Getting High (54 page)

While there, they also shot a video for ‘Don't Look Back In Anger', again directed by Nigel Dick, and featuring the famous British actor Patrick Macnee who had shot to fame in the 1960s TV show,
The Avengers
.

Macnee wouldn't be the only famous name from their past that Oasis would meet that day. That evening, back at their hotel, John Lydon, accompanied by his brother Jimmy, also paid them a visit.

Liam and Noel sat with the Pistols' singer, and a lot of the talk centred on football, Lydon being an Arsenal fan. Halfway through the conversation, Lydon made a quiet comment about Liam's vocals.

‘What the fuck do you mean by that?' Liam challenged and maybe then the forty-year-old Lydon suddenly saw himself as he was twenty years ago. Lydon now had wisdom but Liam had youth on his side.

Rotten told Liam to calm down a bit, and he in turn started to make fun of Rotten's haircut. Rotten then kept referring to Liam as ‘the singer', before revealing that The Sex Pistols would be reforming in 1996 and touring the States.

‘Perhaps you could support us?' he offered.

‘Yeah, mad for it,' Liam replied, knowing full well that if such an event took place it would be Oasis topping the bill.

Simon Halfon, a British sleeve designer living in the US was present at the table and reported that it was ‘weird'. ‘The conversation would be going all right and then Rotten would say something a bit off and it would all go a bit tense. Then it'd go back to being all right. At the end, I remember Rotten saying things like, “What do I know? I'm just a poxy Pistol.”'

Rotten later invited Noel down to a recording session and then left.

On 19 December Oasis flew home, landing on the morning of the 20th and that night Noel went to see Mike Flowers play at London's LA2 venue. The press, meanwhile, had published their Best Records Of 1995 lists.

Typical was the
NME
, who made Tricky's trip-hop album
Maxinquaye
the number one placing,
Morning Glory
in second place. In the singles chart ‘Some Might Say' was fourth, ‘Wonderwall' sixth.

On the 22nd, the band assembled at
The White Room
's TV studios in West London to make their seasonal appearance on the Channel Four programme.

For this show, which was televised on New Year's Eve, Oasis delivered excellent versions of ‘Don't Look Back In Anger', ‘Wonderwall', ‘Roll With It', ‘Round Are Way' and ‘Some Might Say'. Channel Four's final and fitting image of 1995 was Noel performing ‘Wonderwall'. But backstage the mood wasn't good. Tiredness had crept in now and they all just wanted to go home.

After the show, Oasis took a short ride to the Halycon Hotel in Holland Park where Creation had hired out a room. All the band were given major presents, but the centrepiece was when Alan McGee handed Noel a set of car keys and told him to go outside. There a chocolate brown and white Rolls-Royce awaited Noel, who can't drive.

Liam, meanwhile, stayed inside.

That year, Noel had made appearances in three separate music documentaries. In the summer, he turned up on Granada's
My Generation
documentary on The Small Faces and spoke enthusiastically about Steve Marriott's vocal power. And over Christmas, he popped up twice. He was featured in a Carlton TV special on The Beatles and said that when he first met Paul McCartney, the songwriter told him that he looked like a Beatle.

‘I hope so,' Noel shot back, ‘I've spent enough money trying to.'

Noel also appeared on a Burt Bacharach documentary, where he revealed to the nation the ‘inspiration' behind ‘Half A World Away'.

By then he and Meg were in Manchester spending time with Peggy and Paul, while Liam flitted in and out.

On New Year's Eve, they, along with Jess and Fran, went to the Sunday Social where the same good-looking kid who had spoken to Noel precisely a year ago approached him and asked, ‘So what's the best thing to have happened to you in 1995?'

‘Meeting Paul McCartney,' Noel instantly replied.

Soon after, Noel, Meg and a few others returned to their Camden flat. At about six in the morning, one of the party, in front of Noel, started quizzing Jess about the Oasis songwriter.

‘Do you think that Noel is honest in interviews?' she was asked.

‘I think,' Jess replied, ‘that Noel Gallagher gives out a series of truths and half-truths so that in twenty years time, when they come to look at his career, they'll never really know who he was.'

On Monday 8 January 1996 Noel got into his Rolls-Royce and was driven by Les to Garry Blackburn's offices in Stamford Brook, West London.

Blackburn is a plugger who runs his own company, Anglo Plugging. The company is responsible for securing TV and radio appearances for acts such as Oasis, Portishead and The Beautiful South.

Today, they have booked Noel on to Channel Four's
Hotel Babylon
. The show is hosted by Dani Behr who will interview Noel. Afterwards, he is scheduled to perform an acoustic version of the new single, ‘Don't Look Back In Anger'.

The single has already been put back a month because ‘Wonderwall', both by Oasis and The Mike Flowers Pops, is still high in the charts.

As the band will be away touring on the day of the single's release, Blackburn is keen for Noel to make at least one TV appearance in support of ‘Anger'. The fact that it will undoubtedly be a major hit isn't an issue. But Blackburn is wary of taking any chances. There have been too many incidents in the past of successful groups shunning all promotion only to see their new records falter.

For Blackburn, there was also a nice little knock-on effect. By securing a high-profile artist such as Noel for the show, Blackburn was now in credit with the show's producers. Therefore, the next time he had a new band to promote, traditionally the hardest to get on TV, he could then cash in his chips. I got you Noel that time, he would remind them. Scratch mine, I'll scratch yours. It is the law that the music business was built on.

Noel enjoyed going on TV. In interviews, he was always witty and charming and, of course, he relished playing anywhere.

The fact that the show was hosted in a large country house that he had been led to believe had been bought by George Harrison for the Natural Law party, was an extra bonus for Noel. Plus, he had good news. ‘We've got Maine Road,' he told Blackburn as they drove out of London.

‘What?'

‘Yeah, it was firmed up last week. It's in April of this year.'

‘Christ,' Blackburn said, ‘How many does it hold?'

‘40,000,' Noel said, trying to sound matter of fact. ‘Probably get more than they do at their home games. How's Karen by the way?'

‘Recovering in Sri Lanka,' Blackburn replied. Karen was the girl who accompanied Oasis to all their TV and radio shows. Her reputation was that of a tough negotiator, a perfectionist. It was her job to see that everything ran smoothly: that the band were on time, the show went according to plan.

Blackburn, who was sitting in the front seat, turned to Noel. ‘See, to be quite honest with you, we've never had a band like yours, one that's gone... shoosh!' He made a motion with his hands of a plane quickly taking off. ‘So for her it's been mad.'

‘It has been for us as well,' Noel quickly reminded him.

‘I killed her the other day,' Blackburn said laughing. ‘I phoned her up in Sri Lanka and said, “By the way do you know the Oasis single has been put back a month? That's your first job when you get back.”' He laughed and turned back to face the road. ‘She loves it really.'

‘What's the worst band you've ever worked with?' Noel asked.

‘There's not one band,' Blackburn said carefully, ‘but the worst incident was with Primal Scream. They'd put out the follow-up to “Rocks” and it wasn't doing that well. So I went to Top Of The Pops and begged them to do something special.

‘They were in Ireland at the time and I persuaded Ric Blaxill, the show's producer, to build them a special set for the show. It was a really big deal. They don't often put themselves out like that.

‘Come the day, I get this phone call from Jeff Barrett. The band can't make it. I thought he was joking. He wasn't. I couldn't believe it. At three in the afternoon I had to call the show up and say, “Look lads, the Scream can't make it but I have got this other band...” It put me in so much shit, I dropped them after that. Nightmare, absolute nightmare.'

‘What was up with them?' Noel asked.

‘I think they were too out of it to get on the plane. I wouldn't have minded but it was a private jet. All they had to do was pour themselves on it.'

Noel burst out laughing. He had been grinning throughout the whole story. ‘Proper,' he said, mimicking one of Andrew Innes's, the Scream's guitarist, most quoted phrases, ‘fucking proper.' Noel settled back in his seat. The story had cheered him up no end.

The car pulled up by the stately home. Noel got out wearing his fake-fur coat, a paisley shirt, jeans and Gucci shoes. The producer met him and led him to his own caravan. ‘I don't suppose you'll be wanting make up.'

‘I don't suppose I will. But I'd love some scran.'

‘Sorry?'

‘Food. Something to eat.'

The producer laughed self-consciously. ‘Oh, right. What do you want? We've got things like bacon sandwiches...'

‘Ah, bacon butty, yeah.'

Dani Behr then made her entrance. She had interviewed Noel once before on
The Big Breakfast Show
. It was when Noel was on tour in Japan and they spoke by phone. At the time, Behr was secretly seeing the Newcastle player Les Ferdinand. Noel didn't know the relationship was meant to be hush-hush.

Halfway through the interview, Noel started dropping hints about the pair of them. Behr kept trying to change the subject but Noel wasn't having that. He kept on about Ferdinand. After their chat was over, Noel put down the phone in his Japanese bedroom. Then it rang again. It was Meg calling from their Camden home.

‘What the fuck are you doing?' she cried. ‘You've just told the whole of the country about Les Ferdinand and Dani Behr and no one is meant to know.'

Today Behr was bearing no grudges. She was all sweetness and light, long boots and short skirt.

As no bacon butty was immediately forthcoming, Noel was taken into the huge house. The owners had allowed the show three of their main rooms. The rest of the house was cut off. Noel would be filmed checking into the hotel. Then he would be interviewed by Behr before performing in the show's bar to an assembled audience.

The interview came first. It was all frivolous stuff. How much money have you made? Who does your mum love more, you or Liam? What's it like being a star? Throughout it all, Noel answered as best he could. He put on his diffident manner and struggled to make wisecracks in the face of such anodyne probing. After the second question, you could see Noel turning on to auto-pilot.

Nearby, a young girl, sixteen, no more, watched the proceedings with growing disgust. She was an extra on the show, employed to sit around and look pretty.

‘They always do these stupid interviews,' she said. ‘It's all right if it's crap like Boyzone, but that's Noel Gallagher.'

The only interesting moment came when Behr asked Noel about the Maine Road shows. They had only been known about within the Oasis camp for less than a week and already the word was out. The question caught Noel on the hop. ‘I'll take the fifth amendment on that one,' he said, thereby confirming the shows. Mentally, he was making a note to find the leak.

Afterwards, he was placed on a stool by the bar. As the cameras and lights were prepared, Noel absent-mindedly strummed his guitar. He played ‘Hung Up' by Paul Weller and ‘A Day In The Life' by The Beatles.

Finally, they were ready. Noel positioned himself on his stool and then performed ‘Don't Look Back In Anger' three times. The crowd cheered loudly after each performance.

And then, as soon as they said go, he was off to his caravan. There, at last, was his bacon butty. He wolfed it down and in between mouthfuls, said to Blackburn, ‘This is a crap show.'

Blackburn grimaced, caught between a hard rock star and a soft-headed TV show he would have to do future business with.

‘I know, Noel, but the viewing figures are good. By the way,' he said swiftly, changing the subject, ‘Channel Four have got this new show starting. It's called
The Girlie Show
. The idea is that it's presented by kind of laddish women. They want you to go on it.'

At this news, Noel brightened up considerably. ‘I'll have some of that,' he said, wolfing down the rest of his butty.

In the Rolls on the way back, the talk turned to politics.

‘I can't think of any politicians I like,' Noel said. ‘Tony Blair. And Tony Benn, maybe.'

‘Yeah, but he was the one who banned pirate radios in the 1960s,' Blackburn pointed out.

‘Did he? Right, he can fuck right off. I know. Dennis Skinner, the Beast of Bolsover. One day, I reckon he's going to get up and go to some Tory bastard, “Right, you cunt I've been meaning to say this for years...”'

Blackburn said his goodbyes and got out at Chiswick. Noel moved into the vacant front-seat. The car moved off. As Les was driving, Noel started to inspect the car's walnut dashboard.

‘They sculpt that out of one piece of wood,' Les told him. ‘It's not like in other cars where they put it together from all different parts. They actually take one huge piece of wood and sculpt it out of that.'

‘What, this is wood?'

‘Of course it is, you divvy,' Les replied. ‘Fucking Rolls-Royce, isn't it? You got it all, mate. Wood, leather, the lot.'

‘Look mate,' Noel said, opening up the dashboard and feeling the leather interior, ‘I'm from the 1970s and 1980s. If it ain't Formica I'm confused.'