Standing in the footsteps of lemurs

Kelly Jones has been tipping his hat to the man who made him what he is today:

"Coming up off the back of the Britpop thing and getting to know people like Noel (Gallagher) and stuff, you realised that it is all about songwriting and it’s about working your bollocks off but having a good time, and making it look like it’s easy but behind the scenes you’ve gotta fucking put the graft in.

"There are too many bands that want it and if you don’t want it as much as they want it then they’ll have it, so it’s up to you really."

Building your belief in songwriting craft on Noel Gallagher's example is like trying to become a cordon bleu chef by aping Colonel Sanders.

Actually, we awoke this morning to the sound of that new Oasis single, Lord Don't Slow Me Down and felt... well, nothing, really. It's a song completely shorn of any passion, any arrogance, any wit: like coming across a school bully years later and seeing he's now a shallow, empty hulk of a man, there's no feeling of victory, just a sad sense of loss. The last thing Noel Gallagher would probably want is to instill feelings of pity rather than distaste. Perhaps he really should think about throwing it in now.