Former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher has revealed that his previously announced adaptation of Richard DiLello’s memoir ‘The Longest Cocktail Party’ won’t, in fact, feature any of The Beatles members in character nor utilize any of their music, instead focusing wholly on the happenings at the record company.
“From the bottom to the top, it’s about the dude who’s there [at Apple Records], it’s a behind the scenes thing,” Gallagher explained to the Guardian [via Vulture]. “And The Beatles ain’t going to be in this film. There’s going to be no one auditioning for John, Paul, George, Ringo. I ain’t going to be doing that. No wigs, you know? It’s about the characters behind the scenes and I think that’s where these Beatles film have gone wrong but this, I think, is going to be different.”
It’s an interesting notion to purposefully exclude The Beatles and one, we think, will probably serve the film well, putting the spotlight back on DiLello, an American teenager hired as Apple Records’ “house hippie.” Does it mean the film will end up more in the vein of Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous” than Iain Softley’s “Backbeat”?
Gallagher also reveals that they’ll try to steer clear of using music from the iconic band instead announcing that his new post-Oasis band with former bandmates Andy Bell, Gem Archer and Chris Sharrock will be writing the soundtrack for the project. “[We could use The Beatles] if we want it,” he explained, “But we’re gonna do it – my new band’s going to do the soundtrack. We can recreate that sound like that, you know what I mean? I think it will be more exciting if you have a sound that reminds you of that era, instead of the obvious, going, ‘Oh, there’s ‘Let It Be’. There’s that…’ Plus I don’t think we could afford it.”
Producer Andrew Eaton adds that talks are currently underway with Apple Records, presumably for music rights to its catalogue of artists such as Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Billy Preston and Badfinger, artists who Gallagher reiterates should be a focus of this adaptation as well. “That’s what I mean, this film ain’t just about The Beatles. That’s what we’ve gotta get across – it’s about Apple Records. [Even though they failed], I like that. I like the sadness of something being so great. It’s life, you know? Shit happens. But we’ve got to pull all that good bits out and we got to match it with the sad bits, or the horrendous bits.”
The project, though, will likely be Gallagher’s first and last venture into the film industry. “Film business is just like the music industry isn’t it? It’s a lot of blaggers talking shit. I can’t be taking it from two sides,” Gallagher affirms. “I’m not venturing into film. I’m doing this one thing and that’s it, I’m back.”
Gallagher’s aforementioned post-Oasis group are planning to debut new material and hit the road sometime in October.
