"Elvis and the Memphis mafia" - Allana Nash, Billy Smith, Marty Laker and Lamar Fike
"This is a product of Elvis's childhood friends sitting around and reminiscing on everything from high school in Memphis to Elvis traveling around the fairgrounds and doing the hayrides, through to Vegas and up to his death. He had a pet chimp. They trained it to look up girl' skirts. Then Elvis got bored of the chimp and they put him outside in a cage. The chimp froze to death".
"Agent Zigzag" - Ben Macintyre
"Eddie Chapman is a low-level crook in 30s London he goes to Jersey to rob a hotel, is caught, and gets put in nick just as the Nazis invade. The Nazis discover this guy is an explosives expert, so they train him up and out on a mission to blow up a factory in England. In the end he becomes a double agent and goes back to Germany, dining at the top table with the Nazis, and this is just a shitkicker from South London. I love books about that period. It was only 50, 60 years ago that there was a proper war on".
[Noel, it wasn't 50 years ago, but at least almost 70]. Nazi period even in Noel's favourite films.
"Life" - Keith Richards
"I never bought into the myth of Keith Richards. All right, he's done a bit of gear and written a few tunes. That's what we do, we're fucking rock stars. But I've got to say, after reading this, what an absolute dude. His take on music is incredible. How he's got all his faculties together to remember half the shit is beyond me but he went right up in my estimations. I don't like the way he's always having a go at Mick Jagger though. People do have a pop at Jagger and I don't know why, because he's great. Look at the words to 'Sympathy For The Devil'. That is heavy shit".
"One minute to midnight" - Michael Dobbs
"This is an hour-by-hour account of the 48 hours leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and it's staggering. At midnight, nuclear war was going to start. Kennedy woke up the next morning and realised that there were good people on the Russian side as well. The army were pushing Kennedy towards war, and likewise with Khrushchev, and it very nearly happened".
"Shakey" - Jimmy McDonough
"There's a quote in it that changed my life, he's asked why he's been in Buffalo Springfield, Crazy Horse and all these other bands and he replies, "No one band is big enough to hold what I've got." At the time of reading it, I felt like that. In the last few years of Oasis I was only writing half the album, so I put out 15 songs in 10 years. I must have written 60 a year. I kept going back to that quote. Here's this guy that does whatever he wants. No one will ever be like Neil Young.
My top 5 books, briefly:
"Look back in anger" - John Osborne
One from theatre. I wrote a post about this. Full of unforgettable quotes, also about myself :)
"The picture of Dorian Gray" - Oscar Wilde
This one too, full of unforgettable quotes. Also, reminds me of myself "staying young" :).
I like the classics, I would have hundreds to add, also from the theatre of Shakespeare, or "The betrothed" (I promessi sposi), the main Italian love story from Milan and the North of Italy, a story that is in our culture. Very complicated and long book.
I had read them mainly because of school, so when you must read a book, usually you don't like it. It's not as when you read for pleasure.
"The Da Vinci Code" - Dan Brown
Ok many people don't like it, they can say what they want but I really appreciated it. Even if they say there are some wrong, invented things, it's interesting and involving. The evening I finished to read this book, the Pope died.
There are many sarcastic quotes against the french :).
Even Noel read it, a few years ago said he read only 2 "normal" books in his life, by Dan Brown, and the rest about music.
There are many sarcastic quotes against the french :).
Even Noel read it, a few years ago said he read only 2 "normal" books in his life, by Dan Brown, and the rest about music.
"Nelson, the man who defeated Napoleon" - Terry Coleman
One about my favourite character in history, the English hero. Although suffering from seasickness, he defeated my least favourite character in history, the french thief and criminal. Who also stole so much art especially in the North of Italy.
I chose history, but I'd like to add something from philosophy, by Schopenhauer.
"Getting high: the adventures of Oasis" - Paolo Hewitt
I wrote a post about this. One about music, and it must be this funny one by Paolo of Italian origins.
