Here he is – this is the first online picture of the man set to replace Oasis star Noel Gallagher on their current world tour. He’s Matt Deighton, formerly lead singer of MOTHER EARTH and mate of PAUL WELLER.
It is believed that Deighton will take up his duties next Tuesday (May 30) in Milan, allowing a week for rehearsals. However a quick return in time for a sold-out date in Clermont Ferrand on Saturday (May 27) has not been ruled out as the gig was still scheduled to go ahead when nme.com rang them yesterday.
Deighton has been around players in the music business for some time. He had his own Mother Earth project – an acid jazz, hippie-rock outfit featuring Deighton on vocals and guitars, bassist Neil Corcoran and a number of collaborators, which spawned three studio albums in the early to mid-Nineties. He’s also worked as a session guitarist for a host of other ‘names’ including Weller, Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce, Dr John and Stone Roses producer John Leckie.
While Deighton‘s musical pedigree cannot be questioned, it will be interesting to see what Liam Gallagher makes of his musical roots. Liam, not known for his love of new age philosophy, might be interested to know that the final song on Mother Earth‘s 1995 live album ‘The Desired Effect’ is titled ‘Warlocks Of Pendragon’.
And as the picture shows, Deighton does not fit into the accepted Oasis ‘look’, which both Gallagher brothers insisted had to be about “good haircuts” before they recruited Andy Bell and Gem Archer as new members last year to replace the departed Bonehead and Guigsy.
Deighton, hairstyle withstanding, is due to play at least 22 European dates with Oasis.