Noel Gallagher has spoken out against bands that feature no “characters”, with Arctic Monkeys‘ frontman Alex Turner in particular coming under fire from the former Oasis frontman.
Gallagher has a habit of embarking upon a one-man crusade of offending his contemporaries whenever he’s got something to promote, and as he readies his High Flying Birds for the release of their sophomore album Chasing Yesterday, he’s yet again doing the rounds.
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In an interview with the Evening Standard, Gallagher bemoaned the lack of personalities in the music industry, saying: “There doesn’t seem to be any characters any more,” Gallagher said. “When you have proper characters, the music sort of becomes secondary – it looks after itself. Look at bands like The Smiths and The Jam – all great characters.”
He continued: “I would rather drink petrol straight from the nozzle at a garage than listen to an interview with Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys. Wouldn’t you? Alternative thinking is on its way out. They just don’t make for great copy. Is it any coincidence that all the indie labels got bought up by the major labels and things have started to get boring?
“I remember the Brits in 1994 – we were all shit-faced on drugs. The new names like James Blunt, Ed Sheeran and Jessie J – they defer to the [record] labels. The bands that I grew up with had a healthy dose of indifference and contempt towards their labels. That has gone.”
Clearly Noel isn’t a fan of Turner’s Sheffield drawl, nor his still-cringeworthy Brit Awards speech where he also criticised the current state of the music industry and its supposed shutting out of rock and roll.
Aside from his quibble with Turner, Gallagher also had more a few more comments to make about current pop music – a subject he’s quite fond of – saying: “There is a lot of shit pop music these days that’s just devouring everything at the minute. I’m hoping that will come to an end.”
Oh, please save us from this Hellish nightmare, Sir Gallagher! How have we coped without your derivative Dad anthems and cod-philosophical lyrics?
Alex Turner Image: Johnny Firecloud
