Noel Gallagher Details, Meaning Noel Gallagher Article and Explanation Guide

Noel Gallagher Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

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Noel Gallagher (born May 29, 1967 as Noel Thomas David Gallagher) is the lead songwriter and guitarist with the British rock band Oasis. He is the older brother of Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher and the two are famous for their scuffles, though much of this is the work of the media.

In the 90's, Noel was at the center stage of the Britpop movement. Oasis' first album, Definitely Maybe, became the fastest selling British debut ever, and the follow-up (What's the Story) Morning Glory defined its era. Noel's outspoken nature and penchant for controversy did as much to publicise Oasis as his younger brother's drunken attacks on the papparazzi.

As Noel has written the vast majority of Oasis songs, he is, therefore, considered one of the most powerful and influential personalities in British music. Noel received much press -- most of it negative -- for his candid admiration of his own songwriting abilities. However, Gallagher's bravado certainly warrants merit considering the commercial and critical success of Oasis.

Table of contents

1 Biography
2 Public Persona
3 Songwriting
4 Brotherly Love

4..1 Wibbling Rivalry
4..2 Noel Outsmarts Liam Again - December 1998
4..3 Steve Lamacq Show - November 1997

5 See Also
6 External Links

Biography

Noel was born in, Longsight, Manchester to Peggy and Tommy Gallagher. The middle child of three, his elder brother Paul was born in 1966, and Liam was born five years after Noel, in 1972. The Gallagher brothers grew up in the suburb of Burnage. Noel first began to teach himself to play guitar at the age of 13, imitating his favourite songs from the radio. Both Liam and Noel were regular truants and no strangers to the local constabulary in their teens and at one stage, they regularly broke into cars and stole bicycles, and at the age of 13 Noel received six months' probation for robbing a cornershop. Noel attended St Robert's Infant School in Longsight (1971), St Bernard's Primary in Burnage (1972) and St Mark's Secondary in Didsbury (1978).

In April 1984, Peggy took her three boys and left her husband, Tommy who was an alcoholic known for his violent mood swings. Noel has had little or no contact woth his father since.

Noel had worked for a freelance concreting operation. After an injury sustained whilst working for the building company when a weighty cap from a steel gas pipe landed on his right foot, crushing it, Noel was forced into working in a storehouse. Fortunately, he found that he had more time to practice guitar and to write songs. Much of the late 1980\'s found Noel unemployed and living in a bedsit splitting his time between drugs, songwriting and devising plans to get within "Slapping distance" of Margaret Thatcher, whose refusal to "turn" from her policies as Conservative Prime Minister in the 1980s have been blamed for causing mass unemployment in the decade.

In 1988, Gallagher auditioned to be vocalist for the band Inspiral Carpets. Although he was turned down, Inspiral Carpets hired him as a guitar technician. In 1992, Noel returned to Manchester to find that his brother had become lead singer with local band, "The Rain" (actually, Liam had joined the band in the hope of dragging along Noel "with his songs"). Noel had seen them play at Manchester's Boardwalk and commented they were going nowhere unless they installed him as lead guitarist and main songwriter. Noel agreed to join the band if he could have complete control of the group, including contributing all the songs; the rest of the band agreed and under the new name Oasis, they began a year of intensive rehearsing.

The very first time Oasis played together they promised they were going to be the best, that they'd never settle for the dull thud of mediocrity, and Noel's arrogant front resisted the security of taking the obvious, cliched route of most up-and-coming bands, for example, they never sent a demo to a record company, rather waited for their host of classic songs to be send a record deal to them, which it did in the form of Creation Records' Alan McGee, who saw them at a club gig in Glasgow. They lacked a manager, an agent, and indeed any real financial support (again, perhaps evedence of Noel's all-conquering self confidence). McGee signed them on the spot. Thier first album, Definitely Maybe was released two years later in 1994 and was massive critical and commercial success.

Thanks in no small part to Noel's songwriting abilities, Oasis went on to become one of the most popular and successful British acts ever. His extencive catalouge of songs - ironically written in the storehouses and the bedsits he had wanted to take a swipe at the Iron Lady for - provided the fuel for Oasis to blaze the way for British music in the 90's and made Noel a rich and respected man. Oasis are also attributed with having resurrecting stadium rock and roll concerts in England, most noticably their record breaking summer shows at Knebworth in August 1996.

Noel had often joked to McGee that the whole Rock-and-Roll industry was built around one ambition - to own a chocolate brown Rolls Royce. Following the success of (What's the Story) Morning Glory, Creation Records held a banquet in to thank the band. Bonehead, Guigsey and White recieved valuabe Rolex watches, to Liam went a solid gold rolex. Then came Noel, to whom McGee bequethed the much-desired chocolate brown Rolls Royce. Liam was less than amused, which only fueled Noel's joy which was not even jaded by the fact the he cannot drive.

In 1995, Noel joined Paul Weller, Paul McCartney and Johnny Depp to form the Smokin' Mojo Filters. The supergroup, put together by Weller was assembled to record the Beatles' 1969 hit "Come Together" for the charity album 'Help!. The band took their name from a lyric in John Lennon's "Come Together". He has also worked with the Chemical Brothers and Ian Brown.

Noel married girlfriend Meg Matthews in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 5th 1997. They have a daughter called Anais, born on January 27, 2000. Noel and Meg were divorced in January 2001, shortly after Liam announced his separation from Patsy Kensit. It is rumoured that Meg could not abide Noels desire to move to the countryside and missed partying with her friends in London. Noel wrote "Wonderwall" - arguably Oasis' most famous and most popular song - for Meg, and, perhaps as a result, the band now play it less and less since the divorce. Noel is now dating Sara MacDonald

Public Persona

Oasis appeared on the music scene in 1994 and quickly made a public image for themselves. Whereas other Britpop bands such as Elastica and The Manic Street Preachers chose not to play the media 'game', or if they did it was usually uninspiring (as was the case with Blur) Oasis chose to portray themselves, arguably realistically, as loud mouthed, arrogant and aggressive. This really caught the public's imagination. Though Liam appears to have really taken it to heart, often verbally abusing photographers and members of the public Noel, perhaps more secure than Liam, tends to be more reserved, becoming aggressive only when provoked by people such as Robbie Williams, Damon Albarn of Blur or anyone who challenges his belief that Oasis are the best band in the world. On one occasion he became slightly confrontational when an interviewer described them as "one of the biggest bands in the world." Noel immediately commented "What do yer mean one of? Name one band who's bigger." In one of his more tounge-in-cheek moments Noel stated "If people don't like Oasis, they're shit."

Whilst not an agressive character by nature, Noel is well known for his controvercial, outspoken statements in the press. In the midst of their fued with Blur, Noel told one interviewer that he hoped lead singer Damon Albarn and bassist Alex James would die of Aids. When George Harrison accused Oasis of being little more than a passisng bfad Noel commented "George was always the quiet Beatle, maybe he should keep that up" (this however., was not as threatening as his brothers threat to play golf off of Harrison's head should they ever meet). He said of Kylie Minogue "I don't hate Kylie but I hate her music with a passion - it's just unbridled filth, it's disgusting." He described the protests against the second Gulf War in London as "a bloody waste of time." In the same interview he said of the British "We are a nation of moaning sissies, regardless of who governs. The British get on my nerves. They moan about the weather, about the French, about the Germans. They moan about cricket, football – they should just keep their mouths shut." When asked about youngsters taste in music, he stated "You shouldn't be able to buy records until you're 16. You'll buy any old nonsense - fucking Britney and Eminem."

Noel is often criticized for the praise he gives to his own songs. Though many consider this to be intense arrogance, Noel maintains that it is merely self confidence and points out "If you'd written "Live Forever", you'd be walking to a different tune too". He is not afraid to have a laugh at the expense of his 'self confidence'. In an interview with Jonathan Ross, he joked that there was nothing he liked to do more that to gather a group of friends and to discuss just how great he is. When Ross asked if he would ever do the same with a group of other legendary musicians, Noel was quick to point out that that would be very bad for his ego.

Noel is also famous for taking inspiration from the Beatles. They often mockingly make comparisons between themselves and the Beatles. On the inlay to the Be Here Now album are scrawled the words 'The Beatles - quite good, Oasis - much better'. In the video for Don't Look Back in Anger, Noel wears a pair of Lennonesq orange-tinted circular glasses, which Lennon referred to as 'granny glasses'. Both Noel and Liam can often be seen wearing similar glasses. There are also several references to the Beatles in Noel's songs, and for the intro to "Don't Look Back In Anger", Noel 'borrowed' the piano intro to John Lennon's "Imagine".

Songwriting

Oasis are considered by many to be the best British band since the Beatles. Before the arrival of Oasis in 1994, debate raged over weather British rock music had had its day. Radio stations were flooded with American grunge and dance music. Two events changed all this - Kurt Cobain died and Oasis releases their first album - Definitely Maybe. "Supersonic" was a roaring battle cry; "Live Forever", the polar opposite of the "I hate myself and want to die" championed by Cobain; "Slide Away" a tender melody to an ex-girlfriend and "Married with Children" a droll voice lamenting a current one (yer music's shite, it keeps me up all night).

Noel personally wrote all of the songs on the ground-braking d�but, and the equally successful follow up, 1995's (What's the Story) Morning Glory. Amongst this albums 10 unforgettable tracks were three songs which were to become Oasis' trademark songs - "Champagne Supernova", the song with which Oasis have ended many a live performance; the no.1 hit "Don't Look Back In Anger"; and the phenomenal success (and busker's favourite) that was "Wonderwall". Noel occasionally provides lead vocals as can be seen on songs such as "Don't Look Back In Anger", "Sad Song", "D'yer Wanna Be A Spaceman?", "Half the World Away" and "The Masterplan". Though his voice is not as memorable as Liam's, it does provide a pleasant break for his brothers grating, arrogant and often nasal, vocals.

Noel is sometimes referred to as the great melody theif. Many of Oasis' songs bare more that a passing resemblance to the music he admires, or has at least caught his attention. The opening track on 1995's (What's the Story) Morning Glory, "Hello", contians elements of Gary Glitter's "Hello Hello I'm Back Again". "Roll With It" B-side "Rockin' Chair" owes to "Growing Old" by Christopher Griffiths. Definitely Maybe second single "Shakermaker" comes complete with a melody adapted from "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" (guitarist Gem Archer could not help but laugh at the sheer audacity or "ripping off" the Coca-Cola song). 1994's Christmas no. 3, "Whatever", contains musical elements of "How Sweet To Be An Idiot" by Neil Innes. Then, of course, there are the Influence derived from the Beatles. Aside from "Don't Look Back In Anger's" blatent - and unashamed - steal from "Imagine", there is also the melodic similarities between "Up In The Sky" and Lennon's "Rain", and the keyboards in "Go Let It Out" being almost identincal to that in McCartney's "Fool On The Hill" to name but a few. Paul McCartney light-heartedly commented "Their stuff sounds very Beatle-ish. I sometimes have to check to see if it isn't one of ours that's if it's a track I haven't heard very much or something."When it was suggeseted that Oasis take legal action against pop band Hear'Say for their first single's uncanny similarity to "All Around The World", Noel simply laughed at the hypocarcy of such an act.

Though the albums Be Here Now (1997), Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000) and Heathen Chemistry (2002) have not been received with the same level of enthusiasm by critics, the public appeal has remained just as strong. Standing On the Shoulder of Giants included Oasis' first ever album track written not by Noel, but by his brother Liam. Heathen Chemistry included a further 3 tracks by Liam (including "Songbird", which was released as a single), and one by guitarist Gem Archer. However, despite this, Noel continues to be the brain and the driving force behind Oasis.

Brotherly Love

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The Gallaghers' famously share a turbulent relationship. Their arguments have achieved a status as something of Rock Legend. One of their arguments was even released on a bootleg single entitled 'wibbling rivalry'. The arguments seem to pit Noel's calm, complacent wit, logic and canniness against Liam's arrogance, tendency to fly off the handle, penchant for psychedelic non sequiturs (he once ended an on-stage argument by appealing to the crowd for biscuits) and his vocal dedication to any stand-point, no matter how incorrect or easy to dispel it is. Although Noel often ends up making Liam appear quite stupid in these exchanges, Liam's tendency to shout and swear his brother down appears an equally effective tactic. In a 2004 interview, Noel mockingly described Liam as a great singer, but, in terms of the band "He is Abbott to my Costello, he is Cannon to my Ball, He is Little to my Large". However, all jokes`and teasing aside, Noel maintains that they are good friends, and rarely fall out.

Wibbling Rivalry

An excerpt of the argument released on the Wibbling Rivalry single:

Noel: Do you know John Lennon? Liam: Yeah. Noel: Well, you must be pretty old. How old are you? 21? Liam: No. About fuckin' thousand and five. Noel: You're 22. and I watched you being born, so shut the fuck up about John Lennon.

Noel Outsmarts Liam Again - December 1998

Noel: (Oasis) is not my band.

Liam: Whose band is it?

Noel: Your band.

Liam: Did you hear that?! It's my band!
      Are you recording this Mr Journalist?
      It's My Band!

Noel: It's your band.

Liam: Hang on a minute... It's not my band 
      now that we're shit and no-one likes us!

Noel: It's your band.

Liam: It was my band when we were popular! 
      You sneaky bastard! [Aims kick at Noel]