The Frank Skinner Show - Frank Skinner with Noel Gallagher

Episode Date: November 26, 2017

Frank Skinner in conversation with Noel Gallagher, talking about Noel's new album, Who Built The Moon?, scissors and an interesting encounter with Matthew McConaughey.

Frank Skinner in conversation with Noel Gallagher. Absolute Radio. I am with Noel Gallagher, who I'm very happy to say has got shades on. Just through necessity, I'm afraid. I was out late last night. It's a rock and roll tradition. You kind of are allowed to wear them indoors, particularly if you're a rock and roll star. And I like a bit of distance from an interviewee. It's like blind date.

I said to you before we started, I'm not being rude, I genuinely was kind of up at ten to six this morning. You look great. Thank you very much. I'm just feeling bad that I didn't wear them as well. That would have been brilliant. You should have some absolute radio embossed ones. They probably exist.

So I tell you what, I had a look at the last time I interviewed you It was on TV, wasn't it? It was, it was 17 years ago this week No It was Wow, that's insane And the interview ended with you saying You know, it's a young man's game, rock and roll

And you said, but knowing my luck, I'll probably still be doing it when I'm 50 Did I say that and here we are and here we are yeah so why I'm not interested in anything else but you don't need to work

do you no but I guess because it's like if you're a bass player right or a drummer they're the kind of people

who don't need to work but I write so I love the writing and if you write then you you're kind of obliged to go out and play gigs I suppose but I write so I love the writing and if you write then you you're kind of obliged to go out

and play gigs I suppose but I do like it I love it the travelling and the I guess being creative kind of keeps you doing it

it's good because the the thing people usually go off they like as you say the creative stuff but they don't like

the hotels and the there is a funny there's a when you first start and you're travelling the world in five-star hotels, it's like the greatest thing ever. But then when you've made that money that your house is better than any hotel that you stay in, you're kind of always in...

Yeah. You know. I live in a six-star house. This five-star hotel, it's not going to cut it anymore. But... I tend to stay at mid-range hotels, no. They're just more excited to have me.

When you start staying in hotels that double as spas... Yeah, yeah. That's when you know you've cracked it. Ah, you've landed there. Here's your room service menu and your spa menu, sir. Oh, man.

Thank you very much. You go for a meal and there's someone in a robe at the next table. Yeah, or checking in with people in flip-flops. What would you say was the question you're asked most? Not just in interviews, in the street, by anyone. How's it going? I would say... I guess it's the question Paul McCartney gets asked the most.

So, what was it like? Ah, yeah. What was it like? Well, I don't know. It was just what it was. You know, McCartney says he gets asked that a lot. So what was it like being in the Beatles? Well, it was my normality, I suppose.

The 90s, what was that like? it was great is my answer to that I think I interviewed Ringo once he said that when if a bloke comes round to mend his boiler he's waiting for the B word to come up

I mean do you feel like that about it with the O word do you sort of think no I think it's great you have to be of the mindset that if you're hailing a black cab, 99% certainty that the guy

that pulls over is going to be an Oasis fan. Right. And, you know, I won't charge you. You give me so many

great memories, son. And I'm just like, there's only 220. You know what I mean? I won't charge you, they say. You know, it's like £2.60.

No, it's on me, mate. Oh, thanks. It was worth all that touring for that. I'll save 260 there. So, what makes you happy now?

It's not one general thing. I suppose it goes without saying, your family moments. Yeah. When, you know, you're playing football with two lads in the back garden. But then, odd things, I can be kind of sat in a hotel room and actually have a day off and actually have nothing to do in

a town where you're not even interested going out in because you've been there so often. And you just think, let's just lie on this bed all day and just watch telly. That's great. That kind of thing, it's just like, it doesn't get any better than this. Get your robe on.

You can't... Just peruse through the spa menu. See if I can get a toe rub from somebody. Even that. The tiny little things, I guess. I suppose once you've... You're good at what you do and you're successful, it's the little things that make you happy, I suppose.

What about you? I like sitting with the newspaper in the garden. Right. Just that. In the middle of winter. Yeah, ideally in the middle of the winter. But heavily lagged. Right.

Yeah, because, you know, everyone thinks it. I mean, I don't do any drugs, alcohol, anything now, and that's where I used to get my white heat happiness from. Right. But now I get it from very minor things. Yeah, the little things. I watch Supersonic, the movie about Oasis. Are you pleased with that?

Yeah. It's a cracking film. I'd recommend it. There's a bit in it where the first album is on the shelves and you say, I'm cursed to be eternally bored now because it was all about this. It was all about getting that first album. Yeah.

That was it. The ambition of Oasis went in stages. It was kind of like, let's get a record deal. Then after that, let's make an album. And after that, it was like, okay, I've got to do another one now. It's good I've already written it. And then there was, yeah, even now, today, you just take one cycle at a time, you know what I mean?

But there is something about the thrill of the climb, which you never... Because you're never going to leave the top of the mountain. No, you get to a point... The difficult bit is when you get to that point and you flatline, is staying there. The thrill of that ride, honestly's it was just incredible no two weeks were the same and you would get calls and it was all pre-digital the digital age and social

media and that so it's kind of old school and you'd you know you'd actually have to answer the phone to someone yeah pick up the phone with a lead in the end of it oh wow you could find them then they were plugged in yeah you get a call Oh, wow. It's got a lead in the end of it, yeah. You could find them then. They were plugged in. Yeah. You get a call saying, you know, you've sold a million records in, you know, Mogadishu. You're just like, no way. Seriously. Thank you very much.

And then where's me atlas? Yeah. This is Absolute Radio. Frank Skinner in conversation with Noel Gallagher. Absolute Radio. Do you think that there's a danger with a band that gets that massive that quickly? That you could end up...

I've seen Paul McCartney, and I don't want him to play anything post-Wings. I just want him to recreate that special time in my life. Do you think that Oasis fans got a bit like that? They wanted to freeze you in time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They do have a sense of ownership of your thing it's like with this record it's it's quite different to what I

do and it's more electronic and there's people singing in French and all that kind of thing the thing with Oasis is it generates a new generation of fans every five or six years and it feels like there's a generation has come along now and they're really young and they have an image of what they think you should be and they take ownership of it I guess it's nice

and all that but you can't when you're in the studio creating something you can't think well what do my fans want you can't think that so when

when you're going to do the gigs it's kind of as long as you can play what you want then you play what they want as well you give them a you know blast from the past and all that it's a deal isn't as you can play what you want, then you play what they want as well. You give them a

blast from the past and all. It's a deal, isn't it? Every gig is a deal with the audience. When you go see Paul McCartney, you know, it's like, imagine if he only did Wings stuff. Yeah. You'd be like, alright, we get it, come on, but you know, give us a hard day's night. Yeah, but it could be worse. It could be

everybody's going to dance tonight. Or the frog chorus. Yeah. Well, you know, in context, that wasn could be worse. It could be everybody's going to dance tonight. Or the frog chorus. Yeah. Well, you know, in context, that wasn't so bad. So let's talk about the new album. I'll be honest with you, it took me five listens to get it. Right. Which I would say is a good sign. Yeah.

Because I don't know about you, but with albums, they're a bit like people. If I like someone instantly, I've often gone off them in three months. Whereas with an album, if it grows organically on me, it tends to stick. Yeah, I agree.

The funny thing is, is when I was making it, because it took four years to make, and because it kind of grew step by step, I didn't realise how different it was until I started to play it to people, two after every track. When I first played Holy Mountain to my management, they hadn't heard it,

at the end of the song there was silence and my manager went, are they all like this? Now, I was kind of, I went, what? He said, are they all like this? I said, no, some of them are even worse, you know. And it was like, it didn't,

until because they'd just been given this completed thing, they were like, well, it's very different, isn't it? And I was like, is it? And they were like, you know, I guess a girl making an announcement in French has kind of not done that before. They're kind of different. It felt to me like you had made a conscious effort

to make something different. Is that not true? No. If I'd have made a conscious effort, the album wouldn't be that good because you're immediately starting to overthink it. I must do something different. My producer, David Holmes,

I had to overthink it. I must do something different. My producer, David Holmes, he just refused any song that I'd written outside of the studio. He didn't want to know. He wants to be the genesis of this idea. And then he would point me in a different direction. And every time I would come up with stuff

that sounded remotely like Oasis or what I'd done before, he would stop me and say, we've heard all that. You can do that next time. Why don't we focus on this germ of electronic music and turn that into a song? And I found it, for the first 18 months, two years, quite frustrating,

because I've got a bank of songs at home. I just go in and, you know, we're doing it in 10 minutes. How many have you got, do you think, lying around? I say I've got got, do you think, lying around? I'd say I've got completed, ready to go, I've got another two albums worth, easy. Wowee. And about, I mean, I've got a lot of songs that just need knocking into shape.

Because I think of you as, although you were in a band, the writing process, I remember there's a bit in Supersonic where you go off into a room where everyone else is eating a takeaway and then you come out with, I think it's the tracks. Yeah, Supersonic, yeah. So it must be odd to have someone over your shoulder, especially if they're saying, don't do that. Well, I guess because I've made so many records,

it was the thrill of the unknown was what kept me interested. And every day was different in the studio. I remember coming home from the studio one night and my missus saying to me, how did it go today? I was like, I have no idea. She said, what did you do?

I was like, well, I played a synthesizer for seven hours. She's like, you can't play the synthesizer. I was like, I have no idea. She said, well, what did you do? I was like, well, I played a synthesizer for seven hours. She's like, you can't play the synthesizer. I was going, I know. You know, and then you'd go back in the next day, and the seven hours of music, you'd done it. I've never heard them since. I don't know where they went. Probably on David Holmes' solo record next year.

So it was all very, some days you would go in, and nothing would happen and you'd toil away, no ideas. And then another day you'd go and you'd get three ideas that would make a couple of tunes. So it was all very... If you've got the right attitude, it's all very interesting. Well, when it starts off, the first track, Fort Knox, I'm looking

at my watch after about a minute and a half thinking, they've sent me the wrong album. Where's Noel? Yeah. Somebody said to me in the same management thing, this is a long intro, isn't it? And I said, no, this is it. This is it. And there was another one. this is it. This is it. And there was another one. Are you singing on any of it? Yes, singing comes in after two minutes.

They say, look, there I am. But it's a great track, I think, Fort Knox. And you have one line on it, you've got to get yourself together. It's a great opening. Well, it did have, it was a traditional song. It had a verse and chorus and all that.

I didn't feel it was working. When I started to take the vocals out, it started to kind of... Oh, hang on a minute. There's something different here. I love it. It's tribal, I'd say. Yeah. Dare I say, and this is a compliment,

it's got a bit of Happy Mondays about it, I think. That's what people have said. It's a bit Madchester. It's that part of Manchester which I think you've always avoided a bit. No, I just never knew how to get there. I mean, I've worked with the Chemical Brothers in the past and Goldie back in the day and all that kind of thing, so I was a regular at the Hacienda.

But if you're sitting down with an acoustic guitar and you can knock out a tune like Don't Look Back in Anger, in ten minutes, you're just like, well... You might as well. You might as well, innit? It'd be rude not to. I'm not fanning around with a synthesizer

for seven hours. Frank Skinner in conversation with Noel Gallagher. Absolute Radio. Are you... So when you... Now you've done that. I'll tell you, I listened to a show on Radio 4 once,

and they had a bloke who was an expert on sea anemones. And one of the questions, you know sea anemones, those things that blow about on the bottom of the sea? They're like plants. Right, okay. And this woman said to him, how do you know when they're dead? It's a great question. He said, in science, there's only one way of recognising life for sure, and that's growth.

And if you've got growth, you've got life. And that is true of musicians, presumably. Yeah. I think you have to try, at least. And I think my solo stuff after I left Oasis was kind of heading this way. There was things that, like on Chasing Yesterday, there was kind of heading this way. There was things that, you know, like on Chasing Yesterday,

there was kind of like a space jazz tune, which is so far removed from Supersonic. It's a joke. And some of my fans thought it was a joke. Yeah. And, but I guess, I guess you have to, if you get kind of stuck in that time warp, this is what, this is what I do.

I don't think it's interesting for anyone. And I think if this record, if my third album was the same as the other two, I'd be bored of it by now, do you know what I mean? But I think you have to. You have to at least try anyway. This is Absolute Radio, and there's more from Noel Gallagher next. This is Absolute Radio.

Frank Skinner in conversation with Noel Gallagher. Absolute Radio. The Man Who Built the Moon. That's a great track. Isn't it? It's a really, I love that. To me that, I think the problem you've got probably, if it's a problem, is you're sort of competing with you. Yeah. And the thing is with Oasis, it wasn't just that people liked them. They got into their emotional interiors. I mean, we saw that in Manchester with After the Bombing, so Don't Look Back in Anger. Then it's not a song anymore. No, it's a thing.

It was amazing how people rallied around that song in the days after that. It was quite the thing. And I get asked about it a lot, and I've been doing recently, and it kind of almost gives me goosebumps, really, that in the days after that, politicians' words weren't enough. You know, the comforting words from experts on the news wasn't enough. People rallied around a song, like, old school, you know what I mean?

It was kind of... And the night I did it in Manchester, you've got these mixed emotions of... You live for these moments where, you know, what you've created has gone into people's lives. So you're there, and it's for all the wrong reasons, you know what I mean? And so it was...

That song is... Without it being an extraordinary song, it's an extraordinary thing. You know, because for 20 years it was a song of no regrets and it was about a girl who was maybe toasting her life, passing her by, and now it's become this anthem for defiance, you know. Well, it's got a religious aspect to it, I thought.

I mean, you say you got, when I watched that on the news and people started singing that in the street, the airs went on the back of my neck. It never occurred to me how it felt for you. I was actually watching it at the time and I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it.

I actually couldn't believe it. You know, and then, a couple of weeks later, the band played it in the Stade de France before the England-France friendly. And my seven-year-old, for a week he was just going, did they play this song everywhere? And I was like, yes, they do. I'll tell you what surprised me a bit,

and I don't know how much control you have over this, and it's the timing of your album coming out, being so close to your brothers. Yeah, I never thought about it until I started doing these interviews, and journalists were saying, is it just coincidence? And I was like, well, yeah.

I finished mine. The way the music world is now, you can't sit on it for too long, or it just leaks you know what i mean so it was ready to go and that was it i kind of know now it's a bit of a big deal but at the time it never ended my thinking at all i i knew i knew he was making a record while i was making this one um because i don't know whether you're aware of this he's a pretty good self-publicist and uh we were uh, oh, he must have a record coming out.

But we set the date and that was it. You can't kind of... I was saying to a journalist yesterday, so when do you think it should have come out next year, the year after? Well, I just wonder if you are, and it seems to me you are someone who's trying to break new ground musically.

I don't know if competition is always good to help you to be brave and take risks. Do you know what I mean? It doesn't matter because the way... The press will always invent competition anyway. You know, if... The fact that we're both now making records is a thing. No matter when my album comes out or when his comes out,

they're just always going to be compared. Same when they formed BDI and did that thing, the was the comparisons there that's just the way that it is um so you just got to focus on what you're doing that's it i sort of resolved i wouldn't mention liam today but now i've lapsed into it i'm i'm sorry frank skinner in conversation with noel gallagher absolute radio it's. It's odd, you know. Many years ago, you won't remember this, but I was with you and him, and he was standing by a vase of flowers,

and he had pollen on the back of this black... He had a sort of black polo neck, sort of with the Beatles type of jumper on. And he had all this orange pollen, and he didn't know because it was on the back. And you brushed it off for him. And I remember thinking that was a lovely brotherly thing. Right. I'm sure I just sneezed into my hand.

No. I just think it's sort of, I remember thinking it must have been great, you know, to have gone through all that and have your brother with you. Well, yeah. Yeah. But it was also... Oasis, I say in the documentary,

Oasis' greatest strength was also its Achilles heel, you know what I mean? Because two brothers in a band singing harmonies, one writing songs for the other, is kind of unique, you know? But then it kind of eventually became exhausting the kind of sibling thing yeah and um yeah i i remember to right towards the end of always just thinking i'm too old for this now it's like still squabbling like two you know 12

year olds it's not for me anymore you know it's awful and of course Liam's just taken that onto Twitter now he's just like squabbling with himself yeah he's I love the kinks

and the kinks always had this thing that Ray and Dave Davis but there's a moment in you really got me I heard Ray Davis talking about this

and I don't know if you remember but when they go into the solo they sort of scream Ray Davis goes yeah and he said

it was he looked at Dave and it was he said right in front of me I saw the council house the growing up all the tough times

and I knew that we were we'd broke out we'd found the door we'd found the exit I mean you must have had moments like that. I remember the point when Liam signed his first autograph. You know, somebody came up to him and said,

can I have your autograph? And it's almost like they were speaking Swahili to him. And he kind of signed it. And we were all going, ooh, ooh, ooh, get your autograph, eh? Look at that. And he's looking going, ooh, ooh, ooh, your autograph, eh? Look at that. And he's looking at me going, what do you do here?

I said, just write your name. What the **** am I writing my name for? Just write it. Just sign the thing. You know, best wishes. He must have heard the concept of the autograph before.

Well, he clearly had freaked him out. Oh, marvellous this is Absolute Radio Frank Skinner in conversation with Noel Gallagher Absolute Radio so I've grown to love the album thank you very much

and I'm glad about that because I thought this is going to be an awkward interview I can't find my way around it and then it entered my consciousness well good I hope it stays there for a while I have one complaint about the album can i give it you yes of course there is a track on it which you use as sort of packaging

it's it's um it's it's you use it as a sort of interlude again at the end wednesday and it's a great piece of music and i thought why didn't Noel put some words on this? Couldn't get it. Couldn't. Just the words and the melody would not come. And then we were toying with the running order and we split it into two. And it just worked. But there's quite a bit of music left over from those sessions

where it just wouldn't happen, you know. And I'll probably revisit them one day. But I don't know why some songs are really easy to find your way into and some are really difficult, you know. And that one just would not, it wouldn't have it at all. Oh, it's annoying that. It's like it's just waiting to be a hit, that song, I think. Oh, thanks.

Well, I don't know. Have another look. Maybe someone will put a little rap on it or something. When's the autobiography coming out? It's a bit overdue, isn't it? I do get asked and I've been offered I bet you've been offered a lot of money.

I've been offered quite a bit of money, but a few friends of mine have written books. For example Johnny Marr and I would you know, this went on for years i would say what you're doing is i'm still writing a book and i was like i'm never going to write a book if it takes this long and i was saying to him what how do you how do you go about it and he was saying well you vote like four or five hours a day to it i'm like four or five hours a day

that's like being back at school or you could i suppose you could take the keith richards approach where you get someone else to write it. A lot of people do that. They just talk to somebody for a while and then they write it. Yeah, but then it's someone else's words. I don't know. I did a tour blog once which just freaked me out. It's like they'd call me and say, have you got your blog ready for today?

I'm like, I've got to come up with another one of these things. I have to make stories up now. It's a shame because it really feels like you've got a good one in you. Do you know what I mean? Because there aren't that many articulate people who I think could properly... As you say... Wayne Rooney's

written three, hasn't he, already? Yeah, I don't know if he's actually read them. Actually, I would be disappointed if you used a ghostwriter because I would want to hear the words. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Words is your business. Yeah.

After all. I would, maybe one day. Mate, I'd have to sell the idea to myself, really. And you'd have to take time off from others. But you've got three or four albums sitting on the back burner. I know, but I'm just inherently lazy is what I am. I'm just like, i can't be bothered with this like hacking away at ipad you know i was born in 1967 you know but morrissey's book have you read morrissey's book i haven't read it but people write about that oh it's brilliant yeah

is the way of his words there's a great line in it where one of his record company bosses had refused to put this album some album they were making out and the smiths insisted that it come out and they had uh so it went to number one and they had a party the record company and the record company boss was at this party and morrissey says and and there in the corner he he was skulking in the corner, looking like an untouched sandwich at a sad buffet. You see, you'd love it. I think you'd absolutely love it. Frank Skinner in conversation with Noel Gallagher.

Absolute Radio. Do you feel pressure about Liam's album went straight in at number one? I'm assuming life would have been easier for you if it had flopped. The funny thing is, is when he released it, all the Oasis back catalogue went back into the charts and I was thinking, why have I not thought of this before?

Why, this is just amazing. I'm kind of like, I'm sitting watching Match of the Day. He's playing a festival in Albania, 13th on the bill. And I'm like, this is genius. Why have I called my manager saying, why didn't we do this earlier? But it must have crossed your mind that you have to do better. Well, you can't, our two operations are vastly different.

I've run my own record label it's not affiliated I haven't got a record deal with anybody so but I don't I honestly

genuinely couldn't care less really it's the music if I wasn't happy with the album itself then

I might feel a bit of pressure but I know it's a great record I don't care what it sells. I genuinely don't care. That's a great place to be. Yeah, I don't...

As long as I can muster the enthusiasm to make another one after this, then I'm winning, you know. Well, like I say, it was... I mean, and the publicity has been great. The Scissors was a masterstroke. I've got to say, right, so the girl,

we're rehearsing the song with the French bit in for Jules Holland, and fair play to Jules, I'll tell you what he said on the night. So I'm saying to her, before the thing comes in, play a tambourine or something. And she did that dismissive thing that French women do.

I will not play the tambourine. Oh, the shaker? I will not play no shaker and i was like well can you do something she said i played i played the scissors and i was kind of put me in here monitors out sorry for a second there i thought you said scissors so she's in she's in her own band called the volume curb and she's a singer but she plays the scissors right so i said can you bring the scissors into rehearsals tomorrow then and then she came and when she took it she's wearing a cape at the time and when she

started playing them i lent into my bass player and i went do you hear that sound and he went what this is i meant no that's the sound of liam glassing himself when he sees this so we get to jules holland and uh please bring the scissors so she brings the scissors just as we're about to go live I said to Jules mention that it's the first time ever on British television a scissor player

and sadly Liam didn't glass himself because he was tweeting about it there's still time there's still time yeah but it's the funniest thing

I was in Manchester the night it aired on the Saturday night and I was in the the night it aired, on the Saturday night, and I was in the front seat of a car and it stopped at the traffic lights and the car got surrounded by a load of geezers just going, scissors, scissors,

doing this, scissors. And I was kind of doing that nervous laugh in the front seat. The taxi driver's going, what are they going on about, mate? And I was like, I really don't know.

Scissors. But did he let you off with the fare he let me off with the 260 oh well that's I won't charge you for this mate

then all is well with the world this is Absolute Radio Frank Skinner in conversation with Noel Gallagher Absolute Radio we've been supporting you too

which I didn't understand I thought what Noel Gallagher's supporting people now it was the best fun I've ever had on tour. We were off stage at like ten past eight every night, just thinking, this is unbelievable. We got paid a lot of money as well, it was unbelievable. That's the 50-year-old man talking now, isn't it?

Absolutely. Back home, back home for nine o'clock. Yeah. Be back in the spa in me slippers for ten. Look, Noel, I'll speak to you in 17 years' time. Can I tell you a story about... Oh, no, I'll speak to you in 17. Can I tell you a story about... Oh, no, do. Tell us a story. So we met Matthew McConaughey on that tour, right? And I'd never met him before. And he said we were drunk. And he said, what I'm about to tell you now, it blew me away. He was... We were at the bar getting a drink and he

said to me, brother, there are two things in life you're either going to be. That's either dry s*** or f***ing wet s***. And I was like, right. And he went, dry s***, you can scratch that off in a heartbeat. But wet s*** is going to stick on you like a m***. What are you going to be? I was like, well, I'm clearly going to be wet and he went

god damn right you are and honestly right I nearly spat beer in his face I was saying to my wife that's the

greatest thing anyone's ever said to me dry or wet I think we can use that as a trailer so Noel I'll speak to you in 17 years' time.

Well? I might be coming to you through a medium. But hopefully you'll still be... Those four albums on the back burner will be out by then. Yeah, indeed. We can discuss it then. Okay, so take care of yourself, and may your albums sell in vast quantities. Thank you very much.