Liam Gallagher is to play a solo concert with Richard Ashcroft.

Liam Gallagher

Liam Gallagher

The former Oasis frontman is set to launch his solo career this year, and his close friend and fellow rocker has let slip that they will be performing live together at some point in 2017.

Asked whose offer he would accept if both Liam and his brother Noel Gallagher - his former bandmate who he has barely spoken to since Oasis ended in 2009 - Richard said: "I would have to politely tell them both that I had something else on and stay at home.

"I played a show with Noel a few months ago and I'm playing with Liam later in the year."

Richard - who became pals with Liam when he was fronting fellow British band The Verve, with the two acts regularly touring together in the 90s - won't be giving Liam any advice on going it alone, but thinks his return to music will be welcomed as there are few people as outspoken as the 'Songbird' singer.

The 'Lucky Man' singer told Q magazine: "I wouldn't be daft enough to give Liam any advice on going solo. He can just be himself and do what he loves and people will connect to it. We miss those characters, these people with an opinion. Most people just don't [give an opinion] unless they believe they're getting some sort of PC credit. Then they're out there, appeal after appeal, holding babies and making everyone feel really guilty and miserable around Christmas."

To date, 44-year-old Liam's only announced solo show is at Bergenfest in Norway in June, but Richard, 45, is not one of the artists currently named on the bill.

Richard inspired Oasis' track 'Cast No Shadow' from their seminal 1995 album '(What's The Story) Morning Glory?' but he admits he has no idea what Noel, 49, meant by the lyrics.

He said: "I think it's one of the best tunes Noel's ever written as well.

"It's a great honour to be a part of that and then when the album exploded like that it was just great. I was buzzing. I think it was almost an afterthought [for Noel] but there were so many gags at the time because I was so thin, 'Is it because he's so thin that he casts no shadow, is that what it's about?'

"I did say to him, 'Am I a vampire? What are you trying to say, man?'"

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