"Maybe After Christmas, we'll Start Banging out Some Tunes" . . . continued

His short-term future, he says, is "Pretty Green all the way. Relaxing at home, just getting out of the music for a bit and then gonna start up maybe after January, do something, see where it goes. Not Oasis. Something else. But having a breather from the music for a bit without a doubt. I'm always gonna miss Oasis. It was my f**king thing, you know what I mean? It's who I am. But it's only a name. I'm still who I am and I can go and do something else. I've got music in me. I'll never leave it behind but we'll see where it goes. It might be s**te but you don't know until you try."

He will give me no more specific clues as to his future in the music industry, but states repeatedly that he will get back into it in the new year and that it "won't be Oasis" and he won't go solo.

"Getting away from the whole Oasis thing is gonna be a good thing I suppose," he says. "Don't wanna do anything solo, it's not my thing. I want to be in a band. But we can do things a lot differently these days. Who knows man, but it'll definitely be rock'n'roll."

Is this an opportunity, I wonder, for him to try something a little different, to explore a new avenue? "Without a doubt. But at the moment instead of going straight into it I think we definitely need a breather from people's heads cos it's a big thing, Oasis, so that needs to be put to bed and let people get used to it and obviously let us get used to it. But I think what comes from it could be f**king pretty cool. You don't just turn s**t overnight."

Given the apparent openness of his personality, his restraint is admirable. I get the impression that he might reveal more were Steve not sitting nearby. He can, however, always be counted upon for a barb or two about the brother with whom he has been bickering for three decades. While the relationship has always been a tempestuous one, today they rarely speak. Before the split they were travelling separately and only met up on stage. To describe the relationship as strained would be an understatement.

"I gave him some (Pretty Green] stuff out of courtesy. And he took it." Liam's tone is one of incredulous outrage. "Which pissed me off cos he should have threw it back in me face cos we weren't talking. But he f**king took it and he probably put it in the bin."

He pauses, annoyed. He's wound up now, and on a roll. He continues: "He probably wears it round his house when his missus is out. Soon as she comes back in he probably takes it off cos he's not allowed cos he's under the f**king thumb." He sticks his fist out and points his thumb down petulantly, like an unimpressed Roman emperor.

With the exception of this one rant however, he seems calm, unmoved by the recent dramas, and insists that he's had very little time to turn his thoughts to it all. He's in the process of moving house, which is taking up most of his time, his children have started back at school after the summer, and his beloved Man City are doing well, "which is taking the heat off". If he is fazed by the drama or worried about the future, he isn't showing it.

The wound, perhaps, is still so fresh that he hasn't yet fully processed things or decided how to proceed. Like a difficult marriage that's spanned nearly two decades before coming to an abrupt end, the journey with Oasis has been all-consuming, and I can't blame him for being unclear on how he will move on with his life.

When I ask him if Pretty Green will be his main focus in the long-term, his answer is firm: "No." Then he quickly changes his mind. "It is, yeah, just like the music though. Music and the clothes without a doubt."

Will music take a back seat? "No way man. You don't just stop making music overnight. We're having a bit of time off. Or I am. You know we're doing the Pretty Green stuff and then maybe after Christmas, we'll start banging out some tunes. And it won't be Oasis and it will be something else. You don't just do 18 years of music and then go, 'Right that's it I want to do f**king clothes.' There's no point in looking cool and having no tunes either is there"?

By Alice Wyllie