Ex-Tory MP Louise Mensch Claims She Used To Date Noel Gallagher

Louise Mensch, the former Conservative politician, has claimed that he she once dated Noel Gallagher.

Mensch, who was Tory MP for Corby from 2010 to 2012, recently made the claims in a Twitter post, telling one of her followers: "It['s] probably going to kill you when I tell you I went out with Noel for a couple of months".

Before becoming a MP, Mensch (previously Louise Bagshawe) worked in the music industry as a PR and in marketing. She is currently married to Metallica and Muse's manager Peter Mensch.

Mensch joined the Labour Party in 1996 before rejoining the Tories a year later. In a recent tweet, she appeared to suggest that Oasis guitarist Gallagher was an influence on her brief shift of allegiance.

Noel Gallagher famously backed Tony Blair ahead of the 1997 General Election, later saying: "It was a great time in history. The grip of Thatcherism was being smashed. New Labour had been brilliant in opposition. When Tony Blair spoke, his words seemed to speak to people, young people. Call me naive but I felt something – I’m not quite sure what it was, but I felt it all the same."

NME has approached Louise Mensch to clarify her tweets.

Source: www.nme.com

Gallery: Noel Gallagher's 12 Best Insults

Twenty years after Oasis reached their zenith, Noel Gallagher has matured into one of rock's unlikelier elder statesmen. As he admits in an interview this weekend, 'When I'm in between tours and have f***-all to do, I sit around and I do become like a dad.'

Now middle-aged and returning with a second album for his High Flying Birds project, we take a moment to celebrate Gallagher's greatest achievements outside of music: his inspired put-downs. From Tony Blair to the Scissor Sisters, the elder Gallagher is happy to voice a distaste for just about anybody he comes across, and here are the highlights.

Click here to see the gallery.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

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Oasis 20 Years On: The Two Brothers At The Birth Of Lad Culture

Oasis released their first single, 'Supersonic', 20 years ago today. Bill Borrows looks back in admiration at two decades spent in the company of the Gallaghers.

As Kurt Cobain's lukewarm corpse awaited discovery at 171 Lake Washington Boulevard, Oasis played live on Radio One for the first time. Three days later, his body had been found, and the team behind the launch issue of new magazine Loaded were engaged in frantic phone calls to the printer in an attempt to pull a story lamenting Cobain’s inability to behave like a real rock star and commit suicide properly.

‘Supersonic’, the first Oasis single, was released three days later and the defining magazine of the 90s hit the shelves (minus the Cobain piece) two days after that. Blur’s relentless and catchy ‘Girls and Boys’ was everywhere and in a couple of months the soon-to-be rechristened New Labour Party would elect a youthful leader to challenge the tired, sleazy, divided Tory government (if we knew then what we know now etc…).

Quite obviously something was afoot in the land. It felt like change.

Cobain had sung, ‘I Hate Myself And I Want To Die’ but less less than a year later everybody had already "sniffed it up a cane on a ‘Supersonic train" and now wanted to ‘Live Forever.’ Oasis had asked the question: ‘Isn’t everybody else sick and f****** tired of being miserable?’ The genius, whether by accident or design, was to answer it themselves two singles later.

"Maybe I just want to fly/ I want to live/ I don't want to die/ Maybe I just want to breathe/ Maybe I just don't believe," demanded Liam and, out-staring his brother’s words, "I want to live forever." Even the NME, still in their tear-stained Nirvana t-shirts and skinny-fit black jeans, found time to conclude, "Basically, what thus far looked like obnoxious Manc arrogance suddenly looks like sheer effortlessness. A terrific record." Yeah. Terrific. Thanks for catching with up the mood of the nation.

The mainstream media were not far behind, ‘Definitely Maybe’ became the fastest selling debut album in UK history and soon everybody was sprinkling cocaine on their cornflakes. Oasis and the brothers Gallagher were suddenly household names and just as likely to turn up on the front of the Daily Mirror as in the pages of the music press. Watching their lives from the outside became a national sport.

"When we started off," explained Noel, "we wanted the girls, the cocaine, the fur coats. It wasn't like it was an act. It was almost like working-class people winning the pools. We went bananas." Everybody lapped it up. The music was on the money (they couldn’t have got away with it otherwise) but more importantly their attitude chimed with the times. It was during this period that Liam stole the rights to the two finger salute from Kes. He still owns them today.

This is not the Oasis story - that remains to be written - but over the next twenty years entertaining interludes between number one albums, landmark gigs and the best guitar music for a generation would include: Fights between the brothers; cocaine; Liam shagging and marrying famous women; fights between the brothers; cancelled gigs; slagging each other off; divorces; cocaine; fights with photographers and bouncers; band break-ups; cocaine; band make-ups; slagging off every band around (particularly middle class outfits like Blur); cocaine; and, fights between the brothers.

They also gave a great quote. Whether it was Noel declaring his manifesto ("Smoke where you want, drink what you want, whenever you want. Get the age of consent down. Legalize drugs. Kill all the people who like grunge music. Kill all surfboarders. Melt the snow. Anybody who wears a cowboy hat should get the electric chair") or Liam explaining what he would be doing for on Christmas Day ("The usual. I'll be sitting there all day getting wankered. Probably eating loads of fucking food and all that. What are the kids after this year? What do you think? Loads of fucking toys") it was always memorable.

The second album, ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?’ went straight to number one in the UK in October 1995, peaked at number four in the States and then it really went ‘Champagne Supernova’. But the "sheer effortlessness" of their ascent began twenty years ago today. Oasis, the band, might be in storage somewhere, but the brothers are still box-office, still feuding, still walking tall and still talking back. It has been rock n’ roll from the start. The only ingredient missing? A death in the band. But then, as they were so keen to point out at the start, they always wanted to live forever.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

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20 Years Of Oasis’ Definitely Maybe

It’s likely, halfway through 1994 as one continued the incessant touring trail after finally completing work on his band’s debut album, and the other came to an agreement which would see him adopt the mantle of leader of the Labour Party, that Noel Gallagher and Tony Blair had never even heard of each other.

However, just three short years later the pair would meet inside 10 Downing Street with a handshake and a glass of champagne for an image which now – in all its superficiality – suitably defines an era. By then Noel Gallagher was rich, successful and exhalted. Tony Blair, equally, had just been carried to power in the UK on a landslide, himself now carrying the hopes of a nation blossoming with colour after a generation of grey Tory decline. Or so went the narrative anyway.

Their meeting was the appropriately bizarre hedonistic tipping point of Britpop – that intangible, loosely defined media invention with which Oasis are now so intrinsically tied. Britart and Cool Britannia had themselves been gobbled up by the tabloids in its wake. “Revolution!” they cried. “London swings again!” Yet now, like the Sex Pistols did a decade on from the Summer Of Love, we must surely look back through gritted teeth knowing that, just like Johnny Rotten in 1977, for the majority it was essentially ‘Bollocks’.

Even before that Blair/Gallagher summit was held most of the main protagonists had already come to realise as much. The tabloid press – Dr. Frankenstein to Britpop’s monster – decided enough was enough. Blur were about to re-emerge from their ridiculous Benny Hill cartoon ‘Country House‘ selves with bags under their eyes, a moody camera filter and a far darker story to tell on ‘Beetlebum‘. The gloomy Wigan stroll of Richard Ashcroft and The Verve‘s ‘Bittersweet Symphony‘ would be the diametric anthem for 1997′s summer, ‘Urban Hymns‘ the instant post-Britpop bible. Oasis’ timing was less savvy; the insane riot of ‘Be Here Now‘ arrived right in the eye of a backlash storm, soundtracking a mindset which had already pulled out of the station. It would be another year before Noel Gallagher finally boarded up Supernova Heights and went cold turkey on Billy Connolly videos.

All of which, incredibly twenty years on, makes ‘Definitely Maybe‘ retrospectively more important than ever – and why this article chooses to get those Britpop footnotes out of the way at the earliest opportunity.

Read the full article here.

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Noel Gallagher On Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, Boris Johnson And More

Noel Gallagher explains why he regrets posing with Tony Blair, prefers Thatcher to today’s politicians – and rejects the idea of working-class guilt.

Do you regret endorsing Tony Blair or New Labour?

Nah, not really. It was a great time in history. The grip of Thatcherism was being smashed. New Labour had been brilliant in opposition. When Tony Blair spoke, his words seemed to speak to people, young people. Call me naive but I felt something – I’m not quite sure what it was, but I felt it all the same. I do regret that picture at No 10 that night, though . . . I can still smell the cheese!

Would you go for tea with David Cameron?

Maybe. He looks like he could do with a good strong cup of Yorkshire. I don’t mind him, to be honest. No one actually takes him seriously, do they? All that “call me Dave” gear – hilarious.

Which politicians do you admire/despise?

Not many. What’s to admire, anyway – the way they fiddle their expenses? If I have to, though, I’d say: Winston Churchill, for his name alone. Dennis Skinner, because he absolutely takes no shit off the toffs, and Tony Blair because he played guitar and smoked a bit of weed (allegedly!). Somewhat predictably, the despise list is a bit longer. I won’t go into it here, I haven’t got all day, but in the interests of fairness and balance I’ll say . . . off the top of my head: Diane Abbott, [Ken] Clarke, Portillo, Boris-f***ing-Johnson, that little ginger bitch that ceremoniously gave back the money she’d fiddled during the expenses scandal, Norman Tebbit! Peter Mandelson! George-f***ing-Osborne. If I don’t stop now, this could literally go on longer than Be Here Now.

Who would you vote for if there were an election tomorrow?

I’m not sure I would vote. I didn’t feel last time that there was anything left to vote for. Doesn’t seem that anything has changed, ergo . . . ?

Do you think you pay your fair amount of tax as a rich person?

No. I think we should return to the Sixties when we paid 80 per cent tax so government can piss it up the wall on the war machine and bailing out the banks and funding ludicrous “initiatives” to help “stimulate” the economy. The economy that successive governments oversaw the destruction of. I think I pay just about enough, thanks . . . and you?

Do you believe in God?

Sadly no. And I don’t believe in the devil either. Or ghosts. Or Father Christmas, for that matter.

How do you feel when you see politicians at public events?

Public events I don’t have a problem with. Although when you see them backstage at Glastonbury you are thinking: “Really, just f*** off.” I’m amazed “Dave” hasn’t popped down for the weekend to get down with the middle classes. When I see them at (for want of a better term) showbiz events, that really winds me up. We were at the GQ Awards recently and the gaff was crawling with them; they were even giving speeches and getting awards. Boris-f***ing-Johnson got an award for “Politician of the Year”. I was speechless an award like that even exists, and he was boasting – in a Nineties rock-star full-of-cheng style – at how brilliant he must be due to the fact that he’d won the same award three times. Will.i.(haven’t got a f***ing clue) Hague was there while that crisis in Syria was blowing up.

I genuinely thought these people would have more important things to be getting on with. Clearly, scratching the back of said magazine and its editor takes precedence over all. Shameful behaviour. Though not as shameful as ours, eh, Rusty?

Did you trust politicians in the Seventies and Eighties more than contemporary figures such as Osborne or Ed Balls?

You could trust them in the sense that you knew exactly where you stood with them. Neil Kinnock, for example: no grey areas. He knew who he was and what he stood for. Thatcher, even. We knew she was the enemy. She hated us; we hated her. All was right in the world.

This new generation are media opportunists, shilly-shallying flag-wavers, the musical equivalent of Enya. If they were a colour, they’d be beige.

I have no doubt that George Osborne would’ve practised his weeping the night before Thatcher’s funeral. He might be the most slappable man in England, the kind of man that would watch Coronation Street or EastEnders to get a perspective on the working class.

Ed Balls can quite frankly lick mine on his way to and from obscurity.

Whom will you tell your sons to vote for?

Politics will surely be dead as a f***ing parrot by the time the two young lords get the vote.

Source: www.newstatesman.com

Noel Gallagher Turns Down Strictly Come Dancing

Noel Gallagher has had a few surreal moments in his rock ’n’ roll career.

There was champagne with Tony Blair at Downing Street, the madness of Knebworth in ’96 and a few weeks back he watched his beloved Manchester City rip the Premier League crown from bitter rivals United in injury time on the last day of the football season.

And now the ever-ambitious BBC have given him another — a name-your-price offer for the former Oasis star to appear in sequins on Strictly Come Dancing.

It sounds like total lunacy, but it’s the first thing I’d be happy for my licence fee to be spent on since Meerkat Manor.

Last night High Flying Birds frontman Noel said: “I’m flattered. I’d have done it an’ all as I’ve recently mastered the sticky task of c***** while dancing.

“Sadly though, I’m a bit busy. Maybe next time... ”

Well, it’s not a complete knock-back.

A source at the Beeb added: “Strictly always set their targets extremely high.

“The show gets huge viewing figures and the bookers behind the show are very much of the opinion ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t get’. They knew from the off it was ambitious but they thought it might be something that tickled him.”

Just for one magical moment, imagine Sir Brucie of Forsyth uttering the words: “Nice to see Noel, to see Noel... ”

Then a bit of Bez-esque Wonderwaltz action and Len Goodman offering a critique. Surely followed by a swift, “F*** you” and an Ofcom complaint.

His pal Russell Brand would be proud.

Here’s a suggestion for the Beeb — arrange for a sequined Stone Island jacket and Adidas trainers to be sent to his gaff with a cheque for £1million and you might just be on the right road.

Source: www.thesun.co.uk

Noel Gallagher On Adele, Matt Cardle, X Factor And More

In between his ongoing feud with brother Liam and mouthing off about this year's X Factor lot, it's easy to forget that Noel Gallagher has a new album out. His first sort-of solo album, to be precise - with the backing of his anonymous High Flying Birds bandmates.

Having given the album a spin earlier this month, we called him up to find out whether he's suffering any release-week nerves and his take on today's rock bands.

What would you be doing now if you weren't talking to us?
"If I get a day off I'd just be mooching about the house. I don't like to do a great deal. Smoke some cigarettes, strum the guitar. You don't get much of a chance to do that when you've kids running around you all the f**king time."

You have an album out soon; are you allowed to relax at the moment?
"I work until about 7 o'clock and then clock in with my wife for the night shift. It's been OK - I don't mind the work because I allow myself such long periods of time off between recording and touring. I kind of get geared up for it; to know that I'm working flat out for the next two years feels great because I know I'll take another 18 months off after."

Early reviews of the album are suggesting it's on a par with Oasis's What's the Story Morning Glory?. Do you agree?
"I've only read the Q and Mojo ones, but it's difficult for me to get involved in that argument - but I think it's the best collection of songs I've had on an album in a long time. I've not written a whole album since 1999, so I'm glad people are saying that."

Some of the songs were written as long as ten years ago; did you always intend to keep them back for a solo project?
"I'd actually recorded those songs for the last two Oasis albums - and they were f**king great - but the vocals were never finished on them - they weren't as good as the versions on this album. Liam always ran out of time to finish them, and I thought if I didn't put them out now, I'm never going to."

You've released two great singles from the LP but they haven't charted as highly as you'd necessarily expect. Does that annoy you?
"Chart positions haven't bothered me since [2005's] Don't Believe The Truth - it all seemed to change after that. I was actually blown away that the singles managed to hang around for as long as they did - it shows a good song is a good song. I mean, how many 45-year-old fathers of three are in the charts? None! Beady Eye have done similar chart-wise, so why should I expect any different?"

What's wrong with the charts at the moment?
"There's nothing wrong them, they're just unrecognisable now from when I was growing up. It's a f**king free-for-all now! When 'The Death of You and Me' charted, the only other guitar song in the Top 40 was Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'Under The Bridge' which was out 20 years ago but was in some new film. It's a mish-mash of all sorts of s**t. Who cares what's number one anymore? Just be thankful we lived in the '90s."

Are you hoping for a number one on the album chart instead then?
"I can't see it being number one as it's out the same week as Matt Cardle. Chart positions are for people with manbags who get to work at 11am because they've been at a digital meeting. It definitely won't affect the band - I'm on my own label and funded it with my kids' school fund - I'm hardly going to drop myself."

It would be quite funny if you did, though.
"It would - and then I can sue myself for aggravated dismissal. All I need is the record sales to break even so I can make another one."

'AKA... What A Life' is being used on the Vauxhall TV ads; has that ruined the song for you yet?
"Not really. Radio 1 are refusing to play my records - I understand that because I'm too old - but there are very few ways to get your music out there today, and unfortunately everything is for sale. I've had my shot with Radio 1 - I'm not going to sue them like Status Quo did. I wasn't sure on the advert at first - I want you to know that I was only thinking of the money when I agreed to it. It's hard being this age in the music industry."

Adele has bucked the current trends and become one of the biggest successes of the year. Are you a fan of her album?
"I've not heard it. I've heard 'Rolling in the Deep' and that was pretty good. I haven't got the album though - and to be frank I don't know anyone who has."

Aren't you intrigued to see what all the fuss is about?
"Not really. I know what she's about and I have no desire to hear that album."

As well as the charts being in a bit of a state, so is the country. Could that be a driving force for the revival of rock music?
"I don't think we live in those times when great art comes out of great adversity. People don't give a s**t anymore - as long as they've got an iPod, an iPad, mobile phone, and a flatscreen TV then they don't give a f**k. Everything you want you can get because it's all superficial. People don't aspire to be what Oasis and similar bands were about. They all want to be on The X Factor."

Do you think The X Factor is to blame for the state of the music industry?
"Take that Frankie [Cocozza] kid - he looks like an indie kid yet he's on The X Factor. They want the fast track to the big car. F**king go for it, but it's nothing to do with music. I think this country will produce less and less Morrisseys and Ian Browns because people won't sign them. Labels don't want it and the working class people can't afford to do it for themselves."

There's still a lot of indie bands around, though...
"There are, but what are those bands about? Will any of them say anything controversial? I don't think they ever will. I read interviews with bands and I don't give a f**king shit about what they're saying. It's all superficial nonsense. There's no reason why Kasabian or the Arctic Monkeys couldn't sell out Wembley for three nights - so it's something else. Whatever it is, these bands don't have it anymore."

You met Tony Blair when he was appointed prime minister; would you do the same if David Cameron invited you today?
"No way. I gave up on politics at the last election - it's all bollocks now. It all ended at this coalition - I don't remember an option for a coalition. How many people would have voted for it if it was an option? Who gives them the f**king right to decide that? I've don't mind Cameron - but get a proper f**king job, because what they're doing is pointless."

You're including some Oasis songs on your upcoming tour. Which do you think are the best?
"I have to include them - I don't have enough material for a show otherwise! Fortunately I've got an excellent back catalogue to fall back on. I'm doing 'Don't Look Back In Anger' on the acoustic guitar which is sounding particularly poignant at the moment. Rehearsing is getting f**king boring now. I just want to get on with it before we over-rehearse and turn s**t."

Noel Gallagher releases Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds today.

Source: www.digitalspy.co.uk

Tony Blair Is Mad Fer It...

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has told culture magazine ShortList he is a big fan of Oasis.

He said of Noel and Liam Gallagher: “You know, those guys are great guys to know. I think Oasis are a great band. I don’t think they’re big fans of mine.”