The Yanks? I love them, says Liam

The Oasis singer Liam Gallagher arrived in Chicago last night and denied that he did not care about the band's fans.

"I do care about them," he said minutes after arriving in the Windy City. "I just had to go house-hunting. I had got a sore throat. I love them."

His comments came days after he stated brashly that he was not going to America to "sing for f*****g Yanks".

Asked why he got off the plane 15 minutes before take-off on Monday, he said: "Two things. Laryngitis and nowhere to live."

He will return to fronting the band in Michigan today. Despite the volatile relationship with his brother Noel, Liam seemed confident he would be welcomed with open arms. "Me and Noel are all right. He can't wait to see me," he said as he left his fiancee Patsy Kensit's home in London, yesterday.

Gallagher's arrival in Chicago was low-key. "There wasn't much of a crowd," a spokeswoman for Chicago O'Hare International Airport said. "The airline didn't let the airport know about his arrival." Gallagher, 23, was without Miss Kensit, but she was due to join the band's 14-date tour later.

Confronted by the press at Heathrow yesterday, he responded with his customary obscenities. "I hate you f*****g lot, yet you're always asking me too many things. I'm not a supermodel you know," he said.

Earlier in the week, when asked if he considered himself arrogant, he said: "I am. That's what makes Oasis. It's not petulant. To tell you the truth, thousands of fans can wait. I've got a life as well, you know."