Oasis: The First Noel.

Oasis play the Main Stage at Livid at the RNA Showgrounds on Saturday.

Minutes into the interview, Noel Gallagher is barracking for Collingwood in the AFL Grand Final (“my money’s on the underdog… go The ‘Pies”), eagerly anticipating George Martin’s $880 autobiography (“Oh well I’m fucking loaded, I’ll buy a few”) and uniting against The Vines (“I don’t like people who just flail around the stage like fucking idiots just shouting”). Hang on, is this a member of the notoriously belligerent Gallagher clan? It sounds more like a lively conversation with a trusted friend (aside from the ‘I’m fucking loaded’ bit).

Yes it seems, though still eminently quotable, Noel Gallagher is in a fine mood today, despite having just been trapped in Tokyo traffic. He and his Oasis bandmates are currently on a seemingly endless world tour to promote their sixth studio album Heathen Chemistry, hailed as their best since (What's The Story) Morning Glory. A world tour that will bring them to Australia this month as part of the Livid festival, marking only their second visit, the last being none to memorable for fans nor band.

“No I don’t remember any of them,” Gallagher says of the band’s last Australian shows. “If I shut my eyes I can’t remember any of the gigs but I know they were fucking awful. That I do know. I remember at the time thinking ‘this is just fucking dreadful’. And you know, I’m not blaming anybody in particular. It was the wrong time to go there and I think we were on a nine month world tour and we hit Australia eight months into that and we’d fucking had enough you know. It was time to go home. There you go, what can I say?”

Invited to proclaim Oasis’ determination to prove themselves this time around, Gallagher quickly jests “No, no, no, no. We’re going to be equally as bad”. When it is pointed out that Oasis can’t have left too bad an impression, considering tickets for some of the forthcoming Aussie shows sold out in ten minutes, he deadpans “Ah yeah but our manager bought all the tickets see.”

Then you can imagine the corners of his mouth turning down as he exhales. “I’m hoping against hope that it will be fucking fantastic. That it will be like watching the Beatles at the Cavern Club or something.”

One wonders what can make or break an Oasis show then. Besides Liam’s voice giving out causing him to walk off mid-performance (“That seems to fucking happen one in every four fucking gigs these days,” scoffs Noel. “Fucking lightweight!”). Besides the band being oppressed by tour fatigue. What lifts Oasis to the dizzy heights of which they, and few others, are capable?

“It’s the crowd, one hundred percent,” states Gallagher. “I mean we done a gig here last night, right, and (sigh) there was no atmosphere because it’s a gig in Japan and they’re very polite and they don’t do the things that the rest of us do. We played pretty well, but we come off stage and it was like ‘well that was fucking rubbish’. But I know for a fact we played really well. It’s all about the crowd. And if the crowd are up for it, it just becomes an almighty experience. But I think that from what I’m told the gigs that we’re doing in your fine country are of a size that will be perfect for us. And if the crowd are loving it and we’re loving it then I don’t think you’ll see a better gig.”

It’s a compelling argument. And when you add to it the set list bolstering material from Heathen Chemistry, and that in Gem Archer and Andy Bell Oasis has secured a potent rhythm section, it becomes all the more convincing. Assessing the strength of the current set list, Gallagher pauses before muttering through his teeth: “Um, if I’m being honest, it would be a lot more diverse if I had my way. But I’m not the singer. I think that’s probably the easiest way to put it. Mmm. Liam likes to sing what he likes to sing and you know it’s like everybody always says ‘oh you fucking guys, you never play anything off Be Here Now’. And it’s like ‘well we would, but one of us wouldn’t sing it’.”

And as for Archer and Bell, each of whom has contributed a song to Heathen Chemistry, it’s evident that they’ve had a stabilising effect on the dynamic of the band’s attitude as well as its music. Listening to Heathen Chemistry indicates that Oasis has found its most effective groove; a swagger that approaches closer to the territory of The Stones than The Beatles.

“Yeah well, we’ve finally got a really, really good rhythm section,” Gallagher concurs. “I mean in the early days for Definitely Maybe I thought the rhythm section was perfect for that album, but Guigsy (Paul McGuigan) and Bonehead (Paul Arthurs) didn’t really progress any further which is why it wasn’t such a big shock to us when they left. But wait ‘til you see it live! It’s astonishing. It just means that once you’ve got them three bashing away, it means me and Liam can do our thing you know. Whatever that thing is. Which in the case of Liam is fuck all – he just stands there with his hands behind his back. Should I say ‘I can do my thing’. Which is, in my own head I am Jimmy Hendrix.”