Noel On Being Big

So: what does it feel like playing in front of 125,000 people?
"I can't put it into words. I can only understate it really, cos you can't see the back of the gig cos it's dark and it's fucking 2 miles away from where you're playing. I've been doing interviews all day trying to put it into words and I'd rather not fucking try to tell you the truth. Absolutely mind-blowing.
"Now I know what the word big means. We thought we were big when we played Earls Court, then Maine Road. But after last night... There's big, then there's bigger than big, and then there's fuckin like last night... Now that is big. Now that is big. It's big."

Will it get bigger?
"I can safely say we won't be going any fucking bigger than this, because to be quite honest, we can't supply the demand for the band at the moment, right? We're trying, but to do things like this, it's just a fucking pain in the arse. It's brilliant to do it, but I wouldn't fancy doing it again. I'd rather... But then you get into the territory of four nights at Wembley Stadium, but by the third night, it must become a bit of a fuckin' chore. You've got to keep it special for the band. But we sat down yesterday, me and Marcus. We were saying, we're a fucking big group now, we've got to start fucking dealing with it, it's as simple as that. In an ideal world you'd be playing Shepherd's Bush Empire every night. That'd be fine because it's big enough, but small enough to create an atmosphere. But y'know, they'd have to fucking shut down Shepherd's Bush. They'd have to build a wall round it. 'Indoors is the place to play, because it's dark and you can actually hear the crowd singing. Out there, last night you could only see the first... (laughing) It's a fucking shiity thing to say, like, I could only see the first 50,000! Y'know, there's another 75 somewhere! But you've just gotta try and put your head down and play. I think for a gig this size, last night was pretty fucking amazing.'

"Just now, I was watching a video playback of 'Champagne Supernova' from last night. It's like, that's me onstage with John Squire. He's playing this mad fucking Jimmy Page stuff, all over the place on his guitar. I turn around to Marcus who's stood behind me, and he goes, 'Look at the crowd with all the lighters'. I go, Fuck the crowd, look at that cunt there! Check him out, what he's doing! I'm thinking, that's another moment in my life. He's never played with anyone else bar the Stone Roses and we've never played with anyone else bar us lot. So that was a first. We were out with him one night getting pissed up, and we asked him, but he's a bit reserved, a bit like fucking Roger Moore (raises eyebrow creakily). As the months went past, we're going, You still up for this or what? In rehearsals in Birmingham, he turns up with his guitar, doesn't he, plugs in for Champagne Supernova and we're like, (eyebrows meeting hairline) I looked over at Bonehead and went, Could be time for you to leave the band, mate! Squire's band are all here. I met the singer- he's off his tits. Course, all singers are, aren't they? They look the part. Our Liam's heard some new stuff, reckons it's brilliant. If he says it's good, it must be, cos he doesn't fucking like anything. I"d been telling him, I've seen one of the best fucking groups the other night, Kula Shaker. I'm about to put a cassette of "Tattva" on, and he goes, Tell you what I heard on the radio the other day, have you seen them knobheads that lived in India for fucking years, that cunt with the blonde hair, all that fucking Indian music they're playing? I'm like, that's what I was just telling about. He called me a cunt and walked out. There again, this is the man that said Talk Tonight was shite. (pissy voice) Wondewall, it's fucking dance record, innit? All that hip hop drum beat - we're not a fucking dance group. Of course, once he's sung on it it was the best record ever made."

You have to have ludicrously tight security around you these days. Does that spoil it for you?
"Back here, it's been really well organised, there's been no hassles, no fuckin' lunatics knocking about... last night, someone told me there was three arrests yesterday. I was flabbergasted. Like, we're fuckin' losing our touch here somewhere!
"But around me, I don't like that, man. To be honest, I come from Burnage, I was 21 before I was ever in a band, I can look after myself. I don't particularly like looking around and there's three bodyguards there and everyone's clearing a path for you before you get there. Because if I was a kid there looking at me walking past with all this entourage, I'd think, what a wanker! I'm not. I'm just a normal fucking geezer, but these things are thrust upon you. I'm scared of my security guards, let alone anybody else. I daren't tell them to fuck off, they'd probably chin me. Like, when you're walking out backstage, and some kid comes up for an autograph, you see this big hand come from nowhere and move them to one side. You wanna say, No, just fucking leave them alone. All they want is an autograph and a picture. I don't particularly like all that, but it's a necessary evil. The one person walking towards you could be the one who'll smack you in the face."

Have you ever found yourself in archetypal rock 'n' roll situation and laughed out loud?
"Tell you what, I went away to Mustique to write the album. Johnny Depp and Kate Moss turned up because Meg's known Kate for years. Now they were staying in Mick Jagger's house. This is really fuckin' surreal, right? Meg and Kate are on the back getting fuckin' pissed as arseholes, Johnny's in this little adjoining room writing a script for this film, I'm sat in Mick Jagger's fuckin front room with an acoustic guitar writing a song for the new album, looking around at all these original Andy Warhol paintings, going, Fucking hell..."

Is it getting harder to hide? There's a story about The Beatles going on holiday to the Phillippines because it was one of the few places they thought they were safe, and someone went up to George Harrison on the beach...
"I went out to Mustique which is out near Venezuela, right? Like, fuckin' no-one's gonna've heard of us out there. Geezer in customs in the airport pulls out a fucking copy of Morning Glory. I'm like, How do you know the band? He's like, (tribal chief voice), Um MTV man... That's the power of America.
"I did that Chemical Brothers track. It's gonna come out as a single at the end of this year now, but there's been a lot of fucking about. I wrote the lyrics and the melody, and then I went off on tour, but when I came back, I didn't like the finished version. I thought it could be a bit shorter, so they had to go back and remix it. So then it was great, finished. Then of course, they're on Virgin, I"m on Sony, so they started bickering about whose label it should come on. Me and Tom and Ed are mates - we're arsed. Virgin are like, My lads wrote the music. Sony are going, But my chap wrote the fucking lyrics. We're sat there in the middle going, Will you just fucking put it out, we wanna hear it on the radio! Then the managers got involved that it slowed it down by another two months. Now it's all sorted.
"Then I remixed Beck's next single, The Devil's Haircut. I got a phone call off the record company. On the album track, there's one bassline, the drum machine and a vocal, that's it. So there were like, 60-odd channels left on the desk to put guitars on. So I just sat there putting fucking loads of guitar parts on. It's like ZZ Top meets Beck, man. Good, though!
"I had to mix the sound for the video of Maine Road which is coming, but otherwise,I just sat around watching telly and reading the paper. But I still write music all the time, even when I don't have to. I'll never get sick of it. never, You couldn't, could you? Thank God for B-sides, that's what I say! There's always something to do!"

What happens when you get into the jetset superleague? Do people just start acting like your best mate when you've never met them?
"Two years ago, I wouldn't've been asked to the Cannes Film Festival. Fine, arsed. Now of course, after Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger, they draw up their celebrity wishlist and I'm on it. Of course, I've never been invited to these places before, of course I'm gonna turn up, cos it's a trip. Look, there's Elton John. (brickie taunt) Hey, Reg! And of course, it's free. Somebody'll fly me over there on a Lear jet - I'll fucking have some of that, thank you very much!
"Now all these people wanna meet me, see. Al Pacino, Mick Jagger... Their PR'll go, See that geezer over there, that's the bloke from Oasis, it'd be really cool if you all were over there stood beside him and you had your picture taken. So they come over and it's like, (ponytail smarm) Hey man, I really fucking love the rec... I'd like to get one thing straight, you guys kick ass! Suddenly all the photgraphers are snapping...

Doesn't it freak you out? At all?