I'd Like to be Somebody Else

Chapter 40

    Me and Noel stayed in London for the rest of the break. I enjoyed London a lot better this time around but the downtime was difficult for Noel, it was hard to live with the come down from the high of the shows and the constantly moving from one place to the next.

    We went to the pub on the 14th to watch Man City v Liverpool. Man City had lost their last three games, I was confident it would be a red victory. We were having a way better season than they were. I commended the lads' ability to keep supporting a team that continued to let them down.

 "Come on!" Noel cheered almost throwing his beer when Summerbee scored in the first half. "We've got this." he commented.

    The barman gave him a judgemental look, we seemed to be the only ones paying attention to the game. It was hardly worth having the telly on.

 "We have to let you have one goal." I told him.

    I wasn't that bothered, to be honest. Their season was going so badly they deserved a win to lift their spirits and it was only one goal.

 "You're my girlfriend, you're supposed to be on my side." he complained.

    He started singing Blue Moon as half time drew close to encourage another goal "Blue Moon.

You saw me standing alone. Without a dream in my heart. Without a love of my own."

 "No wonder yous never win, your song's depressing." I commented. "You'll Never Walk Alone fills me with pride and determination, Blue Moon just makes me sad."

    When the final whistle came both teams had scored another goal.

 "City forever!" he cheered and drank his beer. "Told you, didn't I?"

 "Nobody likes a boaster, Noel." I shook my head in fake disapproval. "Win, lose or draw, I'm red or dead." It was something Luke said almost ritualistically before every match, based on something their old manager Bill Shankly once said.

 "I swear you got into football, specifically Liverpool, just to annoy me and Liam." he shook his head.

...

    The break was over quite quickly and we were back on the road again. We were in Paris first for a gig on the 20th, there was a lot of rehearsal and sitting around waiting time for this one, I wished we'd used the time to see more of Paris than we did.

 "What's he singing?" Liam asked nosily.

    We could hear Noel in the other room, on his own playing his guitar and mumbling lyrics. He was barely audible from here, he always wrote shyly and secretively like this.

 "I don't know, he's writing, ain't he?" I shrugged.

 "Is he singing "So Sally can wait"?" he guessed. "Sounds like that." He got up and went to the other room to investigate.

    I listened to them argue.

 "I'm not writing nothing." Noel denied. "I'm just playing."

 "Yeah you are, what's that there? Paper with your writing. You might as well tell me, I'll have to bloody sing it later." He made it sound like a chore.

 "Alright, I'm trying to write. This one's just not that noteworthy."

 "Well what you got?"

    Noel went through the lyrics he'd got and when Noel mumbled through the "So Sally can wait" bit, Liam told him what he'd heard and Noel admitted the lyrics fitted.

 "He is now. I'm a genius." he grinned as he came and sat back down.

    This was Liam's first contribution to the writing of Oasis songs, from what would make it past the demos anyway. Naturally Noel wasn't too keen on the song.

...

    They had their first arena gig on the 22nd of April, in Sheffield. The place was sold out or it definitely looked that way.

    Jamie and a load of his mates were there, which was a complete surprise to me. He chose to reveal himself by tapping my shoulder and saying "I'll pay for those." when I was buying drinks at the bar.

 "What are you doing here?" I asked a bit too excitedly and gave him a quick hug. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

 "Some of my old Sheffielders told me to get over here for this. Couldn't miss my favourite band's biggest gig, could I?" he explained. "The favourite out of the ones I've talked to, anyway."

 "Are you coming back stage?"

 "Nah, I'll help carry your drinks back but unless you want about ten other lads with us, I can't." he offered.

 "I'm alright, thanks. I might come and find you when they get on stage." I told him as I took the drinks I'd ordered.

    I did spend some of the gig in the public area but I didn't find Jamie or any of his friends. I just took the time to enjoy the show like a regular fan.

    It was huge which meant that the afterparty was huge. Jamie ditched his mates after the gig to join us in the partying.

...

    I woke up with a massive headache, the sun shining on me because no one had bothered to close the curtains. I realised I was laying on someone's chest, it didn't look like Noel's.

    I got up slowly, careful not to disturb them. "Fuck!" I exclaimed under my breath and screwed my eyes up. I'd fallen asleep on Jamie with Noel laid behind me, I couldn't remember the night. I was wearing a black t-shirt with a white Adidas logo, it could be anyone's.

    Quiet as I could, I found some clothes and went to the toilet. I hated not being able to remember especially when I realised Noel almost always remembered the night.

    I made sure not to talk about the night to anyone and no one really talked about it either.  Whatever happened, I wasn't in trouble for it, not yet anyway. They were too focused on their success on stage and Jamie had snuck off before anyone else woke up.  

...

    Some might say was released on 24th April. On the 27th they were back on Top Of The Pops again but this was to be Tony's last appearance.

 "Can't believe they've done this to him!" Kenzie exclaimed over the phone the next day.

 "What? What are you on about?"

 "Marcus just called. They've kicked Tony out the band."

    Marcus was just another manager type who thought he was in charge of Oasis. Technically he was in charge as a manager.

    Tony couldn't have been back in Manchester long before he got the call. I must be a terrible PA because I didn't know Noel and Marcus had, had this conversation.

 "Really? Why? What did he say? They haven't said anything to me." I tried to seem shocked, it was news to me but it was too inevitable for actual shock.

    Tony and the rest of the band had been butting heads for ages now especially after "the grand (£1000) incident" but I didn't think he would actually have to leave any time soon.

 "Noel told Marcus the drumming isn't good enough for this album. It's absolute bullshit, phoning his fucking Mum's house, haven't even got the balls to tell him themselves."

 "I'll talk to them, this isn't right." I assured her.

    There was nothing I could do, but I couldn't tell Kenzie that. Tony was out and that was it. It wasn't even that surprising, I'd predicted it when Thora was born.

 "I can't believe they've made a father of two redundant." Her anger turned to sadness. "I'm not going to be able to on any more tours or even go to gigs, am I?"

    I hadn't realised no Tony meant no Kenzie as well. I wished I'd gone back to Manchester so I could spend time with her but they had gigs and recording to do.  

Author Note- It's Noel's 48th birthday today (29th May 2015) happy birthday.

Not going to lie, I struggled to write this chapter so it took a week.