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Oasis star brands their feud ‘pathetic’

Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher has called his former rival Damon Albarn a “great artist”.

The star, embroiled in a bitter war of words with the Blur frontman during the 1990s, has finally laid their feud to rest in an interview with The Guardian, branding it “pathetic”.

Of the feud, which centred on the chart battle between their rival singles ‘Roll With It’ and ‘Country House’, Gallagher said: “Looking back now that fight’s all so pathetic over two really quite shit pop songs. He’s a great artist. He’s different from me. I’m not an artist – for me, it just comes out. He does Chinese operas and that kind of thing, he’s got more strings to his bow than I’ll ever have.”

However, asked whether the pair got on, he admitted: “There’s always been something between me and him, and I don’t know what it is.”

Quelle: nme.com

‘The Weakest Link’ plots Britpop special

Oasis and Blur are rumoured to be indulging in their old Britpop rivalry once more by competing on BBC game show ‘The Weakest Link’.

According to Daily Star, telly chiefs are in talks with the old rivals: Noel Gallagher, Liam Gallagher, Damon Albarn and Alex James.

And the show is keen to draft in a whole host of Britpop musicians, including the likes of Suede’s Brett Anderson, Elastica’s Justine Frischmann, Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker and Manic Street Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfield.

A BBC source said the show was in the early planning stages, but added: “If we can pull this off it would be unbelievable.”

He added, “Noel admits he’s a «Weakest Link» fan.”

Quelle: nme.com

Singer says he now ‘buzzes off’ Damon Albarn

Liam Gallagher has called an end to his feud with Britpop rivals Blur.

His band Oasis and the London group were arch rivals in the 1990s, with it all coming to a head when both bands released a single on the same day in 1995 – Blur’s ‘Country House’ beat Oasis’ ‘Roll With it’ following a massive war of words between the two bands.

Now the Oasis frontman says he’s not only over the rivalry, but actually likes Blur frontman Damon Albarn.

“I don’t mind Blur,” Gallagher told Mojo. “I’m over it [the rivalry]. It was a laugh man, that’s what you do when you’re young.”

He added: “When I see Damon Albarn, I buzz off him. If I was still caught up in it now I’d be a right wanker.”

The singer’s comments follow those of guitarist Noel Gallagher, who told NME.COM earlier this year that he respects his rivals as musicians.

“You know Damon, bless him, I’ve got a lot of respect for him. This never comes across in interviews, but I really do mean it,” Noel said. “Because I’m indifferent to Damon, he thinks that I think he’s a cunt. Our Liam will talk to him. I won’t because he’s just another singer in a band to me, but I don’t think he’s a cunt. Good luck to him.”

Blur, meanwhile, are set to consider reuniting for a new record next week. Bassist Alex James has said all four members will have lunch together to discuss working again following guitarist Graham Coxon’s departure from the band in 2002.

Quelle: nme.com

Former BLUR star ALEX JAMES wishes he had penned OASIS hit WONDERWALL – and has branded the track the band’s “finest moment”. The bassist, whose band were the Manchester group’s musical enemies in the 1990s, also praised frontman Liam Gallagher’s vocal skills. He says, “I thought it was a really good song. Wish I’d written it. He’s got a great voice Liam and I think that’s their finest moment.”

Quelle: contactmusic.com

Pop music’s most bitter chart battle of the Nineties is being replayed this week. Ten years after Blur and Oasis went head to head to claim the Britpop crown in the summer of 1995, the Mancunians are embroiled in a new sales war with Blur front man, Damon Albarn.

Industry sources suggest that Albarn’s current band, Gorillaz, is poised to snatch the number one position from Oasis, although it is still too close to call. According to the midweek chart data, which remains a closely guarded industry secret, “Dare”, the new release from the Gorillaz is just 300 sales ahead of Oasis’s “The Importance of Being Idle”.

But this re-heated Britpop party could be gatecrashed by the 17-year-old singing star Rihanna, whose club hit, “Pon De Replay”, broke into the charts at number two last week, just behind Oasis. She is outselling the Gallagher brothers, but the gap between the two acts is said to be as little as a dozen copies.

This is a crucial week for the UK singles chart. Two of the biggest retailers, HMV and Virgin, are preparing to launch their new digital download services on Monday. After a decade of steady decline, the singles chart has been revitalised by the emergence of music downloading technology, which has doubled the volume of tracks sold.

It was a different market in 1995. The battle between Blur’s “Country House” and Oasis’s “Roll With It” marked the opening salvo in a new type of marketing campaign which promoted singles through pre-release radio and cable television promotion.

Blur won the battle that week, outselling Oasis two to one. But it may have had less to do with their stereotypically middle-class, southern fanbase proving more loyal than the northern working-class support of their rivals, than first appeared. Blur’s record company, Food, cleverly engineered excitement about the single by moving the release date to coincide with “Roll With It”, and offered retailers heavy discounts. This allowed them to sell Blur at £1 cheaper than Oasis, often next to each other in the record stores. Blur also had the advantage of an award-winning video directed by Turner Prize-winning artist Damien Hirst and featuring Keith Allen and Matt Lucas.

In the following years, record companies successfully raised the profile of the number one slot. And as the excitement over Britpop died down, executives sold millions of Spice Girls, Robbie Williams, Boyzone and Westlife records.

But with the hype came a generation of other hits that crashed into the charts at number one only to sink like a stone the following week. Gennaro Castaldo of HMV Stores, said: “Downloading will keep sales up in the two to three weeks that follow release and could make the chart more like that of the 70s and 80s when singles hung around for a lot longer.”

At the end of the day Oasis won the war against Blur, even if they lost the battle of August 1995. Their album of that year (What’s the Story) Morning Glory outsold Blur’s The Great Escape.

Quelle: independent.co.uk