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When Noel Met Serge











It started with an 'Oosh' when Oasis first saw their natural heirs Kasabian, it was love at first sight. And the feeling was mutual.

If there's one question NME has about this rock 'n' roll of friendships, it's this: why didn't it happen sooner? From their swaggering emergence in 2004 with the bovver-boy beats of 'Reason Is Treason', Kasabian always seemed destined to be best mates with Oasis. Like a historical tidal wave crashing back on the shore 10 years after it first struck, when Tom Meighan and Serge Pizzorno appeared with gobby charm, up-for-it attitude and tunnel-vision drive to be the best band on the planet,it was almost a reprise of a young Liam 'n' Noel.

The musical approaches were different; Kasabian looked to chemically enhanced beats while Oasis relied on all-conquering rock'n' roll, but the way both bands causally constructed modern anthems proved that here were kindred spirits - so much so that Oasis' leader Noel Gallagher admitted he was intrigued without hearing a note.

"When the interviews started two or three years ago I thought, 'They're gobby little f**kers I hope they back it up when you hear the tunes,"' recalls the guitarist. 'Then I got 'Club Foot' and it was, 'F**king whoa, man! Is somebody saying "Oosh"?' I went to see them live before we toured with them and they were f**king business!

For the Kasabian boys themselves though, being invited to tour the States with Oasis late last year was the logical conclusion of all their efforts. "It was incredible hearing 'Definitely Maybe' for the first time," explains Tom Meighan. "I'd never really heard anything like it before. It brought me joy, it brought me sadness. When Liam sang 'In my mind my dreams are real' he was speaking what I was thinking! I saw them live for the first time at G-MEX in August 1997, I think. I'll never forget it, I looked onstage and realised that's what I wanted."

And that's what his band got. Having being selected personally by Noel to do the US jaunt, a bond between the two bands quickly formed. "Oasis kind of pulled the book open and read to you," says Tom of the influence touring with his heros had on him. "They tell you the story while you're in bed listening - know what I mean? they've been there and done it. They're great man, they just believe. We're great friends with them, they're all f**king great, just lovely.

So when it was time to arrange a Kasabian and Oasis summit we couldn't just put them in a room and talk, we had to get them in a room and play. Cue NME.Com's birthday party at KOKO in London. An hour after Noel had joined Kasabian onstage for'The Doberman' and 'Club Foot' he settles down in the smallest backstage dressing room as his opposite number in Kasabian walks in.

"Ah, Serge Pizzorno! announces the Gallagher with a flourish, before snatching NME's microphone to go all Trevor McDonald on our arses.

From us in the studio, over to you, Noel Gallagher:

Noel Gallagher: "I'm sat backstage in what was formely the Camden Palace, back in the '80's when i was a child. I'm sat with Serge Pizzorno from the right reverend Kasabian and I'm going to ask him some questions. The first is, ho big was tonight on a scale of one to 10?
Serge Pizzorno: "It was f**king 10! It was the most incredible gig. As you put it earlier, by the middle eight of (first song) 'Shoot The Runner' it was the best gig we've done. The best gig we've done on this album so far."
Noel: "What did you think of the glowsticks being slung on stage?"
Serge: "I wasn't happy about that."
Noel: "Me neither."
Serge: "But Tom did well. He volleyed a few into the crowd. We had a few lads in the crowd so if anyone on stage got hit, it would've been taken care of."

NME: Why didn't you use your famous volley, Serge? Your goal on Sky's Soccer AM last week was the talk of the town.
Serge: "That was a one-off that! The luckiest thing in the world."
Noel: "Right, I want to know this personally. How do you think - deep down - it's going to go in the States?"
Serge: "Erm, you know what. I've got no f**king idea. But we're going to play like that every night and if they get it, then f**king god bless them. If they don't, then we'll just come home."
Noel: "And, how big is Earls Court (Kasabian's December show) going to be?"
Serge: "It's going to be the biggest, most empire show ever! This is f**king great!"

NME: What about being top of the album charts?
Noel: "What does it feel like - I know what it feels like, but for all f**king kids back at home - how big is it being Number One just for that one week?"
Serge: "For all that time we sat in that sweaty, carpeted room in Leicester and having Tom jumping off amps shouting 'F**king Glastonbury, you W**kers!, and to beat Beyonce and all these weird pop acts - and Bob Dylan, bless him, to be number one, it was the most incredible thing. Tom's mam rang me - we found out while we were in Turkey - and she was roaring, she made me cry! It was the best day ever and we had the most incredible Sunday night ever."

So having enjoyed his stint as official Kasabian correspondent, it's Noel's turn to face the 'press', as Serge has a few questions of his own. The main topic of discussion is Oasis' new Best Of 'Stop The Clocks'. With it's tracklist recently revealed, it wasn't so much what was on it that was bothering Serge, but what wasn't.

Noel: "In a way it's liberating doing the Best Of. We've done it and it's out there, it's finished now and it stops people asking about it, we get asked about it constantly. Serge will tell you, he's devasted 'Listen Up' is not on there."
Serge: "Yeah, devastated! And how can you not put ['Some Might Say' B-side] 'Headshrinker' on there? It's one of my favourites."
Noel: "I know, how can you not have 'Headshrinker' on there? You see how I have to put up with these c***s? But fair enough, I'll be on his case when his Best Of comes out, I'll be: 'So "Reason Is Treason" isn't f***ing on it? Get to f**k!'"
Serge: "At the same point you have to go, 'He is the Prime Minister, get in line and you do your job,' that's how it should be."
Noel: "This is the manifesto for future generations! Ten or 15 years from now, when we're all done and dusted, when people are going, 'That's that band everyone was yakking on about."

NME: So is 'Reason Is Treason' your favourite Kasabian song? You played two others with the band tonight.
Noel: "Serge picked the two songs. If he'd had asked me I'd have said 'Club Foot', but then he said 'The Doberman' too and I thought 'F***ing brilliant! Yeah!'. 'Club Foot' is my favourite. It was the first crotchet of music I ever heard by them."

NME: Did you enjoy singing the 'Oosh' bits tonight?
Noel: "I f***ing love that! When we first got to play with them we were going, 'Is that an "Oosh"?' and Tom said yeah, 'Oosh!'. What is that? It's the bit you sing along to at home. It's where Serge taps into the dance music thing.

Only The Prodigy and the Primals have really got into that territory where they've crossed over before - and they done it better than anybody else. 'Screamadelica' is the definitive guitar-dance record - it's not even indie-dance or any of that shit - and The Prodigy did it with 'Raise The Pressure' [we think he means the Prodge's 1996 single 'Breathe']. Kasabian are there now and they're making that music, which is unique."

The respectful air that is starting to grip the room, however, gets an appropriate injection of rock'n'roll as Tom Meighan, looking for his bandmate and guest star, bounds in. "Ah there you are, what's going on?"

NME: How come you all ended up onstage tonight?
Noel: "They asked us in Ibiza on a proper pissed-up, pharmaceutical night out, 'Are you going to get up with us?' I said, 'Yeah, yeah!' So they're off to New York tomorrow to go on their American tour, we're off doing our Best Of press so there was only one night when we were in town together and that was tonight, and as luck would have it, it was the NME night, so we thought, 'Brilliant, let's do it!'"
Tom Meighan: "Mr G! He just said he was f***ing up for it. We got him to bust out 'The Doberman' and 'Club Foot', it's wonderful isn't it? He's great, he's a forefather, and it's great to have him. You won't be able to stop the songs now: Jay Mehler, Chris Edwards, Sergio Pizzorno, Tom Meighan and Noel Gallagher! We went through it once at soundcheck and it was amazing."

NME: Did you have to give him any tips?
Tom: I said to him, 'I love what you're doing, I don't know what you're doing, but carry on!' It's great to have him. It's strange to have him onstage too, but he's a friend now so we'll have a good night."

NME: What was it like touring with Oasis?
Tom: "It gave us a lot of confidence being with them."
Serge: "It was great having that at the end of our live gigs. We were already f**king flying and then we met them and if they gave us any advice it was just, 'Carry on!' We showed them a few tunes before we went in and they thought they were great. It's nice to hear that. It was just the best few months of our lives."
Tom: "It was carnage, man. It was great, we learnt a lot from them. We're good friends with them now. We'll stick by them for a long time."

And carnage, it seems, is what they do best. Amid talk of "heading back to the hotel" the Oasis-Kasabian summit breaks up as more bandmates and girlfriends pile into a tiny dressing room. NME later hears tales of people "leaving Noel's house at 8am the next morning", but as Tom had earlier assured us, this is more than just a rock-star boozers club. This is about a bunch of lads from Leicester who met their heros and found out they were just like them. "They changed people's views and options, life and culture," says the Kasabian singer. "They've sorted their place in the rock 'n' roll circus, now it's our go!"

Source: NME Rock 'N' Roll Yearbook

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