James Blunt has spoken about why Noel Gallagher sold his house in Ibiza, joking that “house prices subsequently went up” after the Oasis musician left.
The ‘You’re Beautiful’ singer-songwriter used to live close to Gallagher on the Spanish island. However, it was reported in 2008 that the latter had put his £5.5million villa on the market.
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At the time, it was said that the High Flying Birds frontman was “fed up of hearing James Blunt bang on about Ibiza like he owns the place”. A source added: “He can’t stand the thought of Blunt writing crap tunes up the road.”
During an appearance on the latest episode of Elizabeth Day’s podcast How To Fail, Blunt discussed Gallagher being unable to tolerate his music. “I bumped into Noel Gallagher the other day,” he said.
“He’d said he was leaving Ibiza and selling up his house because he couldn’t handle me writing my shit songs down the road from him, house prices subsequently went up after he left.”
Blunt continued: “Whenever I see him, he’s really sweet to my face. I think everyone’s sweet to each other’s faces. It’s just with the courage of a microphone and a journalist, and trying to show off a little, they’ll do something different.”
The topic came up after Blunt once again spoke about Damon Albarn not wanting to be photographed with him for an episode of Later… With Jools Holland, and reflected other acts’ negative feelings towards him.
“It was just really weird behaviour,” he told Day, adding: “There were a couple of other musicians who were saying things [about Blunt].
“I guess those musicians probably found themselves falling into a kind of trap that music journalists set up for them. ‘Which band don’t you like?’ […] It becomes easy to say ‘Blunt’ [and] they’ll follow suit.”
He went on to say that artists and the media should be “bigger than that” nowadays, before reflecting on being “very naive” in the music industry when he started out in the 2000s.
“We’re all due a kicking once in our life,” Blunt continued. “And if I didn’t have it at the very beginning of my life, I got it then. And that was probably a healthy thing. My feet are really firmly on the ground now.”
Blunt had previously described Gallagher as “two-faced” and a “coward”, according to The News.
In 2015, Gallagher said writing songs about his own life “would be more boring than James Blunt, if that’s at all possible”. Blunt later responded to the dig, tweeting: “For once, I agree with him.”
Blunt then said two years later that “Take That got laid more than Oasis” in the ’90s, and urged his fans to form boybands.
He explained: “Say what you like, but Mark Owen got more action than Noel and Liam combined. And he doesn’t get drunk blokes coming up to him in the pub trying to be his mate. No wonder the Gallaghers are so miserable!”
In 2006, Noel hit out at Blunt over how much money he was said to have made from songwriting: “[He’s] supposedly got nine million quid. Right. He’s only been going a year! I’ve been going 12.”
Speaking to NME in November 2023, Blunt explained: “I mean, I know I’m famous for [writing] dreary songs on guitar, but I live in Ibiza and I love dance music.”
He added: “I mean, I love clubbing and I built one at the end of my garden. I played in Ushuaïa, Amnesia is one of my favourite clubs in the world, and I wrote a song about Pasha called ‘1973’, which is the year it opened. Pete Tong remixed [that song] and played it when he had a residency there, so it’s definitely in my blood.”
Earlier this month, Blunt vowed to change his name if the 20th anniversary reissue of his debut album ‘Back To Bedlam’ reached Number One in the UK. However, the artist was kept off the top spot by Charli XCX.
Meanwhile, Oasis are set to embark on a huge reunion tour next summer. Richard Ashcroft will open for the band on the UK and Ireland leg of their Live ’25 trek, with Cage The Elephant appearing on the bill in North America. Oasis have also confirmed shows in Australia, with further global dates reportedly coming soon.
