Friday, December 19, 2025

Texas progressive country pioneer Joe Ely, who collaborated with The Clash, dead at 78

Joe Ely, a central figure in Texas’ progressive country scene during the 1970s, has died aged 78.  His representative...

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Noel Gallagher’s animal show helped prep for US crowds

Noel Gallagher joked recording in front of a field of unimpressed sheep prepared him for playing America.

The rocker’s former band Oasis stayed at the residential Rockfield Studios to record their second album, ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory’, with the guitarist opting to lay down his part for the single ‘Wonderwall’ outside on a wall surrounded by farm animals, and he joked the experience helped when the band came up against a disinterested audience.

He said: "[I was] probably coked up. I remember looking out at this row of sheep.

"They were staring blankly at me while I was singing and they didn’t look very impressed. It certainly prepared me for audiences in America."

Noel and his brother, singer Liam Gallagher, infamously had a huge fight in the middle of their stay at Rockfield, which the ‘If I Had a Gun’ hitmaker explained came about after he realised his sibling had brought a crowd of people to party with him after he’d been at the pub while Noel was busy recording.

He recalled: "I was in that studio to work, not to f*** about.

"Drinking can wait. You’re trying to follow up ‘Definitely Maybe’, you’ve just written ‘Champagne Supernova’ and ‘Wonderwall’, and you can feel it, you know it’s your time, this is important.

"Then Liam brought back a load of f***ing idiots from the pub and they’re wandering around, fiddling with guitars and listening to songs nobody had heard yet. I said to Liam, ‘Get these idiots out of here.’

"Of course he wouldn’t, so chaos ensued."

While Noel found it "easy" recording at the studio, he doesn’t think modern artists are up to the pressures of working in a residential setting.

He told The Times magazine: "Record companies don’t want to sign bands any more. They want singer-songwriters because they’re easier to manipulate.

"If you put the biggest star in the world in Rockfield today, they’d go, ‘This is freaking me out. I want to go home. There’s no Deliveroo.’ "

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