"I’m Never Going to F*ck Off": A Talk With Former Oasis Frontman Liam Gallagher Ahead of Aug 10 Beijing Gig

When asked about his upcoming solo album earlier this year, Liam Gallagher made headlines – as the controversial former Oasis front man is wont to do – with a profane statement. He told the British publication Metro that if the LP (titled As You Were and due October 6 on Warner Bros.) isn’t successful he’ll “probably f*ck off forever,” leaving many Oasis fans antsy about the high-stakes release.

However, the 44-year-old Britpop icon says any speculation about retirement is premature. In a short interview with the Beijinger ahead of his China tour (which will see him stop at the National Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium on August 10) Gallagher explains: “I was joking when I said that. I’m never going to f*ck off, you’re stuck with me forever.”

That will likely reassure fans, who have followed Liam closely since he and his brother Noel shot to superstardom with their band, Oasis’, 1995 sophomore album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? After all, it became the UK’s fourth highest selling LP and spawned landmark singles like “Champagne Supernova,” “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” and, of course, “Wonderwall.”

However, Gallagher detractors – of which the abrasive brothers have more than a few – are likely just as eager to see Liam fall short of the now defunct Oasis’ mid-90s glory with his upcoming solo LP.

Yes, whether it’s egging Noel on by slipping curse words into Oasis’ lyrics during concerts, getting into actual fist fights with his brother, or being banned from an airline for smoking on the plane and throwing his belongs at other passengers, Liam has gained quite a bit of notoriety in the years following Oasis’ international breakthrough. But Liam insists such infamy doesn’t bother him, explaining: “It’s none of my business what people think about me; I know who I am and that’s all that matters, not what I’m labeled as.”

One would think the pressure to live up to past triumphs, and prove the naysayers wrong, would also be compounded by Noel’s post-Oasis band, High Flying Birds, which has garnered solid reviews from critics and enthusiastic responses from fans (he announced a new LP of his own in May, saying it would arrive in November). Noel has taken time out from forging his own solo career to trade barbs with his brother in the press over the years but Liam says that hasn’t led to extreme sibling rivalry, at least not in a professional sense.

“I don’t feel pressured into making music,” Liam says of the turmoil, bad press, and high expectations that he has seemingly set for himself between Oasis’ dissolution and his upcoming solo debut. On the contrary, he says: “It’s only rock ‘n’ roll, not heart surgery.”

His confidence might stem from rumblings about some of the new album’s songs. He’s sung a few of them on recent solo tours and at a May 30 benefit concert for victims of the terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in his hometown of Manchester (Grande is herself set to play Beijing on August 26).

Equally intriguing: in 2015 he headed to the Irish town of Charlestown and strummed one of those tunes acoustically for tavern patrons, which lead to positive buzz in the press. Liam says he wouldn’t describe the occasion as a gig, but instead a fun little sideshow on his way to “visit my mother, who has a house there as it’s where she grew up. Me, my brother Paul, and my eldest son went to the pub to watch the football and had a couple of drinks and spontaneously sang a song with some local musicians.”

In a way it seems like Liam left his heart in that tiny pub, because he talks about his album with the confidence of a barstool bard, holding court in front of a few dozen everymen rather than a much-maligned celebrity with plenty to prove. “I’m proud of every single song on the album,” he tells us with blunt nonchalance, adding: “I’d describe it as honest, heartfelt, and pure rock ‘n’ roll.”

Tickets (RMB 480, 980, 1,480) are now on sale for Liam Gallagher's show on August 10 at the National Olympics Sports Center. Find more info here.

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Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
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Photos: Courtesy of Yongle