NOEL Gallagher has spoken on the BBC's Desert Island Discs of his fractured relationship with his brother and his father, as well as his formative years in a Manchester council flat.
As a child his happiest days were the six weeks every year he spent in Charlestown, Co. Mayo. “I loved it there,” he said.
He told presenter Kirsty Young that their uncle would drive them from Manchester to Holyhead.
On arriving at the ferry the young Gallaghers would hide on the floor of the car with a blanket over them — so they wouldn’t have to pay to get on board the ferry back to Ireland.
His feelings towards his father Thomas seem to have softened somewhat over the years.
He explained that the treatment he received from his alcoholic father back in the 1970s was no different to that of what his friends in Manchester were subjected to.
Of his relationship with his brother Liam in Oasis, he said: “I know I annoyed him greatly. And I know he annoyed me greatly... When family members are arguing, everybody tends to leave the room, so the differences we had, whether it would be with the music or the band or what video we were doing, would never get resolved because nobody would say ‘look you’re right’."
However he admitted the fractious relationship with Liam had been the Achilles heel of Oasis. “The way it worked was, when we weren’t slagging each other off, that’s when were telling each other that we loved each other. That’s it.
"Clearly there was a point where he was the greatest singer in the world and it was great. It just so happens that the two of us we like to call a spade a spade. But it was very sarcastic mud-slinging.”
Of his songwriting he says, that he believes that songs fall out of the sky. “There’s somebody up there just dropping songs all over the place. If I’m not catching them, Chris Martin is catching them or Bono is catching them. And they've had enough.”
His choice of songs included the Sex Pistols’ I’m So Pretty, featuring fellow second-generation Irishman John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten.
Similarly, he opted for The Smiths’ Hand in Glove, calling it one of the greatest songs ever written. Gallagher spoke fondly of Morrissey, and having been out for a night with him and Russell Brand in LA.
Russell Brand, when on Desert Island Discs, had opted for a ‘stuffed Noel Gallagher’ as his luxury item. Gallagher said that it would be the only time Brand would be able to get the better of him — if he were stuffed.
Gallagher’s other choices included The Beatles' Ticket to Ride and U2’s With or Without You. “The Joshua Tree is easily one of the greatest batches of songs ever written... I love U2,” he said.
Gallagher chose a guitar as his luxury item and On The Road by Jack Kerouac for his book, adding that it was the only novel he’d ever read.
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