Oasis rocker keeps Clocks ticking

Oasis braintrust Noel Gallagher has never been one to mince words, God bless him.

So if the Manchester-born songwriter and guitarist had his way, Oasis wouldn’t be releasing a greatest hits package, the two-disc Stop The Clocks, on Nov. 21.

“If it was up to me, it wouldn’t be coming out until Oasis wasn’t around anymore,” said Gallagher in Toronto yesterday before his acoustic performance last night with rhythm guitarist Gem at the Danforth Music Hall.

However, it was either cooperate with the band’s former label, Sony-BMG, from which they’ve since parted, or not be involved in Stop The Clocks’ track listing and art work at all.

“They own all the rights to everything, so we were informed that they were going to do a retrospective of some description by Christimas — did we want to get involved?” explained Gallagher. “Well, if it is has to be now, it has to be now. Don’t be surprised if there’s a singles album following this. They’re well within their rights to do it.”

Gallagher, who said he’s currently got about 30 new songs in rough form for the next Oasis studio album, isn’t sure who Oasis will sign with next on this side of the pond but they’ll stick with their own indie label, Big Brother, in England.


“We won’t be going back to Sony,” he said. “They’re all right for us in Canada, so we might stay with them in Canada. In America, I feel they kind of let us down a wee bit. I balance that by saying they didn’t really dig our unprofessionalism. They found it very difficult to actually grasp the concept that we actually didn’t give a f---. And they thought, ‘Well, if they don’t give a f---, we don’t give a f---.’ That’s how I see it anyway. I don’t bear any malice towards any of them. They’ve got a business to run.”

Gallagher said Oasis fans shouldn’t hold their breath for the next studio disc — it definitely won’t be out in 2007 — but he did offer a hint at the sound.

“Some of it’s great,”he said. “But for what it’s worth, a lot of my songs will probably end up being acoustic. But not in the Cat Stevens sense. ’Cause a lot of (2005’s) Don’t Believe The Truth was kind of acoustic-driven. But when you get into a studio, it all goes out the f---in’ window and you just go, ‘Let’s rock!’”

To promote Stop The Clocks then, Gallagher and Gem are on a mini-tour of acoustic performances that began last Thursday in London and after Toronto will be followed by stops in L.A., Tokyo, Manchester, Paris and Milan.

Noel said his younger brother and Oasis lead singer Liam wasn’t part of the trek because he “doesn’t do acoustic performances. He doesn’t do promotion. What’s the point of him being here?”

Meanwhile, the Oasis road movie, Lord Don’t Slow Me Down, was to be screened in Toronto last night at the Danforth before the acoustic set, and is expected to be released as a DVD in Canada next year.

Gallagher said director Baillie Walsh was given carte blanche to shoot the band on the road during their tour for Don’t Believe The Truth. Sadly none of their stops in Canada were filmed.

“There’s no gringey-bits for me in it,” said Gallagher of the film. “Liam wears some very questionable clothes in it. Shorts at one point. That’s no good for being in a band. And some very questionable headware. But there’s a lot of drinking involved and a lot of talking absolute nonsense. It’s quite funny in places.

“The opening scene is very funny. When I’d seen it, I cried with laughter. It involves extremely large bottles of champagne which are called methusals, and there’s a scene of a lot of people trying to open this bottle of champagne. It gets, very, very, very, stupid ’cause everyone’s f---in’ a--holed.’”