On positive reaction to the new album: “I’ve gotta say, it’s not been unexpected. Maybe in the past, we’ve been kind of waiting for bad reviews, and thinking ‘well, I can see what they mean by that.’ But this one, I was expecting them to be good.”

On the band’s past and future: “It’s not essential to make plans for Oasis. We kind of had a plan in ’94 of what we were going to do until ’97. After that, it’s just…we do what we fucking want, man…We’re never going to go away now. It’s not like Razorlight could take two years off and come back with an album, ’cause people would’ve completely forgotten who the fuck they are.”

On Be Here Now: “I know the lack of effort I put into the lyrics on that record, and it could do with having a lot less guitar solos on it. But it’s a snapshot of the times … Be Here Now was kind of a sin, really, because we were trying to make something massive out of something that really wasn’t. And we shouldn’t have even been in the studio – we should’ve been off going to India or something like that.”

On self-criticism: “John Lennon was always slagging off everything that he ever recorded apart from Across the Universe - and if that don’t show what a fucking idiot he was, I don’t know what does.”

On lyrics: "I’m kind of in between. Whereas Chris Martin will try and sum up the meaning of life and the universe and all surrounding galaxies in three-and-a-half minutes – at the other end of that was me just being drunk writing and thinking it was really, really, really fucking funny. Somewhere between the two is where I think you kind of end up, you know what I mean?”

On creative output: “We don’t live to work – we work to live … There’s no point in carrying on endlessly with tours around the world, so your audience becomes that familiar with you that one night they don’t fucking show up ’cause they know you’re going to be coming back next year. If I’m on the road for the year, then I’m going to spend at least half of the next year sitting on my ass doing fuck-all, because that’s what it’s all about.”

On drugs: "I don’t think it’s helped in any way to not be on drugs. It’s just, I can’t be bothered. You spend too much energy trying to buy the fucking things.”

On progressing: “At the end of the last session, I remember saying Heathen Chemistry was kind of a third of the way of where we were going to be on the next album. And this is kind of halfway of where we’re going to be on the next one. So we’re still kind of moving forward.”