Noel Gallagher in luddite shocker!

Gilps · April 14, 2008

They come over here, taking jobs off white indie boys...

Noel Gallagher has criticised the decision to have a hip-hop act headlining the Glastonbury Festival.

The Oasis guitarist said having rapper Jay-Z at the festival was the reason tickets had not sold out this year.

He said it was "wrong" to have a hip-hop headliner and added that organisers had changed things too much.

There were 100,000 tickets sold for Glastonbury on the first day, but in past years all tickets had sold out in a matter of hours.

Gallagher said: "If it ain't broke don't fix it.

"If you start to break it then people aren't going to go. I'm sorry, but Jay-Z? No chance.

"Glastonbury has a tradition of guitar music and even when they throw the odd curve ball in on a Sunday night you go 'Kylie Minogue?'

"I don't know about it. But I'm not having hip-hop at Glastonbury. It's wrong."

Oasis headlined the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury in 1995 and 2004, with the event selling out on both occasions.

Gallagher also rubbished recent stories saying Oasis were ready to "do a Prince" and have a residency at London's O2 Arena.

"We'll never play the O2," he said. "We went there to see Led Zeppelin and to be honest the gig was fantastic, but it was the most soul destroying venue I've ever been to.

Jay-Z will headline Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage on the Saturday night

"And much to our manager and agent's disappointment, we came back and said we would never play there.

"So it means we are going to have to do 640 nights at Earl's Court, I would have thought.

"It's too Americanised for me, and it's too far away. Any gig you can get to by boat that hasn't got a beach is wrong."

He did confirm that Oasis' seventh studio album had been completed.

"That's finished. All done. We're just kind of waiting to get a record deal and get it out.

"We've not managed to get a title yet. We're in the middle of doing the artwork. Down to a shortlist of about three. The first single? That will be four-and-half minutes long."

Battle of the bands

When asked if Oasis were still Britain's biggest band, or whether the Arctic Monkeys had taken over that mantle, Noel admitted: "We'll be bigger than them in terms of ticket sales, but they'll probably sell slightly more records than us.

"But then again, they've got about 20 years on us. So see where they are in 2089, or whenever it is they'll be my age."

Meanwhile, Glastonbury organisers took out an advert in Monday's Guardian newspaper to encourage ticket sales.

The ad invites people to "take a five-day break at Worthy Farm and enjoy the most extraordinary festival anywhere in the world".

The full line-up will be announced on 1 May

pipnasty · April 14, 2008

This post is not viewable to guests.

You can sign in to your account at the login page here