Just today, MusicRadar gave you Noel Gallagher's self-assessment of his own guitar skills: "I'm average at fucking best," he said in a joint interview with pal Paul Weller, who agreed, calling Gallagher's playing "rudimentary."
Now, we at MusicRadar disagree strongly. Gallagher is a fine, gritty guitarist, who plays what a song needs and no more. But while he might be blessed with tasteful restraint on his instrument, when it comes to bending the elbow, look out!
Perhaps if he stuck to a little more tea and less of the hard stuff, he might feel better as far as his guitars skills go.
To wit, we bring you a recent blog entry Gallagher wrote on the Oasis website, in which he runs down his bar tab after a hard day's night.
"Urgh! Me head today"
"Had a bit of a smash-up last night Where? But an Irish bar of course. Me and Cool Prophet (Gem) were the last ones left at it - again! So I got left with the bar bill - which I've just found in my pocket. It reads as follows:"
29 pints of Guinness
16 pints of Strongbow
6 pints of Jupiler (whatever the fuck that is!)
4 pints of Heineken
3 Gordon's gin
5 Sauza Tequila
12 Bacardis
11 Vodka Stolis
14 Jameson whiskey
10 Bushmills Malt
16 bottles of Coke
7 bottles of tonic
4 7-Up
…and this is the killer: 1 glass of Port and a packet of Cheese and Onion crisps!!?? All came to a colossal € 708.40. Bargain."
In US dollars, that's approximately $991.12! We're not sure if this includes a generous tip, as Gallagher left that bit of business out.
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But one thing's clear: when it comes to enjoying one's adult beverages, he's not a 'definitely maybe' type.
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Joe is a freelance journalist who has, over the past few decades, interviewed hundreds of guitarists for Guitar World, Guitar Player, MusicRadar and Classic Rock. He is also a former editor of Guitar World, contributing writer for Guitar Aficionado and VP of A&R for Island Records. He’s an enthusiastic guitarist, but he’s nowhere near the likes of the people he interviews. Surprisingly, his skills are more suited to the drums. If you need a drummer for your Beatles tribute band, look him up.
“It’s kind of scary to go through these…like, ‘Oh I’m going to take that back!’”: Albert Hammond Jr of the Strokes is (reluctantly) selling a heap of his stage-played gear on Reverb, including a Guild acoustic from the Yours To Keep tour
“There’s three of us playing guitar in Foo Fighters… A lot of tone details can get lost, which is what drew me to the Cleaver – that P-90 cut”: Chris Shiflett on how he found his weapon of choice with his Fender Cleaver Telecaster Deluxe