WHAT GETS YOU OUT OF BED IN THE MORNING?

When you hear that Oasis have produced another album, it's natural to ask yourself 'why?' Now, Noel Gallagher has provided an answer - he's too dull to think of anything else to do:

There are periods where you think, "What am I doing?" or "What am I doing it for?"; that's a more scary question. "I've made s---loads of money, I've left my mark in music, why am I still doing this?," and it takes a while to answer that question. It comes back every time we're at the end of a tour and you have three or four months off and then you've got to get back on the saddle. More often than not, the answer that comes back from me is, "What else are you going to do?"

I struggle with this conundrum. It's not a very noble thing to carry on, it's not very dashing. But I often meet people who've been in great bands and you go, "What are you doing now?" and they say, "I'm not doing anything," and I think that's more sad.

Really, Noel? You think there's sadness in having the dignity to know it's not worth churning out any old tosh just because you've got nothing else to do with your time?

In the first episode of Coronation Street, Albert Tatlock memorably tells Ken Barlow when he goes down the library he wants to shout at the old geezers they need to get a hobby, otherwise they'll just wither and die. He might have more usefully told them to get some outside interests, otherwise they'll end up recording pubplods like Lyla.

Not that Noel's afraid of his place in musical history:

Razorlight, the Libertines, the Killers, the Strokes, Kings of Leon and Jet, all these bands are (citing) "Definitely Maybe" (the band's 1994 debut album).

We were the first people to come out and say, "The world's a great place, life is for living. Forget grunge music. Get a pint of Guinness down your neck, and pick that guitar up."

Sweet... when faced with "if you seek my legacy, look around", Noel sees Razorlight and The Strokes. Whereas, everyone else sees Athlete and Coldplay.

And we love the idea that Oasis were the original hedonists - they weren't even the original hedonist revivalists, coming so soon after the New Wave of New Wave bands.

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