The Song Noel Gallagher Wishes He’d Written

In 2022, Noel Gallagher attended the Glastonbury Festival in England and found himself walking against the crowd.

While fans by the thousands ambled one way to watch Kendrick Lamar, Gallagher headed in the opposite direction to watch the Pet Shop Boys. He talked some friends into tagging along and said, “Just be amazed at how many hits you’re going to hear here.”

Then Gallagher told Greatest Hits Radio that “Love Comes Quickly” by the Pet Shop Boys is a song he wishes he’d written. He said, “The melody’s just to die for.”

Any Cozy Little Corner

Gallagher’s early songwriting offered hope amidst the bleak vision of American grunge bands. While Seattle bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam doom-and-gloomed their way into pop culture, Gallagher’s band had different ideas.

Oasis constructed anthems on optimism. However, the optimism arrived by way of struggle. Moreover, Gallagher’s fourth solo album is called Council Skies and the skies above the council estates are usually grey (Brit spelling intended).

“Love Comes Quickly” shares a similarly hardened cheerfulness. Love is near. It’s an imminent connection wrapped inside a dance club banger.

You can live your life lonely
Heavy as stone
Live your life learning
And working alone
Say this is all you want
But I don’t believe that it’s true
’Cause when you least expect it
Waiting round the corner for you

Pet Shop Boys released “Love Comes Quickly” as the second single from their 1986 debut album Please. The synth-pop duo—Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe—co-wrote the track with producer Stephen Hague. It reached No. 19 on the UK Singles chart and No. 62 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Girls and Boys

The most well-known song from Please is the class-conscious “West End Girls,” which, early on, established the group as one of the most reliable hitmakers of the 1980s. But that single follows poor East End boys mingling with well-to-do West End girls for a chance at something better.

However, in “Love Comes Quickly,” romance isn’t concerned with class or the borders between hope, despair, abundance, or scarcity. The song describes love’s intrusion into your life, whether one is prepared for it or not. Often, it sticks when you least expect it.

You can live a life of luxury
If that’s what you want
Taste forbidden pleasures
Whatever you want
You can fly away to the end of the world
But where does it get you to?
’Cause just when you least expect it
Just what you least expect

Disaster at Glastonbury

Tennant revealed to BBC Breakfast how technical difficulties marred the Pet Shop Boys’ Glastonbury performance. The electronic duo performed in front of 70,000 people on The Other Stage, leaving Tennant to perform six songs solo.

“In our show there’s a screen and the screen goes up briefly, Chris and I appear and walk forward,” Tennant said. “And the screen rose by about 10 inches and stopped and we just looked at each other and we couldn’t talk because you have the music in your headphones then.”

While Tennant sprinted around the screen to the front, his bandmate was stuck at a keyboard behind the screen. He said, “I didn’t know what had gone wrong, no one tells you and I had to do the first six songs by myself with an empty keyboard next to me.”

Still, Gallagher enjoyed the show and most fans didn’t notice the mishap. Pet Shop Boys survived and two years after the Glastonbury set, they released their 15th studio album, Nonetheless.

Some Might Say

If “Love Comes Quickly” promises the certainty of romance, Gallagher’s defining song, “Wonderwall,” represents the moment when the person finally arrives.

Because maybe, you’re gonna be the one that saves me.

The elder Gallagher brother borrowed a somewhat nonsensical title from George Harrison and gave it meaning. It doesn’t require a definition. Feelings often don’t. But if you’ve witnessed Oasis perform the song live, you’ll have experienced what Bruce Springsteen described as a million different voices speaking in tongues.

In “Love Comes Quickly,” love is a certainty. An unannounced arrival when you least expect it. Be ready. Today is gonna be the day that they’re gonna throw it back to you.

Photo by Virginia Turbett/Redferns