I want my music to be elevating and transforming

NOEL ON HIS NEW ALBUM AND HOMECOMING GIG

- JENNA CAMPBELL

LET'S start by clearing something up. Noel Gallagher wants you to know that his forthcoming album, Council Skies, is not about Manchester.

While the album cover was shot by legendary Mancunian photographer Kevin Cummins and features Gallagher's High Flying Birds' equipment set up on the roundabout of Maine Road - the demolished former home of his much-loved City and the music video for the title track shows clips of tower blocks from around Monsall and Collyhurst, the record is not about his hometown apparently.

"The journalists got the wrong end of the stick and thought the whole thing was about Manchester and it isn't," clarifies Noel, over the phone from a recording studio in London.

It turns out that when he was writing the band's fourth studio album in the midst of lockdown, he was feeling rather introspective. "If I could give the album a word it would be reflection," he says.

"The songs were written in 2020, which was a very reflective time for everyone because none of us had lived through a pandemic before. It forced us to think about how we got there, where we're going, and what the future might look like.