Andy Bell: Noel's really underrated as a lead guitarist

Andy Bell's life changed the first time he heard Oasis.

The 45-year-old musician joined the 'Supersonic' band as their bass player in late 1999 as a replacement for original bassist Paul 'Guigsy' McGuigan and admits it was a dream come true for him to be part of the now defunct group because their debut album 'Definitely Maybe' had such a huge impact on him when it was released in 1994.

Andy - who played guitar in Liam Gallagher's post-Oasis band Beady Eye and is now back playing in his original group Ride - recalled: "Oasis definitely did change my life when I first heard them! They were like a breath of fresh air. To put it into context, Ride were working on the third album, 'Carnival of Light', and we were taking a bit of a break. We were starting to get a bit frayed at the edges and we were starting to pull in different directions musically, too. We were really shooting for a kind of West Coast Byrdsy California sound mixed with a little bit of Led Zeppelin and a little bit of classic rock.

"I think we were also subconsciously trying to make a cleaner record, because we'd stopped getting played on the radio ... but then along comes Oasis sounding like the Jesus and Mary Chain meets the Sex Pistols and just completely blew everything out of the water!"

Andy also paid tribute to his former Oasis bandmate Noel Gallagher, insisting his skills as a guitarist are underestimated by too many people.

He told website MusicRadar: "I just want to say that I think Noel's really underrated as a lead guitar player. His playing is like a John Squire-y thing, but there's a lot more muscle behind it. He kind of trademarked his own style, which has become something that everyone uses now - that massively overdriven sound with quite a lot of delay on it. [His playing] just sounded epic."