Former Oasis guitarist and chief songwriter Noel Gallagher has announced he wants to sell the copyright to the band’s back catalogue so the tunes “pop up in McDonald’s adverts for the rest of time” and he can take the royalties and go live on a super yacht.
With a number of artists currently selling the rights to their music to private equity firms (Bob Dylan just sold his for a reported $US300 million or $A397 million), Gallagher – who recorded seven albums with Oasis over a 14 year period from 1994 – reckons the band’s work would fetch a cool £200 million ($A367 million).
In better news for the older of the Gallagher brothers, as he wrote most of Oasis’ music and lyrics – including the band’s massive hits such as Wonderwall and Don’t Look Back In Anger – it would mean he kept most of the loot and wouldn’t have to share it with estranged younger brother Liam.
Gallagher, 54, telling the Funny How? podcast that selling the rights would land him “an extraordinary amount of money” and the songs could then “pop up in McDonald’s adverts for the rest of time”.
He added: “What do you do? Leave it to your kids? They don’t value music.
“Or do you take the £200 million and buy the super yacht and the Learjet and go: ‘Fucking have it, come on.’
“I think the latter. I’m getting a super yacht, I’m gonna call it Mega Mega White Thing [a reference to Underworld’s monster 1996 hit]. I’m gonna spend a year at sea,” he explained.
And the older of the Gallagher siblings clearly has no problems with his songs being used in advertising.
Earlier this year, British Bank Halifax used Oasis’s “Stand By Me” from the band’s 1997 album Be Here Now for for a feel good brand campaign.
It’s not clear how much Halifax paid for the rights, however, the exposure saw the song re-enter the UK music charts after 14 years, ranking as high as 17th spot. Check out the ad below:
Back in 2015, Oasis was awarded one of advertising’s highest compliments when one of its tracks was used in the annual John Lewis Christmas ad.
It featured performer Aurora covering “Half The World Away” from the band’s 1994 debut album Definitely Maybe.
However, the band would later cop flak from fans for allowing the song to be used in a cheesy Christmas ad. Oasis’ former manager called Aurora’s version “rubbish” and Noel’s annoying younger brother Liam – who clearly wasn’t in on the deal – called the whole thing a “sell out”.
For his part, Noel later admitted he regretted the song being used but said the very large royalty cheque had smoothed things over somewhat.
Noel telling BBC Radio at the time: “It will forever be synonymous with Christmas from now on and, as is well known, it’s not my favourite time of year. Having said that, at least it comes with a cheque, which, believe me, is highly worthwhile.
He added: “Don’t go buying me John Lewis vouchers for Christmas, trying to be a smart arse, inside a card that says ‘Noel’,” he joked.
Check out the infamous spot below:
