He’s doing his best to play it cool but for all of his ‘it’s just two mates making a record’ pretence Liam Gallagher is kid at Christmas levels of excited that his new album also has John fucking Squire’s name on it.

His big brother might have managed to get Robert Smith and Johnny fucking Marr onto the same track last year, but this Oasis frontman/Stone Roses guitar god hook-up truly is the stuff Britpop wet dreams are made of.

The plot was hatched in 2022 at Knebworth House where, as he’d done twenty-six years earlier with Oasis, Squire came out for the encore version of ‘Champagne Supernova’.

It was John’s first time on stage since the Roses reunion ground to a halt in 2017 with the anticipated third album undelivered and nobody, least of all him, wanting to get bogged down in the whys and wherefores.

With the adulation of 170,000 Knebworth-goers still ringing in his ears, John wrote and demoed the ten songs that Liam eagerly agreed to record during a three week blitz in Los Angeles, which is the fastest either of them have ever worked.

The result is an album that combines the punk rawness of Definitely Maybe with the swooping, soaring majesty of the self-titled Stone Roses debut.

With the greatest respect to Liam who’s in the vocal form of his life and clearly enjoying every nanosecond, it’s Squire’s outrageous guitar playing which has you hitting the ‘repeat’ button.

The plan today is for me to talk to Liam first and then spend some quality time with John who Hot Press last met in 1998 when his short-lived band, The Seahorses, were opening for The Verve in Slane. Fair to say a lot of water has passed under the rock ‘n’ roll bridge since.

It’s worth noting that for all this to have happened a temporary Mancunian football truce has been struck with Liam even willing to overlook John designing Man U’s new range of Stone Roses-inspired casualwear – “It’s alright… except for the United badge,” the boy Gallagher says striking a conciliatory tone.

Anyway, enough of the preamble, here’s how it all goes down...

Credit: Tom Oxley

LIAM GALLAGHER

Stuart Clark: The sixteen-year old you must be thinking, a dozen times a day, “Fucking hell, how has this happened?
Liam Gallagher: Not really, man. I know what you’re saying – I’m very excited to be making music with John Squire, right? He’s a great songwriter and one of my heroes for sure, but I ain’t sixteen anymore, am I? If was sixteen, definitely, but I’m fifty-one and would like to think I’ve grown up a little bit! I’m definitely buzzing and glad to hear him making music again. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. It’s not just me banging on about it – for me he’s the greatest guitarist of his generation in this country and the world. I’m fucking made up that we’ve not only made this record, but are also going to be on the same stage ripping it up.

Are you aware that you’re playing the Dublin 3Olympia on March 16th, which is leading into St. Patrick’s day and all the madness that entails?
Man, I don’t do that anymore. I’m not a big boozer now when I’m on tour, I have to behave meself. I might slip in a cheeky one and that, but I’ll have to be fucking careful because the wheels can come off very quickly! I’ll be buzzing, though, for the crowd who are always mental in Dublin. They don’t need any fucking encouragement from me!

Plans for the album were hatched at Knebworth. Did you take it as a given that John would come and play ‘Champagne Supernova’ with you again?
No way, man, I’m not big headed enough to take something like that for granted. I think what happened is that somebody who works with me got on to somebody who works with him. I don’t think I asked him the first time either. Someone said John was up for coming and I was like, “Cool man, fucking amazing!”

So, you didn’t have somebody knock on your trailer door at Knebworth and say, “There’s a John Squire in the car-park with his guitar”?
No, he didn’t just turn up on the day! Someone said he was up for it and I was like, “Well, I’m right fucking up for it too!” He came down and rehearsed with us for a day or two – not that he needs to rehearse but to see the band and that. We started talking about life – y’know, “What you been up to blah blah blah”, “Nice jacket, where did you get it from?” That sort of thing. I wasn’t bothered asking about the Roses because I know they get a bit precious and I’m not one to be nosy about other people’s bands and that. Anyway, I go, “What have you been up to?” and he says, “Writing songs.” I said, “Alright, who’s singing them?” and he goes, “Well, this is it, are you up for singing them?” I’m like, “Yeah, as long as there are loads of guitars on it and you’re writing the fucking songs ‘cause I’m doing nothing. I’ve got to go and have an operation.”

I heard you were out of an action for a while. Are you okay now?
Yeah, I was meant to take an entire year off after this operation on me hips; I couldn’t walk and all that (because of arthritis). That was the plan but then John sent these songs over and fucking ruined it.

The last time we spoke you’d just run a 15k and were hoping to do a full marathon. Has that gone out of the window now?
I can’t run anymore but I can ride me mountain bike, so I do a lot of riding and a bit of boxing.

Before we go on, something I need to confirm. John is a filthy Red, yeah?
Yeah, he’s a filthy Red, no two ways about it.

And you’ve seen the range of United merchandise he’s done?
Yeah, I might get him to do us one and say, “Take the fucking badge off!”

When did you and John first meet?
The Roses were doing The Second Coming in Rockfield and we were doing Definitely Maybe in Monnow Valley, and them two studios are about two miles apart and are owned by two brothers and I don’t think they speak either. We were going to the pub early doors – I think we were with Phil Smith who used to be a roadie for the Roses. Ian and John were coming out of Boots or somewhere like that and we met them on the high street, said “hello” and that was it. Mark Coyle who recorded Definitely Maybe lived in Mani’s old house, so we knew people who knew them and they knew people who knew us and stuff.

You told me before how seeing the Roses at a 1988 benefit show in Manchester’s International 2 venue changed your life.
I had to get a tenner off me Mam. I said, “I need to go and see this band. It’s important. This is going to be the one, it’s going to be life-changing.” She’s like, “When am I going to get it back?” but gives it me. I’m with me mate and there’s a tout outside selling tickets for a tenner. I got him down to a fiver so I could get a couple of drinks, went in and don’t remember much about the gig except for Ian Brown coming on at the beginning with his bells and doing ‘I Wanna Be Adored’. Funny thing is that where me Mam and Dad met when it was called The Carousel. I had my epiphany on that same dancefloor. Weird isn’t it?

I imagine the Roses at Spike Island must have been another “eureka!” moment.
Spike Island was the big gathering but we were off our tits then, we weren’t listening to the music, it was just “wahaaaaaaay!” The one for me was the Roses in the Blackpool Empress Ballroom when we got locked in and all that.

Were you ever on the same bill as John?
Oasis and the Roses? No, but The Seahorses supported us in Europe. They were a top band.

Who like Beady Eye were on a hiding to nothing trying to follow what had come immediately before.
Yeah, The Seahorses were a top band and Beady Eye were a top band. I just think people struggled with the names. If the Roses had put that album (Do It Yourself) out, it would’ve been fucking hailed as great. If Oasis had put some of those Beady Eye songs out, same thing. At the end of the day it was better than all the other little cunts were doing at the same time, so I’m fine with it.

Getting back to 2022, what happened after the Knebworth dust had settled?
John sent me a couple of demos with these multi-tracked vocals because he doesn’t like his voice. I couldn’t really get his diction but I got the melody – it was just the guitar, which I was obsessed with. I said, “Look, can you send us over the words so I can pick a few bits out?” He sent ‘em over and I thought, “Fucking hell, these are really good!” Before you know it he sent another one, then another. I went up to his house in Macclesfield – he has a little vocal studio there – and that’s when the songs really started to take shape.

You were off then touring C’Mon You Know, but managed to hook up with John in Los Angeles.
I’d come from Japan and had a bit of a chest infection from the planes and all that. I always get fucked up on them flights – the air conditioning kills me. I had a week chilling and getting me chest back together and then spent three weeks in the studio doing the recording.

That’s really quick.
I don’t fuck about! Don’t listen to what our kid says in the papers about me being lazy, man, I don’t mess about and Squire don’t mess about and Greg Kurstin the producer don’t mess about.

Greg previously worked on your solo albums and with the likes of Adele, Paul McCartney and Harry Styles.
The thing about Greg is that he can play instruments as well – he’s great on drums, the bass and the piano. You don’t really need to be in there with a band, right? Plus, all of his gear’s shit hot and works. You’ll be in some of these studios and say “Let’s get the mellotron out!” only to be told, “The bloke who knows about that’s on holiday in Benidorm and won’t be back ‘til next week.” All of them days sitting around in the studio drinking and fucking snorting cocaine and getting off your tits, they’re over, man. Time is money. You’ve got to get things done.

It’s the old mantra – get in there, do the damage and get out before anyone realises.
Exactly. The older you get the more mission-like it is. When you’re young you’re farting about for days and weeks and months. Not any-fucking-more.

“You should have fucked me while you had the chance” from ‘One Day At A Time’ screams “Liam Gallagher lyric” but is in fact Mr. Squire.
Yeah, he wrote all the words and done all the songs. He’s a better songwriter than me, man. Sometimes you’ve got to take a back seat. I feel a lot more comfortable singing than I do having to worry about the lyrics. I write songs through gritted teeth. I always had Noel doing it for us. I’m a part-time songwriter. But going back to that lyric, I’ll enjoy singing “You should have fucked me while you had the chance” for sure.

One of my favourite songs on the record is ‘One Day At A Time’, which includes the equally profane: “Thank you for your thoughts and prayers… and fuck you too!”
(Laughs) That’s not U2 the band…

Did you get to see Bono’s one man show?
No, I don’t go to concerts, man. Unless I’m playing them I stay put in the house. It’s called ‘turning fifty’!

Did you give yourself a fiftieth birthday talking to?
No, man, no. We’re still here. I look half-decent and long may we fucking continue to live and breathe.

You also sound like you’re having a blast on ‘I’m A Wheel’, which is a dirty scabrous blues song.
I don’t really know about the blues except for the football team, but I’ve never sung on anything like that before. I didn’t think, “Fucking hell, I can’t do this”, though. I just steamed straight in and nailed it.

It reminds me of Mick n’ Keef jamming out ‘The Rolling Stone Blues’ on Hackney Diamonds.
Does it? I don’t listen to anything past the fucking 1960s or ‘70s.

You said recently that the album closer, ‘Mother Nature’s Song’, made you cry – and I can understand why. I mean, the fucking guitar work…
The melodies and the vocals and the sentiment of the song… it’s beautiful.

The only word for the riff at the start of ‘Just Like A Rainbow’ is ‘biblical!’ What went through your mind when you heard it first?
For me, that guitar riff is like a call to arms. It’s like being on the Moon and putting your flag down – “Right, we’re here!” The lyrics too… I imagine that’ll be the song we open up with. I can’t wait till we start rehearsing it in a few weeks.

When you’re touring round Europe and the States, are you going to sail through with your lovely Irish passport while John’s stuck in a queue with three hundred other Brits?
I haven’t got one, mate. I need to get one. I keep threatening to but I haven’t got round to it yet. So I’ll be stuck at the back like a doughnut.

Apply now and you’ll have it in time for the start of the tour.
All right, sweet!

Finally, what would the mature, stay at home, temperate 51-year-old Liam Gallagher say to the teenage one who had his mind-blown in the ‘80s by John Squire and the rest of the Roses?
Don’t take yourself too seriously, man. Have a good time, try to do your own thing. We’re not curing cancer, we’re just making music. And don’t be too hard on yourself as well.

Credit: Tom Oldham

JOHN SQUIRE

As softly spoken and considered as his current partner in musical crime is loud and unvarnished, John Squire has a reputation for being a reluctant interviewee but is clearly relishing talking about the new album – the first to bear his name since 2004’s solo Marshall House offering.

He could have made a small - actually, no, a massive - fortune as a guitar for hire, but except for the Roses’ third coming the disgustingly well-preserved 61-year-old has preferred to concentrate on his painting of late. So, seconds away, Liam Gallagher & John Squire round two:

Stuart Clark: After finishing up with the Roses in 2017, was the plan to make more music or concentrate on other things?
John Squire: I had an offer in 2018 from Damien Hirst to do a show. I think I spent about a year on that work. A little bit of time off and then I got heavily into painting. I did a show called Disinformation in the Newport Street Gallery just before lockdown. After that I didn’t have any plans really. I didn’t do a lot of painting. I didn’t write any songs. Played guitar regularly, always have done since 1977 when I was fourteen.

Is Damien a good guy?
Yeah, really generous, funny and great to be around.

I don’t expect you to name them but have you ever encountered Banksy in your travels?
I’ve met him.

Ah, it is a ‘him’! Was there a catalyst for you thinking, “Right, I want to do a body of musical work again?”
It was kind of a prod from my manager saying, “Do you want to repeat your Knebworth performance from ’96. Do you want to get up on stage with Liam?” That was the catalyst.

Liam confirmed that you didn’t just turn up on the day with your guitar.
Yeah, there was a brief rehearsal and a quick catch-up with Liam. I think the respective managers must have been making some moves because Liam said, “You’re into writing some tunes together?” I said, “Yeah” and it went from there. We talked a little bit on the phone, by text after that. We hatched more of a plan after the second Knebworth show in Liam’s trailer and then got down to work.

Playing in front of 85,000 people each night, did the adrenaline come back?
Yeah, it was really exciting. I prefer those kind of shows. I’d rather do that than play in a pub where you can see every last eyelash and pimple. I enjoy the energy from a huge crowd.

Do you remember your first time meeting Liam?
I forget the year exactly but it was while they were recording Definitely Maybe. We were recording The Second Coming in studios that were a couple of miles away. I met Liam on the high street in Monmouth. He was with a roadie called Phil Smith who’d been working with us and had switched camps to Oasis.

How did he strike you that day?
I don’t know, just another music fan in a way. He didn’t seem that excited about what he was doing. Just sort of downplayed it. “We’re recording a few tunes down the road, pleased to meet you.” It was just a short exchange.

Were you aware of the seismic effect that Stone Roses’ International 2 benefit gig had on the teenage Liam?
I didn’t know about it until we did a round of interviews in Paris a few days ago and that kept cropping up. I didn’t realise it was that direct an influence.

Did you have a similar “That’s what I want to do with the rest of my life!” moment?
It was the first gig I went to, which was The Clash in the Manchester Apollo in November 1977. I was fourteen and getting crushed at the front. Security dragged me over and I ended up standing on top of a pile of broken chairs that the audience had ripped and thrown over the barrier. I must have been there only a few seconds, but it seemed eternal – me in front of the band at brothel creeper level. I remember feeling at that moment, “This is a much better place to be than a yard back struggling to breathe. I want to be up on stage.” Then I got pulled out and thrown back into the crowd.

I won’t embarrass you by repeating what Liam said about your playing on the album. Who are your guitar gods?
Hendrix, Page – I’ve met Jimmy a few times – Steve Jones, Mick Jones, Roger McGuinn.

Getting back to the new record – were the ten songs written from scratch or did you have a few ideas stockpiled?
I thought I had some riffs I could dust down that were pretty strong, but I didn’t end up using any of them. The first thing I wrote after catching up with Liam was better than anything I had. I sent the first song to him as soon it was ready, fingers crossed, because the vocal was shit but he liked it and we kept going from there. Every week or two I’d send him another song. Pretty soon we had eight and he came to mine and demoed them and they sounded incredible. It was then that I realised what we had, and I didn’t stop playing that. It was like having a brand new classic album.

The first track that jumped out at me – I described it to Liam as “a dirty scabrous blues song” – was ‘I’m A Wheel’.
I’m glad you singled that song out. I’m really pleased with the chorus in that tune. It deviates from the blues and goes into three/four. It’s a bit more melodic and doesn’t use that scale, but somehow it navigates its way back into the verse. I don’t know how I did that…

Liam admitted that he got teary-eyed recording ‘Mother Nature’s Song’.
Yeah, that song really surprised me. I’ve never written anything like that before. I had a similar experience because I wasn’t in the studio when he recorded that vocal. I came in the next day when they were mixing it. I didn’t actually cry but I welled up. There’s something in that melody and its delivery that gets me every time.

“You should have fucked me while you had the chance” from ‘One Day At A Time’ sounds like pure Liam Gallagher, but is in fact pure John Squire. Have you ever been that lyrically forthright before?
No. I had that line in mind. It’s the one thing that came before the meeting and discussion with Liam about working together, but I’ve never found a song to force it into.

Is it autobiographical?
Yes!

The other one I thought had to be Liam was “Thank you for your thoughts and prayers… and fuck you too!” from ‘One Day At A Time’. Is that line a riposte to the Americans who offer up empty platitudes whenever there’s a mass shooting?
Yeah, it was inspired by that but is something that anybody could blurt out on the commute home or wherever. I like to write things that people can hopefully identify with and use in their daily lives.

The second I heard ‘Love You Forever’, I thought Hendrix?
Yeah, I made no attempt to disguise the influences there!

Is there a ‘Louie Louie’ or ‘Wild Thing’ on the album that popped out in thirty minutes?
Yeah, ‘Mother Nature’s Song’. I came back to it and tidied it up a little the day after– but the kernel of the song came out of nowhere. I really felt like a conduit for something else then. I just remember sitting down, picking up my Gibson Hummingbird and the lyric and the chord progression seemed to come from somewhere else.

Unlike some of the other albums you’ve made in the past, the recording process was pretty painless.
Yeah, it was. It was intense and the engineer let me know when we finished that his next album session was going to take twice as long.

It sounds very raw and live.
Yeah but that’s just an illusion because there’s only a couple of tracks where me, Greg and Joey (Waronker, drummer) played at the same time. I think a lot of that chemistry comes from me and Liam being on the same page musically and the fact that Greg and Joey have a history. They played together early doors with Beck, so know each other very well. I had lots of transatlantic calls with Greg before going over and he knew exactly what I was looking for.

I’ve spoken to Liam countless times down through the years and, honestly, I’ve never heard him so excited.
The same is true for me. It almost feels like getting into The Clash again. I’m a big fan of the album. Sometimes when you write, record and rehearse the songs they wear a bit thin. I’ve listened to these so much in demo form, in rough mix form and in mastered versions and I just can’t get tired of hearing them.

• Liam Gallagher & John Squire is out now. They play 3Olympia, Dublin on March 16. Liam celebrates Definitely Maybe 30 Years in 3Arena, Dublin (June 23 & 24); Thomond Park, Limerick (July 14); and Boucher Playing Fields, Belfast (August 16).