Beady Eye Interview

It's not often I'd get nervous about an interview, but when Liam Gallagher walked into the residents bar of a hotel in Belfast, I knocked over a glass of water and near tripped over my headphones lead. Thankfully he didn't seem to notice, as he grabbed my hand and instantly became exactly the type of aggressively friendly character I'd prepared for. He opens with an apology.

'Andy Bell is messing about somewhere, he always tries to be late so he'll look cool. I don't need to bother with that.' Checking his watch, he boasts 'I'm always on time, me.'

He bounces about the room, explaining how he's still to come down following his experiences at Wembley Stadium - not for a gig (though 'stadiums will come again soon enough') but to enjoy Man City win the biggest match they've played in Liam's lifetime. He's surprisingly gracious when I explain I'm United. There's a good five minutes of him pacing about the room, asking me a load of questions about the hotel we're in and Belfast in general. I couldn't answer most of them and he gives me stick.

For some reason I explain how this is the first interview our show has done with a band not from Ireland in almost a year, that we've made an exception for him. I tell him the music here is so good our show is pretty much 100% 'local' these days. He asks for names of bands, so I tell him about Cashier, ASIWYFA, Rams Pocket Radio and The Wondervillians. I point out he'll probably hate them all equally. He laughs.

Finally Andy weighs in and the three of us chat for a good twenty minutes. I'm constantly chasing Liams mouth with the mic - he literally doesn't sit still for more than a second. I think about the edit we have ahead of us - Liam swears a LOT. Like, every third or fourth word. We're going to need a fair few beeps.

I don't want to bomb straight in with questions about Oasis or Liam's relationship with Noel. It seems a little crude and, in my head, could jeopardize the entire interview. So we chat about the frist Beady Eye gigs. But funnily enough, Liam's off on a rant about his big brother within a minute, questioning why he got off 'scott free'. He then claims his paranoia surrounding the issue of who was to 'blame' for Oasis' demise was so bad he actually thought him being bottled off the stage on that first gig in Glasgow wasn't out of the question. Andy seems a little taken aback by this idea. He'll think about it for a while before stopping me mid-question, half way through the interview to clarify - 'going back to that whole thing abut the paranoia - can I just say, the fans were beyond cool.'

And so it continues, Liam being as good an interview as I'd assumed - winding himself up constantly and over selling just how much he believes in Beady Eye. The number of swears increases as we go on. It's pretty infectious, to the point I start to worry I've started dropping the odd F-bomb myself. And then, a quick picture and I'm off, buzzing, texting a couple of people who were as obsessed with Oasis as I was, back in the day.

To listen to the interview click here, it starts at around the 1hr 30min mark.