Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Ballad Of The Mighty I
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Ballad Of The Mighty I (2015)
Director: John Hardwick
‘Chasing Yesterday’ marks a new chapter and sound for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. It’s the first album to be produced as well as written by Noel and features a much broader array of instrumentation than ever before; the result is a rich, expansive and multi-layered record, drawing from a range of disparate influences – from west coast rock to classic rock’n’roll and even some space jazz (!) – whilst still being very obviously a completely cohesive body of work. On producing the album, Noel said:
“It was a major pain in the arse. It’s not that I’ve ever had people telling me what to write or what direction to go in, but managing sessions from one end of the week to the other proved extremely difficult. I had all these people looking at me and saying: ‘right, what are we doing today?’ I was making the whole thing up as I went along.”
The first single to be taken from the album will be, ‘In The Heat Of The Moment’. This hypnotic track was inspired by a documentary in which an astronaut said that going into space for the first time feels like touching the face of God. “If that’s not an opening line for a song I don’t know what is” said Mr Gallagher.
The beautiful opening track ‘Riverman’ is an expansive song with several guitar and saxophone solos. Noel said of the track:
“We made a demo of Riverman and we knew it was amazing,” “And then I was listening to [sax-laden one-hit wonder from 1974] Pinball by Brian Protheroe and thought: Shall I actually get a saxophone player? And what if I get him to play not one but two solos? I know I’m going to be accused of sax crimes. But fuck it. There’s nobody to tell me not to do it. And when you listen to that saxophone, please, don’t think about the guy from Spandau Ballet.”
The record’s emotional closer, ‘Ballad Of The Mighty I’ sees Johnny Marr join with Noel on guitar duties.
“I tried to get him to play on the last album but it never happened,” said Gallagher. “So when I put this track together and knew he would be perfect for it I called him and asked if I could send him the rough mix. He said: ‘No, I don’t want to hear it. I’m just going to react to it on the day.’ He didn’t even want any pointers. Well, that was brave of him. He just arrived with two guitars and a bag of effects pedals. And I have to say, he’s unbelievable. He’s way up there, on another level to the rest of us. The result is a burst of energy that helped make Mighty I one of the best songs I’ve ever written.”
This album follows the huge success of the double platinum eponymous debut album that has sold 770,000 copies to date in the UK alone, and a live schedule that saw Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds visit 32 countries and play 143 shows over a 15 month touring period.
