By the way, to the people taking care of bootlegs & artworks, me too: I hope there'll be someone recording Milan gig and create a nice artwork (I think we should also use that nice image of Beady Eye with Milan cathedral behind, in the sunlight).
Years ago I used to record gigs with audio tapes, even after the "Paul Weller's incident" :) with his crew. Now we should use a digital recorder.
Can you see here in the photo that kind of stool on the left: it's used to play the piano (we have some keyboards, organs, etc.), there's a similar one on the image of a Beady Eye vinyl (the piano appears a lot in their songs), but in that image the stool was also referred to the items used to make something new, to paint a room ("the shadows painted and the light he saw" :)
Here's another interview answering the things we were talking about recently.
It's a cold morning in a posh hotel in London. The rain is expected, the early arrival of Liam Gallagher for an interview, well, not so much.
Yet these days, Gallagher is a man on a mission. The inevitable split of Oasis finally came in August 2009, following the umpteenth altercation between brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher. While Noel walked, stating, "I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer", Liam, instead, went to the pub with Oasis bandmates.
In a matter of hours they had formed Beady Eye. While Noel is still off the radar, Beady Eye's first album has been unleashed. It sounds, not surprisingly, like Oasis.
Liam says the band had toyed with keeping the name Oasis (which he coined before Noel joining) before deciding to avoid the soft option.
"There's no point," he says. "I don't want to be up there singing those songs Noel wrote. We're well capable of writing our own stuff. It might not be as big as Oasis, it might not be a phenomenon, but who knows? I think we're good enough to turn heads, to get people buzzing about music."
While Beady Eye's creation may have been swift, for Liam there was no other option.
"This is the best thing you could ever do, music. You've been given a talent, you just got to go for it. It's not hard, is it? It's fucking great, man," he says.
The formation has caused heated debate. Even the name has been analysed.
"I didn't think people would give two fucks what we were called," Liam says.
Guitarist Archer is more succinct.
"The grieving process starts when you call the band something else, but people have to start coming to terms with the fact that that was then ... ," he says.
"Imagine if it's a band you're a fan of, it hurts. We've all been there. I had it when The Jam split up. You look forward to their new records, then the band split. But you've still got the records. People have got Beady Eye now."
After tales of dysfunctional Oasis recording sessions, where the Gallagher brothers would deliberately stay away from each other, making Beady Eye's debut was a breeze.
Liam hints at Noel pushing him to breaking point while recording Oasis albums.
"With Beady Eye, we'd do four or five takes, we'd get it and move on. Mentally that's good for your head. With Oasis, he'd give me 30 takes towards the end. You think, 'What's all this about? What's going on?' Some days, you'd just want to knock it on the head," he says.
Noel remains the elephant in the room during Beady Eye interviews. Liam's relationship with his elder brother is as distant as ever; at least they now no longer have to share a room - or a band. Archer and Bell remain friends with Noel, even if they've professionally joined Team Liam.
Ask if Noel has heard Beady Eye and there's silence before Liam says merely, "Dunno".
While the album has received favourable reviews, many state it's better than anyone expected. That sticks in Beady Eye's collective craw.
"Did they think we were suddenly going to turn shit overnight?" Archer asks.
"It was a band before, it's a band now."
Liam takes slightly more time to respond.
"There's no fucking way Noel Gallagher was carrying all us lot. I'm not having that. I do find that a bit of an insult, but you have to let it go, because there's more important things in life," he says.
"People who go, 'I think it will be shit without Noel', have not seen us on stage. They would know we've got passion and we know what we're doing. They're trying to wind us up."
Liam says he's read the occasional review.
"You want people to like it, don't you?" he says.
"You don't want people to fucking hate it. But they're still not going to knock us off our perch at what we do. We're not going to go back and go, 'OK, our next record will be a dance record' or what's hot this week. We'll still write that kind of music."
To wit - new single The Roller sounds like John Lennon's Instant Karma.
"People have said that," says Archer, who wrote it.
"It's that descending piano line. I'll take that as a compliment. I'm not on the run from my love of Lennon. It's why I'm here. You're eight years old, you see all that and you think 'I want a bit of that'."
Archer says once Liam sang his lyrics, The Roller fell into place.
"When he sings them, they come alive," Archer says.
"It feels natural," Liam says of singing the Beady Eye material. "Like when Noel used to give you a song. It feels like they're mine, I can get really into them. I don't find it hard. That shit is in me."
Where Oasis records - and live shows - would see Noel singing a handful of tracks, Beady Eye is strictly Liam.
Tell him it's nice to hear his trademark voice on a full album and his trademark modesty kicks in.
"It fucking is nice, isn't it?" Gallagher says. "It's my job, singing. All that going on and off at the gigs, you'd get dizzy."
He's also nonchalant when asked about how he takes care of his voice.
"I take a little bit of care of it, but you've got to live, haven't you? Who wants to drink honey all day? You'll turn into a bee," he says.
Liam wrote a handful of Beady Eye tracks, including The Morning Son, with the grammatical clanger "the morning sun has rose".
"It's not fucking Shakespeare, but it is what it is," Liam says.
The next frontier for Beady Eye is live shows. They've just played their first major gigs in the UK, with a setlist that includes the entire album and a cover by relatively obscure band World Of Twist.
"We know what we're doing," Liam says. "The album sounds better live than on record. There's no doubting our ability to play live."
And, like recording, touring is less dramatic without the Gallagher sibling rivalry.
"It was a massive operation before (with Oasis); this is a debut we'll do in theatres and clubs," Archer says. "That's how we're approaching it. It's not like we're reaching for the skies yet, there's time for that."
Unlike most new bands, they have a ready-built audience.
"When you put tickets on sale and they sell out straight away, obviously that's not like a new band," Archer says.
"But it's the same reaction, they'll have the album, they'll have to get it in their hearts and heads and souls, it's all going to hit them at once as opposed to the (Oasis) greatest hits tour you do after eight albums."
Again Liam rants about anyone expecting Oasis songs at Beady Eye gigs. "Noel's going to have to do Oasis songs, and rightly so - they're his songs - but we're not living off the past," he says.
"The past was good to us, but we're drawing the line and going forward. People will have to get used to it. And they will, by the time the gigs are over, they'll be musically satisfied. I'm sure some fucking clown will shout for Oasis songs to get a reaction."
Liam remains cautious about playing Oasis songs that Beady Eye members wrote in their set.
"Maybe in the future. I doubt it, but we're proud of those (Oasis) songs. Who knows man? At the moment, no way," he says.
"We always miss that Big Day Out, that big holiday where you play a few fucking tunes and get a sun tan. That'd be perfect."
Liam hasn't lost the ability to give good confident quote.
"We'll see if people buy into Beady Eye. If they don't like you, they fucking don't. You can't force people to like you. But they'll get it.
"There's fuck all else about and I'm not just saying that. You take Beady Eye out of the picture and what are you doing? Sitting around waiting for Noel (to release something)? It'd be really shit if you take us away.
"We're the only ones who mean anything right now."
Yet these days, Gallagher is a man on a mission. The inevitable split of Oasis finally came in August 2009, following the umpteenth altercation between brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher. While Noel walked, stating, "I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer", Liam, instead, went to the pub with Oasis bandmates.
In a matter of hours they had formed Beady Eye. While Noel is still off the radar, Beady Eye's first album has been unleashed. It sounds, not surprisingly, like Oasis.
Liam says the band had toyed with keeping the name Oasis (which he coined before Noel joining) before deciding to avoid the soft option.
"There's no point," he says. "I don't want to be up there singing those songs Noel wrote. We're well capable of writing our own stuff. It might not be as big as Oasis, it might not be a phenomenon, but who knows? I think we're good enough to turn heads, to get people buzzing about music."
While Beady Eye's creation may have been swift, for Liam there was no other option.
"This is the best thing you could ever do, music. You've been given a talent, you just got to go for it. It's not hard, is it? It's fucking great, man," he says.
The formation has caused heated debate. Even the name has been analysed.
"I didn't think people would give two fucks what we were called," Liam says.
Guitarist Archer is more succinct.
"The grieving process starts when you call the band something else, but people have to start coming to terms with the fact that that was then ... ," he says.
"Imagine if it's a band you're a fan of, it hurts. We've all been there. I had it when The Jam split up. You look forward to their new records, then the band split. But you've still got the records. People have got Beady Eye now."
After tales of dysfunctional Oasis recording sessions, where the Gallagher brothers would deliberately stay away from each other, making Beady Eye's debut was a breeze.
Liam hints at Noel pushing him to breaking point while recording Oasis albums.
"With Beady Eye, we'd do four or five takes, we'd get it and move on. Mentally that's good for your head. With Oasis, he'd give me 30 takes towards the end. You think, 'What's all this about? What's going on?' Some days, you'd just want to knock it on the head," he says.
Noel remains the elephant in the room during Beady Eye interviews. Liam's relationship with his elder brother is as distant as ever; at least they now no longer have to share a room - or a band. Archer and Bell remain friends with Noel, even if they've professionally joined Team Liam.
Ask if Noel has heard Beady Eye and there's silence before Liam says merely, "Dunno".
While the album has received favourable reviews, many state it's better than anyone expected. That sticks in Beady Eye's collective craw.
"Did they think we were suddenly going to turn shit overnight?" Archer asks.
"It was a band before, it's a band now."
Liam takes slightly more time to respond.
"There's no fucking way Noel Gallagher was carrying all us lot. I'm not having that. I do find that a bit of an insult, but you have to let it go, because there's more important things in life," he says.
"People who go, 'I think it will be shit without Noel', have not seen us on stage. They would know we've got passion and we know what we're doing. They're trying to wind us up."
Liam says he's read the occasional review.
"You want people to like it, don't you?" he says.
"You don't want people to fucking hate it. But they're still not going to knock us off our perch at what we do. We're not going to go back and go, 'OK, our next record will be a dance record' or what's hot this week. We'll still write that kind of music."
To wit - new single The Roller sounds like John Lennon's Instant Karma.
"People have said that," says Archer, who wrote it.
"It's that descending piano line. I'll take that as a compliment. I'm not on the run from my love of Lennon. It's why I'm here. You're eight years old, you see all that and you think 'I want a bit of that'."
Archer says once Liam sang his lyrics, The Roller fell into place.
"When he sings them, they come alive," Archer says.
"It feels natural," Liam says of singing the Beady Eye material. "Like when Noel used to give you a song. It feels like they're mine, I can get really into them. I don't find it hard. That shit is in me."
Where Oasis records - and live shows - would see Noel singing a handful of tracks, Beady Eye is strictly Liam.
Tell him it's nice to hear his trademark voice on a full album and his trademark modesty kicks in.
"It fucking is nice, isn't it?" Gallagher says. "It's my job, singing. All that going on and off at the gigs, you'd get dizzy."
He's also nonchalant when asked about how he takes care of his voice.
"I take a little bit of care of it, but you've got to live, haven't you? Who wants to drink honey all day? You'll turn into a bee," he says.
Liam wrote a handful of Beady Eye tracks, including The Morning Son, with the grammatical clanger "the morning sun has rose".
"It's not fucking Shakespeare, but it is what it is," Liam says.
The next frontier for Beady Eye is live shows. They've just played their first major gigs in the UK, with a setlist that includes the entire album and a cover by relatively obscure band World Of Twist.
"We know what we're doing," Liam says. "The album sounds better live than on record. There's no doubting our ability to play live."
And, like recording, touring is less dramatic without the Gallagher sibling rivalry.
"It was a massive operation before (with Oasis); this is a debut we'll do in theatres and clubs," Archer says. "That's how we're approaching it. It's not like we're reaching for the skies yet, there's time for that."
Unlike most new bands, they have a ready-built audience.
"When you put tickets on sale and they sell out straight away, obviously that's not like a new band," Archer says.
"But it's the same reaction, they'll have the album, they'll have to get it in their hearts and heads and souls, it's all going to hit them at once as opposed to the (Oasis) greatest hits tour you do after eight albums."
Again Liam rants about anyone expecting Oasis songs at Beady Eye gigs. "Noel's going to have to do Oasis songs, and rightly so - they're his songs - but we're not living off the past," he says.
"The past was good to us, but we're drawing the line and going forward. People will have to get used to it. And they will, by the time the gigs are over, they'll be musically satisfied. I'm sure some fucking clown will shout for Oasis songs to get a reaction."
Liam remains cautious about playing Oasis songs that Beady Eye members wrote in their set.
"Maybe in the future. I doubt it, but we're proud of those (Oasis) songs. Who knows man? At the moment, no way," he says.
"We always miss that Big Day Out, that big holiday where you play a few fucking tunes and get a sun tan. That'd be perfect."
Liam hasn't lost the ability to give good confident quote.
"We'll see if people buy into Beady Eye. If they don't like you, they fucking don't. You can't force people to like you. But they'll get it.
"There's fuck all else about and I'm not just saying that. You take Beady Eye out of the picture and what are you doing? Sitting around waiting for Noel (to release something)? It'd be really shit if you take us away.
"We're the only ones who mean anything right now."
.jpg)
+Crest.jpg)
