Noel Gallagher: "New Best Of Is For Future Generations"

The Oasis leader explains how he put 'Stop The Clocks' together

Noel Gallagher has explained how he picked the tracks for forthcoming Best Of, 'Stop The Clocks', declaring it "a manifesto for future generations".

After much discussion between fans as to what should and shouldn't have made the cut, Oasis recently ended speculation by revealing the tracklisting for the album to be released on November 20. Now, speaking exclusively to NME, Noel explained he had clear plans for the record. "I've always said if we ever did one [a greatest hits] it was going to be one CD with 12 tunes" he said. "So I started off writing down all the ones I thaught were great - 30 odd tunes - and because the songs are so long that would have been three CD's. So it went down and down and now there's about eight that should be on it but aren't - 'Fade Away', '(it's good) To Be Free', 'Listen Up', 'Gas Panic!', 'D'You Know What I Mean?' and a couple of others."

The Future

Noel is worried about the omissions, however, claiming the album is mainly for people who haven't heard of Oasis yet. "To me these things are about future generations," he said. "When I got into The Beatles, it was the Red and Blue [greatest hits] albums. So this is about 30 years from now, when I am an old man and there are kids going, 'Yeah, thats the f*****g band that me old fella's granddad was into!' It's me saying, 'This is our best work', I've had arguments this week with people going, "Rockin' Chair' isn't on it - thats wrong, man!' I've had stand-up rows with people! But that must mean we're pretty good. If people are arguing about what's not on it, it's brilliant! But I'm in charge! Someone has got to pick the tracklisting and I've picked it and thats the end of it. This is the manifesto for future generations. It's for 10 or 15 years from now, for when people are going, 'That's that band everyone was yakking on about'."

Label Pressure

If it was up to the band, Noel added, a Best Of would not be released until Oasis split, however, he claimed the band were pressured into doing 'Stop The Clocks'. "We said we wouldn't do it until we called it a day," he admitted, "but as were signed to Sony and we made it clear we weren't going to re-sign to them, we got wind they were going to do a greatest hits or a Best Of. We got told a greatest hits. Now, our greatest hits, ie all the singles, is not our best stuff, right? So we were faced with the decision of either standing back and saying in NME: "We're not getting on board, don't buy it', or going, 'Right, if it's got to be now then we'll get involved.' The way it's panned out, there are eight Number One Singles that aren't on it, 'coz it's all B-Sides and album tracks. They [the label] seemed a little bit arsed about that, but if we're going to do a definitive collection of where we are now, then our singles are not our best work. It's our album tracks, the famous songs. We all know what we are talking about: 'Half The World Away', Champagne Supernova', 'Talk Tonight'...our B-sides are some of our best work. So we thaught if we don't do it they're going to do it and bastardise it. If it has to be now, it has to be now."

Despite deciding to engage with the release, the guitarist said he wondered about the relevance of Best Of compilations with the growth of MP3 players and playlist culture. "I got into the Doors, The Beatles, The Kinks and The Who by buying Best Of's. They are valid, but I'm not sure what they mean in our age of playlists and ipods and all that," he explained. "I'm sure somebody somewhere has got the exact tracklisting [of The Best Of] on their playlist or ipod. I'm not sure they're that big a deal any more. But as I say, we were kind of shoved into it."

The New Album

Noel, who joined Kasabian onstage last week (Sept 12) at London's KOKO for NME.COM's 10th birthday party, added that it was unlikely Oasis would play any shows around 'Stop The Clocks' release.

"I'm playing at KOKO in November for Russell Brand's tour, but we're actively trying to play it [the Best Of] down because it's not what we're about, really," said the guitarist. "We've got so much left over from the last album - at least another two or three albums' worth of material, but Russell asked me to do this thing so I said, 'F**k it, alright'. We're not trying to big this collection up. Our next new record is more important than this one, but this had to happen now. In a way it's liberating - we've done it and it's out there. It's finished now and it stops people asking about it, because we were getting asked about it constantly!"

Source: NME Magazine