And with it being three generations of people and all that, I thought it was pretty cool.' Noel nods his head in agreement. 'We were doing something for a specific reason. 'It wasn't like we were jerking off,' sighs Weller, exasperated. When their mutual hero, McCartney, came into the frame, it was as if Sixties elitism was taking over. In some people's eyes, Weller and Gallagher being friends was suspicious enough. It was then that the derogatory term 'Dad-rock' was coined, and it has stuck ever since. Indeed, the only time that the notoriously touchy Weller gets remotely stroppy is when I refer to the photograph of him, Noel and Paul McCartney, taken at the time they recorded 'Come Together' for the Bosnian War Child project. 'You just click with certain people, don't you?' says Weller gruffly, sticking his hands yet deeper into his jacket pockets. 'I was drunk.' Nor does the 41-year-old 'Modfather of the Rock Aristocracy' seem especially keen to analyse why it is that he and the 32-year-old 'Saviour of British Guitar Music' have turned out to be such good mates. 'You were helping yourself to our rider at Glastonbury, and I wasn't having any of it.' 'That's right, isn't it, Paul?' says Noel, pulling up a swivel chair and lounging on it. According to legend, the first thing that Noel Gallagher ever said to Paul Weller was: 'Piss off!' Weller (it's always 'Weller') is a suave vision in sheepskin, while Noel (it's always 'Noel') sits slouched forward in his chair, with his anorak zipped up almost to his nose.Īt times, watching them banter together, punting for punch lines, they seem less like a British rock-music dream team (trad division), and more like Brit-rock's George and Mildred, only with added swearing and drugs. We're in the mixing room of Huckenden Farm, near High Wickham, where Oasis (or rather, what's left of Oasis after the recent departure of guitarist Paul 'Bonehead' Arthur and bassist Paul 'Guigs' McGuigan) are set to rehearse for the foreseeable future. 'Some of us get better after the first time, Noel.' 'It's kind of like the first time you have sex, isn't it? Every time after that you've done it before, haven't you?' There comes a point when you've just got to go, "All this has got to change." I've seen it all before, man, you know what I mean?' He turns to Weller for moral support. 'You can't go to any more parties, you can't drink any more drinks, you can't do any more drugs. 'There comes a point when you just can't do it any more,' he says. Weller laughs and says to me: 'He's left me outside before, shouting through the letterbox. I'd be coming back off tour, and people would go: "Your house is lovely." And I'd be like (irate): "Who the fuck are you?" ' 'And I just said: "That's it, man, the bar's closed." The house in London was like a nightclub. 'It was about a year and a half ago, right?' he says, dragging on a Benson & Hedges. On a warm autumn afternoon, in a secluded rehearsal studio, Noel Gallagher, rock star and dad-to-be, is telling Paul Weller and The Observer about the exact point he decided that the party was over. and Liam's behaviour at the birth of his son Here, they talk frankly together for the first time about music, the daughter Paul Weller has never mentioned in print before, Noel Gallagher's fears about fatherhood. Both spokesmen for their respective generations, it's perhaps unsurprising that the men behind The Jam and Oasis became friends.
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