Noel Gallagher admits his new solo tunes are going down “terrible” with US crowds.
The former Oasis guitarist opens his set with five new tracks – ‘Pretty Boy’, ‘Council Skies’, ‘We’re Gonna Get There in the End’, ‘Open the Door, See What You Find’ and ‘We’re on Our Way Now’ – from ‘Council Skies’ with his High Flying Birds.
Noel, 56, insists that while he “changed people’s lives” with the Britpop group’s music, he was in his twenties then and his solo stuff is mature and true to his age.
He told the ‘Rolling Stone Music Now’ podcast: “I would assume Oasis fans would like me to rewrite ‘Definitely Maybe’ forevermore, but you are not really stretching yourself as an artist then.
I’d give one of my children to rewrite that album and have it be as good and as vital and as relevant. But it’s not gonna f****** happen. And thank God it happened once … I’m 56, right? Let me be 56. You know, I’m not f****** 27 anymore. I was 27 once and I f****** changed people’s lives! You can’t carry on doing it.”
Asked how the songs are being received on his US tour, he replied: “Terrible.
“I’m starting off with five new ones. People should have bought the f****** album, then, shouldn’t they? So they’re gonna stand there with their mouths open thinking, ‘What the f*** is this?’ I should advise them to go to their preferred streaming service.”
He did admit that ‘Easy Now’ from the LP – which reached No.2 in the UK – is most like Oasis but insisted it’s impossible to make songs as good as the ‘Supersonic’ group – who disbanded in 2009 following a fight between Noel and his 50-year-old estranged sibling and Oasis’ ex-frontman Liam Gallagher – in their heyday.
He said: “I’ve only persevered with this one because it was so good.
“All the rest of them that I’ve kind of shied away from, as soon as I hit a chorus, I just go, ‘Nah, there’s no point in me putting it out and then a load of people going, well, just sounds like s*** Oasis.’ When I was writing this song and I got to the chorus, I was like, oh, actually, this one’s pretty good.”