A front page headline on The Mirror declared, ‘Rage at Liam’s 4-letter rant on Radio 1’ – reflecting the nation’s shock. Noel Gallagher had agreed to join DJ Steve Lamacq on the evening of 23 October 1997, to answer fan questions live on his BBC show. But, following an afternoon drinking session together, Liam gatecrashed the interview.
The rest is rock ‘n’ roll history, as the Oasis brothers began 90 minutes of expletive laden banter. Liam described the Rolling Stones and George Harrison as ‘senile’ and said: “If they want to scrap, I will beat them up.” Noel announced: “Drugs do work,” after The Verve’s song, The Drugs Won’t Work was played. And Liam finally stormed out, leaving Noel with a flummoxed Steve, apologising to listeners.
Steve, 61, who will be presenting on a new BBC 6 Music streaming series, Indie Forever, starting on Wednesday, says: “This was probably one of the most rock ‘n’ roll interviews since the Sex Pistols were on the Today programme! It put to bed the idea of Radio 1 being staid.”
Describing it as “slightly terrifying” but “compelling,” he says of this snapshot of the Gallaghers’ relationship: “Noel was poking fun at his younger brother but underneath there was a lot of love. It was the first time I realised that brotherly dynamic. You had to always look at Liam, even if you were talking to Noel.
“By the end, Noel was quite reflective, as if he was having some post night out comedown. I remember going to the pub afterwards and the barman pouring me a pint. He gave it to me and said ‘oh mate’. He’d had it on in the pub. He’d had to turn it off after nine minutes.”
Steve, who gave Oasis their radio debut, by playing Columbia in 1993, saw them at Wembley last year. He says: “I think it is nice Oasis can now see, 30 years on, they are their generation’s biggest band.”.
During a distinguished career, Steve has interviewed a catalogue of legendary musicians. But his most surreal encounters was with Nirvana in a West London B&B in Shepherd’s Bush. Then working for music mag NME, it was just after drummer Dave Grohl joined in 1990 and before Kurt Cobain’s tragic suicide in 1994.
He’d just heard Silver and says: “The track was really good. I had to go to a B&B where they were staying. Kurt Cobain answered the door. There were three beds and they were all sleeping in the same room. There was Kurt, Krist the bassist and the new drummer, who wasn’t allowed to speak, as he’d only just joined.
“I sat next to Kurt on the bed. All the time, the drummer was busying himself around the room. I couldn’t quite see what he was doing until, at one point, he dragged this bin liner past us to the bathroom, leaving the door ajar. I risked taking my eye off Kurt for a second, just to have a glance at what was going on in the bathroom.
“I saw the drummer tip the contents of the bin bag into the bath, which turned out to be just underwear. Then the drummer started washing the socks and the pants in the bath. And that ladies and gentlemen was Dave Grohl!’
Steve has championed everyone from Blur, Pulp and Coldplay to Oasis and Suede. Joining Radio 1 in August 1993 to co-host the Evening Session with Jo Whiley, he moved to BBC Radio 6 Music in 2009, where he has remained. The new Indie Forever 24-hour BBC Sounds stream will include The Morning Session with Steve and Felix White from the Maccabees. Together, they will pay homage to some of these groups.
Steve is also presenting The Rise and Fall of The Smiths on Saturday 25 July, on Radio 6. Full of stories about musicians he’s met, he recalls a 1998 Coldplay gig at Camden’s Falcon pub in north London, with just 32 other people in the audience.
Of frontman Chris Martin, he says: “He had that amazing mix of being really driven and confident, while at the same time being ever so humble. He still pulls that off now. I’d dragged a friend of mine along [to The Falcon]. I remember his words, ‘it’s not just me – that was really special.’”
Afterwards, he invited Coldplay on to his Evening Session show, but they turned him down. He recalls: “The manager phoned and said, ‘no, we can’t do it. I was like ‘what? You can’t do a session on Radio 1?!’ He said ‘no’ because Will, the drummer, had his finals that day. We had to reorganise it for another day.”
Colourful characters tend to make a band, says Steve, who gives Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker as a prime example. He explains: “The first time I saw Jarvis on stage in West London, he was like a cross between Ian Curtis of Joy Division and Alvin Stardust. I’d never seen a frontman like him. In between the songs, his patter was dry and I thought ‘this guy sounds fascinating.’“
Similarly, he knew Blur were exciting the second he saw them perform at the now demolished Cricketer’s pub in London’s Kennington in 1990. Then called Seymour, Steve says: “A guy in a band had tipped me off about them. His immortal words were, ‘I didn’t like them but I think you will.’ They were slightly ‘art school punk’ the first time I saw them. There are those moments where you see the band and visualise what they will turn into.”
While groups like Blur and Coldplay have continued to commend Steve for giving them a break, none of them have become drinking buddies. Steve swerves that kind of relationship, saying: “I’ve got this deep-set fear that however amazing they are, they might make an awful record. I don’t want to be the person to have to tell them.”
While he’s had enviable professional success, it’s his happy family life that Steve sees as his biggest achievement. He married psychologist Dr Jen Wills in 2019 and lives with her and their nine-year-old daughter – whose name he doesn’t disclose – in London.
He says: “Becoming a dad has been fantastic. I got to the stage in life where you begin to think maybe you are getting too old to be a dad but, actually, you don’t ever get really too old to be a dad. The arrival of my daughter just changed my perspective on so many things. I appreciate the time outside of music with the family. It’s really special.”
Smiling, he proudly reveals his daughter is already showing a passion for spotting good bands. He says: “I am learning a lot about pop music through her. She’s actually turning out a little bit like me. She’s supporting the comparative underdog. Rather than Harry Styles and Taylor Swift, she is a fan of a guy called Conan Gray. He supported Lewis Capaldi recently.”
While he relishes his new Indie venture, Steve says he would love to bring back the Evening Session. He says of the show: “I am sure at some point there will be an Oasis style reunion. When the clamour is there from the public, then maybe we should!”
*6 Music Indie Forever launches on Wednesday 22 July on BBC Sounds. Steve’s The Rise and Fall of The Smiths launches on Saturday 25 July, also on the stream.
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