In a recent chat with NME, Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson reflected on his past feud with Noel Gallagher.
“It was a bit odd, really, when Noel used to knock us and that. I got really wound up about it. But that’s just the way it is,” the singer recalled about when yhe and Noel argued in the press after Mods got popular in the mid-2010s.
He added, “I wouldn’t do it now, no, but at the time I was so obsessed with the idea of what Mods should be and it just wasn’t going that way. So anything that contrasted with that and looked like it was dragging the idea of it down, you’d have a pop at.”
In 2014, Williamson spoke with NME and said he believed Gallagher’s influence led to a lack of originality and meaningful expression among bands. He stated, “Creatively speaking, Noel Gallagher’s got blood on his hands.”
Later, in 2015, Noel replied to those words in an interview with NME. He was asked if Sleaford Mods represented the missing working class rage in British music that he had talked about before. “They’re like f*cking Brown Bottle in Viz,” he said.
Gallagher continued, “There’s no joy in that, is there? It’s just two guys, one clearly mentally ill, who’s just shouting like Brown Bottle about f*cking cider and f*cking sh*t chicken. Yeah, that would’ve been fun wouldn’t it, at Knebworth. ‘Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and while we’re all here,’ while all the people at the back are on acid and E, ’round of applause for the miners, wahey.’ F*ck off.”
“Oasis were raging, but we were raging joy and the sun was out in the songs, if you can’t see the rage and the yearning to better yourself in rock ‘n’ roll style you’re dead to me,” Noel shared. “And protest songs: f*cking bollocks. ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’ is a protest song, and the message in that is ‘F*ck your recession and f*ck you and your government, we’re gonna have a great time.'”
“Yeah. Well, tell them from me that I’ve got blood on my hands and f*cking champagne in the bath,” Noel said of Sleaford Mods’ remark that he had ‘blood on his hands.’
Sleaford Mods’ 10th anniversary reissue of ‘Divide & Exit’ is now available. The band will celebrate the album with a small UK tour in November.
