While he’s named The Beatles his all-time favourite, he’s been known to drop other names with equal assurance in different interviews,as Farout reports.
Besides telling everyone to fuck off, Liam has made it his life’s mission to ensure everyone is aware of his undying love for John Lennon, and how his own performance style is informed by the great Liverpudlian. And Noel’s furrowed brow seems to soften only when talking about the great pioneers.
When asked about his experience attending The Who’s gig, Noel proceeded into a monologue that seemed to contradict large parts of his historical claims.
He said, “It was fantastic, best gig of last year. The thing about The Who, you think, fuck The Beatles and the Stones! The Stones were a blues covers band, The Beatles were a piano-pop band. The Who were something for British people to be proud of, them and the Sex Pistols”.
For Pete Townshend in terms of punk, that fell upon one band. “The Sex Pistols were obviously the most significant,“ he said, “Because they were the first and because Malcolm McLaren was organising them and allowing their anarchy.
He gave them the space to play, the space to be anarchic. But also because I think, Paul Cook and Steve Jones in the band are great rock ‘n’ roll players. They say they couldn’t play but they actually could play very, very well. John Lydon is a fucking star! You know, he is a star! He is just one of the world stars, you see him and you know: ‘He is going to be famous’”.
Noel says: “The Beatles were such gods, but Townshends’ songs were so easy to play—D-G-A—so if I was 16 in 1966, I would have been a massive Who fan. Especially the clothes and all that. Townshend was always agitated, Moon was a headcase, and the singer was always a bit testy.”
Townshend would have some reservations about labelling his songs “easy”, some of their earlier tunes did undoubtedly set out an accessible footprint for the likes of Gallagher.
