. And it said on the corner of the poster, limited edition, first 750,000 include free poster. The first! The first 750,000. I mean, you're lucky if you can shift 750 of anything these days. I bought my first Beatles records from there. You could sell him records and swap him records. It was great. And how did you do at school? I mean, I didn't mind school. I wasn't very good at it, which is always frustrating. What is interesting, though, is I clearly had a talent.

Noel Gallagher14:02

For music.

Noel Gallagher14:03

I'm my music teacher, if you're listening.

Noel Gallagher14:06

You know, your job was to spot potential, you know. I freely admit I was barely there anyway, but um aren't teachers supposed to drag it out of you?

Noel Gallagher14:16

I do remember having a a moment in woodwork followed by French one day thinking, I'm never going to need to speak French. I know for a fact I am never going to have to learn what the meaning is between the feminine and the male version of a French sentence. That is nonsense. This is not for me, you know.

Presenter14:34

Did you feel you were bound for greatness? Some people say they feel they know that's coming. No, not at all. No.

Noel Gallagher14:39

Yeah.

Noel Gallagher14:40

I I loved music.

Noel Gallagher14:42

Of that, I was sure, and I loved the people that made it, and the clothes, and all that. But I wasn't one for standing in front of the mirror with a tennis racket thinking one day I'm gonna make it.

Presenter14:53

Well,'cause I wanted to ask you about that performance thing,'cause there you know you were as part of Oasis in 1996, you did two sell-out nights at Nebworth to playing to 250,000 people. And it was only four years earlier that you'd been, it was at the boardwalk playing to a hundred people. Yeah, you had only s signed off three and a half years before that. So were you always comfortable with the idea of a kind of stage presence? Was that just there?

Speaker 115:02

And it

Noel Gallagher15:15

I don't I certainly don't remember being overawed by it.

Noel Gallagher15:19

At all.

Noel Gallagher15:20

When we started that band, for two years we were we were rubbish, you know what I mean? The songs that I were writing weren't great until one day I wrote a song called Live Forever and it all changed. And then I wrote another three maybe the next week that would be on the first album. I knew then that I knew enough about music and the songs,'cause I had a massive record collection that these were pretty good.

Noel Gallagher15:42

But even then we didn't send tapes out to record companies. We weren't chasing it. Do you know what I mean? I always felt that if it was going to happen it would they would come to us, and they did. And I guess it helps when you're in a band with your brother.

Noel Gallagher15:57

that would become the Achilles heel in the end, but Alamage owned the record label, he loved us. And when you're in that position and you've got the love of the entire nation behind you, I can't begin to tell you how much of a thrill it is. It's unbelievable.

Presenter16:12

Let's have some music, Noel. We're on your fourth. Tell me about this. The Smiths.

Noel Gallagher16:17

One of the only jobs I've ever had was in a screen printer's firm, and the radio was always on. And uh.

Noel Gallagher16:26

I remember the Smiths coming on one afternoon and it was like, Wow, what's that? you know. I love this track'cause it was their first single and it's got a colour to it. They're so important to music in this country, particularly alternative music. Do you get on with Morrissey? He's brilliant.

Noel Gallagher16:43

The last time I was out with him was in LA. I jaw was sore from just laughing at him, and mainly because he was bullying Russell Brand. Uh this is Hand in Glove by The Smiths, one of the greatest songs ever written.

Speaker 217:19

So where are we?

Speaker 217:22

Under the

Speaker 217:24

When the phone, how near you stop

Presenter17:29

That was the Smiths and hand in glove. Um did you get on with Liam as a child?

Noel Gallagher17:35

Yes.

Noel Gallagher17:36

Yeah, it was an irritant.

Noel Gallagher17:38

Because we shared a bedroom.

Noel Gallagher17:40

And when you're ten and your brother's five, that's a lifetime away. So I never hung out with any of his friends. But yeah, we got yeah, we got on.

Noel Gallagher17:49

Because your mum said, you know, they always got on fine until they were in a balance again. Yeah, I mean, look, when I was saying before about you can gain.

Presenter17:52

Uh

Speaker 217:52

Yeah, this the

Presenter17:52

Yeah.

Speaker 217:52

Uh

Noel Gallagher17:57

Some kind of strength from being in a band with a family member when everybody else around you is a complete stranger.

Noel Gallagher18:04

Like I also said, as time goes on.

Noel Gallagher18:07

That becomes your Achilles heel because you know

Noel Gallagher18:10

How to push each other's buttons. And when family members are arguing, everybody tends to leave the room. So the differences that we would have, whether it be with the music or the band or what video we were doing, would never get resolved because nobody would say, Look, well, actually, you're right. Everyone would just casually, one at a time, leave the room until you were just stood there arguing about something that was then became completely irrelevant, you know. So, yeah, I mean, I'm sure. I mean, in fact, I know I annoyed him greatly. And I know he annoyed me greatly.

Presenter18:43

You see, there's the thing. To watch it from afar, we saw these people at the centre, these people being oasis of this enormous wave of popularity. As I said, it's not an overstatement to say you defined a moment in British cultural pop history, and yet you were at each other like cat and dog. And it seemed, was there a time when you did put your arms around each other and say.

Noel Gallagher19:04

Oh no, we're no, we're never that kind of family. No, no, no, no, no. There's no no no no. There's no arms round each other and saying, You're great. Oh no, but

Presenter19:10

The augury.

Noel Gallagher19:11

Yeah.

Presenter19:12

But there's a difference between that and knocking lumps out of each other, isn't it? Somewhere in between, there might be a happy medium.

Noel Gallagher19:20

The way it worked

Noel Gallagher19:23

Was when we're not slacking each other off, that's when we're telling each other that we love each other. Okay, that's enough. That's it.

Noel Gallagher19:31

That's it. I mean, you'd have to interview Liam. I don't know. But clearly.

Noel Gallagher19:36

There was a point where he was the greatest singer in the world, and it was great.

Noel Gallagher19:42

And it just so happens that the two of us

Noel Gallagher19:47

We like to call a spade a spade.

Noel Gallagher19:50

No hatred involved. It was very sarcastic, you know, mudslinging. We like all that. I still like it to this day. It's fun.

Noel Gallagher19:56

All people are not the same and if all people were the same

Noel Gallagher19:59

the world wouldn't go round, do you know what I mean?

Presenter20:02

Let's have some music, Neil Gallagher. We're on your uh your fifth. Tell me about choosing this.

Noel Gallagher20:07

So

Noel Gallagher20:10

After punk rock, which was the second youth culture explosion, the third one, which was Acid House, in nineteen eighty seven, took place at a nightclub, the Hacienda. It was a forty second walk from my house.

Noel Gallagher20:27

And I remember going there one night and of course never having done ecstasy and thinking, This is nonsense. What is this music? There's no words. It's just a drum machine and I can't hear anything else and then taking ecstasy and going back and thinking, This is the greatest thing I've ever heard in my entire life.

Noel Gallagher20:48

The music I still love to this day. But the track that I'm going to play is by a guy from Manchester called Gerald.

Noel Gallagher20:54

He's actually goes under the name of a guy called Gerald. And it's a track called Voodoo Ray. Radio 4 listeners of a certain age might well want to go and put the kettle on because this ain't gonna make a great deal of sense to you. But um all you ex-ravers out there, you know, whoop whoop.

Presenter21:47

A guy called Gerald with Fuzu Ray. So, Noel Gallagher, between 1993 and 1998, you were signed by Alan Magee, famously of Creation Records. Definitely maybe was at the time the fastest-selling UK debut ever. You toured America amid sort of various degrees of chaos. You played at Nebworth, which we've already mentioned to 250,000 people. And you have said previously that you can't really very clearly remember very much about that five-year period. Is that I mean, it's a nice line, but is it true?

Noel Gallagher22:17

Um

Noel Gallagher22:18

Genuinely enough, I close my eyes, I can't remember walking on stage at Nobel. I know it took place because there's lots of people there.

Presenter22:25

What do you think about that?

Noel Gallagher22:26

No. What people are refusing to accept is the nineties was brilliant. Do you think back now to that time of fashion and politics, Thatcherism being ushered out and New Labour being ushered in, and Oasis and Blur and Pulp and all those bands being in the top five all the

Presenter22:46

The time And what about the night that there was the Cool Britannia so-called party at Downing Street? There there was a a picture of you and Tony Blair. When you look back, what what are your feelings?

Noel Gallagher22:54

Only

Noel Gallagher22:57

My feelings are

Noel Gallagher23:00

I mean, I love watching history programmes, right? And there's no way I'm not walking through the doors of number 10, if only to see what's in there.

Noel Gallagher23:08

I'd moved to London in 1994, three years earlier, with a holdole, right? With an acoustic guitar, nothing. Three years later, I drove to number 10 down the street in a Rolls-Royce drinking champagne. We laughed all the way up there, me and Alan McGee. He'd worked at British Rail most of his life, you know, and we were laughing going, How do we get here? This is amazing, do you know what I mean? And afterwards, you find out that yes, they did want that photograph. I wasn't so you know, we helped to usher in labour. You're welcome, all of you. They were great days.

Presenter23:43

Yeah.

Presenter23:43

So when does it stop being fun? When's the point at which you think, you know, this the joke's over with this and um suddenly the things that seemed like a brilliant idea no longer feel like a brilliant idea?

Noel Gallagher23:52

In nineteen ninety eight, we put out three albums in three years, become the biggest band in the world, and all of it was on drugs.

Noel Gallagher24:03

Not all of Oasis were on drugs, you know what I mean? Just effectively me and Liam, you know what I mean. And when I lived in London, my house was party central and it was great and I loved it. I'd sold that house in London and moved out to the country. But what happened then is instead of people being in my house and leaving at six o'clock in the morning, they'd be in out the house in the country and would stay for two days. And I remember waking up one afternoon, going downstairs, going to the fridge.

Noel Gallagher24:33

Just getting a beer out and a complete stranger walking through the kitchen.

Noel Gallagher24:38

And I said, Oh.

Noel Gallagher24:40

Okay, here we are. And he said.

Noel Gallagher24:43

Oh, if we were here with uh whatever her name was last night. Oh, right. So there was still a party going on. And I remember getting stuck in to more chemicals and then having just a mu I don't know what it was, it was a moment of clarity.

Noel Gallagher24:55

I'm just thinking, I'm not doing this anymore.

Noel Gallagher24:59

I felt weak and burnt out.

Noel Gallagher25:03

And then I had another moment in the second month where I was out and I wasn't drinking and I wasn't using drugs. And I just thought.

Noel Gallagher25:10

I'm not saying it to them. I'm kind of thinking, I'm like, you, I don't like your birds, she's annoying. I don't like you. Who are you anyway? And I was thinking, I've got nothing in common with these people.

Noel Gallagher25:20

And then that was it.

Noel Gallagher25:22

I've got quite good willpower, and I thought I'm not doing it anymore. And I haven't since, you know, and it's one of the greatest things I've ever done.

Noel Gallagher25:28

And uh

Noel Gallagher25:30

Soon after that moment

Noel Gallagher25:33

Yeah.

Presenter25:33

I met Sarah.

Presenter25:35

Hold that thought. I will do. But for now, I'm going to ask you about your sixth piece of music. Tell me about this then.

Noel Gallagher25:40

This is a track called With or Without You by U Two. The Joshua Triva album at the time was just another record. You listen to it now and it's honestly, easily one of the greatest batches of songs any band have ever written. I love Uto.

Noel Gallagher25:55

And um

Noel Gallagher25:57

I don't know. If you don't get it, you don't get it. And shame on you for not. But this is With or Without You by YouTube, one of the greatest songs ever written. Are you listening, Paul Lewis?

Noel Gallagher26:08

Mm.

Speaker 226:08

Dot

Noel Gallagher26:12

Uh

Speaker 226:12

Body bruise, got me with

Speaker 226:16

Nothing wins and

Speaker 226:20

Nothing left alone

Speaker 226:23

And you give yourself away.

Speaker 226:28

You give yourself away.

Speaker 226:32

And you give, and you give, and you give yourself away with or without

Presenter26:43

That was With or Without You, U2's track from the Joshua Tree. Three children then, two boys, and also a teenage daughter from your first marriage.

Speaker 226:48

Pupil

Presenter26:52

It sounds like as simple as beloved of a good woman is why you sit here today as sort of clear-headed, happy man.

Noel Gallagher26:59

Absolutely. I met Sarah in a nightclub in Ibiza, which you're not supposed to meet, your future wife.

Presenter27:03

No, you're not.

Noel Gallagher27:03

in a nightclub in Nibeti. If I could think of one person I'd rather go out clubbing with, be Sarah. One person I'd rather go and have a boozy lunch with, it would be her. She's been an amazing stepmum to my eldest child, Anaeus.

Noel Gallagher27:19

I don't ever envisage life without her. She's everything to me.

Presenter27:21

See By your own admission, you're somebody who's difficult to get to know. You you you're very straight talking. How does she keep you in check? What's the Because she's worse.

Noel Gallagher27:31

Yeah.

Noel Gallagher27:32

Oh, she calls a spade a spade as well. When I'm working on music or writing songs, I do demos, she's the last person I play them to. Because I can play her song and go.

Noel Gallagher27:41

Get on this. I think this is going to be an amazing tune. She'll listen to it and go, hmm, yeah, it's alright. Do you know what? I never believed in love at first sight or that soulmate thing until I met her. And we've been together 15 years, but we only decided to get married after 11 years. And the song I'm going to play next was.

Noel Gallagher28:01

The song for our first dance at our wedding. And I remember sat in the kitchen and she says, What about be my baby for the first dance? And I was like, The first what? The first what? And she said, The first dance. You know, when the bride and groom, when you play the first song and they dance, you know, they dance as a couple in front of everyone. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a minute. I'm not sure about that. And she says, it's what happens and it's happening. So get over it. And I've got to say, I was dreading that moment coming up. You know, I was like, I've got to dance like an adult. And I said to her, but just do me one favour. When we get on there, don't show off. Because I'm clearly a northerner and a man. And she says, no, don't worry about it. See, what happens is people join in at the first chorus. And I was thinking, be my baby, the first chorus has got to be within the first 30 seconds.

Noel Gallagher28:51

How bad can it be?

Noel Gallagher28:53

So when it starts.

Noel Gallagher28:56

And she breaks into like Olivia Newton, John doing, you're the one that I want. And I'm just looking at her thinking, really? You're going to do this to me in front of all my friends? Now, luckily enough, my daughter, Aeneas, bless her, she realises what's going on. She can see her old fella sinking. And she leads a charge onto the dance floor. And I kind of grab hold of Sarah and I'm kind of thinking, she's like, oh, come on, you gumpy bastard.

Noel Gallagher29:22

So this is Be My Baby by The Ronettes and Sarah.

Noel Gallagher29:27

I still haven't forgiven you.

Speaker 129:29

I'll make you happy, baby. Just wait and see.

Speaker 129:36

For every title

Speaker 129:38

You can take a look at it.

Speaker 129:39

I'll give you three.

Speaker 129:43

Oh since the day I saw you

Speaker 129:47

I have been waiting for you.

Speaker 130:01

Baby

Presenter30:02

That was the Rennett sing Be My Baby. Um so Oasis then came to a sort of stuttering halt, I suppose, in 2009 when you and your brother went your separate ways and decided that you were no longer compatible as a team working together. And so you've produced since the split two albums with your own band, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.

Presenter30:22

How does it feel or or indeed do you feel and do you know that your biggest selling work is behind you? Because it would surely be impossible to relive those moments of, you know, twenty two million album sales for one single album and all of that.

Noel Gallagher30:37

Yeah, of course, yeah, I don't mind that. I'm j

Presenter30:38

Do you not mind that?

Noel Gallagher30:38

Do you not mind that? I'm glad I did it. No one's going to sell 22 million of anything these days.

Presenter30:40

No one's good.

Noel Gallagher30:43

My first solo record it sold nearly a million records in England. Critically very well received. Does that mean is that doesn't mean a great deal to me. The the only critics that matter are the ones on the internet. I mean the ones that say I bought it.

Presenter30:46

Cross it.

Presenter30:48

I mean is that the

Noel Gallagher30:55

I'm not I'm not let's put it this way, I'm not as revered a songwriter by the press as Tom York or Damon Olbarn, okay? That's just a fact, you know what I mean? And that oh, that's great. Well, where do you put where do you put yourself?

Presenter31:06

Where do you

Noel Gallagher31:09

I'll tell you when I've finished.

Noel Gallagher31:10

People used to always ask me about Oasis and I always used to say

Noel Gallagher31:14

I'll tell you what I think about it when it's finished. And it's only now I can look back and I can say, right, well, there's a definite full stop at it. I can now tell you what I think of that.

Noel Gallagher31:23

And what do you think of it? I thought that on our day we were great. And it's reaffirmed every night I go on stage and I play a couple of oasis tunes and like I said at the top of the show people are there that weren't even born and they're crying. You know what I mean? They're crying. And um

Noel Gallagher31:42

I'm thinking it's not that bad, surely, you know. Uh and um

Noel Gallagher31:47

You know

Noel Gallagher31:48

All over the world, people still are in massive love with that band. And none more so than me. Do you know what I mean?

Presenter31:55

I'm gonna cast you away to this island, which is

Noel Gallagher31:58

It is an almost unbearable cruelty.

Presenter31:59

Yeah.

Noel Gallagher31:59

What will you miss?

Noel Gallagher32:01

Sarah and the kids goes without saying. Uh I mean it's a sad thing to say, but probably match of the day.

Noel Gallagher32:07

Tell me about your final piece of music, Noel Gallagher. Can't really go through this without mentioning the Beatles. The first guitar that I ever bought when I actually had some money was an Epiphone, was what they used to play. They mean a great deal to me musically. They're just the greatest thing in music that ever was, I think. And as I'm looking down this list now, apart from the Ronettes and Roger Waters, I've met everybody on that list. I've met and hung out with all the Sex Pistols.

Noel Gallagher32:35

I've met David Bowie a couple of times. I know Morrissey and Johnny Marr. I've met a guy called Gerald. I know Bollard, do you know what I mean? I've had a beer with Neil Young. Neil Young. Neil Young. He was at Woodstock.

Noel Gallagher32:47

And

Noel Gallagher32:49

That even all those people they know your name in advance is mind blowing to me from just like a lad from a council estate.

Noel Gallagher32:57

who just happened to persevere with the guitar long enough that he made something of himself. Um this is Ticket to Ride by the greatest band of all time, the Beatles.

Speaker 233:13

I think I'm gonna be saying

Speaker 233:16

I think it's a day

Speaker 233:20

The girl that's driving me mad is going away

Speaker 233:28

She's got a ticket to ride

Speaker 233:32

She's got a ticket to ride She's got a ticket to ride And she don't care

Presenter33:42

The Beatles and Ticket to Ride. I'm going to give you the books now, uh Noel Gallagher. We give everybody a copy of the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare and you get to take another book along too. What's your book gonna be?

Noel Gallagher33:53

I've only read one novel, which is On the Road, by Jack Kerouac. And what I got from reading it was a greater understanding of Bob Dylan.

Presenter34:02

Well, that's your book then. I everybody gets to take a luxury, but I should preface it by saying that Russell Brand wanted to take you to the island stuffed.

Noel Gallagher34:09

The island star

Presenter34:10

Yeah. You might want to bear that in mind.

Noel Gallagher34:10

You might want to bear that in mind. He only took me stuff because that's the only way that he can get the better of me.

Noel Gallagher34:17

Can I take a guitar?

Presenter34:18

Definitely.

Noel Gallagher34:19

And I will sneak a plectrum in with that because if I've got a guitar.

Presenter34:21

Yeah.

Noel Gallagher34:24

That's me. I'm so glad that I persevered with it. I'm not gonna push my kids toward music. Well, I have musical instruments lying around the house. There's like little kids' keyboards and there's a drum kit, various guitars. And that's how I started. I've never had a musical lesson. Yes.

Presenter34:38

So I'd like to take a guitar pressure.

Noel Gallagher34:50

I'm gonna say be my baby by the Ronettes because it would make me smile and clench my fists at the same time and think I still haven't forgiven her for that. Oh boy, I do love her.

Presenter35:02

No, Gerigar, thank you very much for letting us see your desert islanders.

Noel Gallagher35:03

Yeah.

Noel Gallagher35:05

Okay.

Presenter35:05

Yeah.

Presenter35:46

You've been listening to a download from the BBC. You'll find more information on the Radio 4 website: bbc.co.uk slash Radio 4.