A month before the band is to appear in Bangkok, Joel Quenby spoke to Oasis guitarist Gem Archer in London.
Gem was drafted in to the Brit-rock band to replace Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs in 1999. Noel Gallagher split his lead guitar parts with Gem, admitting his new band-mate was the superior player. Gem, whose given name is Colin Murray Archer, now contributes songs that slot smoothly into the Oasis canon. He is also said to bring a calming influence to notoriously tempestuous band relations. "Gem chills Noel out," bassist Andy Bell once said, "and that makes Oasis a more stable ship".
You're on the same bill in Bangkok as Franz Ferdinand. There's been a slanging match between Alex [Kapranos] and Liam. There's not going to be any trouble is there?
It's like you get asked all of these questions, especially by The NME, and Liam is just fucking taking the piss, he's having a laugh. Imagine it was at school, and you're all in the yard - who would you wanna hang around with? They take it all too seriously, and a lot of these bands you hear them being interviewed and it's almost like they're dissecting they're own legacies - they're only at the end of their first album - chill out, man.
You're playing with Ian Brown, Stereophonics, Snow Patrol, Deus, as well as Franz Ferdinand. Into any of those?
Ian Brown obviously has complete resonance for us, right. I remember prior to '94, if you went to parties in London, you'd just scratch the needle across whatever was playing and just go 'Listen to this,' - that's what Ian Brown means to me. I know he's doing a load of old Stone Roses tunes, and good on him, man. The Sterophonics, we're gonna be playing with them anyway; we know Kelly [Jones], and there's a bit of history there anyway, so great. The others don't really mean anything at all, man.
Are there any countries you particularly look forward to visiting on tour?
Well, I'm not just saying this, but I've only been to Thailand once and it was mega. It was in 2002 and we had a bit of time off as well. We were actually staying in Phuket, we did a bit of lounging around on the beach, but then we had a boat, went to James Bond island, snorkelling, all that kind of shit that you never get to do. Then we were in Bangkok, so we obviously had a night out there. For me, I love Italy on all counts: the kids look great, they're bang into the tunes, the food's mega and it's just got style, man.
Bonehead's playing with a famous Thai guitarist and they're set up in England [Sek LoSo]. Heard anything of them?
All I know is that Owen Morris was telling me about that, but I don't know anything about it. I mean, I dunno, fire away, man!
You've said it's quite daunting submitting your songs to Noel, are you feeling more comfortable with it these days?
These days we don't really think too much about it. I mean Noel, he'll be the one encouraging it, going 'C'mon, get in the studio, get your tunes down.' It's almost like there are too many tunes, because if Liam's got a week up there he wants to do four or five tunes, to get them out, and you can't really go 'Well, let me do mine first.'
I hear that your album track was Ringo Starr's favourite, right? 
Yeah, it was just a funny one, cause we take our CDs home and you check your stuff. Zak [Starkey] played it to his dad and he said 'Guess which one he liked the best?' and that was it really, you know… that'll do me, man.
Were the band happy with the reviews for that last album?
Yeah, definitely. It just seemed like people were taking it for what it was rather than… you just get pissed off reading reviews that talk about stuff that was literally years ago, it's almost like they're trying to write themselves into a bit of the Oasis loop, kids that have missed it. It's like, 'No, listen to this record, talk about this one' - and there were a lot of reviews that did that.
Who's the most important UK band at the moment?
Without a doubt it will be The Artic Monkeys. I've heard maybe about four tunes and the guy who publishes me, he signed them. He told me ages ago they're gonna be the hot shit. It's kind of like The Kings of Leon if they came from the north of England and had an infatuation with 1979. His lyrics are like The Streets.
How about Coldplay?
You know what? Good luck to them, man, but I would never buy their records. Not my bag at all; if someone came around my house and we were having a party there wouldn't be any of that stuff going on, man. But it's their world as well; there's obviously people out there who need that kind of thing.
Do you Oasis feel pressure to keep up with other bands?
Way past all that, man. Like I said: the American tour was the biggest one we've done; the album, we can play any song from it live, Noel's singing better than ever, Liam's writing tunes, so it's just keeping ourselves happy.
Have you got a message for the Thai fans?
Make me remember you!
-- Published by ThaiDay newspaper, 2005