Liam Gallagher surprise-released a live EP titled Acoustic Sessions Friday and with it a new video for “Once,” a Why Me? Why Not track that appears in its original demo form on the EP.
The one-shot video features Gallagher as chauffeur and servant at a regal but disheveled estate owned by a wine-guzzling king, played by French soccer star-turned-actor Eric Cantona. The video was helmed by Charlie Lightening, the director of the Gallagher documentary As It Was.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to have Eric Cantona, the last Rock n roll footballer, star in my video for ‘Once’. Songs like this don’t come around very often and neither do football players like him,” Gallagher tweeted Friday.
The eight-song Acoustic Sessions, out now on streaming services, features seven songs Gallagher recorded during his MTV Unplugged broadcast from Hull City Hall in the U.K. in September 2019, including acoustic renditions of a trio of Oasis tracks, “Sad Song,” “Cast No Shadow” and “Stand By Me.” Rounding out the EP is the early version of the Why Me? Why Not standout “Once.”
“This is the original demo. It’s my favorite version; it’s silky smooth and it’s fizzy bubblech,” Gallagher said in a statement before quoting the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows,” “Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream!”
Keeping with the competitive spirit of the Gallagher brothers, the surprise Acoustic Sessions arrives less than a day after Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds announced their own upcoming EP Blue Moon Rising.
Acoustic Sessions EP Tracklist
Cast No Shadow
Now That I’ve Found You
Alright Now
Sad Song
Stand By Me
Once
Meadow
Once (original demo)