Noel Gallagher on why he and Bono don’t jam and how their Australian tour will be one big party
Noel Gallagher has revealed how he and Bono from U2 have developed their friendship — but he explains why he doesn’t jam with the music icon.
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It seems an incredulous claim. Over a couple of decades of hanging out at gigs, awards nights and holidays in the south of France, as you do, Noel Gallagher and Bono have never jammed together.
They’ve never sat around playing acoustic guitars, let alone written a song together.
It did emerge recently the pair of rock stars, who have long advocated the redemptive powers of rock’n’roll, allegedly performed Kung Fu Fighting, complete with moves, at a karaoke crew party the Irish supergroup threw after a concert in Bogota on their Joshua Tree tour. Unfortunately for all of us, there is no video of this momentous occasion.
As Gallagher and his High Flying Birds prepare to join his U2 mates on the Australian leg of the tour, he says they keep their day jobs away from family gatherings for fear of the disapproval of their respective wives Sara McDonald and Ali Hewson.
“It’s never happened, never happened. Holidays are f … ing holidays,” Gallagher says with his characteristic sweary candour.
“You know what, we do go on holiday occasionally and we also go on holiday with all our wives and you know the last thing our wives wanna hear? Is a bunch of old f … ers trying to rewrite One and calling it Two. Or one and a half.
“So we’re there on holidays indulging the girls, the girls aren’t there to listen to us strumming acoustic guitars. We very much know our place around the women.”
Gallagher has long publicly celebrated his love for U2. Fandom became friendship as Oasis launched Britpop onto the mainstream in the UK and then the world.
Their children are also close, with Gallagher taking Inhaler, the band featuring Bono’s son Elijah, on tour with him. His daughter Anais has photographed Inhaler for their album artwork and videos.
The Oasis founder tells of getting “the chat” from Bono, the one the rock sage delivers to bands from the UK and Ireland about “cracking America”. In short, “the chat” advises young musicians to constantly reassure Americans of their country’s greatness when on its soil. Of course no one passed that wisdom onto Gallagher’s frontman brother Liam who did exactly the opposite.
Friendship has afforded Gallagher the intimate access any fan would die for, from those summer holidays in St Tropez to hanging in the studio as a new song takes shape.
He says the key to his enduring love for U2 is the creative tension which ironically fuses their brotherly bond rather than fracturing it and fomenting the ubiquitous musical differences that can finish a band.
Gallagher does a decent impersonation of Bono as he tells of the occasions when he has been asked his opinion of a work in progress in the studio.
“They are almost freakishly friendly with each other. I’ve been in the studio with them and I’ve seen songs take shape. And they don’t f … ing agree on anything to do with the song but arguments about musical direction are the arguments worth having,” Gallagher says.
“I’ve been in the studio and they’ll play you 97 f … ing mixes of the song and Bono has said ‘Well, what do you think?’ And I’ve said “I think it’s s …’. And then there’d be silence. Well, you did ask so … it’s gone past that with them now, you know what I mean? We’re like family now.
“They are a band who are very inclusive of their friends. To them, the more people getting involved, the merrier. I am the f … ing opposite, I’m not letting any f … er in the studio until it’s finished.”
“But I’d f … ing love to write with U2, I’d love it, I’d bring them right down to my level.”
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Gallagher has been on his own experimental music trip this year, releasing two EPS, Black Star Dancing and This Is The Place.
Despite regularly touring here since launching his “solo” career with High Flying Birds in 2011, Australian fans missed out on shows off the back of his 2017 record Who Built The Moon? because of the financial viability of bringing out his 11-piece band.
So when he was catching up with the Edge in London before the long-awaited Australian tour was announced in June, Gallagher put his hand up to rejoin U2 as their opening act, as he had done on the UK, Europe and South America legs.
Unfortunately, he’s not extending his duties, beyond his presence on their massive stadium stages, with side shows.
“This is actually going to be a holiday for me. I’m going to turn up and play for an hour and then I’m going to get s … faced and watch my favourite band every night and then I’m going to have four or five days off in between each gig and enjoy the weather,” he says.
“I’ve got to say it’s a travelling circus this Joshua Tree thing and there’s always s … going on so there’s going to be plenty of things to do. They have two girls, right, whose solo responsibility it is to organise parties. This band knows how to do it. My god, they’ve been the biggest band in the world for 30 years; if they were going straight to bed every night, I’d be going nah nah nah nah nah. No f … ing way; we’re going out.”
At least Australian fans will get a taste of the electronic, psychedelic musical curveballs introduced on his two recent EPs, with a third due out before the end of the year.
The hardcore Oasis fans who still sway arm-in-arm to Wonderwall and dream of a reunion may have been shocked by his sonic detours but Gallagher is his usual unapologetic self. The EPs may be a phase he’s going through, he says, but he insists on making music he enjoys now because “I did enough for them … and it was great.”
“I came to the conclusion my favourite artists of all time The Beatles, U2, David Bowie, they always, always, put it f … ing out there,” he says.
“It’s taken me almost 30 years to accept that I am an artist. Are you an artist or are you just a f … ing act? Are you going out there pushing it and pushing it or are you just trotting out the same old s … and people love it and great, you’re making a living, nice one.
“Or are you willing to say it’s not enough. You’ve got to be prepared to be ridiculed and derided, you have to be prepared for your audience to turn their back on you, you’ve got to be prepared for s … reviews, you’ve got to prepared for a lull in the gig when you do this kind of thing but eventually you become immune to that and you become free.”
U2 with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds kick off their Australian tour at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on November 12 and then head to Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on November 15, Adelaide Oval on November 19, the Sydney Cricket Ground on November 22 and 23 and Perth’s Optus Stadium on November 27.
Originally published as Noel Gallagher on why he and Bono don’t jam and how their Australian tour will be one big party