Noel has a busy 2025 ahead of him
Noel Gallagher attends a screening of “The Beatles: Get Back” in 2021(Image: Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for Disney)
The Beatles have always loomed large over Noel Gallagher’s career. He and his brother Liam Gallagher never hid the influence that John Lennon, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Ringo Starr and George Harrison had on Oasis’ music and style.
Despite the rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester, Liam idolises John and named his son Lennon, while Noel’s song-writing owes a lot to Paul and John’s innovative body of work. Though he drew grandiose comparisons between Oasis and The Beatles in the ’90s, Noel later said he was embarrassed by them.
About The Beatles, Noel said at a screening of the documentary ‘Get Back’ in 2021: “When Oasis started, we were so big we were compared to (them) size-wise and musically, embarrassingly, compared to them as well. (It’s embarrassing) because we weren’t as good as them.”
He added that the band “mean everything to me” and continued: “They’ve definitely got the best tunes, hands down. In my record collection, they’ve got the greatest tunes by far.
“They influenced everybody who influenced everybody else, who influenced everybody that came and went. Their influence is absolute. I don’t know a single guy playing the guitar or writing songs that wouldn’t cite the Beatles as an influence.”
Noel’s latest career move, announced today (January 8), comes as little surprise then. Before Oasis reunite for a huge world tour this year, Noel has joined supergroup Mantra Of The Cosmos, led by the son of Beatles drummer Ringo, on their new psychedelic track.
The song, titled ‘Domino Bones (Gets Dangerous)’, features Noel alongside Happy Mondays singer Shaun Ryder on vocals, former Oasis guitarist Andy Bell, Ringo’s son Zak Starkey on drums and Happy Mondays’ Mark ‘Bez’ Berry on percussion. About the move, Noel said: “Mantra Of The Cosmos is like Dylan, Dali and Ginsberg on a rocket ship to the moon to have it with the clangers.”
Zak, who has only visited Liverpool once before, will take to the stage with the band to play two sets on January 19 at the Cavern Club – made famous by The Beatles – but Noel is not on the bill. However, the new track is the latest collaboration between Zak and Noel, who first met in a London rehearsal room in early 1995 when he was in a band called Face.
Zak went on to drum for Oasis in 2004 – playing on albums ‘Don’t Believe The Truth’ and ‘Dig Your Own Soul’. The fact that Oasis had a son of The Beatles in their band will have pleased Liam and Noel – and it felt right.
Oasis, Noel Gallagher on stage at The Echo Arena, Liverpool in October 2008(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
However, The Beatles’ influence is not the only way that Liverpool shaped the Mancunian band. Oasis’ early success also owed a lot to Merseyside and it was in Liverpool that they took their first steps to stardom.
Having been taken under the wing of Bootle band The Real People, Oasis put together their demo at their studio near Bramley-Moore Dock and then recorded their debut single ‘Supersonic’ at Aigburth’s Motor Museum studio – in a session The Real People helped to organise.
Chris Griffiths from The Real People spoke to the ECHO last August after the news of the Oasis reunion broke, speaking about the Mancunians’ early days recording in Liverpool and nights out in Bootle and on Lark Lane. Chris said: “We first met Noel on The Inspiral Carpets tour – we had just recorded our second album after success with our first. We were out touring with the Inspirals and Noel was their roadie.
“We got on like a house on fire with Noel. We all hung around in each other’s dressing rooms and then at the end of the tour, Noel used to come down to ours.
“Later we went to see Oasis at their first gig in The Boardwalk, Manchester, and we saw them in rehearsal. But we tried to get them studio time from our then-publisher Sony Music.
“In around 1992 or 1993, we went to a good few management companies because we wanted to get them into a proper studio – we couldn’t get them into one but we had a little eight track in our rehearsal room and studio on Porter Street near Bramley-Moore, so we took them down there.”
Chris added: “When Liam came into the studio you could just tell he had something. You couldn’t tell with all of them that they’d be stars – it was Liam really and Noel.
“Noel was writing songs and they were just falling out of him. But we all were at that time. We tried to get them to shorten a bit or edit it slightly and help them on the production. We let them set up and recorded it live – you can hear that on the tape.
“You can hear the spill on each individual track. We recorded live with the vocals in the other room, or even with the instrumentals first. I heard some vocals Liam had done in an earlier recording but they weren’t that good. I don’t think Liam had been in with someone who was trying to produce it for him and help him.
“There were some tracks where we’d lay the tracks down and try to get Liam to sing. He just wasn’t used to it. Sometimes people say the phrases sound a bit like me. That can be the only reason – but he was also a fan of The Real People.”
While they were recording in Aigburth and North Liverpool, The Real People and Oasis made the most of their time in the city. Chris recalled: “While we were doing this, we went out for a f***ing good laugh.
“We took them out on Lark Lane, we went to The Albert, and we’d taken them to pubs around Bootle before, like The Shakespeare. We had some good nights out in Bootle and they’d stay in my flat on Hawthorn Road, the lot of them.”
“We had the same sense of humour and we were all into the same sort of things. We were having a great time, there was no rivalry at all – we didn’t even talk about football.
“At the time, I don’t think Manchester City were any good. We’re Evertonians and we were never doing that well.
“The ’90s were bleak for us but I’m pretty sure they got relegated to the third division in the ’90s. We didn’t really bother with talking about football, we were just really into music and really into the process of writing songs.
“We look back so fondly. It was just great that we were an integral part in the success of the biggest rock and roll band of the last 40 years. We’re just so happy that we were involved. Without us, it wouldn’t have happened.”
So, more than 30 years after a Beatles-obsessed Noel began his journey to greatness in Liverpool, the band continue to shape his career. It feels apt he has joined forces with the son of one of our city’s most famous sons.
You can read the full interview with Chris Griffiths here.