2011/10/23

Noel G, a life in music (MikeC)




5-10-15-20 features artists talking about the songs and albums that made an impact on them throughout their lives, five years at a time.

Noel Gallagher is taking a piss when I walk into his corner room at Manhattan's Bowery Hotel. He washes his hands, walks out of the bathroom, and sits down on the couch. He's relaxed, if a bit weary. There is a small, stuffed leather pig in the room, and he seems slightly amused by it. We're used to Gallagher (figuratively) pissing on other bands (or his brother), but, at 44, the onetime Oasis songwriter, guitarist, and singer has mellowed-- though that doesn't stop him from dropping roughly 50 f-bombs during our 30-minute interview. Gallagher's humor comes naturally to him, and he's not really trying to be funny when he flows through expletives with casual finesse.

But he is funny, even if his legendary world-beating days-- the ones where he claimed to be a superhero and said bands like Coldplay were akin to "bland, faceless fucking trainee police officers"-- are in the past. In fact, he likes Coldplay. "When I heard 'Yellow' for the first time, I immediately picked up the guitar and went, 'Fucking bastards, why didn't I write that?'," he says now. "I feel that way about a lot of their songs."

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