Highlights from Sunday’s The Radio X Residency with Noel Gallagher are below..
Noel says he’s “never been so proud of anything or anyone in my life” than when he watched his son Sonny at his school concert
NG: Sonny, my son, I was at his school concert the other night, he did his first gig. […] I got a little knot in my stomach because I was like ‘he’s only 10’, you know what I mean? He's not been playing that long, he's not even been interested in it that long. And there was a little thing, like a projector thing of who it was and what they were going to play, and it came up ‘20th Century Boy’ by T.Rex, and I was like ‘get in there son!’ and he had it. He had it down. He had the riff. He played a blinder and even did a little [motions with hand in the air] at the end. And I’ve never been so proud of anything or anyone in my life. It was great, it was amazing. […] Absolutely brilliant.
MM: And Sonny's timing is brilliant.
NG: Yeah, bang on. I was very, very proud.
MM: So in the past, I've said ‘why don't you teach your boys guitar?’ and you said ‘oh they’re not interested.’ So how did that come about?
NG: Ah, because it's going to plan. My plan was always not to say ‘right, Dad's a musician, you're going to be a musician’ because I know loads of kids who've done that and by the time they get to 21, they've given up. They're just not interested. So my plan was just to leave musical instruments around the house. But Sonny, yeah, he literally picked it up and he's had a go and he's into it.
Noel reveals Damon Albarn invited him to go on holiday to North Korea
NG: Now I'd like to go to North Korea, though. I'd love to go. Because Damon Albarn was telling me, Damon's been as a tourist and he was telling me the stories of it. It sounds like it is really, I mean, fascinating. He was saying to me ‘do you fancy going?’ and I was like ‘what, me and you go to North Korea?’
MM: That would be crazy documentary.
NG: Well he’d write an opera on the plane on the way, wouldn’t he? While I’d be getting rat-arsed on the lager. I'd love to go though. I'd love to experience the atmosphere of it.
Noel says his version of Mind Games – recorded for John Lennon’s 80th birthday – will be released, potentially as part of a collection of covers
NG: I'd done something for Sean [Lennon] on the day of John's 80th birthday, and [the gift] was like ‘thank you very much for that’ kind of thing. They wanted me to get involved with this album, and I couldn't get involved because I was doing something at the time. And on the eve of his birthday, Sean said ‘oh you know how it's dad's birthday tomorrow, and can you do something on your socials?’ I happened to be in the studio and I said ‘well, let's record.’ We just did a version of ‘Mind Games’ and did a little film.
MM: Oh yeah, is that ever coming out?
NG: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll finish it off and do it for… I'll do it for Record Store Day maybe or something. I’ve done a lot of covers recently. I'll probably collate them all and do it for something or other. It came out pretty good actually.
