And follow the mancunian language here:
- Looking at the line-up there are very few Americans... -
Yeah, there must be no American bands with albums out.
Last year it was Limp Bizkit and all that lot.
It's probably because lots of British bands have albums
out, next year will be back to American bands, I think.
The Strokes are on.
- Did you enjoy them? -
They are just the most important band since my band, I
suppose. If they inspire a load of kids to pick up guitars,
like John Thunders when they came to London in the 70s and
inspired the Sex Pistols. All the bull s**t the media was
writing yesterday about the new music is going to happen.
I like them, I think they are fantastic, but there is a lot
resting on their shoulders. If there is ten kids out there
that's seen that and start bands and do it with a bit of
energy and edge - fair play to them.
- Lead singer Julian kind of reminds me of Liam with the
swagger and the nonchalance... -
He was going around the stage looking for a full can of
beer and it took him about two minutes to find one, our kid
would have had it immediately as he has an in-built homing
device in the top of his forehead. You could put 600 empty
cans of beer on a stage and one full, and he's find it
first go. He'll learn, he's a good front man actually.
- Tell me about the last week? You've become an uncle
again... -
Liam celebrated in style, didn't he? It's weird when
being an uncle because it's not yours, you can do all that
stuff and give it back. Liam's fine, Nicky looks great -
it's quite unbelievable she's had a baby.
- Has he got over his trouble with the press? -
I went to see him that day, and then the next day I got
up and was watching Sky News with the sound down and there
was a picture of Liam offering a photographer out. The
caption said 'Liam celebrated birth of new child', I
laughed for a full five minutes at that. It's like f*****g
typical, in the throws of fatherhood with another son, and
what has he done - kicking people's heads in on the
footpath.
- Talk me through the bands here... -
Stereophonics - I haven't actually seen them live, and
haven't seen Kelly for a while so it will be good to see
him and take the p**s out of him before he goes on stage to
wind him up... I'm looking forward to playing with Paul
Weller. Catatonia, I've never seen them live, so will stick
around for them. Then probably get drunk.
- Tell me about the Weller set, have you got anything
specific lined up? -
He's done what he always does. He phoned me yesterday and
said 'we are doing A Town Called Malice and it's in B, I'll
see you there'. I went to see him the other night at
Shepherds' Bush Empire and he does about four Jam songs
and a few Style Council numbers. I'm looking forward to
that it will be a good old sing-song.
- We spoke last in America about the Oasis record, has
anything moved on since then? -
Absolutely not a f******g crotchet, not a plectrum has
been lifted in anger.
We were supposed to record last week, then Nicky had [baby]
Gene, so we decided to sack it. We are going to rehearse
for the next two weeks for going to Japan. When we come
back we promise we'll start on the record, if Liam can be
bothered. Liam's got a lot of catching up to do, but the
plan is to get something out by the end of the year. It's
all becoming a bit of a rush now but I think we work better
under pressure. I'm looking forward to it.
- How was The Black Crowes and the Neil Young thing? -
The Black Crowes tour was five weeks and we did every
single gig and it was really really good. It did us a lot
of good just to get out there, just to play without having
the pressure of promoting an album. It was all that I
expected it to be and little bit more. We made some really
good friends, and we are thinking about doing it next year
and maybe getting The Black Crowes over to Europe. I think
everybody was waiting for something controversial to
happen, but the most controversial thing to happen was we
finished the tour without falling out. The Neil Young gig -
I'm not sure whether we played too good or not, we just
winged it and didn't really rehearse. But he was just
fantastic. Just to watch him do his thing 10 foot away on
stage is something else - grown men cry and stuff like that.
- So the mood is good in the camp? -
We haven't seen each other properly since we've come back
from the States. Andy has been making babies and stuff,
I've been moving house, and Alan has been trying to get his
thumb right. We are all back to work on Monday, so the mood
is as good as it's ever been. We were sort of drifting a
bit with the album. Because we were producing it ourselves
it was like we'll finish it when we finish it, and our
manager has gone 'we've got to have it finished by
October', so now we've got a deadline to work towards.
The trouble is now everybody is just writing so the album I
was talking to you two months ago is completely different.
There are more songs to record and better songs than was on
it originally. It's going to be intense over the next three
or four months.
- What is the song-writing breakdown? -
Liam has written the most. I think I'm up to about ten, I
haven't finished some of the lyrics yet. There is
definitely one of Liam's going on the album, probably two.
I think we've recorded two of Gem's and two of Andy's.
The boys are a bit shy about presenting their stuff,
because they are the new guys in the band you have to drag
it out of them a bit. It's good just to hear other people's
songs which sound like the thing that you do that
isn't written by you, which is really good for me. I feel
they are both really good songwriters, they've just not
been in the right bands - it's as simple as that. I think
you'll be surprised at Andy's songs especially. I
don't think they've been given the respect they deserve,
especially for Andy in Ride - they were a pretty seminal
band. I hope the fans listen to it for it is and not think
'it's not Noel's song so we'll just skip through it'.
- The tour? -
People keep saying are you going to come up with a title
for the tour - since when have we had a title for a tour.
We haven't played in-doors since Morning Glory, so this is
tiny gigs. It's going to be interesting to see if we can
hear ourselves again. It's good to get back to that because
when you play outdoors you get massive monitors and that,
we are just taking the stuff we use in the rehearsal rooms
on tour. You can feel already it's going to be great. We
are going to be doing new stuff, it's going to be a long set
as well. Everyone is really looking forward to it, it seems
to have captured people's imagination as well. It's funny
to think that ten years down the line we are still here and
people are still bothered about us. I was talking to Tim
Booth from James and he said 'Do you feel old?' and I was
going 'I am old'. It's going to be good to get sweaty again.
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