Assorted Oasis Stuff

Definitely Maybe
(What's The Story) Morning Glory?
Be Here Now
The Masterplan
Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants
Heathen Chemistry


Definitely Maybe:

Rock 'n' Roll Star- "I said everything I ever wanted to say in Rock 'n' Roll Star."

Shakermaker- "This is just a basic twelve bar blues. It was recorded at Out of the blue in Manchester, but we had to do the recorded version without the 'I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing' bit because Coke threatened to sue. That's why you never see us doing it live on video, cos Our Kid always ends up singing the bit he's not supposed to. Are the words gibberish? Yeah, of course they are. Top gibberish though."

Live Forever- "That's for our mam. It's quite simply one of the ten greatest songs of all time. I said that when I first wrote it and I stand by it now. I challenge anyone else in the next ten years to come up with anything as good. Except for us of course. Well, it's about relationships that people have, not necessarily with girlfriends, about friends and friendships that live forever. Commitment. It's not about anything, it's not a love song, the word love, you can love Mars bars, and I love my bike. It's a song about respect, having respect for your girlfriend, your mother or your father or your friends. The line 'We see things they'll never see', only two best friends would say that to each other, two twins maybe. It's a song of hope, a song about being young and trendy. A fucking good song but I think I can do better."

Supersonic- "That was originally going to be the B-side to Bring it on down, but then when we wrote it we knew it had to be an A-side. It was written and recorded in 8 hours at the Pink Museum in Liverpool. When Alan McGee heard it he threatened to drop every other act on his label. He didn't keep his promise though, the Scottish bastard. I was just bladdered, out of it really. I sort of just played around with words. The girl called Elsa was really a dog. They had this big Rottweiler in the studio. All I did was find something that rhymed with it. It just came out of nowhere... I knew it was a classic as soon as we'd finished."

Cigarettes & Alcohol- "IT IS FUCKING ROCK!!! When people hear it they start smashing things up or pinching things. Someone wrote and told me they were bored one day, then they heard that song and decided to go out shoplifting. Brilliant. I wanted to write a song that was like Cum On Feel The Noize by Slade. A proper, boozy anthem."


(What's the Story) Morning Glory?:

Hello!- "It's one of the three songs on the album that's not about anything. I spend as much time on the lyrics as I do on the music. I'd like our kid to spend more time on them but he spends no time at all. Obviously, everyone is going on about the Gary Glitter thing, but I just had that in for a laugh."

Roll With It- "Of course I was disappointed it didn't get to Number One, but it's still a great song. If anything, it gets better the more time goes by. It's just great, mindless, senseless pop music. If Cigarettes & Alcohol made you want to go out and nick stuff, this makes you want to take it all back. Yeah, it's a good one."

"It's about fuck all. I like the sentiments of that song. It's just a simple rock 'n' roll tune. And it sold alright."

Wonderwall- "Well it's for Meg. And it's a classic. What more can I say? She had a company which folded and she was feeling a bit sorry for herself. The sentiment is that there was no point in her feeling down, she has to sort my life out for me because I'm in bits all the time."

"People ask me why we had 'Roll with it' instead of 'Wonderwall' as the single. It seems to be everybody's favourite. It's about my girlfriend, Meg Matthews. She had a company which folded and she was feeling a bit sorry for herself. The sentiment is that there was no point in her feeling down, she has to sort my life out for me because I'm in bits had the time. We have an ordinary relationship. I met her at Christmas so I've always been a pop star since I've known her. Right now we've got the best part of a month off so, while I'm rehearsing, she's at work. When we get home we just sit down and have a couple of drinks."

Don't Look Back in Anger- "I went up to The Manor when Paul Weller was recording Stanley Road and that's when I did my bit on Walking On Guilded Splinters. He played me his song, Wings Of Speed, and that was the feel I tried to get on Don't Look Back In Anger. I did it live for the first time at Sheffield Arena. Should people put their lives in the hands of a rock n' roll band? If it's us then, yeah, I think they can. Some of the lines come from John Lennon. I got this tape in America that had apparently been burgled from the Dakota Hotel and someone had found these cassettes. Lennon was starting to record his memoirs on tape. He's going on about 'trying to start a revolution from me bed, because they said the brains I had went to my head.' Thank you, I'll take that. It's about not being upset about the things you might have said or done yesterday, which is quite appropriate at the moment. It's about looking forward rather than looking back. I hate people who look back on the past or talk about what might have been."

Hey Now!- "This song is about being in a group. It's a massive step forward for us. Some people are not going to like it, because they're just going to want more songs like Cigarettes & Alcohol or Supersonic. The band has changed a lot and there's a different vibe."

Some Might Say- "It was the first song I ever wrote when I moved to London and it was inspired by listening to The Faces. Alan McGee wanted the A-side to be Acquiesce because he didn't think Some Might Say sounded like a number one. He's a great man but his one fault is that he has absolutely no idea how to pick singles. As soon as I'd written Some Might Say I was absolutely certain it would be a number one and I was right. I never had even the slightest doubt. That was the gin 'n' tonic getting the better of me. I met a guy in Swiss Cottage who came up to me when the single was Number One. He said, 'That song really meant a lot to me.', because he's a Christian. And I asked if he'd heard the group at all and he hadn't. So I told him we had this song called Cigarettes and Alcohol and being a Christian he wouldn't really dig that. He seemed like a really down-to-earth bloke. And he's telling me a song means a lot to him as a Christian and I'm having a conversation with him when I'm drugged up to the eyeballs. It's a laugh, man."

Cast No Shadow- ""It was inspired by Richard (Ashcroft) from The Verve, he wasn't very happy for a while so I wrote it for him and about three weeks later he quit the band. It's about songwriters in general who are desperately trying to say something. I'd like to be able to write really meaningful lyrics but I always end up talking about drugs or sex. People tend to ask my advice about a lot of things. I'm good at giving it but I'm shit at taking it. But people like Richard and Paul (Weller) will look after me, they'll make sure I'm conscious in a chair or that I can get home. 'Bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say' - That's me. I'm not Morrissey. I'm not Bob Dylan. I'm not Brett Anderson. They are better lyricists than I'll ever be."

She's Electric- "It was the first song I wrote for the album. Someone asked me if it was about Blur but it's not. It's like a Small Faces song or something by The Kinks."

Morning Glory- "It's a cynical song about drugs."

Champagne Supernova- "When I was writing that, I remember going to visit Meg, who was living with some chicks down in Maida Vale, in her old flat. I was living in a hotel in Marylebone High Street and had just been kicked out of my flat in Chiswick, for being drunk and disorderly. Anyway, I went over to Meg's. I wasn't seeing her, she was just a mate and, this may sound really corny but I had the music and melody for the song in my head but I didn't have any words. While I was around there we were listening to a Pixies album called, I think it's... Supernova. As we were listening to this album, we were watching a documentary about where they make Champagne in France. You may laugh but it's true. I was there drunk going, 'Champagne supernova? Yeah man' and to this day, everyone's going, 'But what does it mean?'. I can't be arsed to explain it cos it sounds really corny. Some of the lyrics were written when I was out of it. There's the words: 'Someday you will find me caught beneath a landslide in a champagne supernova in the sky.'"

"That's probably as psychedelic as I'll ever get. It means different things when I'm in different moods. When I'm in a bad mood being caught beneath a landslide is like being suffocated. The song is a bit of an epic. It's about when you're young and you see people in groups and you think about what they did for you and they did nothing. As a kid, you always believed the Sex Pistols were going to conquer the world and kill everybody in the process. Bands like The Clash just petered out. Punk rock was supposed to be the revolution but what did it do? When we started we decided we weren't going to do anything for anybody, we just thought we'd leave a bunch of great songs. But some of the words are about nothing. One is about Bracket The Butler who used to be on Camberwick Green, or Chipley or Trumpton or something. He used to take about 20 minutes to go down the hall. And then I couldn't think of anything that rhymed with hall apart from cannonball, so I wrote, 'Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball' and people were like, Wow, fuck man.' There's also the line, 'Where were you while we were getting high?' because that's what we always say to each other. But the number of people who've started clubs called Champagne Supernova is fuckin' unbelievable." And the album isn't even released yet."

Bonehead's Bank Holiday- "Well, you know how The Beatles used to like get Ringo to sing the odd tune here and there? Well, he's (Bonehead) our Ringo isn't he, you see? And he's ugly as sin, you know what I mean? Completely untalented and the luckiest man in rock so we thought we'd write him a song, you know what I mean? Bonehead's Bank Holiday - It's about nicking cars and going to Spain and meeting girls who's mothers are nuns."


Be Here Now:

D'You Know What I Mean?- "I was going to make up some profound statement in the chorus but I couldn't come up with anything that fitted. then I just thought 'All my people right here, right now. D'You know what I mean? Yeah, Yeah - very vague, very ambiguous. Look in the mirror and wink while you sing it and it's quite saucy. The Morse code in the background was inspired by The Beatles' Strawberry fields. If anyone can tell me what it means please let me know."

My Big Mouth- "Even I'm not interested in what I've got to say half the time. But 'I aint never spoke to God, and I ain't never been to heaven' - that's about fans who think you're on the phone to John Lennon and you have all the answers."

Magic Pie- "I sang this one and of course me and Liam had a row about it, but it's his favourite track now. The first line 'An extraordinary guy can never have an ordinary day' comes from him asking me 'How come you never get into any of the situations I get into?'. And I borrowed something from Tony Blair's speech at the last Labour conference - 'There are but a thousand days preparing for a thousand years.'"

Stand By Me- "It starts 'Made a meal and threw it up on Sunday.' When I first moved to London me mam kept ringing up and asking if I was eating properly. So I tried to cook a Sunday Roast and puked up for two days with food poisoning. It was back to Pot Noodles after that. 'There is one thing I can never give you, my heart will never be your home'. That's about the private space you have to keep. The place where I go to write my stuff. Meg was fairly upset by that."

I Hope, I Think, I Know- "I liked the demo but it's too pop for me now. It reminds me of the Busscocks but I think its going to be like Hey Now on Morning Glory - the one nobody mentions."

The Girl In The Dirty Shirt- "Meg is the girl in the dirty shirt. We were doing a gig in Brighton just before me and Meg were going out. She was at the hotel ironing a dirty shirt because she hadn't brought enough clothes with her. I know it sounds a bit soft. Liam will read this and say, 'You wanker!' because he thinks all the songs are about him. He even thinks Wonderwall is about him."

Fade In/Out- "The first part of the song is from the Mustique demo with Johnny Depp playing slide guitar. I like it because it's the first blues I've done and Liam does the best singing I've heard from him. I said, 'Pretend you're a black man from Memphis.' He's not got very good rhythm and we made him stamp his foot all the way through it. He couldn't sing for a week after."

Don't Go Away- "This is about me mam. A week before Meg and me went to Mustique me mam was in hospital. They thought it was cancer, though it wasn't and she's fine. It's a very sad song about not wanting to loose someone you're close to. I never had that lyrics until the day we recorded it. 'Me and you, what's going on? All we seem to know is how to show the feelings that are wrong.' It's after a row. Quite bleak."

Be Here Now- "Wrote it on the beach near Mick Jagger's house in Mustique. The opening is played on a toy piano belonging to one of Jagger's kids. Anyway, nicked the piano - I can't help it, I'm from Burnage. Mick can have it back if he wants. Later, Owen Morris told me one of the greatest drum loops was the opening to Honky Tonk Women. We played it and it was the same signature as the piano."

All Around the World- "I wrote this one ages ago, before Whatever. It was twelve minutes long and we couldn't afford to record it, but now we can get away with a 36-piece orchestra. The longer the better as far as I'm concerned. I know what people will say, but fuck 'em basically. The lyrics are teeny-bop. I suppose it's wanting to emulate your idols or whatever. I just wanted to write a big, massive, orchestral, sprawling, fuckin' rock opera. So...I just sat down and decided I was going to write a fuckin' 11-minute song, and I wrote it. It's somewhere between Hey Jude and All You Need Is Love. Yeah - real flag-waver."

It's Gettin' Better Man!!- "I wrote this one jamming on the stage with the band in America. A really happy tune even though there was alot of bad going down. Because we get connected with The Beatles all the time I thought I'd write a Rolling Stones song. You can almost see Keith and Ronnie with some fags in their mouths giving it some."

All Around the World (reprise)- "I was running out of guitar lines so I faded it in with backwards guitars. The feet clumping at the end belong to Brian Cannon, the sleeve designer. The door slamming has never been done before. We got a Penny Lane piccolo trumpet in because a guy in the brass section stood up and said 'You should have a piccolo trumpet on that - and I've got one.'"


The Masterplan:

Acquiesce- "I had me guitar with me on a train to the studio in Wales and it stopped for some reason. So I got me guitar out. I had the intro with just the two chords. I didn't have the verses so I was just humming the melody. I wrote the choruses in the studio. The reason Liam doesn't sing the choruses is because I don't think he can get that high, he couldn't then anyway. Everyone seems to think it's about brothers which it isn't at all. It's one of my favourites. The crowd always seem to go for that one really. I don't know why. I wouldn't say it's a love song, it's a song about friend-ship really. I like it anyway. We recorded it and left England and we were in Canada actually and I got a phonecall from McGee at five in the morning or something. And he wanted to put Acquiesce out as a single. There were a bit of an argument between me and McGee and he wanted Some Might Say to be the B-side. Then he wanted to put both out as singles. I got me way at the end but looking back on it now it probably should have been a single really, but you know, there you go."

Underneath the Sky- "I can remember sitting with a tape recorder with Owen in a little flat that was rented in Camden town. And it was the night before we were going into the studio and we needed one more track. It's a little like the ...Street by the Kinks in the middle. It's not identical but I always liked that bit. So I think I got that bit first and wrote the verses around that. The piano bit is Bonehead playing the high bits and me playing the low bits. Being left handed I have always wanted to build a left handed piano, to me it would be more natural, which is why I never play piano. On this one I just play only two notes like that and he plays the rhythm bit. The piano solo reminds me of something off Strangeways Here We Come or something like that. And the guitar bit at the beginning, it sounds like a keyboard or something but it's actually one of the guitars. But it didn't take that long to do that one. It was only about an afternoon or something before we started doing Cum On Feel The Noize that night. I like the backing vocals on it, we layered and layered and layered them. So it sounds like a different instrument and Liam's singing is really good on it. I like the way he ends it, he says 'Againnnnna'. That's one of my favourites and we never play it live."

Talk Tonight- "I probably started writing it in Las Vegas and finished off writing it in Texas where we were due to record B-sides for Whatever but we recorded that and then we pushed that one forward to go on Some Might Say. I met this sort of Oasis fan from San Fransisco while on our travels. ....it was strawberry lemonade and she was addicted to that so that's why that's in there and she took us around playgrounds where she use to play as a kid. It's all about that really. It's quite melancholy but quite uplifting in the same way."

Going Nowhere- "That was written before we had a record deal. It's about what we were going to do when we got all the money. But we didn't record it until 1997. I don't know why we never done that one. I like it, I like the fact that we just finished the album and there were million guitar tracks on the album. There was only me and Whitey present at the time because everybody was just having a hard day or just had enough really. So I just went in there with Whitey and done it on an afternoon. The song's really old, probably from 1990. That one was pretty spontaneous, we just got everyone down there and sort of done it."

Fade Away- "It was going to be on the first album. Cos that one was the main song on the set. That probably got taken off the album for Slide Away. I probably wrote it in Manchester. If you listen to the lyrics, I mean they say more about the song that I can tell you write now. 'The dreams we have as children fade away.' I suppose it's a song about growing up but at the same time not growing old. If that makes any sense. It sounds to good to be one of mine though. I think at the time we were a bit worried cos there was a chance we were going to get sued cos it sounds a bit like a Wham song. Freedom. But it wasn't intentional. And then we done a version of it for the Warchild thing. Which I wanted to do slower. That ended up wrong as well. I mean I like the other version but I like to do it on just a piano as well. A really slow one. Sort of an Imagine part."

Swamp Song- "When we were doing Morning Glory this is one of the first songs we ever jammed with Alan. It sounds very much like On The Road Again."

I Am the Walrus- "We put on the single that it was recorded at the Cathouse in Glasgow in 1994. Which it wasn't. It was a lie. So anyone that was on the gig I apoligize for that, it's not actually you clapping. That version was recorded in 1993 when we were invited up to these Sony people at this seminar once every year. I don't know why it was being recorded. About a year later we was listening to this and thought it was brilliant. So we mixed it and it was excellent and then we were 'Where is that from?' It's from the Sony seminar.' 'Well we can't put that on it sounds really...' So we decided that we were going to pick a gig in random and it was the Cathouse in Glasgow. And if you wanna know where the clapping's coming from in the beginning and the end, it's from a bootleg with the Faces. None of us has ever thought we were the Beatles, you know. Except Liam who thinks he's John Lennon. It took us months and months to work it out. A lot of people used to say it sounds better than the Beatles version. It's just more guitars than the Beatles version. It's a bit faster and a lot louder. It could have been nice to do proper in the studio but I think that one stands up really."

Listen Up- "Listen Up was done in the same day as Fade Away I think. Never played it live. No, we played it live once I think. Could never really get the pace of it right cos the last drummer that we had wasn't really up to much. The start sounds a bit like Live Forever and then the guitar riff from Supersonic comes in. Which is quite funny. It's another melancholic titled song about you know, 'Sailing down the river alone trying to find your way back home. And I don't believe in magic, but life is automatic.' It's all about being on your own. I don't know if it's an old one or if it was written specific for the single. But it sounds like an old one cos I was in a traveling phase then. Living in Manchester and living in London."

Rockin' Chair- "Rockin' Chair was going to be on Morning Glory. It's really old, as old as Going Nowhere. It's another song about just trying to leave the place where you are. Just leaving town I suppose. That's one of a lot of peoples favourites. We only played it live once - Blackpool Empress Ballroom. Scott was in the band and he couldn't get it right so we ditched that one."

Half the World Away- "I played This Guy's In Love With You. That's where I pinched all the chords from. Sort of moved a few around, put that one there and put that one there. And there you go, you got another song. Paul Weller's favorite ever Oasis song. I like the lyrics as well. Again it's about leaving cities. I'm not sure anyone else likes it. I played the drums on that one as well actually. Because our ex-drummer wasn't the most of talented people in the world. Probably the easiest song to play..."

(It's Good) To Be Free- "Done in the same studio on the same day as Whatever. I started writing it in a swimming pool. And when I was in Las Vegas I finished it off. It sounds like we are having a really good time in the studio because we were all laughing. But it wasn't funny at all."

Stay Young- "I don't like it. I wrote it by mistake for the last album. Why it didn't go on the album is because when I got back to England I wrote Magic Pie. Sounds like the Kinks as well I think. I don't like the guitar solo on it. I don't like the sound of it either. That's one of the first ones we recorded for Be Here Now and I think we done that in Abbey Road cos when you start doing an album you usualy start with the ones you like the least just so you can get into it really."

Headshrinker- "Really, really old one. Written before we had a manager or anything like that. That's one is really fast, really loud. Probably the best drumming track that the ex-drummer ever done. It's written about a girl that our Liam was going out with at the time that was a pain in the ass. She followed the band everywhere. She's a bit of a weirdo as well. I don't know what headshrinker actually is. Just thought it was a psychiatrist or something I suppose. It sounds like the Faces on speed, doesn't it? We used to have a lot of fast songs like that years and years ago in 92, 93. We were more like a punk band then really."

The Masterplan- "That's my favourite song I have ever written I think. I wrote that one in an hotel room in Japan and again it was that we needed some more songs for B-sides. I remember just sitting down with the guitar when it wasn't really much happening. Sort of a quiet night, maybe really early in the morning. I swear the things just came out. I like the sound of it. I like everybodys playing on it. I like the singing as well. I don't know why Liam didn't sing that one. I love all the lyrics on that one. I think it's the most complete sing I ever done in the studio. I don't like playing the guitar solos on tour anymore. I used to like it at first but I don't like it anymore cos I used to play the same thing sort of over and over on a different melody. It sounds different but it is the same. Owen suggested that we turn the tapes over and play it backwards and play just some serie of random notes and then we'll see if we could get some sort of solo out of it. We thought it was going to take hours. When we turned the tapes back over, that was it. And I think we maybe had to take a couple of notes out."

"And then we spent a couple of days on the strings and the brass and then just got the intro and you know put them on the side of it and that was it. That is everybodys favourite song I think. All the fans that used to surround the band was always going 'You got to save that for the next album.' But the next album was like two years away at that point. I don't mind thinking of it as being a B-side. I guess the masterplan was to be the biggest band in the world and we probably were for a good year periodly... And then it sort of leveled off since then. Which is climax and taking a bit of the heat off really. The first line, 'Take the time to make some sense of what you want to say', that's probably me sitting down thinking about what I want to say I think, but that's a good line and then, 'Cast your words upon the waves', means the air waves. I suppose it's about peoples fear of growing old... Well you know, all we know is that we don't know. You know if you wanna dance, dance. If you don't, don't. I suppose it's saying that there is no masterplan."


Standing on the Shoulder of Giants:

Fuckin' in the Bushes- "I was working on a remix for James Lavelle's band Unkle. We had a day off when we were done with the recording and we started mess around with drum loops. I put step on step to the bass line and some guitar and we realized that it could be quite good. We had watched a movie about the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 and we had laughed at some of the people in the movie, so we sampled them. The beginning has the promoter whining at all the hippies that broke down the fences around the concert area."

Go Let it Out- "It started out like a very slowly, melancholy piece, almost Lennon-like. But then we did the demo recordings and it went faster and became rockier. I played a Paul McCartney- like bass line and we decided to find as many instruments from the 60's as we could, old mellotrons and sitar sounds."

Who Feels Love?- "It's a bit Dear Prudence, a bit Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, very much Oasis and really big. But you can dance to it. I wrote the song early in the morning in Thailand about one and a half years ago. I wanted away from London for a while. We visited lots of temples and I suppose I picked up the moods from there."

Put Yer Money Where Yer Mouth Is- "This song was made by a coincidence when we did the demo recordings. We liked the energy in it. But I would have wanted to work more with the lyrics, it's just the same words being repeated over and over."

Little James- "This is Liams first song, it's dedicated to Patsy Kensit and James, her son with Jim Kerr. One day when Liam was in one of the rooms we put a microphone on when he was singing the song for himself. We recorded it without saying anything to him. Some days later he went on holiday with Patsy and we wrote down the words, made the melody and when he came back from Tenerife the song was finished and he could go into the studio and sing."

Gas Panic!- "A bit like Led Zeppelin, some smoothing hip hop. For two years ago I used to have these difficult agony attacks. The clock was 4 one morning and I couldn't sleep. Mostly I used to wake Meg and she was forced to sit and talk with me all through the night. But this night she didn't wake up so I decided to get a guitar and write a song about how I felt. There's a version of it coming out on one of the subsequent singles which is the demo version, which I done in my bedroom. It's really, really mellow and like, acoustic and by the time we got the band playing it, and Alan playing on it, and Spike was doing his thing in the studio, all of a sudden it just turned into this... you know, it was supposed to be this really quiet acoustic, mellow little trip really. And then, you know, Spike was like, 'Fuck it man, it's just a Led Zepelin number' and then it turned out to be really good - it's one of my favourites on the album."

Where Did it All Go Wrong?- "This song will remind people that we are a rock band. The lyrics are about all the rich and famous people that used to follow me home and tell me about their problems. Many rich people is pshycic and self destructive. They think that they will be ok again if they just put themselves into private clinics every six months. But it's only themselves who can solve the problem."

Sunday Morning Call- "The song is about a special person. A wonderful human being that lives life but can't handle setbacks. I can't reveal who it is."

I Can See A Liar- "This one sounds a bit like the Sex Pistols, the song could have been on Nevermind The Bollocks. It's Liams favourite and he must always get his favourites on the records. Liam is Liam and he usually always whines. He doesn't stop until he gets the way he wants."

Roll It Over- "My own favourite. It's about people that gossip, I know lots of people that do it, especially women. It's a catchy and happy song that shows the direction that we like to go in the future. It's more gospel influenced, bigger and more psychedelic."


Heathen Chemistry:

The Hindu Times- "When we laid down the instrumental for The Hindu Times we went away on tour with The Black Crowes and I think it's Gem come up with the one line. He said it's like your favourite Oasis song ever because we were listening to it, like constantly and I didn't have any lyrics for it and he's going, fucking hell man it's just like the best Oasis song ever. He said it sounds like classic Oasis and I was like sitting there thinking right weill I'm going to try now, sort of written myself off and I was going, so what do you mean by that.. You know it's just a fucking, you know it's a song and I was like. So I just decided to write a song that was the most optimistic that I could fucking get out of myself. So it was all like, I get up when I'm down, I can't swim and it's all about universal truths I think. You're my sunshine you're my rain, you know there is a light that shines, it shines on me. The word Hindu in the title as well I thought it's a bit spiritual and stuff but it was Gem that unwittingly perhaps was the concept of the song. he said it's got to be like the fucking, the best Oasis Oasis song ever. And that was that really."

Force Of Nature- "Yeah Force of Nature come about when we were doing Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants out in France Jude Law asked us to do a song for a film he was in called Love Honour and Obey with Ray Winstone, Johnny Lee Miller and Sean Pertwee and all that lot and so I went out a week early with the engineers and stuff to set up because we had this big old Chateaux. We set it up as a recording studio. So what I thought well while I'm out there I'll just record the demo for use in this film and anyway it came out so good that we just sent them the demo and then everybody was saying, well, you know, is it going to go on Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants and at one point, because I wrote that song and Little By Little for the film. They were both supposed to be for the film but we only give them one in the end. We decided not to use it on Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants because Bonehead was leaving and we thought, well let's keep some songs back for when we come back anyway. So we purposely kept Force Of Nature. It's a shame. That was going to be the first single but we had a couple of days in here with Liam and it just, it's just out of his range. It's at the very, very top of mine and I can just about hit the notes live as well so."

Hung in a Bad Place- "Hung in a Bad Place came about, me, Noel and Andy B were in there with Noel on drums and we were just having an afternoon of it really and he went, you got any songs? And we were just throwing stuff around and I think I must have played like three or something. I was singing I was at Madison Square Gardens in my head and he went, yea, that's the one. We'll do that one. From then on in it was, well okay, played it to Liam in here on the acoustic. We had a right laugh at a few of the words and then that was it really. We just sort of dug into it, you know, and I'm more than chuffed with the results."

Stop Crying Your Heart Out- "Well the day that we started recording the album here, we was.. we were all upstairs and I'll get to the title don't worry.. We were all upstairs and Stan was down there setting up a drum sound or something and we were watching something on telly, I can't remember what it was, and I'd just written the melody and the tune about 2 or 3 nights before and, as it is when you get into the studio, we always like.. it's like and everyone was like shall we start on the first one and I said yeah let's fucking listen to this one. But I didn't have any words and I just sat down and I just hummed it and there was silence after I'd finished and everyone was like, you just written that? I said I wrote it last night. So we done a quick demo, made up some lyrics on the spot and then, you know, it's a conversation between a parent and a child or should I say between a child and a parent is what it is. And I didn't want it to be the second single because I think that we always fall into the trap of, well, let's get a big ballad out, you know fucking shift some units. I wanted Force Of Nature to be the second single but I got sat down and talked around by the management. He said, look you know, what are you pissing about for? Put out your fucking best songs first. So I said oh alright as long as Force of Nature was gonna be as single. That was one of the most interesting songs. As soon as people heard it they just looked and each other and were you know. I think hopefully anyway, it will be. Hopefully that will bring the album into millions of people's front rooms as opposed to, you know. The last album was sold purely on a fan base level. I mean there wasn't really many what you call big hit singles like Go Let It Out was a hit all over the world really but that was about it. Hopefully this will do the same as Wonderwall did to the last one you know. People will hear that but the album and then subsequently go and tell their friends about it, a cross over track as they call it."

Songbird- "I was in France really just having a wonderful time. No one around mithering me, do you know what I mean? Just fucking went for a walk with my acoustic. Sat under the tree. Nice song and that. There was me and no one. There was no band because it was that time people were leaving. I thought oh fuck it, I am going for a walk. I just started melodising and then away we went. I wrote it in about 10 minutes. So that's that."

Little By Little- "It's a shame 'cos that would have made it extra, extra special. When it came to him (recording the vocals) you could see he was going, 'I'm not going to fucking get it.' And we were all willing him to get it. I went in and did a version and you could see he was sat at the desk going, 'Fucking bastard. He's got it.' But he doesn't want to do anything that's shit. This album, all of it had to be the bollocks. All of it had to be worthy of us fucking carrying on making records. This is a contender for the third single. 'True perfection has to be imperfect'. I love that line. I think it's very Zen Buddhist; I must have been smoking pot that time."

A Quick Peep- (Andy's song, Gem's comment) "This was a period when there was a lot of acoustic guitar happening before and after gigs. We had a big, long journey over the Alps and me and Andy just played guitar for about five hours."

(Probably) All in the Mind- "Me and Andy Bell. We were up here what were we doing, I'll tell you what we were doing a session with Paul Weller playing bass and drums on one of his tracks from his new album called One Times One and he shot off because he said. It was 2 in the afternoon and he said what are you doing for the rest of the day? It was like nothing. I'm not even going to get in and fucking record a new song with him being around, you know what I mean because it'll get past the first chord and he'll go it's fucking rubbish you're not going to record that are you. So he shot off and I said to Andy stick around man and play some guitar. I got this tune called All In The Mind it was called then and we done the demo in about an hour and a half and the way the title came about, he said, what's it going to be called and I said probably All In The Mind and he went Probably All In The Mind? And I went well no it's actually; All In The Mind but Probably All In The Mind sounds better so we put the probably in brackets."

She is Love- " It's no secret it's about Sarah my girlfriend. We got up one Sunday morning, the sun was shining and it was just. And I'd been listening to Sweetpea by Paul Weller off Heliocentric and I thought I'm going to write a love song about somebody I love with and I'm actually going to do it, because I hate using the word love and I hate all that shit and I thought, well fuck it, I'm not 24, I'm 35 now, you know what I mean? I can probably get away with it now. You know, and then it literally just fucking come out in about 10 minutes and I wasn't scared of the last line now I Know that I'm... All I know is I'm in love with someone who loves me too. Like 3 or 4 years ago I wouldn't have sung that. You fucking knob jockey fucking nuts. What are you on about? That was like fuck off. I've broken 35 now. I'll do what I fucking want. I can wear chunky sweaters and have fucking golden retrievers and they can't touch me for it because I'm officially middle-aged."

Born On A Different Cloud- "Born On A Different Cloud. Well that was in France playing a piano. Same again I don't really play that much. Only chords and that and I thought and the melody come and I wrote the words. I don't know where it comes from but what I wrote was like I had read this book Living On Borrowed Time by Frederick Seeman. That is probably the only book I have ever read and it was like living on borrowed time, born on a different cloud that was where it all came from."

Better Man- "Better Man. I wanted a groove more instead of a song. Not so many words. Just hitting it like don't want to be a soldier like that. Like Plastic Ono. That was it."