To celebrate the release of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds’ Best Of collection, Back The Way We Came, Absolute Radio is launching a unique radio station, Absolute Radio Noel, from 10am on the 11th June until midnight on the 18th June.
The pop-up station features an exclusive not to be missed interview with Noel himself alongside unique performances, archive content, new album tracks and a Through The Decades playlist chosen by the High Flying Birds frontman.
For a whole week, fans of the Manchester musician will be able to get access to the dedicated radio station for free via absoluteradio.co.uk, their smart-speakers and the Absolute Radio app.
Absolute Radio Hometime presenters Andy Bush and Richie Firth sat down exclusively with Noel ahead of the station launch and as expected the Oasis songwriter had plenty to say about the current state of the music industry, the upcoming Knebworth documentary and the UK as a whole.
It is an interview not to be missed. A selection of quotes from Noel can be found below:
On writing a song for Eurovision “I’d write it, I’d write a tune, I’d smash it. I’d write it depending on who was going to perform it. I am not sure anybody I know would be up for performing it but for £32.5 million quid I’ll write a song for anyone.”
On discussing future Lockdowns “I’m not going into lockdown again by the way if anybody's listening from the Government. I'm not bothered what you say, I’m not going in and that’s the end of it. I will buy a nightclub in the West End, and I will open it 24 hours a day, even if there is only me in there playing my own tunes”
On the new Knebworth documentary and the 90s “When you see this documentary, it’s the band at its absolute peak, Liam's at his peak, but it’s a real snapshot of a long-gone era of you know there’s a quarter of a million people, not a single mobile phone, no internet, in the moment with the band. You know nobody's doing this, everybody's singing at the top of their lungs and it’s a very young crowd and its, you kind of think oh the 90s. It was the last great decade. I talk about it now, I think that my kid's generation, I think this is actually the first generation that are going to have less than their parents. When we all grew up, we had more than our parents, we had more freedom, we had more opportunity, a better lifestyle, our kids now have got less freedom. My children now, two boys who are ten and fourteen will have less freedom because of this ridiculous woke culture and the internet. And they’ll have less opportunity because of the you know the economy crashed and they’ll have less places to go because of the Covid thing, which I don’t think will ever really truly go away, and I feel bad for them. When people see this film, I got quite emotional watching it, just because of what we have lost really.”
On the current music industry “The music industry doesn’t like mavericks. You know the reason why there are no bands now is because in the 90s Oasis and Primal Scream, Blur and Pulp we were the mainstream, and what the music industry doesn’t like, is the mainstream being a load of fellas on drugs, drunk half the time on a Tuesday. They don’t like that. Fortunately, we were bought up when Top of the Pops and the charts was everything and now, I listen to the charts and it's just embarrassing I think.”
On the importance of Record Stores “They are like the live venues, they are a meeting place where you would see other like-minded people. It reaffirms who you are.”
On retirement and what is next “I don’t want to live until I am 80. I know people who are 80 and it just doesn’t look a great deal of fun to me. The world the way it is, what's the world going to be like in 25, 30 years, it's going to be dreadful. The only thing keeping me going is the fact that City might win 11 champions leagues in a row. In my whole career as a musician, I have taken it one step at a time. When I joined Oasis, I'd never played live before, so we do a gig and then, well let's write some songs, let's do an album and then after the album let's see what happens. So, where I am at now is once we get this out the way I am halfway through writing a new record, and that won’t come out until 2023, and then will see the way the game is, and hopefully live music will be back.”
Absolute Radio Content Director Paul Sylvester said “One man, one station, one week. Noel’s been a great friend to Absolute Radio and so we thought he deserved to have his own station where fans can hear non-stop Noel with a mixture of new and exclusive content alongside archive performances and interviews from through the years.”
Absolute Radio Noel, celebrating 10 years of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds goes live on 11th June at 10am. Find the station on absoluteradio.co.uk, your smart-speaker or in the Absolute Radio app.
