"I refuse to change" Liam Gallagher on his fave Aussie acts and why not playing Oasis was "a mistake"

Liam Gallagher - Rock N Roll Star, Headline King of 2017 - wants you to know that he’s happy for some things to stay just how they are.

“I refuse to change,” the frontman tells triple j Breakfast’s Liam Stapleton. “There’s so much change going on in the world, I think sometimes it’s nice to be reliable. Let people know I’m not here to be bought or sold or turned by any dickhead. I’m who I am and that’s it.”

In these uncertain times, it’s nice to know there’s some things you can still rely on, like the enjoyment of belting out ‘Wonderwall’ with a crowd. It’s a pleasure the former Oasis singer has been gifting fans at Falls Festival and sideshows over the past month as he toured Australia for the first time behind his debut solo record As You Were. But it’s also a pleasure that Liam denied people the last time he was Down Under, back in 2014, when his previous band Beady Eye and the Big Day Out were both still living entities.

“Beady Eye didn’t take off as much as I thought it would but good to be back playing Oasis songs. We didn’t play a lot [of them] in Beady Eye, which I think was a mistake.”

For a man better known for dishing out creative put-downs than swallowing his pride, it’s a rare admission to conceded that, yep, not giving people ‘The Hits’ was a big error.

“I was an original member of Oasis, Gem [Archer] and Andy [Bell] weren’t and no-one else in the band was. I just think people weren’t coming to see Beady Eye as a new thing, they’d invested a lot in Oasis and therefore, they were coming through the doors to come and [see] someone who was in Oasis and hear some of those tunes so I think it was a bit of a mistake. But here we are, plaything them now, so all good.”

“There’s a new generation, so obviously when Oasis split up, we’ve just hit at the right time. The people that come along to these gigs now, who were just a little bit too young to come see Beady Eye, I just think there’s a lot of young people, lot of love – it’s going good.”

The frontman also told us about his jogging routine and tackling fame. Basically, he doesn't have a light but he will take a selfie with you.

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Liam’s been a big fan of this latest Aussie tour and it turns out he’s also into some of our nation’s rock acts as well.

“DMA’s, they’re a new band but might be an old band down here, they played in England so had a couple of beers with them out there.”

“There’s a band called Holy Holy that my girlfriend used to do some press for in England, went to one of their gigs and they were nice lads.”

“My favourite band from Australia is You Am I, like the geezer Tim Rogers. He’s cool. We played with them in Australia some time ago. There’s a song called ‘Junk’, which makes me want to punch things. So, I like that band.”

So what does the future hold for Liam Gallagher? As ever, he gives an amusingly plain response.
“More music and try to stay out of trouble.”

He adds that he’ll “without a doubt” consider another solo record to follow the success of As You Were (which sold more vinyl copies in its first week of release than anyone in the last two decades).

“The box is open now, we can do what we want. As I’ve said before, I’m not a prolific songwriter. I come up with bits every now and again but I’m a singer, always have been and I’m quite happy with that. I think we’ll go with Greg [Kurstin, producer] again and Andrew Wyatt and see where we end up.”

Could that mean, like the surviving Beatles and Rolling Stones before him, we'll see Gallagher keep on keeping on into his ‘70s?

“Depends. I’d like to, that’s the only place that makes me really happy, when I’m on stage. Even though I don’t come across like I’m looking like it, look like I lost a winning lottery ticket but I am having a good time. I’ll do it as long as my voice can do it and as long people wanna hear me sing songs, without a doubt because there’s nothing else to do. It’s the best gig in the world.”