Noel looks back in anger

Noel Gallagher has laid into the singles market and charts today, after the disappointing performance of his debut solo single ‘AKA… What A Life’ last month.

Noel, whose debut album ‘High Flying Birds’ is likely to perform much better in the Official Albums Chart when it’s released on Monday, told NME.com:

“If you headlined Top Of The Pops [in the past] you were number one and the world was alright and everyone knew their place. The charts are insane at the moment, the way people sell music is insane. ‘...What A Life’ is out, but it's not actually out. You can buy it but you can't buy it. It's at Number 20 in the charts but it's not actually been released.

"I don't understand why. [Someone told me]: 'We release it two weeks after its been released now'. Well, who is 'we'? And why do 'we' do that? It doesn't make any sense to me."

Noel was referring to the decision his label made to release the single digitally on September 11, with the physical version set to follow next week (October 17) – apparently believing that a simultaneous release would have placed it much higher up the chart.

‘AKA… What A Life’ charted at 20 on its debut week, selling 15,000 copies to fans. To have made the Top 10, he would have had to sell an extra 14,000 copies. In turn, that week’s Official Number 1 (‘What Makes You Beautiful’ by One Direction) sold 10 times as many copies, a total of 150,000.

What do you think? Does Noel have a point? Or should Noel consider himself now primarily an albums artist? Have your say on Twitter and Facebook.