Noel Gallagher on Guitar Solos, Cowbells and Dirty Underwear
Twenty years ago this spring, Oasis holed up in a recording studio in Wales to create the defining album of the Britpop movement. 1995’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? was a yummy grab bag of whistle stop ditties and idealistic rock anthems that became—and remains—the Manchester quintet’s masterpiece and rainmaker. For more than a decade, the hilarity of the band’s antics was as pleasurable as its music: The rival Gallagher brothers (frontman Liam and singer/songwriter/guitarist Noel) duked it out for seven studio albums before pursuing individual projects in the naughts. Mouthpiece Liam formed the group Beady Eye in 2009, and Noel took his writing chops to his own shop with 2011’s Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. His second solo effort, the self-produced Chasing Yesterday, is out March 3. Below, Noel gabs about football (soccer on this side of the pond), cowbells, coping with the woes of life in the digital age and why he still fantasizes over the perfect guitar solo.
