"I thought he was gonna hook me" — Fran Healy on fearing Noel Gallagher might punch him for stealing chords from Oasis' Wonderwall

Fran Healy, the lead singer and songwriter of the band Travis, recently appeared on Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess's podcast, Tim’s Listening Party, alongside their bass guitarist Dougie Payne, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their second studio album, The Man Who.

Discussing Writing to Reach You, the celebrated album’s lead single, Healy confessed that he took the verse chords for the song from Oasis’ Wonderwall. The singer mentioned how he nicked the chords and admitted that he thought Travis would never meet Noel Gallagher; however, they eventually ended up touring with Oasis.

"Then we end up, a year and a half later, touring with them, and Noel came up to me after we came offstage and he went, 'Nice f*****g chords mate'. I thought he was gonna hook me," the singer said.

Providing an overview of the writing process behind Writing to Reach You, Healy told XFM in 2007 that he was attempting to play The Connells' song 74-75 but was having trouble coming up with a melody. He changed the chord to E minor because he thought it would make a nice tune; however, he later discovered that it was the same as the well-known Oasis song.

“I thought 'oh, that's good'. Then I realised they were actually the chords to 'Wonderwall' and I was like 'damn'!," Healy said.

Fran Healy has been vocal about the chord similarities with Wonderwall and has stated that he believed Noel Gallagher would not object.

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Fran Healy mentions touring with Oasis and Noel Gallagher's reaction to former nicking Wonderwall's chords

Talking about watching Oasis play for the first time in ‘95 at T in the Park, Fran Healy said how Gallagher’s band was big at the time. The former recalled going to a bar later and seeing Noel Gallagher walk in looking like he was a part of the band Velvet Underground. Healy mentioned that Gallaghar had a ‘Ready Brek glow’ around him and came across as a rock star.

Describing the backstory behind Writing to Reach You, Healy told Tim’s Listening Party,

“So, cut to six months later and I’m sitting in the coldest room in Glasgow and I’m writing this song and I nicked his chords, because that’s the chords to ‘Wonderwall’ in ‘Writing to Reach You’.The verse chords are absolutely lifted massively as we do, and as he does!”

He continued:

“I thought, ‘I’m never going to meet Noel Gallagher in a million years, because I’m on the dole, nothing’s gonna happen. But in the off chance, I should mention a little nod in case he hears it – a little doff of the cap to the originator.’ So I did that, ‘It’s, ‘what’s a ‘Wonderwall’ anyway’ because I’ve nicked your chords – thanks Noel!"

Fran Healy further added how he felt relieved when Gallagher responded positively during their tour with Oasis a year and a half later because he expected the lead guitarist to punch him for stealing the chords to his song.

To shed some light on Noel’s opinion on the situation, in an interview with Cerys Matthews on BBC Radio 2 in 2022, the Oasis lead guitarist mentioned:

“The chords are nothing in what I do. The chords are nothing. They are completely meaningless. It is all about the melodies because that’s what sticks. Because the guy when he is going to work in the morning is whistling the melody. He is not thinking about chords.”

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Apart from admitting that he used Noel's chords for his song, Fran Healy and Dougie Payne discussed their band's famous Glastonbury festival performance in 1999, among other things.