'I AM WHAT I AM'
Liam Gallagher vows to booze until he’s 80 and reveals Oasis secretly split in the Nineties in new Sky documentary
JUST last month Liam Gallagher admitted he was on a “downwards slide” and in such bad shape he needed a double hip replacement.
But in a new warts-and-all film about his life, he insists his hellraising days are not behind him, and he’ll be boozing until he’s 80.
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During Sky documentary Liam Gallagher: 48 Hours At Rockfield, he says: “I am not into yoga and I don’t eat tofu. I drink lager and I like to have a good time. I don’t punish myself into being some super-skinny dude.
“I am what I am. I am not a 50-year-old going round preaching. I will be like this when I am f***ing 80, hopefully.
“I dress the same as I did when I was 20. “There are some aches and pains, but in my head I am on it.”
In the hour-long film, Liam returns with sons Gene and Lennon to the famous Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire that he used to record 1995 Oasis album (What’s The Story?) Morning Glory with brother Noel.
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The studios have also been used by the likes of Black Sabbath, George Michael and Kasabian — and returning there clearly means a lot to the star.
Air pistol Liam also admits he was amazed the owner, Kingsley Ward, allowed him back there to prepare for his sell-out gigs at Knebworth, Herts, which take place on June 3 and 4.
Recalling the Morning Glory sessions with Noel, he says: “We smashed the f***ing gaff up so I am glad they let us back.
“I spent more time in the f***ing pub than here.”
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In the doc, fans will see exclusive footage of Liam singing tracks from his third solo album, C’Mon You Know, which comes out on Friday — which Liam started after getting bored in the pandemic.
He says of the album: “Everyone was panicking, thinking, ‘We’re all going to die if we don’t wash our hands 900 f***ing times a f***ing minute’.
“You go to the pub and get on the p**s. I did that for six months and then you’re bored of getting w*****ed and washing your hands.
“So I started doing it, and before we knew it, we had an album sort of done.”
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Liam plans to go sober ahead of the Knebworth gigs.
They sold out in seconds and he is feeling the pressure to perform.
But afterwards, he’ll be straight back on the booze. Holding a beer, he says: “After this pint, I am going into lockdown, getting fitter, and I will steam in there and have the best weekend known to man. You want to be hitting the stage God-like.”
But he adds: “I do the gig then we’re all going to Mustique.
“There’s 20 of us. I’ve got two gaffs. I didn’t really celebrate my 40th. I owe myself a bit of a bender.”
In the doc, which airs tonight at 9pm on Sky Max, Sky Arts and streaming service Now, he says he was spurred on to return to Knebworth by his sons and his fans. Liam, who played there with Oasis in 1996, says: “I speak to the fans on a daily basis.
“The kids are saying, ‘When are you going to do Knebworth?’ I am in tune with what they’re after.”
Outbursts and spats
He says he exchanges tweets with his biggest fans and is famed for his online outbursts and spats.
His latest, which gave me much amusement, was with footie pundit Jamie Carragher on Sunday after Liam’s beloved Man City beat Liverpool to the Premier League title.
Liam tweeted ex-Reds star Jamie: “What are you saying?” and referred to him as a “bell-end”.
Jamie replied: “I’m saying you’ll never win the Champions League & Oasis are s***e compared to the Beatles. That work??”
Liam then hit back: “Eh Carra — you got s*** banter for a Scouser. Oasis p**s all over The Beatles. How many times did they do Knebworth. ”
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Liam’s wild past is no secret and in the doc he opens up about his clashes with Noel.
A huge fight in 2009 saw Oasis split for good, after selling 70million records and scoring eight No1 albums and the same number of chart-topping singles.
But for the first time, Liam has now revealed the band actually split while making Morning Glory at Rockfield.
A well-publicised fight broke out between him and Noel after Liam brought back locals from a pub to hang out at the studios.
Noel made them leave and a fight ensued, with Liam hitting Noel and destroying a number of his guitars.
Noel in turn hit Liam with a cricket bat — which later went under the hammer at auction.
Liam says of that studio time: “We were there about six months.
“We split up, then we got back together. There was a bit of fighting, there was a cricket bat, there was an air pistol, there was lots of drinking.”
But bad behaviour runs in the family. Earlier this month, son Gene was blasted by a judge for causing havoc in a Tesco Express with Beatles drummer Ringo Starr's grandson Sonny during a wild night out.
Luckily, Gene got off with just a rollocking, after prosecutors dropped the case on the first day of the trial.
‘Lennon has a temper’
And Liam seems more than fine with his kids landing themselves in hot water, if they learn to get out.
He says: “Lennon comes across as the chilled one but has a temper as well. Gene comes across as lairy but is sensitive. They are both little mad- heads but both have good qualities.
“If they step out of f***ing line they get a telling-off, for sure. Even though I don’t have a leg to stand on, I have a knee to bounce off.
“They say, ‘You can’t talk . . .’ You try to guide them but people need to make their own mistakes — it is how you wriggle out of them . . . ”
Liam’s bond with the pair is clear in the doc, as he jokes about making them pay for drinks but always takes them to the best places.
They get their own back, though — with Gene saying of his dad in the local pub beer garden: “You don’t want to use the toilet after him.”
Without missing a beat, Lennon quips: “You’d have a heart attack. We’ve got to save him, dementia is kicking in.”
The apples clearly didn’t fall far from the tree.
Suede's punk return
SUEDE are returning with their first album in four years – and this time they have gone punk.
The lads will release Autofiction on September 16 and last night put out the first single, She Still Leads Me On.
Singer Brett Anderson said: “Autofiction is our punk record. No whistles and bells. Just the five of us in a room with the glitches and f***-ups revealed – the band themselves exposed in all their primal mess.”
Caught live: Marina still a Diamond
WHEN an artist looks like they are actually enjoying themselves, it makes for an exceptional concert.
So with Marina, formerly Marina And The Diamonds, dancing around the stage, grinning from ear to ear and looking like she was having the time of her life in a white miniskirt and crop top, it was impossible not to have a good time.
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She has been releasing brilliant songs for more than a decade but this show proved she has graduated to an expert in pop perfection.
The sold-out crowd of hardcore fans hung on every clever lyric in her ridiculously catchy songs, from 2010’s Hollywood to last year’s Purge The Poison.
Her latest album, Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land, proved her songwriting is only getting better, and as she closed the show with song Goodbye from it, Marina showed she has no problems still hitting the high notes, too.
Halfway through the concert, she announced she has split from her label, Atlantic Records, and will be continuing as an independent artist.
As long as her shows continue to be as fabulous as this one, she has an even sparklier future ahead.
Howell Davies
Harry havoc
HARRY STYLES fans are so intense that the O2 Academy Brixton had to put signs outside to stop fans queuing until 12 hours before his concert there tonight.
He will play a one-off show to mark the release of his third solo album, Harry’s House, which came out on Friday.
But after fans decided they would do any-thing to be at the front for the gig, venue bosses acted.
They put up a notice which read: “Queueing for the Harry Styles show is strictly prohibited until 8am on Tuesday, May 24.”
Even so, I imagine by 8.10am there will be a line right down the street, and the next one, and the one after that.
His album is sure to top the charts on Friday, while single As It Was is on course for an eighth week at No1.
In fact, his tracks Late Night Talking and Music For A Sushi Restaurant also look good for the top three
There’s no stopping him.
Billie's feeling happier
BILLIE EILISH has a new-found love for her work, after revealing she felt “very depressed” during her early success.
The Happier Than Ever singer was just 17 when her debut album came out and admitted she struggled to cope with the fame.
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Talking about her pop career on the Telekom Electronic Beats podcast, she said: “I really, really love it, and it’s really nice to be able to say that now, because I really didn’t love it for a couple of years.
“The first few years of my career I was very young and very depressed and didn’t even know if I wanted anything that I had.
“I was kind of in this zone of like, I don’t want to be here. Stupid little kid and I’ve made changes.
“Then we got a kind of less brutal touring schedule and we got more people and we didn’t have to do it all ourselves any more. And it just became really really enjoyable.”
Billie, will play her first European show in three years at the Telekom Forum in Germany next week.
She is also headlining Glastonbury next month.
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She added: “As soon as I stepped back on the stage, I felt myself again.
“I was like, ‘Oh yeah, this is what makes me feel the happiest’.”
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