The four words that made Noel Gallagher sack a producer: “You silly c**t”
By now, it’s probably known well enough that you don’t fuck around with Noel Gallagher. From the second the Manchester madman burst onto the scene with Oasis, kick-starting their career with a passionate feud and savage insults thrown left, right and centre, it was all very clear.
Beyond being part of some of the greatest rock and roll songs ever penned, or being one half of one of history’s favourite bands, Gallagher’s main profession and legacy is as a hard man. Whether it’s scrapping in the press through some of the most cutting one-liner insults you’ve ever heard, or even taking that hatred and putting it in a song instead, Gallagher has made an art form out of the humble takedown.
A lot of the time, his insults feel baseless. “Suede? They’re like a poor man’s Smiths, mate. All style, no substance,” he said, and I couldn’t disagree more. Or even poor Jarvis Cocker caught some strays, as Gallagher spat, “His band’s just a bit too fucking weird for me”.
When it came to modern music outside of their Britpop gaggle, they didn’t do any better. “Coldplay are the kind of band that your mum likes. Safe, boring, and beige,” he said, or hit at Radiohead, saying, “I reckon if Thom Yorke fucking shit into a light bulb and started blowing it like an empty beer bottle it’d probably get nine out of ten in fucking Mojo. I’m not having it.”
But in the case of one studio fight, Gallagher’s outrage seemed to hit at something bigger. This wasn’t just another pretty brawl, but a genuine debate about who owns music.
When asked in 2019 about the rise in copyright cases being filed against songs, Gallagher wasn’t having any of it. Reflecting on the case Marvin Gaye’s estate raised against the song ‘Blurred Lines’, he said, “I’d never heard the Marvin Gaye song [‘Got To Give It Up’] until the story came out. But then you listen to it and think, ‘Where’s the bit that they’ve copied?’”
To him, it’s all meaningless. “Man, if they’re copyrighting vibes, we are fucked. I’m completely fucked,” he said, “How do you lose that case? You can’t copyright a vibe!” To him, the maker of the song is the owner of the song. Inspiration and influence might float in, but if they’re not the ones with their hands on the instruments, it’s meaningless, and he’s always stood by that.
“I had a producer say to me once that he wanted a credit, and I replied, ‘What are you getting a credit for?’ And he said, ‘Well, for the vibe’, and I was like, ‘The vibe? You’re paid to bring the vibe you silly cunt!’” he recalled of a time when someone tried to question him on it, trying to get ownership where Noel didn’t think any was due. That was the end of that relationship, as he added, “We never worked together again”.
So take that as a lesson. If you ever find yourself working with Noel Gallagher, only bring vibes if you’re paid to, because you’re not getting a thank you either way.
