Life has changed considerably for Liam Gallagher during the last few years: as well as the split of his band Beady Eye, he and All Saints’ Nicole Appleton endured a very public legal wrangle over their divorce, and, according to his recent interview with Q, the frontman even temporarily left his longtime home in Hampstead Heath to visit Dalston, east London. One aspect of his former existence remains a constant, however, with his eviscerating approach to sibling rivalry very much still in tact.
Speaking on the subject of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, a project which has seen guitar work from the Smiths’ Johnny Marr, the Oasis founder took the opportunity to mock both musicians’ abilities “at being frontmen”.
Claiming that Noel “got what he wanted” after Oasis split, in that his brother was able to become the frontman of his own band, he added: “Every fucking soundcheck he’d go and stand in the middle and sing. The geezer’s got small man syndrome. He never had the nerve back in the day, so he joined my band and slowly wormed his way to the front, got his balls together.”
“Same as Johnny Marr,” he continued. “Get yourselves over to the other side, play your guitars, play it with yer teeth, because there’s no place for you over here. You know what it’s like when your kid puts makeup on and tries to look like a grownup for a laugh? It’s like that. They’re playing at being frontmen. Get back over there. They look stupid.”
Perhaps the inevitable Oasis reformation will have to wait a few more years – or for that £20m to materialise. In the meantime, Liam says he’s working on his own music, but is wary of labelling his latest venture.
“I am not embarking on a solo ‘career’. Everyone should know that. There are just 10, 11 songs I’ve written that are eligible to be recorded. They’ve got flair, attitude, the melodies are sick and the words are fucking funny,” he said.
“It’s a record written by me, that’s got all the right ingredients and sounds well tasty. You won’t be scratching your chin. It’s not Pink Floyd and it ain’t Radiohead. It’s chin-out music.”