Google Translator working again! and Thanks again to
lalaland NOEL GALLAGHER
50, left the band Oasis in 2009 - after a heated argument with his brother Liam. Since then he has been successful as a solo artist with his backing band High Flying Birds. These days, their third album is titled Who Built The Moon?
ZEITmagazin: Mister Gallagher, you have turned fifty this year. How grown-up do you feel?
Gallagher: I already felt like I was 16. As for my view of life, I have hardly changed since then. At that time, I started to see things more relaxed. I accepted that you can not resist the course of the world, and since that time I have been less agitated. I am more relaxed than all the people I know.
ZEITmagazin: In the time with your band Oasis you celebrated quite wildly. Did that also correspond to your definition of relaxation?
Gallagher: Absolutely, because I never took advantage of our status to the detriment of others. I have never destroyed a hotel room or something. I was only stupidly permanently drunk. Long ago. Let's face it, most people who realize that they are now a rock star turn into very unpleasant existences. I hope that I did not become such a jerk.
ZEITmagazin: What sets you apart from an unpleasant rock star?
Gallagher: That I never lost the humor. In the biggest crap I can discover something funny. That I turned 50, I found wonderful. Look at my hair: Nothing turns out, and I do not have to dye - fantastic! I also have no tattoos, no earrings or piercings, so all this scrap that people do to themselves, who really want to be young and cool. But ask me again in ten years, maybe I'll wear a wig and have a gold bit.
ZEITmagazin: Your 50th birthday was celebrated with a party for which the guests disguised themselves as characters from the American television series "Narcos". They themselves held court as Pablo Escobar - after all, he was once a brutal, very real drug trafficker, who was notorious for his murders. What connects you to him?
Gallagher: This party was an idea of my wife. This Escobar thing has been going on for some time, because my friends eventually gave me the nickname Escobar - which should be funny.
ZEITmagazin: How did your friends come to call you Escobar?
Gallagher: (very long silence) No idea, maybe you can explain it to me? Well, in this TV series Escobar is portrayed as a minimalist patron. I have friends who seem to have come to terms with me. Above all, my wife finds this comparison funky and therefore planned the party. The event was just a joke that only a certain other Gallagher, who was not invited, got into the wrong neck.
ZEITmagazin: Madonna, Stella McCartney and her buddy Bono were among the guests. Then you spent the summer holidays with Calvin Klein, Bruce Springsteen and Jade Jagger in Ibiza. Does not that feel surreal to a former working class lad like you?
Gallagher: There's nothing surreal about that. These are now all friends of mine. I am with all those at eye level. None of these guys is bigger, if you like me. Well, I was not so close to Madonna until recently, but we have a close friend together. She was in town when my party was on, asking if she could come too. Of course she was welcome. My wife is freaking with enthusiasm, and celebrating with Madonna was actually something surreal. By the way, a very funny woman with a crazy sense of humor, with whom I am now also friends.
ZEITmagazin: Have you also parked money in windy tax havens, how many of your new friends?
Gallagher: Unfortunately, I'm never caught on anything - I'm still not prominent enough for that: No one hacks my Instagram or Facebook accounts, or even my damn phone. None of my thoughts hack. What am I doing wrong? But - phew, I am glad that my name does not appear in these papers!
ZEITmagazin: Could you comfort your buddy Bono? It all seems very unpleasant to me.
Gallagher: No, the issue has not been raised so far, because I'm not in it at all. But basically I can not understand all the excitement about tax havens. I think we all pay way too much tax, from the newspaper salesman to the rock star - but let's just leave that alone. I'll say more if I get caught.
ZEITmagazin: You've just been on a stadium tour with U2. Did that remind you of your time with Oasis?
Gallagher: No, it only confirmed that I did not like to perform in stadiums. That had become clear to me in the final stages of Oasis and now again when I appeared in the opening act of U2. I'm just not the type for it. Ultimately, I accepted Bono's offer just because it gave me the opportunity to promote my new album. Otherwise I would not have done that. The people in my band did not like it anyway because they are not U2 fans unlike me. It was really fun to travel around the world with a team of 50 Irishmen. They crack every damn evening. That's why I've aged years on this tour. But it was worth it.
ZEITmagazin: So it was like Oasis.
Gallagher: No, I did not waste any thought on Oasis. Well, I also played some of the old hits in my performances, because the audience expected that. But otherwise, I never even think of Oasis for a second. I live in the present, not in the past.
ZEITmagazin: Was the time you once called your "helicopter years" so bad?
Gallagher: Terrible were the years 1995 and 1996, when we played only in huge arenas and in remote fields and were brought to every show with helicopters. I did not like it all anymore. To go on a stage after being shaken vigorously in such a shaky helicopter in the sky was really no joy. At the same time, Oasis had assumed such a dimension that it could not be otherwise. Not a good time.
ZEITmagazin: Do you miss anything about Oasis?
Gallagher: No, nothing. I'm only interested in the songs, and they're mine. Again and again I get to hear that Oasis is an unfinished story. As far as I'm concerned, it's all done.
ZEITmagazin: Some of your new songs surprise with techno-beats - and the fans who criticized that have dismissed you as "parka monkeys". But that's exactly the audience to whom you owe your rise, right?
Gallagher: One should not take everything that I am so saying literally. I did not think I could cause so much trouble with a quickly thrown term. That was just a joke. I do not keep track of what happens on social networks, but my wife and daughter were excited and kept coming up, "Oh God, look here, look there!" Yes, there was something going on. It was a bet that the grandparents of those parka monkeys were abusing Bob Dylan when he picked up the electric guitar and excited about the Beatles' long hair and Yoko Ono, the evil Japanese woman. They all have no sense of humor.
ZEITmagazin: Have you ever regretted a quick joke?
Gallagher: And if! Thousands of my comments were stupid.
ZEITmagazin: How often have you apologized?
Gallagher: As often as I thought fit. There is no invoice. My biggest misstep was sure that I once wanted Damon Albarn to get AIDS. Well, that was a long time ago and these were those crazy Britpop years. Of course I have exaggerated it over and over again, but I have apologized, and today I am good friends with Damon.
ZEITmagazin: Since when have you been arguing with your brother Liam?
Gallagher: My brother started all this "Noel or Liam" nonsense. When he released his first solo album with his then band Beady Eye, he announced that one had to choose one side: he or me! This nonsense he pulls through to this day. If he needs it - from me!
ZEITmagazin: Was there actually a time when you got along with Liam better?
Gallagher: Of course, when we were young, things went without a fight. The big break came when I moved from Manchester to London at the age of 26. Since he is completely freaked out. He never forgave me for that. And when the first people persuade him that he is a star, he is finally turned off. That's how he liked it or not.
ZEITmagazin: Why did you move to London then?
Gallagher: Because I got bored to death in Manchester. I went to London more and more often, so it was obvious for me at one point to move in completely. And when I told my decision to the family, Liam was flipped out.
ZEITmagazin: Did he feel left alone as a little brother?
Gallagher: But he was not alone! There was the rest of Oasis, they all lived in Manchester.
ZEITmagazin: After all, you are his big brother.
Gallagher: (long silence) I think he sees a lot more in me.
ZEITmagazin: What?
Gallagher: Probably a replacement father. But let's leave that alone. I moved to London anyway, and my brother became a full idiot in Manchester.
ZEITmagazin: Have you never tried to clarify that with him?
Gallagher: No, why? It's all said. And I was busy writing more songs for Oasis. There was no time for such a soul circus. And are not all singers of a rock band unsympathetic idiots after all?
ZEITmagazin: Did you ever say that to your mate Bono?
Gallagher: Ha! I do not need to say that, his drummer Larry is always doing that. But seriously: Manchester was dull and had nothing more to offer me. In London, the Britpop wave started, and I knew I was going to play a major role in it. I really did not have time for Manchester. And I missed nothing, absolutely nothing about this city.
ZEITmagazin: Nothing?
Gallagher: Okay, Manchester is my home and the place of my childhood. There are also my football team Manchester City and my family. But back in the nineties, I did not miss them all.
ZEITmagazin: When were you, your two brothers and your mother in a room for the last time?
Gallagher: Phew. (long silence) Long ago. Very, very, very long ago. I really can not remember.
ZEITmagazin: Is it more than ten years ago?
Gallagher: An eternity at least. It must have been some kind of funeral. I think it was my uncle's. Or my grandmother? It was definitely many years ago. You see, we have never been a close family. There was no nearness to the Gallaghers.
ZEITmagazin: Not even when you were little?
Gallagher: No, never. At least I do not remember anything about that. Our family was more of a loose composite of individuals randomly mucked together by fate. At least that's my perspective on our family, but that may be because I've been particularly isolated with ourselves. I felt like a lonely wolf. That was my role in the Gallagher family. I was then also the first who has made the dust.
ZEITmagazin: Since when did you feel like a "lonely wolf"?
Gallagher: From an early age. Long before I could even play an instrument, there was that feeling that I'm on my own. Even though the house was full of people, as a child I always went back to quiet corners. My mother then said, "Noel, where are you always stuck? You'll never find yourself."
ZEITmagazin: And what were you doing so alone?
Gallagher: I was a daydreamer. I liked reading comics and listening to music.
ZEITmagazin: Your mother worked for a while in the school canteen. Is it true that you visited her every day?
Gallagher: Yes, that's right, and then I immediately went off the dust. These were pure alibi visits. The school was ten years wasted for me. I did not feel like learning what was offered at school, and I left without a degree. My mother never forgave me that I was not interested in school. To this day she always starts by saying that I was such a ricochet at school.
ZEITmagazin: How often do you call your mother?
Gallagher: Two, maybe three times a week. She lives far away from London, mostly in Ireland.
ZEITmagazin: When your mother broke up with her violent father, he dropped a guitar on which you wrote your first songs. Do you still have them?
Gallagher: No, it got lost someday. I do not even remember what kind of guitar that was. Everything was long ago.
ZEITmagazin: But without this guitar you would do something else today, right?
Gallagher: Absolutely no idea. It took me a long time to believe in a future for our band Oasis. Our first songs were okay, but nothing more. We would not have got very far with them. At some point I realized that we would get a record deal, but I did not really care, because even without great music, that would not have taken us anywhere. I used to work as a construction worker and write songs when I was free. After a foot injury, I had more time for music and one day Live Forever came to my mind. That was the one song that changed everything, because it was not just good, it was great. I knew that immediately. "Good" can be many, "great" only a few, and Live Forever has been great.
ZEITmagazin: You can not read music. How are your songs created?
Gallagher: I actually learned everything by re-recording. The first song I indulged in endlessly was Eric Burdon's version of House of the Rising Sun. So I learned to play first chords. When I mastered it, I already considered myself a genius. And then there were always some guys I could look at even more. It was fun, but I never wanted to be a rock star as a child.
ZEITmagazin: Why that?
Gallagher: Because I've always been a realist. I'm from a housing estate on the outskirts of Manchester. This is not a place that produces rock stars.
ZEITmagazin: They are the proof to the contrary.
Gallagher: Because then suddenly hope came up. At that time there was suddenly this hype about bands from Manchester. When I saw the Smiths on TV at Top of the Pops, it changed everything for me. It was the proof that guys like us can succeed. Since that night watching TV, I dreamed of being Johnny Marr, the Smiths' guitarist. Then came Stone Roses and Happy Mondays - all from Manchester. So I quit my job as a construction worker and became a roadie on the Inspiral Carpets band with which I traveled around the world. I carried their guitar cases, built the system at concerts, and thought I had arrived in the Rock'n'Roll heaven.
ZEITmagazin: What was the very first music that impressed you?
Gallagher: The Sex Pistols. Their debut album Never Mind the Bollocks spoke directly to me. In the social housing we lived in at that time, it suddenly happened everywhere. The big brother of a friend owned the album, and we listened in breathless excitement. At that time we were impressed by the curse words the Sex Pistols put into their songs. We screamed: Incredible, he actually sang "fuck"! There had never been a record on which the word fuck could be heard. That was really a big deal for us, do not forget how young I was. At that time, we were enthusiastic about ourselves. The debut album of the Sex Pistols was also the first record I bought. It's still the greatest album of all time for me, I mean that seriously.
ZEITmagazin: Your song Do not Look Back in Anger has long been regarded as a classic. Two weeks after the assassination in Manchester, he was sung at the benefit concert of the singer Ariana Grande as a kind of pain-soothing anthem.
Gallagher: When that happened, I did not think about it, it was about other topics. However, I find it interesting that in a moment of unimaginable pain, it was not politicians who provided comfort or representatives of any religion. They did not get much on their turn when they were needed. It was music that filled this gap and gave comfort to those who needed it. That it was a song of mine, that was pure coincidence.
ZEITmagazin: So humbly you rarely hear them.
Gallagher: I know what you mean. And I usually have something sneaky about everything. But the attack was one of the very, very rare situations in my life that actually left me speechless. My mind stopped, and I watched in shock, totally shocked by what had happened in Manchester.
ZEITmagazin: Were relatives or acquaintances directly affected by you?
Gallagher: Luckily not. Friends of friends were there. And then at some point I got along, because in Manchester again and again my song was heard and sung. After several months passed, I asked myself what so many people in such a situation actually found on this song. I do not want to be coquettish: I realize that it's a very good piece of music. But it was obviously about more. Do you know what is incredible? Shortly before the events of Manchester, I had put the song back into the program of my concerts. And since most Oasis songs do not remind me of how I wrote them - I was always drunk - I actually racked my brains over what the text meant.
ZEITmagazin: And?
Gallagher: It's a song about a woman who reviews her life again. She raises her glass and says to herself: I have no regrets! Like this song by Edith Piaf. Do not regret anything, do not be mad at anyone. And when I recalled all this, the tragedy of Manchester happened. Since then, the song is charged with defiance. He says that we will not let these religious freaks force us to their knees. That we confront them united in strength when they attack us, and that we will not be afraid. That's not what I meant, but the people of Manchester. It is, however, a wonderful interpretation that I can live well with.
ZEITmagazin: They still live in London and often take the subway there. How often are you recognized?
Gallagher: Almost never. And the few people who recognize me usually think of me as Liam.
ZEITmagazin: I do not think so.
Gallagher: Yes, seriously. Recently I was in Manchester with a film crew. We went to the apartment where I wrote the first two Oasis albums. I sat on a staircase in front of the house and waited for the guy who now lives in my old apartment. Then a tourist group came by, such a Manchester music tour. There were about a hundred people staring at me all while their tour guide said, "In this house, Noel Gallagher wrote the first two Oasis albums." And none of them recognized me. As they walked on, a woman came back and shyly said to me, "You're Liam Gallagher, right?" And I answered, "Unfortunately no, I wish I was Liam Gallagher, then I would be rich and would not sit stupid here!"