Ex Oasis Manager Exposes Liam & Noel Gallagher: Iain Robertson

Liam has now decided that he is being ganged up on as we career through the streets of Paris about 30 m hour he opens door and throws himself out Liam is completely and utterly truthful and his truth then was I am a rock and roll star so hats off to him for that but there's a price to pay when all is said and done and of course he and I parted on particularly challenging terms kicks off now furnit is being thrown around the club and we're looking at each other and he punches me in the face and then he punches me in the face again bounced him off a bus stop and just looked at him then he looked at me and he just went you fire did you ever have the fear that anyone was going to do anything stupid to the [Music] lads he welcome to the show mate George thank you it's a pleasure I'm looking forward to this one well it's good to hear yeah good good good let's roll all the way back where did you grow up and how did you end up becoming oasis's tour manager well where did I grow up um military brat basically you know my my uh my father was a a pji um PTI pji in the in the Royal Air Force so um born in Harrow and then we moved straight away to Singapore I spent a few years in Singapore I can barely remember them to be fair um and then couple of um postings to the UK uh out to Germany back into the UK um my father got the good news when he was 54 so I was about 13 years old but at that point they'd uh they'd packed me off to a military academy a place called Queen Victoria School in dunblaine which is for the sons of Scottish soldiers Sailors and Airman um and so that that kind of led me quite naturally into a career in the forces although when I left school uh I traveled for a couple of years um and then came back and and went into uh into the military and what was it what was it for you the next step in military would you decide which one did you wanted to go into yeah I mean it was a weird one um my dad was a pji parachute jump instructor um you would think perhaps i' I'd move into the Royal Air Force but but I I um when I finished traveling I came back to Western super mayare my my dad's final posting was Royal Air Force locking and uh when he passed away I just don't think my mom had the energy to to to to move anywhere but what was on a doorstep so she she got a place in Western superare and uh I became great friends with a guy called Tim tottle Tim tottle was was a royal he was a a raw marine and um and I and I kind of liked that he would disappear and he would reappear you know and on occasion he would reappear with some exotic disease and I like that even more you know in fact I remember one night I was uh he'd just come back for the weekend and uh we were in a we were in a club together and he had dentry he'd been out in bise and he came back with a dose of dentry and we're at the bar and he literally soiled himself in his trousers at the bar I had I had an apartment just around the corner so he went to my apartment bear in mind that he's about six inches shorter than me and Whiplash lean you know and he he got a pair of my trousers came back into the club with my trousers pretty much tied around his waist and tied up the feet just in case it happened again and I thought I thought this was impossibly glamorous do you know what I mean and uh and for whatever reason perhaps because because my old fellow was was a pji rather than going down the the Royal route um I decided to join the uh uh the parachute regiment and how was that what age did you get into the parachute well it was quite late because I'd traveled yeah so uh I mean I can recall Depo I was I was 21 years old I joined Battalion at uh uh uh at uh still at 21 but I spent my 22nd birthday in uh in Northern Ireland in county for Mana um and I can remember the night actually the night my 22nd birthday we were bashed up in a cemetery uh awaiting for a uh an extrication from a patrol that we've been on I was extraordinarily nervous because of the coincidences that that tend to happen first Patrol last Patrol birthday Christmas day that kind of stuff so you know I was very relaxed about all of uh all of the time that that that that I spent out in Ireland apart from that one night which was my which was my birthday and how hostile was it out there when you well I I went out in 82 so it was still a place where you could get yourself killed yeah but it it wasn't anything like in those very very early days or even in the sort of mid uh mid to late 70s but we were very aware you know we we we we took contacts not many and some of the contacts that we took I think we imagined if I'm completely honest you know what you mean you imagined well it you know you you you're in a very sort of heightened State there's a guy called um and you're probably familiar with him guy called Robin horel who who does uh yeah so he has a he's ex Herford and he was he was one of the few who actually was uh on the uh on the balcony yeah and he Likens Northern Ireland to that moment in a movie where the unit are on patrol and suddenly they realize they're in a mindfield and the music kind of reflects that every time you leave the safe area you have that sense of possibility so you know you're at a heightened State and so it doesn't take a great deal a car backfires and you can assume a contact and of course we we you know we at that point this is post Bloody Sunday so the regge are not allowed to police the builtup urban areas so everything that we do is either it's Bandit country it's for Manor it's armar you know it's it's rural stuff it's uh proper soldiery really and so that's where I get the idea of Imagine contact somebody fires a shotgun and you know you'll you know you you will immediately take cover and try and get your head around what it is that's going on so there were a couple of real contacts and again nothing nothing significant um and and perhaps a couple of imagined contacts as well and how long did you spend that in Ireland I did two tours um and each one of those was um was sort of three four months so spearhead tours basically um and I thoroughly enjoyed it you know um the it's it's interesting actually you know my life and my times in the parachute regimen it's a bit like a football team you can only play what's in front of you and in the years that I served we didn't do a great deal I mean I did some terrific soldiering I had the great Good Fortune to soldier in the Oman and uh I finished my time and I was with with one par PR sfsg and as you probably know right now one par serve as sort of Special Forces support group in my day we were just a you know we were a battalion you know we're the first Battalion the parachute regiment sfsg is kind of the next step up to before you get into the Special Forces it well it is I mean what you've got what you've got now is if you were to go through Depo parah you would leave Depo par and join either two or three par you can then volunteer for one par and one par there is a selection process now within the parachute regiment for two and three to become part of one par and one par now serve literally as special forces support group they go hand in hand with Herford is the long story short so they have slightly different soldiering skills it's I guess they're a halfway house between the regge and 22 and how long were you in the Paris for in total I came in I got in I joined uh so Depo in ' 81 and I was I was gone by ' 87 I was in the music industry by 87 oh really yeah what what was that feeling like when you said right I've had enough of the Paris now what was the point where you said I'm out well you know what I I was lucky because I didn't say I'm out I served with a guy called um Vivian cook so Vivian cook is uh is the prettiest boy man you've ever seen in your life okay but he also happened to be a European full contact laar Kung Fu Champion his twin brother who is the other prettiest boy in the world did not join the regge he stayed in Burmingham which is where they are both from and he started uh working in clubs place called The rumrunner and then he started looking after a band pushing boxes doing whatever was required for them and uh that band became the biggest B they were Jan Jan they became the biggest ban in the world yet wow so Simon then graduated from pushing boxes and and just general gopher and became their head of security Now that job became quite simply too much for one person so he reached back to his twin brother Viv so he reached back to Viv in the r and said Viv I need somebody on my right hand I need somebody I can trust get yourself out and come and join me so Viv he left he went and joined Simon very shortly after that the trajectory of Jiran went up and up and up so Simon and Viv were like we need somebody else so Viv then reached back to me in the regge okay and he said Robo we need somebody to support us and I'd really like you to take the job you know you've got time still to serve I want you to buy yourself out and come across and start working with me in Simon so basically I had that not happened I'm sure I would have stayed in sure I would I enjoyed it I enjoyed it yeah I enjoyed it um how exciting it was fabulous wow what year we talking here this was uh this would have been um 80 late 80s late ' 80s it was yeah and in fact In fairness Jan Jan had already kind of imploded and you had um the power station and and Arcadia and and and the band that I ended up joining although it was Jam when they approached by the time I got out it was Arcadia which was um which was Nick roads and and uh Simon Lebon and uh Roger Taylor from the original band W um and I made a complete pig's ear of it Dodge to be honest yeah I got I was I was sacked within 48 Hours of arriving yeah go on well listen I mean I mean basically in my head yeah and how old how old you saying late 80s but how old were you been I would have been sort of 20 27 27 27 a tough well and and hard man at the same time and a little bit look and and and a paratroop yes you know and I say that with with no with nothing but love but also a healthy dose of reality you know what I mean my my cultural boundaries had not expanded for me to sit comfortably in amongst you know the likes of Simon Le Bond and my first gig with Jiran was Nick rh's 25th birthday party in uh a little nightclub uh called dares in Paris so I fly to Paris and I'm briefed by Simon and Viv cook right in this apartment they've got on the rud de Riv uh and he's he's he's like right he said you're going to need a float so he gives me about 10,000 Franks you need 10,000 what the [ __ ] do I need 10,000 Franks For he says look you know it's next birthday we got a lot of guests uh hanging out and they he said they're locusts yeah they will they will and pillage you know what I mean and the band want to be seen to be you know the the the best of hosts yeah so that night we had on the guest list we had sting we had Ronnie Wood we had Grace Jones you know we had all of Jiran um or all of Arcadia most of their wives a a serious smattering of of French aristocracy and me you know and it's my f you know it's my first night on the job and to be fair I I wasn't I wasn't ready for it you know Simon's brief to me was fundamentally be cool because the band don't like heavy security you know and um and and Jagger was there as well I'm a huge Stones fan so I got Jagger and I got Ronny wood and the brief I get given is to keep an eye on Jagger and on Ronnie I was completely [ __ ] in awe do you know what I mean I I was lost quite frankly and um but but the point where I got sacked and and rightly so by the way rightly so with we we had three uh brand new Jaguar XJ s's um uh xj6s uh uh uh on lease myself Simon and Viv were carrying the Great and the good from Club to Club to Club to Club rather than getting taxis we would drive them I'm sitting behind I think it was viv's Jag in my Jag and he's got Ronnie Wood and Ronnie's wife and I think he's got Grace Jones and Nick RADS in there and I think I've got Simon and um uh and and whoever else and I thought it' be hilarious if I gently took my car pushed it up behind his car and ever you know just slowly pushed him in a little nudge into oncoming traffic it's a manual car yeah my foot slips on the clutch I [ __ ] thump into the back of his car send him about 8 feet into oncoming traffic everybody in his car spins around in Terror and all I've got is just manic laughter yeah you know what I mean so anyway the next morning after after that particular night Simon calls me in and he says Robo says uh I got a little bit of bad news for you mate he said you failed the audition he said you got to fly back to the UK and uh and that was me that was my start and finish in uh uh my first my a whirlwind a whirlwind a whirlwind yeah absolutely um but Simon bless his heart he knew what had given up yeah and he he recognized that on his say so you know he' reached out to me and I'd left something that I was enjoying and that I was good at and that that gave me a a future a different future but a future purpose and a and a sense of purpose without a doubt you know and he he organized uh for me to have an interview with spand out ballet and I got the job with spand out ballet and I knew I'm a I'm a quick study I knew I'd dropped a bollock I knew I'd shot a robin I knew whose fault it was and I had a better understanding of what was expected and did you did you tell them that you were pissing around or you like I just slipped off or could you not say I was giv I never had a chance to explain they don't they don't it's not one of those Robo come and have a chat mate what happen just what happened just it's what you know they they they slopey shoulder it down the line and and they don't want they don't want the embarrassment of of firing you person they just passed the message down um but but I knew what I was I I knew more about what I was doing when I started working with Spandau and and and also uh I started working with them in a slightly less rarified atmosphere I got to work with the band before I ended up sort of having to sort of be present around that kind of list Universe you know um and and and it's it's really interesting if you're going to work in in that world it's not complicated the job is not complicated whether that's security or tour management as as I ended up what's difficult is is people yeah is relationships I'm going to say most people with with who are half bright can take the role of tour management or can take on the role of of close protection if they have the skill sets but it's it's it's it's the personality stuff that that separates you know the good from the from the very good uh which is why it's you know I see these kind of University degrees in X and Y that will take you into tool management and they will but I'm not sure they'll take you into a job with the Rolling Stones you know what I mean that is that is you you've got to have something yeah yeah what was that feeling like from you coming straight out of the path car jumping into a job getting sacked after 48 hours in a whirlwind having a laugh and then going right now I've got span Al Bella you must be pinching yourself at this point well and here's the thing because because as a kid I was a fan yeah but they're massive I was a fan so I and it's it's it's in some respects you know I had pictures of Bolan and Bowie and Roxy Music on the wall I was a music fan you know I bought their records the day that they that they came out and so to be given the opportunity slightly unusual really that I went into the regge if I'm completely honest you know but that was total and dentry and exotic diseases and you know I saw I thought yeah thats that looks like a bit of fun I'll have some of that you know so yeah it was it was extraordinary to be to be in that company um and and I had the great Good Fortune over the course of of of the following years to to work with with some of the the most relevant recording artists in of the 20th century and perhaps 21st century I work with Johnny roton I work with George Harrison of course is in the Beatles I work with Johnny hooker I work with BB King you know um and eventually Oasis so that I mean you know long answer to a short question how did I get him well that's that's that's how I got him yeah you know it's not what you know it's so often it isn't absolutely you know you I mean you have to have the skill set you know and and and if I wasn't a quick study and and if Simon hadn't cut me some slack and organized that I had a you know that secondary conversation with spand very shortly after Jan it could have been could have been a very different story you know I mean and it could have been as simple as FLW to Paris screwed it up completely went back in yeah did you know that in the back of your mind if it doesn't work out I know I can get back in because you you got to pay yourself out did you say how much can you remember how much it was 250 quid and was that a lot of do it was a lot of money there yeah it was a lot of money there and when you when you in the regiment you go right I'm out and they go it's 250 have you got a breathing off period where they treat you like crap because they know you're leaving or can you pay and leave that day no you you you as you would imagine the process is um is anything but straightforward you know you get firstly you get a series of interviews uh where they try to a greater or lesser degree to change your mind or or they don't okay right what they like with you they wanted to they wanted me to stay okay and actually um the final interview I had they said well what if we give you a shot at at at um at becoming a roer at becoming an officer at at going and doing sort of um you know doing Sanders the only issue then is they said you will not be able to come back and serve with the parachute regimen okay having served as a Tom yeah the only way that you could then serve as an officer in the rge is if you and this is a very difficult thing to do but I've got a couple of friends that done it you go all the way through the ranks and then you take a commission yeah you know and that's 30 years of of anybody's life and and it just the long story short is is that uh everything that they put in front of me everything that they that they tried to sort of persuade me with it wasn't enough I mean the idea of of as I saw it I was going to go and join Jan Jan you know make a sterling job of it and and I'm I'm I'm off and running you know so how many how many years were you actually looking after these bands for before you actually said well I want to be a tour manager well I I never said and this is another one of those John Lennon Nails it life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans yeah right and I great quote isn't it you know I mean and he's he's on it he's absolutely on it so so I did you know I went out and I did security with Jan Jan for an hour and a half and I did spand out for for um a lot longer I guess I was with them for the best part of uh of a year what were your movements after that band how did you get into getting involved with Oasis Oasis came from uh uh just what I had a CV you know Spandau Zig Zig Sputnik the choir boys Gary Moore Sisters of Mercy you know did some of the blues artists Johny R and rotten and and I became friends with their manager with Oasis manager guy called Marcus Russell just just through the industry yeah you know and we had a shared interest in in bands that that that we loved so we were both huge fans of the stones you know we Lov sort of country uh country rock Old Country Steve all that kind of stuff and I was in New York with a band called X CNN look them up they're brilliant um they did nothing but they're brilliant and we were playing at the same venue for the same show as Oasis and at this point I think Shaker maker had been released and supersonic had been released so there was a buzz yeah in the UK not so much in the states there was an awareness in the states that that that they had something but it wasn't the same kind of level as it was in in the UK and actually even in the UK um you know they were still playing little small venues but we're on the same bill so I watch Oasis for the first time time in Manhattan on the lower West Side a little club called um what was it called doesn't matter doesn't matter they weren't even headlining there was a band called moist to were headlining and they were just off the scale if you can imagine Oasis in 1994 all of that anger all of those dreams unrealized all of that potential unfulfilled and they're playing in a room maybe twice the size of of this studio Dodge right and they gave it everything it it every single person in the audience that night was lobotomized you know it was just brilliant so we're staying in the same Hotel again coincidence and I have a drink with Marcus and bonehead and GGY um from the band and I said to Marcus I said mate I really really really want to work with you and with Oasis I said I know you can't afford me at the moment I said but you're going to be able to to afford me W you afford me give me a call two weeks later there was that much publicized incident where nol is on a stage in Newcastle a member of the audience gets up out of the audience punches him in the face right yeah and I heard this on the radio and I thought my phone's going to ring yeah and it did and it was Marcus and he said right we need you uh he said we can't really afford you and and this is a thing to understand no matter how hot a band is no matter how much you see them perhaps in in in this or that you know journal and across the media and they're on top of the pops they ain't got any money necessarily it takes a long time for money to arrive and and and the going rate back in the day my going rate back in the day back in 94 was about 300 a day which is a it's a decent screw then absolutely uh I mean I did a deal with Marcus because I I I genuinely wanted to you know to work um to work did you see something in them that you knew they were going to smash it yeah I I listen I did not I would love to say that yeah I saw instantly that they would be Global I did not but what I did see was that this was a band with Integrity this was a band that were true to themselves and this was a band that that um that looked like a rock and roll band you know what I mean and behaved like a rock and roll band and and I'm a sucker for that and I thought yeah I I want to I I yeah that's that's where I want to be in your gang is the long story short you know and yes so this thing in in Newcastle no gets punched in the face Marcus picks up the phone and I go in initially to to head up the security they give me the job and then Marcus say right we're off to the states great you're not coming we can't afford it fine when we get back you know we'll have a little sit down we'll make a plan great this was the American tour where the wheels fall off at the whiskey right so Oasis make some poor decisions about um about after hours activity they take a lot of crystal meth and they can't deliver the show and this is the show where null storms off the stage and literally goes across takes the tour float which is all the money they've got to sustain themselves in America without resupply and disappears Tim Abott who's was part of the creation records team he was a managing director there but he great mates with uh with null in the end Tim Abbott flies out to the states and he finds him and I think he was either in San Francisco or Vegas doesn't really matter and because of that Marcus fo me up again and said right I'm going to change the job role he said I want you to do security because we need somebody but I want to Road manage the band as well he says we need somebody with a with a slightly firmer grip on things you know and and so and and that was that and and again I suppose it's in part who you know but also at that point I had a really good CV DOD good reputation I had a good reputation I knew what I was doing um you know I proved myself with some with some difficult artists uh and I think rotten was the one for Oasis they you know I don't know what conversations they had between themselves but at some point somebody would have asked who else has he worked with and on that list would have been rotten and rotten is an oasis icon you know in the same way that that lenon McCartney are you know what was Johnny Rotten like because he comes across like a mad man at the same time he's so articulate and clued up and sharp rotten is it two things that you might not expect of of rotten the first one you've nailed it he's very smart very smart the second one is he's very kind he's a really decent kind person and and two good examples of that um smart when I worked with him it wasn't pistol Zer it was Public Image Limited yeah okay so and I'm driving Johnny and his manager uh up to Glasgow and we've done a gig in Aston Villa on our way up to Glasgow and we got there and uh we're in the dressing room just Johnny and I and He Slipped Away around the corner he said I'm going to pop on my Rob I'm going to go me mate it'll all be good okay he's gone around the corner from the barrowlands which was the venue that we were playing one of the iconic venues across the UK stunning place you know two and a half thousand capacity I guess and he slipped it but it's in a very workingclass part of town you know the barers is is what used to be their kind of open markets you know and and it's still reflective of that today or certainly then and rotten's gone around the corner he's he's popped himself into a into a um sleazy little bar Pub and he's sat down in amongst 20 or 30 hardened afternoon Blue Collar glass weeg and drinkers everybody in that bar wants to buy him a drink everybody knows who he is everybody wants to buy him a drink and he comes back and now we're sitting in the dressing room and we're chatting about what's just happened and he's discussing with me how that moment made him realize exactly the degree to which he had impacted all of our kind of cultural identities if he a sex pistol can slip into that space right Blue Collar they might have worked on the shipyards right all of them want to make and break bread with him all of them want to chat to him all of them want to buy him a drink he said I get it he said I get it and the conversation between us DOD is is is like this we're chatting right really on point really arate really thoughtful the promoter walks into the dressing room now the promoter's dropped a few bollocks over the course of the day and roton is not thrilled with him at all so rotten leaps up right we both got a little bottle of logger on the go rotten leaps up you [ __ ] this you [ __ ] that you picks up his ler PS it across the dressing room right smashes behind the promoter deliberately I'm sure right deliberate Miss I'm sure promoter shits himself leaves the dressing room at speed slams the door behind him rotten sits down opens another bottle of ler looks at me and he says well they expect it of me yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah he understood that Johnny roton is a suit of armor yes he puts it on he takes it off you know but as a as a human being a very smart that's evidence of that and be very kind I that's nice to hear you know very kind he's fabulous yeah he's absolutely fabulous I like he just speaks sense when he's on telly speaks sense doesn't he like when he comes on like that's not the Johnny R I know you see him on tell he go mad yeah you know you know Johnny Rotten for [ __ ] prime minister as far as I'm concern absolutely is it too late is it too late yeah yeah yeah yeah tell me what's the difference between Liam Gallagher and no Gallagher I I think okay in my opin I need to qualify this yeah the Liam Gallagher and the null Gallagher that I knew existed in 94 and 95 now nobody Strays too far off the the beaten path do you know what I mean when it comes to DNA and character but if I'm completely honest people ask me in the here and now are they going to get back together again and I'm like well you're better off asking Pep Guardiola right or somebody in the Manchester City Premier first first team because they're probably closer to the brothers than I am but they probably haven't you know the Apple hasn't fallen too far from from that tree in terms of character the fundamental difference is Liam is completely and utterly truthful and by which I mean he has that kind of kneejerk emotional truth response right it doesn't filter anything okay okay you and I have a conversation I guarantee at every touch point in that conversation we're filtering we're determining to what degree do I want to tell this story you know to what degree do I want to open up how much of myself do I want to show here or even that's a contentious opinion in this company do I want to to share it Liam has none of that his truth he will bear regardless of consequence and I and I think there's so much Integrity in that no on the other hand is very measured is very guarded is very thoughtful and has one eye always on consequence okay and one eye down the road a strategist if you like you know and and that that's the big difference the big difference did you find that n had to rain Liam in nobody could nobody could okay one person one person could Reign Liam in the mom yeah yeah on the tour on that tour 94 95 so I joined them in '94 work through '94 and and most of 95 95 is when they really 94 95 is when they really blew up wasn't it it was and this was and this is I think this I find particularly interesting looking back because if you listen to the interviews of of of of that era you would be forgiven for believing that certainly nol and Liam were utterly convinced that their success and the level of their success was Was Written in the Stars was was was a a Biblical prophecy you know but there was no prophecy and certainly there was no prophecy that the band could see every day as it lifted and lifted and lifted as the tickets sold faster as the venues got bigger every day was a surprise to the band as much as it was to anybody else who was watching whatever they said to the contrary and and you know a really good example of that is that they they were promoted then probably still are actually um by sjm yeah that's a company Sim I know Simon He Lovely man lovely absolutely lovely there not anyone sharper than him onig numbers how much things are what it cost he's got this photographic memory which is immense complete and he's a and he's a decent he's a decent decent bloke he is so Simon had booked the B we've been playing um we've been playing theaters and he gets back to people and he remembers he remembers your name you know when someone you found someone and it's three days day four or day five sorry Dodge I'm been really busy I haven't missed you bam he's not one of those that just Fades away just because he's big time yeah yeah well you know and and uh no he's he's a good egg Simon is a really a lot of he has earned a lot of money he's putting all those major tours and all those massive but he puts he puts his money where put his Mone and he started from nothing yep he puts his money where his mouth he got to take that reunion that's right because he walked into into the office and he he wrote a check there and then for 5 million P that's right you know and and which was Head and Shoulders more than anybody else was prepared to take a risk on you know he's got his hands in so many PES he's a bright man and everybody around him you know Rob Valentine who was was his commercial director perhaps he still is uh um he also owns a rugby club I didn't know that does he really wi surely Warrington wton rugby leag the stadium the that's how caked he is you me I have some local clubs you know what I mean that's amazing yeah but anyway so Simon's Simon's booked the tour yeah and and um this is a stadium tour around the UK no no a worldwide tour no he only does the UK yeah he only did the UK I don't think he's ever done any European shows for Oasis may have changed since my day but certainly Back in the Day 94 95 Simon booked Us in the UK and we'd been playing places um you know like the atoria on gone now it's a 2,000 capacity you know the Brighton Center um Southampton Guild Hall those sorts of places we went off and did some stuff in Germany to nobody right and that's a thing to remember in different territories the band's standing was at a very different level you know so so we could we could we could be looking great in the UK I remember in in Salt Lake City for example at the same time as it was all kicking off in the UK uh n sitting outside of venue and busking he made $184 right nobody knew who the [ __ ] he was you know so this so everything's happening a slightly different place so we were out in Germany play to 200 people 300 people a night we came back why just out of Interest why go to Germany to pay in front of 200 people was it for the experience was it for the a little bit of exposure was it to get the Press there to have a look at them what was the what was the what was the thought process behind it well bear in mind that um that Germany as a Marketplace is huge yeah as a contemporary music Marketplace it's huge there's money to be made there you know and the vision for any label and certainly for Marcus and certainly for the band was global domination for that to happen you have to go to these places and play and I'll tell you this about the band They grafted they grafted did they play hard absolutely but they grafted they understood what was necessary and they were more than happy to put the hours the days the weeks in you know um but anyway back to back to this um this contest this idea that that I have this this is my point of view um have to think I'm right but you know is that they didn't really know although they said they knew they didn't really know Simon we've come back from Germany we playing 200 300 people sold out but 200 300 people Simon's booked Us in at our first Arena and that was Sheffield Liam Marcus Simon and I took a wand down to the arena just to take a look at it you know and and do a little bit of a wrecky and we got up on the stage Liam looked at the arena empty it's huge I mean this is I think 11 and a half thousand people so we've gone from 2,000 to 11 that's a big jump B jump big J ab and just the just the geography of it right Liam turns around to Simon and tears him a new [ __ ] you this is [ __ ] ridiculous you we will never sell we won't sell half enough tickets to fill this venue Simon turns around he says it's done hour and a half hour and a half and Liam was like oh you know steps up to the edge of the stage Empty Arena and just shouts at the back wall come on quality no was elsewhere with the with Johnny Mah actually he I think uh and again this is an indication of of things that were moving he spent I think uh 9,000 on three guitars you know so was it's all just beginning to to to fall into place then but they but the certainty wasn't there they they talk certainly they interview certainly but the certainty wasn't there you know every day was a journey was Liam and N tight then when you were there or could you see something getting in the way when did the drugs really kick in in the booze the drugs I I I'm going to I'm going to suggest that the drugs kicked in probably after my departure okay you know were there drugs absolutely you know in fact my my interview uh with Oasis uh I mean this you know obviously this is this is not your conventional job interview you know it never is with a rock and roll band right it never is so with with with uh with Oasis it was twofold at that point the entire touring party was 10 people five of them were in the band right we were few and we were far between and that meant that the crew were particularly important and a particularly important Dynamic so I had to be interviewed both by the band and by the crew the band interview basically took place at the atoria and uh I handled security um and and took care of the press and all those other sort of Road manager type roles and then there was a party being thrown for them literally over the road and I handled that for them as well and I remember halfway it's probably about 2:00 in the morning the party was going to run until about 5:00 in the morning and N came up to me and he said look after these for for me and he gave me a pair of black Hush Puppies his black hush puppies and I thought to myself I've got this no does not give over possession of his hush puppies to just anybody and he expects to see me again tomorrow morning it's all good the crew interview was with Coy Mark Coyle and Mark Cole was their front of house sound engineer in those early years and actually produced co-produced Definitely Maybe and was a huge part and had been I think he worked with the with the inspiral carpets with NL as well they go back a long long way and uh Coy's interview with me was as simple as do you take drugs and the wrong answer is no you know and obviously coming out of the Regin the music industry I will put my hand up over the course of those years there were occasions where I experimented as you do behind now do it's all it is all behind me now I'm 400 years old now you know what I mean what was the feeling like knowing that you got the job with Oasis knowing that you're looking after them knowing that you're taking them to all the gigs did you ever have the fear that anyone was going to do anything stupid to the lads no I really didn't okay I really didn't and and the reason for that is I'm going to come back to at this point this is not my first rodeo you know and I Mark Billy Billingham yeah who ex regge ex Herford and then went in to do a lot of serious celebrity close protection he he calls it if you are to paraphrase uh Johnny Cash kicking and a gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer then you've dropped a bollock yeah that is not your job your job is to see what's around the corner and your job is to make sure that those situations never arise and that is good security and I had complete confidence in my ability to be able to do that in addition to which you know if you're on a tour bus there's nothing anything goes nothing and but nothing's going to go wrong you know what I mean nothing's going to go wrong were you traveling on the tour bus with them absolutely yeah okay I mean this is we we lived firstly we lived cheek by Jael 247 secondly in those very early days we shared rooms yeah right band shared rooms no the only person his own room was null so I shared with Jason roads who was their guitar tech backline technician Phil Smith shared with uh with Coy Maggie had her own room because because Maggie's Maggie uh and then let me see bonehead shared with Tony and GGY and Liam shared and no no and that was it that was you know that and it was that you know and it was that and we moved together you could throw a blanket over us in those early days you know where where one was with we all were it was it was a proper gang mentality lovely Fe it was fabulous fa it was like like The Clash were a gang and I suspect the stones were a gang and I suspect The Beatles were a gang you know and um and it was a it was a great it was a great privilege I bet great privilege what was the what was your give me your dayt day like you're going on tour the boys are going on at 8:00 at night what was your day-to-day moving movements were you like making sure that they were in the right place at the right time time making sure the security was on the stage give me give me an example and what would you do straight after obviously go partying but what then what would your movements be I mean I'm going to say a typical day but there weren't really any typical days there were there were broad similarities a mo most of the day is going to be taken up with um press and promotion yeah and actually in those early days when we had very little in the way of infrastructure and very little in the way of crew but they were as hot as a pistol that's really challenging cuz everybody wants a piece of you and what you got to remember is that if it is uh I probably got the time zones wrong doesn't matter you you you'll get the point if it's 6:00 p.m. in Salford or rather if it's 2:00 a.m. in southford it's 6:00 p.m. in Singapore and it's 12: in the afternoon in Cincinnati so I would have to have the boys ready for interview at 3:00 a.m. at 4:00 a.m. just to trigger the other territ right absolutely because because everybody wants to know and of course and just for the listeners and and anyone watching out there this is pre social media so it was absolutely not yeah absolutely not um yeah and the other thing of course is is that in those early days the media is really important right when the band uh uh uh the biggest band in the world well that's when the media wants you but when you are establishing yourselves and nothing is written in the stars yet you need to do those interviews you need to win the medor over you need to do the graph you know so you know there'd be occasions where I'd be dragging Liam out of bed at 5: in the morning or null out of bed at 5: in the morning so the day could start at five you know and then you know you're not going to get your head we might not have finished until three or four or we might not have finished you know so they're straight into the the whole kind of press and promotion um hamster wheel is is what it is and then in and around that you've got whatever the logistics are for the day and it might be as simple as a tour bus from London to Cardiff but it also might be we're flying to Tokyo yeah you know did you notice you know like a boxer a multi-millionaire he's not going to go train at 5: in the morning in his silk pajamas you know the saying yeah yeah yeah did you notice as they were grafting they had to be at the press release do the press that to do everything they were like bring it on was there a point when they were like I can't be bother to do that you have absolutely nailed it okay and if you bear in mind that that the career of the band before they split was was decades plus you know that crack that oh [ __ ] this came very early yeah sure you know uh and certainly by the time that I left the novelty of of being interviewed initially who nme yeah MTV yeah BBC see wow bring it bring it talk to me talk to me talk to me very quickly because this was you know it was they were getting getting it from all sides you from all around the world wherever we were whenever we were there this label from from this territory would set up ridiculous schedules of of press and and and promotion and uh and they they they did it with great good humor and then they didn't because actually suddenly what was an exciting new development in their lives became same old because actually there's there's not that many imaginative journalists out there so it's the same cycle of questions again and again and with the best will in the world null not withstanding he always got it that's not what they signed up for they signed up to be rock and roll Stars they signed up to to to to you know pin your head to the back of a room in this or that venue on this or that gig night you know they didn't sign up for the politics they didn't sign up for you know to be questioned and queried they certainly didn't sign up to be questioned and queried at whatever the hell time it was when they still had their head up their ass how did the deals work then are they signed by a record label to do a tour or they signed by the record label for a certain amount of years well every firstly they're signed to a record label yeah so give an example well an example might be really simple um I I sign you dodge because you're a [ __ ] killer singer songr I know that not a lot of people know that about terrific singers so I'm going to sign you going to sign you for five years and in that five years you're going to give me three albums okay so the pressure's on yeah and you go yeah I love to yeah back in the day there might be an advance there is very little in the way of an advance these days and bear in mind if there's an advance it's recuperable it's a loan it's got to be paid back right double-edged sword so you've got that contract with the with the label now the labels um side of the bargain is to promote you okay so if they're Global then they will start setting up promotional activity the the most effective of which obviously is to go and play Live yeah okay so now they contract with a an agent and a promoter and it's the agent's job to find you the shows and to get you an offer okay so you know let's say for the sake of argument uh in the early days when they're playing places like King TTS a they never had an agent B they probably paid for free where's King TTS King tuts is Glasgow now that's where uh that's where um Alan McGee saw them for the first time and signed them so that was that's a critical moment in their history and I wasn't with them there so that record label is saying right you're in for five years yeah that record label then goes finds an agent an agent then goes and get gets the venue and does a deal with the promoter to pay the record label the money guaranteed up front that's it the agent will go to the promoter rather than to the venue yeah so you know if you're going to play in the north so if I'm a promoter yep in Southwest London they would come to me and go Dodge we want under G's phone I go there's your under GS if I sell this amount of tickets that's mine my break even is 14,000 people up to 20 that's my profit it's exactly it's exactly that but there's also it's interesting because the contracts nowadays are favored heavily in in in favor of the artist used to be in favor of the promoter the promoter back in now and actually the same in boxing is it really yeah it used to be back changed it's changed back into the into the box well and it's probably very similar if you break percentage right so you'll have a minimum guarantee of X against against a number of tickets probably about 80% sold the remainder of that 20% if you do 100% of the tickets the artist will take 80 maybe 90% of the sale of those tickets wow okay so it's in their so it's in their interest as well to push boundaries and to do the promotion and to do the promotion if your contract if they were contractor for 5ye with someone that record label now owns them because they've given them a huge amount of money up front yep wow and if those boys are using copious amounts of cocaine booze crystal meth ease d That's not conducive to feeling energetic to be doing everything that they're told to be done in the contract it is definitely counterproductive and one of the big one of the biggest challenges that anybody has with artist if they are if they're using is is exact is exactly that and and again in my in my in my time 94 95 were they taking drugs yes is no this is no uh scoop right Oasis took drugs yeah well what a Kela Breeze right no no no no um they were largely a fast drugs band it was coke you know GGY a bit of weed bonee head nothing right drugs drugs are for students was his was his standpoint was clean the whole time clean the whole time he lik drink he liked to drink you could see you could see a lot of red wine off um but no he he he never touched a drug would you ever did you ever touch anything when you were with them did I did actually in their presence in their it was only in their presence so for me it would be at the end of a uh at the end of a day come back to the typical day so we've done all the promo then we've sound checked then we've done some more promo then we've done the show then we've gone out or we've gone back to the hotel at some point there is a deter mination made that we're going to get rid of everybody and it would just be the the core basically so it might be Liam and nol and and GGY and Jason and me and Coy in a hotel room somewhere and on those occasions if there was nothing to do early doors the following day yeah I would I'd get involved with them yeah one of the perks of the job well I don't know I mean I did you feel like you should do yeah I did well and no that's not fair yes you obviously you got to take your own responsibility but did you feel like if I don't they're going to look at me weirdly that maybe I'm judging them there would have been there would undoubtedly be an element of that but that I will not pretend for a second that that was the driver behind my decision I made the decision to be a part of it because I wanted to be a part of it yeah because I wanted to be a part of it I wanted to be in the gang and as with any gang there are Unwritten unspoken rules that's right and and that and back to CO's interview with me do you take drugs yeah you know and and there would be a certain degree of um of of of distrust yeah have you seen the lads since yes I haven't seen Liam um and of course he and I parted on particularly uh challenging terms I see a quite you mean what do you mean part of challenging terms well did you see ey to ey well I'm going to I'll turn to this now Dodge which is which is your book it is oasis watch the story not going to flog it to death no no no but I will life on tour with Liam and N Gallagher anyone out there go and check it out every go and Google it and you'll see amazing photos and amazing stories in there well well one of the stories um is is how my relationship a with the band or rather a with Liam and then B with the band came to a close um we went to Paris to do some promo and it was just Liam and me and GGY and Alan white who had taken over the drumming duties from Tony mccarel by then and young lady from the record company everything going brilliantly other than the fact that they'd got on it from the second we turned up in Paris and the final interview was a record a radio station and they decided to do it away from the hotel in a nightclub so we rock up at the nightclub and they're hammered Liam is absolutely hammered and they've also decided that the interview will be um a two-parter a doubleheader so they've got Liam and they've got Eddie isard right so Eddie isard is is in that kind of black latex orange latex lipstick and nails phase which I got to tell you was a challenging persona for for Liam to deal with kind of sitting as close as as you and I are doing doing the the the interview Eddie isart speaks really good French and he begins answering the question questions in really good french at which point the interview shifts away from being about Liam and Oasis and moves into perhaps quite naturally Eddie and what Eddie's up to Liam is not thrilled with this at all kicks off now Furniture's being thrown around the club tables are being upended bottles are being thrown all of those good things and he's gone and I I've got gy and Allan are like here we go you know and gone stay here I'll I'll sort this so I've gone after him we've gone together to a bar that that the band used to enjoy in in Paris I don't know if it's still there Lily laes right strippers on the tables and the best margarit in France all right I don't know I don't know why we spent so much time there and uh so we we're in Lily's together and we're having a drink and I'm I'm trying to calm him down and and and we're getting there I said right let let's go back let's find GGY let's find Allan and and we can we can finish this night on a slightly on a slightly better tone and Liam agrees so we go back out to the car and then Linda Linda found us from the record company Linda and Liam fall out about God only knows what I think it was basically Linda was in charge of press so Liam then saw it as being Linda's responsibility that this uh interview had taken the turn that the interview had taken it wasn't her fault I've defended Linda Liam has now decided that he is being ganged up on so quite naturally as we career through the streets of Paris about 30 mil an hour he opens the door and throws himself out my immediate reaction is to open my door and throw myself out so now we're both rolling ass over tit down the streets of Paris right seriously and uh and we stand and he's shaking himself off and I'm shaking myself off I think I've landed a bit more elegantly than he has you know I mean but I was taught trained um and and we're looking at each other and he punches me in the face and then he punches me in the face again and I'm like well I didn't see that coming and I thought well I can't I can't hurt him yeah you know I just I literally picked him up carried him off the road bounced him off a bus stop and just looked at him and he looked at me and he just went you're [ __ ] fired MK comes back around Liam jumps back into the MC and he disappears and I'm thinking what what do I do and I went back to the hotel picked up the phone to Marcus their manager and I just said look mate this has happened I said I'll be honest with you our relationship mine and Liams has has has been deteriorating I think we've got to a point of of no return here so I'm I'm going to jump I don't Kid myself that I wouldn't have been pushed in any event and our relationship had deteriorated and this is because and it's exactly what you pointed out in that transition from I Can't Get Enough interviews I Can't Get Enough press I want to talk about myself 24 hours a day to oh Jesus you know really it's 5:00 in the morning I ain't doing it you know my job was I know it's 5:00 in the morning I don't care I know you got somebody in that bed with you get out get your clothes on get downstairs do the Press that's what I'm there for now how do you do that you can either do it by blowing smoke or you're a little bit more proactive I was a bit more proactive and there's a reason for that the tour I did before Oasis was a band called BBM this was Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker from cream two of the most iconic British artists that that ever graced the stage most influential you know and Gary Moore who was taking the Eric Clapton roll and I was a great fan as a result of which Dodge when I tour managed them I basically blew smoke and I kissed ass and it was jump how high yeah it was the most unpleasant experience I've ever had on the road it was you know because they had no respect for me okay at all and I determined when I went into the oasis Camp I'm not doing that again okay so I'm going to be and I was too proactive too uh-uh there there okay you know and the rest of the band were able to handle that Liam wasn't okay you know and so as far as I'm concerned it's 50-50 ball it's not that he's an [ __ ] it's not that I was too much of this or too much of that and it comes back to what I said at the top of this conversation it ain't you know knowing how to toour manage is a it's the people thing yeah and I got it wrong takes take a strong man to admit that took me years in my own head I bet did took me years to go down to you down to you what was your relationship like before that happened though cuz that's not just a quick no uh he's off his nut and he's in the club and he's getting angry with you there must have been some sort of buildup that he's going you know what you're annoying me you're being too pushy for me what was that did you sense that it was it it manifest itself first I mean there was a it he was he was always the least Keen okay to get up at 3: 4 5: a.m. and and and and fulfill press duties because because to his credit he lived truthfully and his truth then was I am a rock and roll star he lived like a rock and roll star more than anybody else in the band all right and we expect that of our rock and roll stars that is absolutely not a criticism because if he didn't live like that Oasis are not Oasis Liam is not Liam the anger the energy the the the you know that magic it's it's not there you know it's not there so hats off to him for that but there's a price to pay when all is said and done so there were many instances where we were just on the we were on the opposite side of the ring for one of a be word you know what I mean it's like I you have to do this I don't want to do this you have to do this right and and it was always from his point of view I'm it will shoot the messenger it it will shoot the messenger and there was a particularly momentous occasion we went and did um later with Jules Holland and at that point Paulie Yates rest in peace was was still with us and she was the co-presenter she had it hot for Liam big time and so we did the show and then there was a party afterwards wasn't much of a party it the BBC you know what I mean but there was a party afterwards and Paula made a beline for him basically you know take me to the toilet and then we can go out together and cause a sensation right seriously and anyway so it we all it didn't happen and we left Brighton we played Brighton a few weeks later and Paul was at the show out out the blue out the blue and now I'm a great I'm not a great believer in in coincidence do you know what I mean it's it's a bit like the old uh uh uh it's a bit like the the the Romans and the Christians and there just happened to be some Lions there it wasn't a coincidence and I don't think it was a coincidence that Paula was there and we had to get from um from Brighton to to Sheffield go figure right that's the agents plan but no middleb now that that's a hell of a journey so we've gone to that's last six seven hours right and we've gone to a club afterwards not the best idea in the world but Brighton then was home to Bobby Gillespie and the throb from Primal screen throb rip so we we're gonna go we're going to show our face we went to the zap club we hung out zap Club quality Club yeah yeah right so we're we're in zap and we're hanging out and uh but I've got to get them back onto the bus at 2 a.m. and at 2 am I find Liam everybody's no drama at all Liam's no drama yeah yeah yeah yeah go I'll come straight away looking hell all right so anyway we're walking back and as we come around the corner to to where the bus is waiting for us they're all loading up Liam's gently kind of shading back from me and as I turn around he's heading off in the opposite direction and I've gone whoa whoa whoa and I've started following he starts running so now I'm chasing Liam through the streets of [ __ ] Brighton you know what I mean and he ends up a hotel and at the front door of the hotel is Paulie Yates and Liam says Robo mate I'll make my own way to Middlesboro I'm like there's not [ __ ] chance in hell that's going to happen you know no you got to come with me you know and and then Paula puts her uh torth in to Liam are you a man or a mouse we have a proper kickoff about whether he is or whether he is not getting on the bus the long story short as he gets on the bus but but we've had a proper you know verbal tear up and uh and so I speak to n as we get I said no you might want to have a word with Marcus and probably with Liam because I don't think he's he's that impressed with me at the moment I've done my job as the bus leaves bright and I'm sort of sitting there and looking out the window and they Marcus and Liam and and and N are having a chat at the front of the bus Mar and no comes along he says right Robo he says this is my band and I decide who's in it and I decide who's out and you're in so there's been some kind of debate then so n come back is n and I I've had a terrific relationship okay throughout okay throughout and I saw and I saw was he easier to deal with no Christ yeah yeah he was because he was a thinker okay um you know when I say when I say he was a strategist yes he was but he didn't he wasn't like sort of spend it wasn't like sort of uh what's that gezer and Despicable Me it wasn't sort of you know what I mean it was just he knew was going on he boundar he did he could see he could see one two three was he driving the band forward more than Liam you feel was he dragging Liam along with Liam was not dragged anywhere by anybody you know that the the the the anger and the energy and the truth that that Liam brought to the party you know was was uh uh was a critical part of their success there's no doubt in my mind about that but in terms of the dayto day in terms of the we're going to release this singer we're going to release that single the album's coming out on that date will do this promo nobody felt the need to dig any deeper into the band for consensus and agreement than n yeah okay so basically if the label had an idea and they took it to Marcus the manager Marcus would take it to n okay n would sign off yes or no and once n said it was happening well that was it and his nickname amongst us all was the chief okay you know what a weird feeling for those boys having the golden handcuffs you win in one hand don't you there's your money but we've now got you we want to do this this this this this there must be a lot of pressure on the boys there was any band how how young were how old were they when you were with them well I guess uh um I guess they were early 20s I suppose I bet Liam was I tell I've got two photographs sadly not with me because they tell a story and and one of them is a picture that we had to get taken in in 95 for a Visa a work visa somewhere and Liam is is like this perfect Angelic blue-eyed Saint six months later I'm getting another photograph taken for a US Visa he's aged 10 years yeah okay in that in that six-month period you know and and that was a I'm going to press the yes more louder fun button yeah but B it's it's CFT yeah you know burning the can burning the and this was the thing we you asked a question about about the the split between Liam and no what year roughly was that split well in my listen this is an opinion but but it's founded on on being there 94 we played the Glasgow barrands coincidentally the same place had that little incident with rotten yeah the band had been up you know all of them caning it for three or four days if you're a drummer and you cane it your instrument is tightened tuned put in a box yeah if you're a guitar player it's cleaned restrung tuned put in a box if you're the singer you are the instrument yeah right cocaine it takes it out of your of your larynx yeah as we flew into to Glasgow Liam was struggling a bit with the voice but we all thought nothing of it you know there's no way you know Liam will bounce he always bounces four songs in to the gig and he's lost it completely can't sing he literally kicks the microphone into the into the uh into the security pick storms off stage and starts destroying the dressing room tearing it to Pieces literally you know picking this up throwing it over there messing the place up to the best of his ability and he was a very able Messer uper of dressing rooms I have to say and he made a particularly thorough and good job of it nol decided he said well hold on a minute so we got two and a half thousand joanes right in the in the barrands all going what the [ __ ] going on jockes no's like no's like no's like hold on a minute hold on a minute I'll sort something out literally is very I'll sort something out and he goes off stage and he goes to see Liam and he says quite rightly Liam I know your voice is shot they don't care they just want to see they just want to be close to you come out and finish the show now here's the Liam's credit no if I can't deliver the show that that I want to deliver I ain't delivering anything so that night well two things happened one no goes back on stage right and uh he's left me to handle Liam and he goes back on stage to have a chat with the audience so I've had a chat with Liam and it's like no I'm going back to theel right I'll get you back to the hotel let me go and explain what's going on so I walk onto the stage right and I stand next to NL next to his microphone and this might be the highlight of my career in the music industry into his microphone I say right Liam is completely [ __ ] I'm going to get him back to the hotel and then I'll get you back to the hotel we'll be gone before they even know we've gone nearly right at which point no looks at me like you good and faithful idiot you know and he performs acoustically okay for the first time he performs a set of his own songs Oasis songs acoustically for the first time I take Liam back to the hotel I don't see any of this happen right I put Liam to bed and I phone Marcus and I say right I I think we need we got two shows in quick succession I said we need to cancel them I said we'll reconvene in in wolver Hampton that's my that's that's my idea Marcus like I agree we've got to get Nolls by him okay and and so has the band come back from the barrands into uh cop Thorn hotel we were staying at in Glasgow uh overlooking George square into the bar at the copor I'm like right I've got to Broach this with no now it's one thing to get agreement with Marcus and to get agreement with Liam but no has to buy in for this to work and I thought I'd have a very difficult conversation with him absolute piece of piss because he really enjoyed that opportunity that first moment where his songs and it's a bit like Town's end and adter adultery interprets Town's end songs doesn't write any of them but he makes them something else so null for the first time got to to sing his song to express his own exactly and he loved it bril from that point forward that acoustic nll set not necessarily acoustic but the nll set four three four five songs was a part then of the choreography of the show and then that was the beginning of the the split that was the beginning of of of I could do it myself I don't know that it was as pronounced as that Dodge but I tell you what it was it was initially it's it's a brotherly sibling thing and the arguments were were kind of divided along those sorts of ridiculous lines like what would John Lennon have to say about X if he was still alive right brotherly stuff after that it became much more about band politics movements and activity it became the beginning of a a power struggle between them so it turned from being the brotherly thing to a genuine power struggle and then you saw the energy change the energy changed completely yeah completely completely what sort of what sort of amounts of drugs have you seen on tour uh well a lot it's a long story short um I I think bands can can remain are we talking are we talking piles of cocaine just let me let me tell you a story I'm not going I'm not going to drop the band's name okay because because it was a long time ago and they all live different lives yeah but we're in Barcelona and I'm not going to tell you what the show was a very very high-profile show and uh after the show we've been in Spain for I think about about 10 days when you're on the road you get paid a your salary that goes straight into your bank account but you get paid a thing called a pum which I'm sure you're familiar with a daily expense dependent upon the nature of the show and the size of the band that pum can be 20 quid a day 50 Quid a day with this particular band the PM is £50 a day okay there are 14 of us in the touring party and we've taken a vote at the beginning that all of our PMS will be put in a pile and we'll buy drugs with it so 700 a day we're spending on cocaine answer me but mostly cocaine at the end of the the time in Spain we're in a hotel room with a pile of cocaine that would not look at her face in Scarface out places and we're trying to do it all because we can't take it back with us you know what I mean and we we failed dismally and we had to give regretfully and with no refund [ __ ] great bag of coke back to the promoter so sometimes yeah a a lot unfeasible amounts and of course the other thing that you have to bear in mind is that uh is that by and large the the dealers that that that we would come into contact with they you know this is not this is not the guy that's smuggling Keys you know from from from Colombia this is the guy that's buying maybe half a key and then jumping on it and banging it out in in in grams so this is you know they're not at the they're not at the Pinnacle of of of the uh of of of career progression and for them very often almost always we wouldn't pay right the deal was very simple if I give you some free drugs can I hang out with you yeah can I feel part of your part of your gang right and the answer would be yes up to a point you know one of the things I was always tasked to do and I always did in any event with any band was there's a little line that certain people are not going to cross yeah right there's a room somewhere where you ain't getting if you're a journalist we'll let you in we'll give you the AAA you come back the dressing room but there's a place you're not going to get to if you're the drug dealer let into the dressing room but there's a place that you're not going to get to and there's a point in the evening where we go that's where we go we close shop and whatever happens next it happens in private what was there ever a point when you saw the two leads fighting with each other yeah yeah there was that and this was again initially arguing I mean aggressively but it was gone it was here and it was gone just like brothers do you know and then post post barrowlands it it became it became physical there were there were numerous occasions where where I would have to physically separate one from the other um and again this this put me in a very in a very difficult place do you know what I mean and you're a big man how tall are you I'm I'm only six foot you okay I'm only six foot you know um but I'm taller than they are and I'm exr it wasn't the issue wasn't that of of of physicality particular it was just that what those instances would do was they would poison the atmosphere of of of everything they would they'd suck the wind out of GGY um sails out of out of so the knock on effect the crew around is horrible so once it's kicked off it's like here we go think I'm taking sides I don't want to get involved can you two just sort it out I got down that route and it was but and again this comes back to an earlier conversation ear part of the conversation about people skills I probably did take sides because in truth in those instances where there was where there was physical um um uh between Liam and null 99.999 times out of 10 it was Liam that was instigating and and and and I was kind of Defending no which is not to say that no wouldn't step up and have a tear up with his brother but no was always like come on you know what I mean he had a much more and he wasn't he wasn't no's response to the world wasn't as emotional kind of knee-jerk bang as as as Liam I tell and this is an interesting thing I think about violence I went to this Military Academy and I learned something we had a thing called the boo bootroom at school and if you had grief with somebody you would book a place in the bootroom to to resolve that grief fights didn't happen in those moments of heat and in those moments of of anger they happened 3 hours later at the end of the day when it's all gone and now you're looking at somebody you're not angry with him anymore and he's not angry with you anymore but now you got to one of you's got to walk out of there and you've got to stay in there do you know what I mean and that g that gave me a very different take on on what it is to be to be violent and I think nol has that intrinsically you know Liam on the other hand you've got that again you've got that kind of knee-jerk emotional response to to everything you know who would you who would you put your money on the tear up oh wow there we go I'm going to go because I think no has a touch of the uh of the cunning about him you know and no I think would allow and watch the thing develop and he thinks very very quickly um and and I think he would be a he'd be a counter puncher you know but the [ __ ] do I know Dodge good question good what was your movement then when you finished when you finished with the lads like you that you got that one time right you're out you're fired were you thinking [ __ ] I've got to go again or I've got to look at myself and say how was I reacting in this situation you know how was I with the lads was I pushing the boundaries when they were wired at 5: in the morning didn't want to get out bed to do a press conference you must have taken a good hard look at yourself right I I wish I wish that that I could sit here and tell you that that that uh I had the smarts to do that I I really didn't I think I think I felt slightly sorry for myself if I'm completely honest do you know what I mean and I was like oh Christ what now you know um and disappointed um that it it had ended at all never mind in that way because because a I was a fan of the band how could you not be and B it's a very very seductive potion yeah to be at the center yeah of the center of rock and roll and that's what what you missed that's what I miss bet you know so you know and there is that you know it's like you know i' been very lucky out the rge into rock and roll so you've got that you know what I mean and I was lucky again at rock and roll into fire and rescue always had that a camaraderie B family c yeah adrenaline yeah you know so initially H very very disappointed did you stay in contact with the lads after you got fired I didn't really I I I I I'd stayed in touch with Marcus cuz he and I were friends independently of of my working with the band but not like you know we're on the phone every day so I stayed in touch with Marcus um I took I suppose it was about six months after after the event I thought I'm going to write the book you know and I approached the band and I approached Marcus and I told me I'm going to do this no reply okay so I'll do it I wrote it Al you went to them and said do you mind do this nothing I'll do it I'll do it then I reached out and said do you want to do you want to read it I said I'm not saying I'll change it necessarily but do you want to read it and there's anything that really offends and and and there won't be I mean there's two books you can write about anything and anybody one is a kind account the other's an unkind account and I took the view it's it's a it's a kind account because because I had a because I had an absolute blast with them you know be that as it may the record label um tried through their lawyers to prevent it being released did they yeah and and so my interpretation of that was that this was um probably driven by you know this was this was a a a consensus between the band the management and everybody they didn't want it to come out because they didn't know what you were going to say they did not okay they chose not to look at it and of course you know there's there's a lot of stories that that can be told when I wrote it just by The Bu every time I put pen to paper and it was handwritten literally I had their mom on my shoulder in my mind's eye yeah and it was like if I wrote this how's it going to land with Mom how's it land with that's very respectful yeah that's not to say that there's not some tear ass stories in there but if if there was an element of unkindness what's the [ __ ] point what's the point what's the point yeah I agree anyway after the event you know the the the the the lawyers had their conversation the book came out and I bumped into null at the nme awards the year afterwards and this was the only validation that I needed we had a beer together and he said by the way he said your book is that it is the best account of my band that anybody's written and it's the truth and that and that that was it for me that was it it was lovely it was a nice nice closure nice closure and I went on I did a bit more work um with a with a few more bands um but it was coming to I had a I had a I became a father in 19 uh yeah 1998 and uh and very shortly after that I realized you can't be a dad and be gallivanting around the world rock and roll St ABS it doesn't it doesn't go handing out was a blessing in disguise yeah I think it I think it probably I think it probably was I think it probably Robo I've absolutely loved this like there's I know there's loads more stories in here and anyone out there definitely go and get this book where can they get it from I think your best bet is most decent bookstores wst I think have got it in most instances if not Amazon life on tour Liam and N Gallagher by Ian Robertson blinding M you're an absolute Legend I really enjoyed it you know what you've lived an eventful life and I know there's loads more stories in there as well for sure you're a good man thank you cheers Robo you're a gentl really appreciate it good man thank you mate hi guys I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did can you do us a favor and subscribe to the channel it's totally free and it massively helps our show Cheers guys w