Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds solo project may appear to be going well. But the former Oasis star has revealed he lost lots of money producing his own music.

The 47-year-old rocker, who set up his own label Sour Mash Records after Oasis split in 2009, said he spent so much money he was worried about telling his wife Sara MacDonald.

Noel told Loaded magazine: “Everything I’ve done since I left Oasis has come from my own pocket. You’ve got to pay for the tour, got to pay for the wages and you don’t really break even for about nine months.

Noel Gallagher and wife Sara (Dominic Lipinski/PA)
Noel Gallagher and wife Sara (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

“I don’t mean I lost money. I mean I lost a f***ing s**t load of money. It was a few million, like. I had to lie to Sara at first, and when I eventually did tell her, she freaked out – I mean freaked out.”

The Roll With It singer said he “did it because I felt like I could” and he didn’t want to be signed to a record label. But Noel admits he was lucky things “worked out”. The rocker recently released a second studio album, Chasing Yesterday, and is headlining several festivals this summer.

Chasing Yesterday became the fastest-selling LP of the year so far, with 89,000 copies being snapped up to place is at number one in the charts in its first week.

Noel Gallagher (Yui Mok/PA)
Noel Gallagher (Yui Mok/PA)

But Noel is not bothered about chart figures.

He said: “I don’t worry about the music getting to number one or anything. I never have done really. Well, maybe I did between 1994 and ’97, back when I wanted to rule the world.

“People aren’t buying as many records as they were four years ago so sales are likely to decline, but it won’t make it any less a record.”