The first article here names Japan (Beady Eye will be there), I hope the situation will be ok after the tsunami-earthquake and we're thinking about them now. Japan is a very rich country but the disaster is huge, with so many people who died. I had Japanese neighbours in Milan and I like these people (big Oasis fans too). It seems the (2012) "end of the world" is approaching... but these things, wars too, always happened.
Two pints - that's allegedly how long it took for the remnants of Oasis to decide to carry on as Beady Eye after Noel Gallagher pulled the pin on the notoriously fractious Britpop band in late 2009.
Chatting at the up-market Landmark London Hotel recently, Liam Gallagher says that while it wasn't quite that simple, it wasn't that hard either.
The 38-year-old bad boy is on his best behaviour today. Not only is Our Liam on time for the interview alongside Beady Eye bandmates guitarist Gem Archer and drummer Chris Sharrock (guitarist Andy Bell is MIA) but he is nice as pie during the chat.
Cup of coffee in hand, he's "buzzin', man"; clearly excited about the new project and super keen for their debut album, to be a raging success. Mainly, one suspects, so he can stick it right up his older brother. [...]
"...and what we got stuck into was tunes that are on this album and they sounded amazing.
"They could've been shit and then I don't know where we would've been.
"But the spirit seemed to be there and the passion and they sounded good, so we decided to do more and here we are."
Grammy Award-winning English studio veteran Steve Lillywhite produced the album; his work with Sharrock's old band the La's, as well as U2, making him Gallagher's first choice for the debut.
The album kicks off in fine style on Four Letter Word, with Gallagher spitting lines like "sleepwalk away your life if that turns you on" and "nothing lasts forever".
While the defiant sentiment seems aimed fair and square at Noel, Archer says Bell wrote the song before Oasis split.
"If Oasis was Muhammad Ali, this is Sugar Ray Leonard. We're still in the ring and it means the world to us," Archer adds during a rare break from Gallagher's expletive-riddled rants. But soon Liam is back in fine form.
"They think we don't have the passion, all them people who used to come (to Oasis shows) and look at Noel," he begins. "They all come to look at that little fellow? Fucking hell, mate, they all want their heads checked, you know what I mean. We know what we're fucking doing. So maybe it's good that people have shit expectations because they can be blown away."
What does he think Oasis fans would make of the Beady Eye album? "I hope they like it, man, but it's not all about Oasis fans, to be quite honest," Gallagher counters. The singer also gives short shrift to questions over whether Noel's departure spells the end of Oasis. "It looks like it, doesn't it," he sneers.
The Beady Eye members, whose collective past involves stints in the La's (Chris), Ride, Heavy Stereo, the Lightning Seeds (Chris - and also Zak was in that band) and - of course - Oasis, all display remarkable passion for the new project. This is not a sideline, something to do until Noel returns.
"We want to make music that's going to inspire kids, man," Gallagher says. "We don't want to be the last fucking great fucking band in the world, even though we take some fucking beating. That's just a natural thing. We want people to join bands because of us."
While Liam has a fashion line, Pretty Green (named after the Jam song), and a film production company, he insists that music is still number one in his life.
Forty-four year-old Archer, who joined Oasis in 1999 after founding member Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs departed, is equally passionate about rock'n'roll.
"I couldn't imagine a world without it. As far back as I can remember, I've never not had a gig, since I was about 14 or something," he laughs. "So, this is it."
Archer admits to being "gutted" when Noel walked out on Oasis, but says he didn't sit around crying. The taciturn Sharrock, 46, nods his agreement, as Gallagher launches into another spiel.
"We owe it to ourselves to give it another try," he says. "We're happy with what we've done. It's not the best album in the fucking world, it ain't going to cure cancer or anything like that, but it's going to change people's lives for that hour and a half when they come and see us. Not everyone's going to like it but not everyone's going to hate it either."
Beady Eye made their live debut in Glasgow and has gigs in the UK and Europe to the end of April, before the band tours Japan in May and hits the European summer festival circuit.
The quartet is determined not to line up too many shows, preferring to - in Gallagher's parlance - to "get in there, go fucking 'bang' and leave more of an impression".
"The idea is to get around the world on this album without killing ourselves or boring people, or just killing it," he says. "And then come back and have a break - nothing too fucking long - and then get stuck in to another album and not let up.
"We're not getting any younger and this is what we do. Get a couple of albums out of the way - classics - and then maybe get out of people's faces." As Gallagher sings on album track Beatles and Stones, he wants Beady Eye to stand the test of time, like his heroes. No false modesty here, then.
"Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don't," he says. "But overall, you want people to look back and go 'They fucking meant it, man. They were great. The music world was a better place for having them'."
Liam Gallagher's new band is a lot like his old band - only happy, writes Bernard Zuel.
Liam arrives early, coming towards us with the splayed-foot, from-the-hips, laid-back-even-as-he-walks style he's made his own. Expecting surly, we are surprised by the nod and the polite, even dare we say it, cheery, ''orright?''
He takes a cup of tea alongside bandmates Gem Archer and Chris Sharrock and, while not exactly cracking a smile, keeps making dry comments that leave everyone in the room grinning.
There's no getting away from it - cocky we expect, mouthy is a given, but the Liam Gallagher before us is relaxed and happy. Maybe more so than at any time since Oasis - the band he formed and then ceded to his older brother, Noel - became the defining English band of the 1990s.
Advertisement: Story continues below ''I've never laughed so much at interviews and that's what fucking life's about, innit?'' Liam says. ''If you can laugh your bollocks off, have a great time and you've got some great fucking music to top it off, now you fucking know that's heaven to me, man.''
The thing is, it shouldn't make any sense. When Noel quit and, in effect, ended Oasis two years ago, the accepted wisdom was that he would go on as a heavyweight songwriter while baby brother and the remaining members of the band, guitarist Archer, drummer Sharrock and bass player Andy Bell, would trickle away without their leader.
Although Liam, Archer and Bell had contributed songs to Oasis albums in the past decade (Sharrock, a live contributor, had never actually played on an Oasis album before the split), no one would have called their contributions significant. No one expected that to change, either.
However, almost immediately, the rest of the band decided to go on together, calling themselves Beady Eye and recording a debut album that is surprisingly varied and strong. ''We decided to meet up in a couple of months to see what we got but we couldn't wait that long and met up a week later and got stuck into it,'' Gallagher says. ''We didn't have to work at it, you know what I mean? If we had to try really fucking hard, sweat our balls off for it, we wouldn't be fucking doing it.''
Confidence didn't take long to appear in its wake and they feel good enough not to play any Oasis songs on stage because, Archer says, ''you can't dip in and out of the past. Spiritually, it's not healthy, man.'' And, Gallagher says, ''people respect that … we drew the fuckng line and we are fucking getting on with it.''
It's clear this band seems more democratic than most - Archer and Sharrock nod at this comment - but there is a view that bands can't exist as democracies. That the best way for a band to operate is that there is a leader who makes the final decision. Is there an ultimate, decision-maker in Beady Eye? All three almost simultaneously answer no, before Gallagher explains why and takes a dig at the brother with whom he had a famously fractious relationship.
''The reason we are fucking here is we are all fucking leaders,'' he says. ''It's all well having a leader in the band, right yeah, taking care of everything, right. But if you are going to come to fucking work with a fucking face like a nun in pain, you know what I mean, because you are taking the weight of the world, everyone knows it.''
Right then. Life much the same in the Gallagher family. But not everything is the same in Beady Eye. Listen to Beady Eye's album and one of the first things you'll notice is how Gallagher's vocals sound less sharp and strained, the result being easily the best singing he's ever done. ''It's a sign of the times, man: I felt relaxed in the studio,'' he says. ''That's how I sing, man, around the house with my guitar.''
Chatting at the up-market Landmark London Hotel recently, Liam Gallagher says that while it wasn't quite that simple, it wasn't that hard either.
The 38-year-old bad boy is on his best behaviour today. Not only is Our Liam on time for the interview alongside Beady Eye bandmates guitarist Gem Archer and drummer Chris Sharrock (guitarist Andy Bell is MIA) but he is nice as pie during the chat.
Cup of coffee in hand, he's "buzzin', man"; clearly excited about the new project and super keen for their debut album, to be a raging success. Mainly, one suspects, so he can stick it right up his older brother. [...]
"...and what we got stuck into was tunes that are on this album and they sounded amazing.
"They could've been shit and then I don't know where we would've been.
"But the spirit seemed to be there and the passion and they sounded good, so we decided to do more and here we are."
Grammy Award-winning English studio veteran Steve Lillywhite produced the album; his work with Sharrock's old band the La's, as well as U2, making him Gallagher's first choice for the debut.
The album kicks off in fine style on Four Letter Word, with Gallagher spitting lines like "sleepwalk away your life if that turns you on" and "nothing lasts forever".
While the defiant sentiment seems aimed fair and square at Noel, Archer says Bell wrote the song before Oasis split.
"If Oasis was Muhammad Ali, this is Sugar Ray Leonard. We're still in the ring and it means the world to us," Archer adds during a rare break from Gallagher's expletive-riddled rants. But soon Liam is back in fine form.
"They think we don't have the passion, all them people who used to come (to Oasis shows) and look at Noel," he begins. "They all come to look at that little fellow? Fucking hell, mate, they all want their heads checked, you know what I mean. We know what we're fucking doing. So maybe it's good that people have shit expectations because they can be blown away."
What does he think Oasis fans would make of the Beady Eye album? "I hope they like it, man, but it's not all about Oasis fans, to be quite honest," Gallagher counters. The singer also gives short shrift to questions over whether Noel's departure spells the end of Oasis. "It looks like it, doesn't it," he sneers.
The Beady Eye members, whose collective past involves stints in the La's (Chris), Ride, Heavy Stereo, the Lightning Seeds (Chris - and also Zak was in that band) and - of course - Oasis, all display remarkable passion for the new project. This is not a sideline, something to do until Noel returns.
"We want to make music that's going to inspire kids, man," Gallagher says. "We don't want to be the last fucking great fucking band in the world, even though we take some fucking beating. That's just a natural thing. We want people to join bands because of us."
While Liam has a fashion line, Pretty Green (named after the Jam song), and a film production company, he insists that music is still number one in his life.
Forty-four year-old Archer, who joined Oasis in 1999 after founding member Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs departed, is equally passionate about rock'n'roll.
"I couldn't imagine a world without it. As far back as I can remember, I've never not had a gig, since I was about 14 or something," he laughs. "So, this is it."
Archer admits to being "gutted" when Noel walked out on Oasis, but says he didn't sit around crying. The taciturn Sharrock, 46, nods his agreement, as Gallagher launches into another spiel.
"We owe it to ourselves to give it another try," he says. "We're happy with what we've done. It's not the best album in the fucking world, it ain't going to cure cancer or anything like that, but it's going to change people's lives for that hour and a half when they come and see us. Not everyone's going to like it but not everyone's going to hate it either."
Beady Eye made their live debut in Glasgow and has gigs in the UK and Europe to the end of April, before the band tours Japan in May and hits the European summer festival circuit.
The quartet is determined not to line up too many shows, preferring to - in Gallagher's parlance - to "get in there, go fucking 'bang' and leave more of an impression".
"The idea is to get around the world on this album without killing ourselves or boring people, or just killing it," he says. "And then come back and have a break - nothing too fucking long - and then get stuck in to another album and not let up.
"We're not getting any younger and this is what we do. Get a couple of albums out of the way - classics - and then maybe get out of people's faces." As Gallagher sings on album track Beatles and Stones, he wants Beady Eye to stand the test of time, like his heroes. No false modesty here, then.
"Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don't," he says. "But overall, you want people to look back and go 'They fucking meant it, man. They were great. The music world was a better place for having them'."
Liam Gallagher's new band is a lot like his old band - only happy, writes Bernard Zuel.
Liam arrives early, coming towards us with the splayed-foot, from-the-hips, laid-back-even-as-he-walks style he's made his own. Expecting surly, we are surprised by the nod and the polite, even dare we say it, cheery, ''orright?''
He takes a cup of tea alongside bandmates Gem Archer and Chris Sharrock and, while not exactly cracking a smile, keeps making dry comments that leave everyone in the room grinning.
There's no getting away from it - cocky we expect, mouthy is a given, but the Liam Gallagher before us is relaxed and happy. Maybe more so than at any time since Oasis - the band he formed and then ceded to his older brother, Noel - became the defining English band of the 1990s.
Advertisement: Story continues below ''I've never laughed so much at interviews and that's what fucking life's about, innit?'' Liam says. ''If you can laugh your bollocks off, have a great time and you've got some great fucking music to top it off, now you fucking know that's heaven to me, man.''
The thing is, it shouldn't make any sense. When Noel quit and, in effect, ended Oasis two years ago, the accepted wisdom was that he would go on as a heavyweight songwriter while baby brother and the remaining members of the band, guitarist Archer, drummer Sharrock and bass player Andy Bell, would trickle away without their leader.
Although Liam, Archer and Bell had contributed songs to Oasis albums in the past decade (Sharrock, a live contributor, had never actually played on an Oasis album before the split), no one would have called their contributions significant. No one expected that to change, either.
However, almost immediately, the rest of the band decided to go on together, calling themselves Beady Eye and recording a debut album that is surprisingly varied and strong. ''We decided to meet up in a couple of months to see what we got but we couldn't wait that long and met up a week later and got stuck into it,'' Gallagher says. ''We didn't have to work at it, you know what I mean? If we had to try really fucking hard, sweat our balls off for it, we wouldn't be fucking doing it.''
Confidence didn't take long to appear in its wake and they feel good enough not to play any Oasis songs on stage because, Archer says, ''you can't dip in and out of the past. Spiritually, it's not healthy, man.'' And, Gallagher says, ''people respect that … we drew the fuckng line and we are fucking getting on with it.''
It's clear this band seems more democratic than most - Archer and Sharrock nod at this comment - but there is a view that bands can't exist as democracies. That the best way for a band to operate is that there is a leader who makes the final decision. Is there an ultimate, decision-maker in Beady Eye? All three almost simultaneously answer no, before Gallagher explains why and takes a dig at the brother with whom he had a famously fractious relationship.
''The reason we are fucking here is we are all fucking leaders,'' he says. ''It's all well having a leader in the band, right yeah, taking care of everything, right. But if you are going to come to fucking work with a fucking face like a nun in pain, you know what I mean, because you are taking the weight of the world, everyone knows it.''
Right then. Life much the same in the Gallagher family. But not everything is the same in Beady Eye. Listen to Beady Eye's album and one of the first things you'll notice is how Gallagher's vocals sound less sharp and strained, the result being easily the best singing he's ever done. ''It's a sign of the times, man: I felt relaxed in the studio,'' he says. ''That's how I sing, man, around the house with my guitar.''
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