(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Wed 18 June 2025 6:00, UK
Not every rock and roll artist has to be a great musician to keep themselves entertaining. There are often people like Eddie Van Halen who leave people in shock and awe whenever they play, but it’s sometimes better to get across a particular emotion when playing than trying to become the next rock and roll guitar prodigy or the kind of singer that everyone wants to emulate. Sometimes people only want to see a real person underneath all that smoke and mirrors, and Noel Gallagher never claimed to be anything other than what he was in Oasis.
Throughout every piece of the band’s career, Noel always wanted to be thought of as the same kid from Manchester that happened to be in one of the biggest bands in the world, Sure, he would also talk about his songs being among the best that anyone had ever heard in 20 years whenever he played them, but it’s hard to deny that had a minor point when listening to him pump out the riff to ‘Supersonic’ or sing his heart out on ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’.
But he was never interested in playing the role of the glamorous rock star that had come before. That was reserved for the hair-metal era, and despite being celebrated like one of the most gifted artists of his generation, he always held onto those punk values that he kept near and dear to his heart when he first heard bands like Sex Pistols when he was a kid.
John Lydon may have set a good example for both Noel and Liam when they first came together, but it’s not like 1977 was the year when they fell in love with music or anything. They had always held The Beatles near and dear to their hearts, and when looking at the music that came both before and after punk, Noel was focused on people who had the same mentality of working for no one but themselves, like Neil Young.
Despite being called ‘The Godfather of Grunge’, Young fit in nicely with the artists willing to rock the mohawk hairdo. Both were coming from different angles, but Young wanted to make the kind of music he wanted, and if that bothered his label or upset fans who wanted him to stay the same, that was their problem. Much like Young, Paul Weller knew that it was better to keep his creative muse rolling in The Jam, and in both of them, Noel found the model for what he wanted to be.
Even when talking about them later, Noel considered Young and Weller to be the most authentic rockstars he’d ever seen, saying, “Ultimately the one thing you can say about people like Weller and Neil Young is that it is as real as it gets for those guys, which is why [Weller] would never try and rewrite ‘That’s Entertainment’, or any of those great songs that have formed the fabric of England, if he felt he was faking it. That’s why people hold [them] in the utmost respect, and long may it continue.”
And both of them haven’t shown signs of slowing down, either. Young is more content to fade into the background and continue making the kind of music that he wants, and while people would have lost their minds if they had a proper reunion of The Jam, Weller has always been laser-focused on doing everything he wants to do than having to step back into his old ways all over again.
It might infuriate some fans who weren’t there for the golden ages of either of their careers, but that’s the beauty of being an artist. It’s their role to constantly evolve no matter what era they’re in, and as much as they would like to live in that golden age forever, it’s far more realistic for them to move on and see what else is out there.
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