Noel Gallagher only played lead guitar in Oasis because his bandmates were “useless”.

The ‘Everybody’s On The Run’ singer – who hasn’t spoken to his Beady Eye rocker brother Liam since he walked out of Oasis in August 2009 – explained he didn’t want to “show off” his guitar skills on the debut album by his ‘High Flying Birds’ project to concentrate on being a songwriter.

He said: “I guess when guitarists make solo records, there’s usually a lot of showing off. But I’ve been trying to convince for 20 years that I’m not a guitarist, I’m a songwriter.

“I played lead guitar in the band because everybody else, in the early days, was useless, so that kind of fell to me.”

Noel admitted as he was so keen to display his soloing skills on his debut solo album, it makes an “easy gig” for his touring guitarist.

He added in an interview with MTV News: “It’s not something I ever thought I would put myself up there with John Squire or Johnny Marr or all those great British guitarists, that’s not my thing. My thing was songwriting.

“I only noticed the lack of solos when a friend of mine was listening to the finished version, and it got to track six and he went, ‘You know, that’s the first guitar solo,’ and I was like, ‘Wow, someone’s got an easy gig, doesn’t he?’ “