Songfacts®:

• Noel Gallagher grew up in the working-class district of Burnage, Manchester, with his parents, siblings, and extended family. A daydreamer and a loner, Gallagher was often reclusive because of his unhappy childhood. He has spoken about how he used to spend hours daydreaming and listening to music as a way to escape from his miserable home life. Compounded by the added challenges of schoolyard bullying, Gallagher's early years were anything but easy.
  
  This rousing song pays homage to Gallagher's Mancunian roots when he used to look up at the sky and dream about what life could be.
• The title comes from a book by the artist Pete McKee. "I was writing the song which was to become Council Skies, but it wasn't called Council Skies," Gallagher explained to Radio X.
  
  "There's a bit in the song when I was writing it, where a phrase was missing - I didn't know what that phrase was gonna be," he continued. "Pete's book happened to be on my coffee table at home. So I called him up and said, Can I use this title? And he said yeah. And I rewrote the song and then subsequently a lot of other things started to fall into place."
• Council Skies is also the title of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' fourth album. Speaking to the BBC, McKee said he was "proud as punch" for the title to be used, describing the moment when the musician phoned him. According to McKee, Gallagher was excited about a new song he had written, which he believed to be the best of his career. He asked McKee if he could name the track "Council Skies" after his book and that he was so enamored with the phrase that he wanted to use it as the title for his upcoming album as well. Of course, Pete said yes.
• Gallagher recorded Council Skies at his own Lone Star Sound Recording Studios in London. He co-produced the album in collaboration with his longtime musical partner, Paul "Strangeboy" Stacey.
• Speaking with The Daily Star, Gallagher revealed he wrote the songs on Council Skies during the COVID-19 pandemic, and as such, they're marked by a reflective quality. The musician added: "The thought process behind it is that I grew up in Manchester. It was very grey and industrial and the only color in your life was the sky when the sky is blue. I would daydream. The song 'Council Skies' is about that."
  
  As Gallagher continued to write new material, he realized that many of the songs he was crafting also shared this introspective quality. And with the world in turmoil because of the pandemic, he found that this reflective mood was mirrored in the experiences of people everywhere.
• The music video sees Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds performing the song in Manchester's New Century Hall, which has hosted concerts by music legends including Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones.