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The headline above surely constitutes words most of us thought we'd never see. Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn have been hating on each other since the Britpop years in the dim and distant indie past, when indie meant something and before it crossed over and got gobbled up and repacked by The Man. But I digress, because the Blur vs Oasis 1994 chart battle over "Roll With It" and "Country House" was real headline news. We all took sides. Could anyone really imagine such excitement over a spat between, say, Razorlight and the Kaiser Chiefs in 2008?

This weekend, Noel appeared to signal an end to the feud, at a time when Oasis are thriving in their rock slog default setting, while Blur seem but a twinkle in Albarn's eye, which is all full of future pop and opera. In an interview with a UK newspaper, Gallagher called his former rival "a great artist", confessing: "He's different from me. I'm not an artist - for me, it just comes out. He does Chinese operas and that kind of thing, he's got more strings to his bow than I'll ever have". Which is an honest, refreshing take on what most of us have already known for about a decade.

Elsewhere in the piece, he continued: "There's always been something between me and him, and I don't know what it is", which seems to confirm recent reports he was off his head during much of the ‘90s on the gutter glitter and has forgotten wishing two members of Blur dead. "I hate that Alex and Damon. I hope they catch Aids and die", he rather offensively ranted at the height of their sceptic rivalry. But perhaps the most illuminating comment in this new interview is his assessment of the songs which ignited their battle. "Looking back now that fight's all so pathetic over two really quite sh*t pop songs", said Noel correctly. Which seems like a perfect opportunity to see what all the fuss was about in the first place...