Liam Fray on 'better than ever' Liam Gallagher and Oasis influence on The Courteeners ahead of album and tour
It’s set to be a big year for Manc favourites The Courteeners - and frontman Liam Fray has reflected on some of the things he’s been up to - including seeing Liam Gallagher.
The Courtneers have a new album on the way, which will be their first in four years. ‘Pink Cactus Cafe’ is set for release on October 25, and the first taste of this has come through the release of the first single from the record ‘Solitude of the Night Bus’. To help take the album on the road, the band announced a full UK tour. This includes a show at Manchester’s new venue Co-op Live.
Following several big announcements and ahead of the album release and tour, frontman Fray has been talking about his experiences in music. One such moment was when reflecting on when he first heard the classic Oasis album ‘Definitely Maybe’ which marks its 30th anniversary this year.
Chatting on The Evening Show with Dan O’Connell on Radio X, Fray said: “Weirdly enough, I had What’s The Story [Morning Glory] before Definitely Maybe. So I was 10, 11 for Morning Glory. But you couldn’t escape; I remember ‘Wonderwall’ on the radio, and I remember this very, very clearly – I'd just being able to sit in the front of the car with my dad. You get that, you know, ‘ Don't touch that, don't press this.’ Because they wanted the vocal to pop out so much, the guitar was quite quiet.
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“So I would go to hear that, because that's good when I had that acoustic, and I’m not just saying this, but I remember thinking I’d never really heard that thing, or it’d never done that to me, so I cranked it up. But then when the vocal comes in, you know, it's massive. So, I remember my dad always going a bit mad and reining it in a bit, and my sister going, ‘Oh, you do know there's an album before that?”
Fray caught Liam Gallagher at one of his shows at Co-op Live back in June. He was impressed by the former Oasis man’s performance.
“So that was quite mad, to go ‘Wow.’ And then obviously, at 11, 12, you’ve probably got four CDs, haven’t you? So that’s all there was on rotation… I went to see Liam at the Co-op. Just as good as ever. Better than ever, actually! Better than ever. I would say that's the best I think I've ever seen him.”
Fray went on to touch on ‘Pink Cactus Cafe’ and how a range of collaborators who appear on the record have added to the creative experience.
He added: “The last three, four records, it's basically me and Joe, the producer, and then we get the rest of the band in, kind of thing. Well, this was like different producers, and a couple of people in the studio at different times and stuff, so there was no definite direction or whatever.
“There was just, like, ‘Let's see what happens.’ It was a very free, very freeing experience. It wasn't free, nothing is free! But it was a very freeing experience. Like, I liked that kind of unknown, and ‘Let's see what happens.’ Yeah, it was a really, really rewarding experience working with everyone who's on it.”