FIGHTS between Noel and Liam Gallagher in Oasis have become music legend.
But their former drummer Zak Starkey insists he never saw the brothers scrapping.
I’m sitting with him in London’s Soho Sanctum Hotel as he promotes his supergroup Mantra of the Cosmos’ new single, Domino Bones (Gets Dangerous).
“There was a punch-up when I left,” Zak tells me in a whisper. “They were throwing furniture and everything.
“But when I was there, all we did was laugh and play amazing music.
“I learned so much from how hard working they were.
“If it says 5.30pm, they are there at 5.10pm. Their work ethic is incredible. It was sleeves up for 12 hours a day.”
Zak, who drummed for the band for four years until 2008, reveals there was one major turning point for Oasis, though.
He recalls: “When Kasabian came on tour with Oasis, we played Benicassim festival in Spain.
“We’d had three weeks off and were at home watching fng TV. We were on at 2am.
“Kasabian were on at midnight. Noel went, ‘I’m not going on at 2am, switch it’. ‘Wishing I was there’ “So we went on at 12 and because we’d had three weeks off, it was a bit sloppy.
“Them guys kicked the fing st out of us. They did a 20-minute drum solo. It was like Black Sabbath.
“They destroyed us. But it was the greatest thing that ever happened to Oasis, because we had to pick it up pretty fing quick.”
Zak adds with a laugh: “In the middle, Tom Meighan went, ‘This one’s for Noel and Liam, you fers’.
“Liam went to me, ‘Did he actually say that?’. I love that attitude. Everyone needs a reality check at times. And they gave us one.”
So, I ask, what kind of telly left Oasis in such a sloppy hole? “Liam used to say, ‘You have the big three — Coronation Street, EastEnders and Emmerdale’,” Zak adds, rolling his eyes as he mainlines his umpteenth black coffee.
“It’s like heroin. It starts with Richard and Judy and ends at 9pm. We might as well put a fing spike in you.”
Zak won’t be part of the Oasis reunion, saying he texted them asking why he hadn’t made the cut and was “gutted” to learn they had Joey Warnoker in on the sticks instead. “I don’t know anything about Joey, apart from he’s not a mod,” Zak says with a laugh.
“I think they will get through it without falling out. I will be wishing I was up there. “I couldn’t watch The Who because I know they’d be doing it all wrong.”
He is the greatest rock ’n’ roll drummer in the world. He’s better now than he was then
Zak Starkey
Talking of Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend, they parted company with Zak twice last month after accusing him of dropping “two bars” during a gig at the Royal Albert Hall. Zak says he may be back in the fold again as the band prepare for a major tour in the US.
He adds with a wry smile: “I spoke to Roger last week and he said, ‘Don’t take the drums out of the warehouse yet, in case we need you’. There’s no grudge, it’s fing music. In the beginning, they were the maddest band.
“Pete is incredibly intimidating. He called me a ct and gobbed on my drum riser. That was very early on.”
Asked what his dad, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, made of his dismissal, Zak adds: “I spoke to my dad about it and he watched it and stuck up for me. But he’s my dad, isn’t he?
“He wasn’t happy. He saw the show on TV and was a bit like, ‘What the f?’. “He didn’t think anything was a sackable offence. Apart from the ticket price.”
As the son of a Beatle, I ask what guidance Ringo gave him over the years. “My dad never opened the doors for me,” Zak says.
‘Mad pop single’
“He’d watch me and say the most cutting fing st.
He loved Oasis gigs. I spoke to him after one and he told me, ‘It’s been a long time since I’ve seen teenagers throwing beer over each other’. “I know he loves it, but that’s what you’re going to get from him.
“But I’d say to him, ‘Why does the Abbey Road remix sound like Supertramp?’. “He was like, ‘The drum sounds good’. I said, ‘It’s not about the drums, Dad. I learned that when I was 19’.
“But he is the greatest rock ’n’ roll drummer in the world. He’s better now than he was then.”
With Oasis off limits and The Who dates still up in the air, Zak is busying himself with finishing the 14 tracks Mantra have created — with Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder and Bez and Oasis bass player Andy Bell.
For Domino Bones (Get Dangerous), Noel got on board, too. Zak explains: “It was a track Noel did with Shaun a few years ago, but it didn’t really fit with High Flying Birds.
“It’s a mad pop single and I’m hoping to have a demographic of four to 60.” Looking back at his career, I ask Zak if he ever takes a moment to pinch himself.
“All of my dreams have come true,” he says. “Who’s on the phone? Oh, it’s Oasis. Oh, Johnny Marr, the greatest British guitarist, is on the phone.”
With a glint in his eye, Zak adds: “Look, when I was 12 and I was playing in clubs, I didn’t realise I was going to turn out like f*ing David Beckham.
“What can I say?”
I think that sums it up perfectly.
EX-OASIS DRUMMER ON…
THE GALLAGHERS
There was a punch-up when I left, they were throwing funiture and everything. But their work ethic is incredible, it’s sleeves up 12 hours a day
THE WHO
There’s no grudge, it’s f***ing music. In the beginning they were the maddest band. Pete is incredibly intimidating – he gobbed on my drum riser.
DAD RINGO
He never opened any doors for me – he’d watch me and say the most cutting f*ing st. But he is the greatest rock ‘n roll drummer in
the world – better now than he was then.
GEORGINA LACES IT
GEORGINA RODRIGUEZ knew how to thrill when she wore this black laced-up dress to a party for Netflix in Madrid.
The model, who is the partner of Cristiano Ronaldo, looked amazing, despite revealing her reality show I Am Georgina won’t be returning for a fourth series.
She said: “It has been a lot of work and requires so much effort.
“I think that it has given me the opportunity to show the real me to the world. However, at the moment, I do not plan to continue with the reality show.”
LOST TRACK BEHIND ROB & GARY RIFT
TAKE THAT’s long-lost single was the root of the rivalry between Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow, its writer and producer Ian Levine says.
I told last month that an unreleased track called Falling For You Girl, recorded by all five members, above, had been unearthed and the team behind it were hoping to get it out.
Now Ian has said Robbie was given the lead vocals on the song, which caused a row with bandmate Gary.
Recalling their sessions in 1992, he said: “The reason Gary hated me is because Robbie was mucking around in the studio when we were doing I Found Heaven.
“I said, ‘Robbie, you’ve got a really nice voice, you sound like one of the Bee Gees’, and he said, ‘Don’t be silly, I’m a backing singer’.
“I said, ‘No, I want to make you a lead singer’.
“But Gary didn’t like it and he went crying to manager Nigel Martin-Smith going, ‘I’m the lead singer! I don’t want to be stuck with one of the others’.
“I insisted, and Falling For You Girl is almost all Robbie.”
Now Ian, who also worked on A Million Love Songs and Could It Be Magic, hopes the song will finally see the light of day.
He added: “The only way it’ll get released is if the fans encourage the boys to put it out. It’s fantastic.”
SABRINA CARPENTER will drop a new album called Man’s Best Friend on August 29.
She announced the record last night and it comes just ten months after her smash Short n’ Sweet, which returned to No1 for a fifth time last month.
The album will feature her new single Manchild, which is on course to go to No1 this Friday, and comes ahead of two shows at BST Hyde Park in London on July 5 and 6.
AFTER celeb haunt Chiltern Firehouse burned down last year, a new restaurant has popped up that’s proving very popular with A-listers.
Just in time for summer, Town on Drury Lane, in Covent Garden, central London, has become the go-to place.
It’s thanks to the menu from acclaimed British chef Stevie Parle, along with fancy cocktails.
I’m told Gary Lineker is even a fan.
