The show that changed Noel Gallagher’s life
For every rock star, playing music feels like something of a calling. Rather than take a traditional job, there’s usually that subtle X-factor that gets everyone hooked into the music scene for the first time, igniting their desire to pick up the guitar and squeeze whatever melodies they can out of it. Although that moment could be a record or a song, Noel Gallagher pointed to one specific gig that turned his world upside down.
Then again, Noel was never far away from the rock scene in the first place. Throughout his youth, he was always used to listening to acts like The Beatles, which set him on the path to writing his first handful of hits. Although the sounds of classic rock were enough for Noel, the punk world set him off in a different direction, becoming infatuated with Sex Pistols’ Nevermind the Bollocks from the first time he heard it.
Once he got into music, Noel was driven to be anywhere near his favourite bands, telling Supersonic, “What do you want to go out for? Everything that I wanted in life was coming out of the speakers.” Tuning in to Top of the Pops every day, Noel would one day get thrown for a loop when he saw The Smiths performing.
Riding the momentum of their first record, The Smiths had already been known as a refreshing face in the underground scene. While the college rock circuit may have been making waves in the US, Morrissey offered an English retort to what the likes of Michael Stipe and Frank Black were doing, putting his heart into tracks like ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’.
Although Noel’s friends didn’t get it when The Smiths came on the stage playing ‘This Charming Man’, he remembered being entranced, recalling to Uncut, “None of my mates liked them — they were more hooligan types. They came into work and said, ‘Fuckin’ hell, did you see that poof on Top of the Pops with the bush in his back pocket?’ But I thought it was life-changing.”
While the rest of the world was transfixed with what Morrissey had to say when he stepped up to the microphone, Noel was more interested in what Johnny Mar was doing behind the fretboard. Complete with a Brian Jones-style haircut, Marr brought a rock and roll legitimacy to the group, marrying the indie side of the band’s sound with crashing chords that rockers could appreciate.
Being from Manchester, Marr would eventually strike up a friendship with Noel when the young songwriter was putting together the first iteration of Oasis. After becoming mates, Noel would be gifted a guitar from Marr, which he would use to write the song ‘Slide Away’, saying in a documentary, “I took it out of the case, sat on the bed, and I swear to you the song wrote itself.”
Once the grunge wave came and went, Noel seemed to pick up right where The Smiths had left off in the 1980s, with his brother Liam giving a voice to his life-affirming anthems like ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ and ‘Live Forever’. For all the Beatles comparisons that have been thrown Oasis’ way over the years, there are just as many connections back to The Smiths in Noel’s songwriting.
