Former Oasis bassist Andy Bell recently joined an interview with Guitar World and revealed the valuable advice he received from Noel Gallagher.
After explaining that before his audition for Oasis, he had little experience playing the bass guitar and didn’t even own one, Bell said:
“So I couldn’t even try to learn anything before I got there. But I knew the chords to the songs, and I did my best to play the root notes, but I have to say, I probably wasn’t that good on the first run-through.”
He then recalled the suggestion Gallagher made, adding:
“The other thing was that I was playing this bass with my fingers, Noel, and said, ‘Guigsy played with a pick. Try it that way.’ And when I did, I found I could attack the bass in a way that sounded a lot more like Oasis.”
Before joining Oasis, the musician’s main instrument was actually the guitar. So, switching to the bass was expectedly a challenge for him. When asked how his previous experience as a guitarist influenced his approach to playing bass guitar when he became a member of Oasis in a March 2023 interview with Classic Rock History, Bell replied:
“Noel [Gallagher] used to say, ‘Guitarists make the best bass players,’ and I think I know what he means. I loved playing bass in Oasis. It was a whole new world. Never boring!”
Andy replaced Paul McGuigan, who was the original bassist of Oasis and played with the band from 1999 until their breakup in 2009. The bassist is currently a member of Ride and is working on a seventh album with his act.