Noel Gallagher on Morning Glory: We didn't know what the album would become

2 October 2020

Noel Gallagher can't believe Oasis' seminal album, '(What's the Story) Morning Glory?', is still being talked about 25 years later.

Noel Gallagher

The 1995 classic - which was recorded at the iconic Rockfield Studios in Wales - is regarded as one of the greatest records of all time and continues to connect with generation after generation of music fans.

However, the Britpop group's former guitarist and chief songwriter admitted it was "by accident" that he penned a collection of hits that continue to resonate with the masses, and he considers it a huge "privilege" to have been "a part of it".

Speaking on the 25th anniversary of the record, Noel told SiriusXM: "We did not know what the album would become or what it would mean today. When we recorded it we were still relatively young. And it still appeals to young people and it has gone through three or four generations now.

"And the songs will get passed down from big brother to younger brother, and it is an amazing thing that we are still sitting here 25 years later discussing it. It is an amazing thing that I tapped into something by accident.

"I was happy when I wrote those songs, when I was relatively young and broke. My daughter is now 20 years of age and she gets people coming up to her saying 'No way did your dad actually write the song 'Wonderwall'?'.

"And she will say yeah and she gets mobbed over it. And she was not even f****** there!

Sometimes I get shouted at in the street. Sometimes people just shout Oasis which is mad enough away. But I still have had people just drive past in their cars and shout 'Wonderwall'.

"Those songs are just a privilege to be a part of. It's like when you do great gigs, you come off stage and say well it was a privilege to be at that gig, regardless of my part in it.

"Those ones like 'Wonderwall', 'Don't Look Back' and 'Champagne Supernova' when I play them sometimes I think 'wow it is a privilege to be a part of this'."

The 53-year-old musician says they had no idea if the record was anything special, until mega-hit 'Wonderwall' was played to the label and the response was, 'Ouch that is going to be huge!'.

Noel recalled: "If we went in today to record 'Morning Glory', with all the knowledge we had now, we would never finish it. We were so young, had not been paid from 'Definitely Maybe' (first album) and had no houses to go back to, so the studio was the best place in the world.

"I was so focused and driven and we were in that studio 18 hours a day, weekends and everything. We smashed it and nobody from the record label came down.

"It was only when we went back to London with the cassette and I played 'Wonderwall' to somebody (at the label), who as it finished said: 'Ouch that is going to be huge!'; and I went 'do you reckon?" Because you just do not know, because you are just in a little bubble."

During their time at Rockfield working on 'Morning Glory?', estranged siblings and bandmates Noel and Liam Gallagher, the band's ex-frontman, had an almighty brawl, in which they rolled around the grass hitting each other with a cricket bat.

After hitting the booze, Liam got on his rival brother's nerves by bouncing Brussels sprouts on his head.

He then decided to throw a party while Noel was trying to focus on completing the album, and there was a spat with another group at the studios who mocked Oasis' songs as "A Beatles rip-off".

All hell broke lose, with a fire extinguisher let off, and Liam ended up throwing a dustbin at Noel's car's windscreen.

Noel met the end of his tether and left for London.

He previously recalled: "Guigs (bassist Paul McGuigan) always had a cricket set around. He was an absolute cricket nutcase.

"He could pull up statistics from Glamorgan v Hampshire, 1983. The bat was just there and I thought I'd better grab it before Liam did."

Guitarist Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs added: "It turned into this monumental barney between Liam and Noel.

"The house is demolished. There's doors kicked off, the kitchen wrecked, fridges overturned. Guigs is locking away these air rifles we've hired, terrified they are going to get used.

"Meanwhile, Liam and Noel are rolling in the grass, hitting each other with a cricket bat."

The warring siblings haven't spoken to each other since Oasis split following a backstage bust-up between the pair at their final gig in Paris in 2009.

'Morning Glory?' sold a record-breaking 345,000 copies in its first week, spent 10 weeks at Number One, and won the BRIT Award for Best British Album.