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Noel Gallagher attends the 'Zoë Law: Legends' photography exhibition At the National Portrait Gallery on November 28, 2024 in London, England.
RockThis article was first published by Billboard U.S.
Oasis’ Noel Gallagher Breaks Silence in First Interview Since Reunion: ‘It’s Great Being Back in a Band With Liam’
The football-mad songwriter/singer called in to his favorite sports chat show on Tuesday (Aug. 19) to talk soccer and how he's feeling after winding up UK shows.
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So far, Oasis have let the music do the talking. Liam and Noel Gallagher have just wound up the first round of UK and Irish dates on their sold-out Live ’25 tour and in a testament to the breathless enthusiasm that’s greeted their first round of shows in more than 16 years they’ve hardly had to talk up the dates at all.
In fact, until Tuesday (Aug. 19) neither brother had sat down for a proper interview about the shows at all. But Noel, who like his younger sibling singer Liam, is simply mad about football, called in to his favorite drive-time sports chat show, talkSPORT with Andy Goldstein and Darren Bent, to chat about Man City, and, of course, how things are going with the formerly battling brothers.
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Saying he was feeling “a bit shaky” after the band’s two-night run at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland on Saturday (Aug. 16) and Sunday (Aug. 17), Gallagher summed up the weekend by saying, “there was a lot of singing, a lot of drinking and a lot of talking nonsense… it was quite a night.”
Noel said he’s on “top of the world” at the moment, professing to be “completely blown away” by how the gigs the reunited band have played so far have been received. “It’s difficult to put into words, actually,” said the band’s lyricist. “Every night is the crowd’s first night, so every night’s got that same kind of energy. It’s been truly amazing… I’m not usually short for words, but I can’t really articulate it at the minute.”
Asked how he was feeling on July 4 in Cardiff, Wales, when the band were gearing up to take the stage for the first show of a tour pretty much nobody thought would ever happen, Noel said Oasis have never been one of those bands who have a prayerful “huddle” before they go on. That said, speaking just for himself, Noel admitted he, “grossly underestimated what I was getting into… After about five minutes I was like, ‘All right, can I just go back to the dressing room and start this again?’ I’ve done stadiums before and all but, but I don’t mind telling you my legs are turned to jelly after about halfway through the second song.”
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Summing it up, Noel said simply, “it’s been an amazing thing.” Reflecting on the emotional hug the brothers shared at the end of the first reunion show in July, Noel said, “we’re not those kind of guys, really… It’s great just to be back with [guitarist] Bonehead and Liam and just be doing it again. I guess when it’s all said and done we’ll sit and reflect on it, but it’s great being back in a band with Liam. I forgot how funny he was.”
Giving his former sibling rival props for sounding great at the shows, Noel said, “Liam’s smashing it. I’m proud of him.” After fronting his own band for the 16 years they were apart — the High Flying Birds — Noel said he knows the pressures of being the lead singer and admitted, “I couldn’t do the stadium thing like he does it…. I kind of look around and I think, ‘You know, good for you, mate.’ He’s been amazing.”
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Also, in case you were wondering, yes, he’s still getting hit up all the time by mates looking to score the hard-to-get tickets. “When it all started, the ticket sales and all that, there was a few people who I would have expected to [be] looking for tickets who didn’t,” he said. “But after the first gig my phone just exploded.” Saying he feels bad for those who are left outside on the streets singing the band’s songs at top volume after getting shut out on getting tickets, Noel said the showering of love is “mental… it’s more than the band. It’s more than the songs. There’s something else going on that we’ve not quite been able to our fingers on yet.
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Looking forward, Noel said he’s really looking forward to playing one of the band’s last shows, at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Nov. 15 and 16. “We’ve played there a couple of times and the Argentinians are without doubt in the top five places for us to play in the world.”
When Goldstein brought up persistent rumors that the band might be playing the Knebworth Festival next year on the 30th anniversary of their legendary 1996 headlining slot for 250,000 fans over two nights at that event, Noel politely moved right past that query and insisted they get on with the football talk.
Listen to Noel Gallagher on talkSPORT below.
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