Monthly Archives: February 2015

When Noel Gallagher came back to Estadio River Plate

It’s less than a month to Christmas and Noel Gallagher is tuning up a guitar. But it is not his own guitar. As a roadie for the band Inspiral Carpets he has traveled the world during the past year. Noel roadieThe tour has come to Argentina and the band is about to play Estadio River Plate in Buenos Aires. Gallagher is 24 at the time and music is his life. He watches the gig from the shadows of the stage and listens to the audience singing along to every word of the song This is How it Feels.

Christmas comes and Gallagher is back in England. His younger brother Liam has started a band called The Rain. Noel listen to them and he’s not impressed. He approaches his younger brother and tells him that he himself has written a few songs that could work out well for the band. And for Liam’s voice. Noel joins in on the rehearsals and they change their name to Oasis.

It is not 1991 anymore. It is 2009. Noel Gallagher has come back to Estadio River Plate in Buenos Aires. But this time he is tuning up his own guitar. The band he joined nearly 20 years ago are only months away from dissolving. Noel knows that. He will be the one that hits the last nail in the coffin. Noel also knows he will never play Estadio River Plate again. A solo career will take off, but it will not take off as it once did when Oasis exploded into the world.

When the band comes back for an encore Noel takes center stage. The arena is filled with the young and the hopeful. Liam has stayed behind. Noel will sing the first song of the encore alone. He looks out over an ocean of people. He’s not in the shadows anymore. He’s not a roadie to another band anymore.  And this time the audience will sing along to every word of a song that he has written. Gallagher is 42 and music is still his life. And together with the audience they promise to Don’t look back in anger.
 The concert at Estadio River Plate was the bands biggest one outside of Britain and by many considered as the greatest gig of the Dig Out Your Soul-tour. 

 

11-year-old Haley Joel Osment pitch an idea to Steven Spielberg

The year is 2000. The world has survived the Y2K bug and Steven Spielberg is about to start shooting his new film, A. I. Artificial Intelligence.  The story, written by the late Stanley Kubrick, features a world in the late 21st century, a world where global warming has flooded coastlines, and a drastic reduction of the human population has occurred. The main character of the film is David, a 12-year-old childlike android.  ai_artificial_intelligence_xlg

In the role of David we see Haley Joel Osment.
It is day one of shooting and Haley Joel Osment slowly approaches Steven Spielberg.
The young actor who rose to fame two years earlier with the film The Sixth Sense is excited to talk to the director, the person who made his favorite movie, Jurassic Park.

Only minutes before filming his first scene Osment is eager to say something to Spielberg that has been bugging his mind for the last couple of days. The 11-year-old child is of course nervous, he is about to point something out to the director, something that could be taken as criticism. Something that Osment believes that Spielberg has forgotten to include in the character description of David, the child android. But something that Osment has been thinking about.
Osment knocks Spielberg on his lower back.

Osment: “Mr. Spielberg?”
Spielberg: “Yeah, what’s up Haley, are you ready for the first shoot?”
Osment: “Yes, but I had this thing I was thinking about… Something I wanted to ask you.”
Spielberg: “Yeah, what’s that?”
Osment: “Well, I do not believe that robots can blink, or I’ve never seen one do it, have you?”
Spielberg: “Hmm, no, I don’t think so.”
Osment: “So I think it would be better if I didn’t blink at all, during the movie. Since I’m playing a robot in a human body.”
Spielberg: “I never thought about that. Wow, well, do you think you could manage that?”
Osment: “I think so.”

Haley Joel Osment is never seen blinking in the movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

Steven Spielberg and Haley Joel Osment, 2000.

Steven Spielberg and Haley Joel Osment, 2000.