The 1987 album Noel Gallagher wanted everyone to love: “Anybody who doesn’t is a cocksucker”
Noel Gallagher has described U2’s 1987 album The Joshua Tree as essential listening, arguing bluntly that anyone who disliked it was misguided. The article presents the record as a major influence on Gallagher’s belief that rock music should feel uplifting, ambitious and emotionally powerful, rather than merely reflecting despair.
Gallagher admired U2 while growing up, despite recognising that the band could sometimes be seen as pretentious. He particularly praised their Zoo TV tour and suggested U2’s grand scale helped shape Oasis’s own larger-than-life ambitions, including songs such as ‘Rock and Roll Star’ and ‘Live Forever’. The article also notes U2’s later willingness to experiment on albums including Achtung Baby and Zooropa.
- Gallagher regarded The Joshua Tree as an essential album.
- U2 influenced Oasis’s ambitious, uplifting rock approach.
- He also praised U2’s Zoo TV era and experimentation.
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The Joshua Tree was released by the Irish rock band U2 in 1987 and became one of the defining albums of its era. It includes songs such as ‘With or Without You’ and ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’, and helped turn the group into major international stars.
U2 were known for music with big melodies and serious themes, often played in large stadiums. Their later Zoo TV tour, launched in the early 1990s, used elaborate screens and satire to create a very different kind of live show, while albums such as Achtung Baby and Zooropa moved towards more experimental sounds.
Noel Gallagher grew up in Manchester and later became the principal songwriter for Oasis, one of Britain’s best-known bands of the 1990s. His comments reflect the influence U2 had on Oasis’s ambition to make emotionally direct songs designed for large audiences.