Noel Gallagher: Guardian Spotty Herberts Piss Me Off

After backing down from his Jay-Z dissing, Noel Gallagher has found a new name for his pain - and it's Guardian and Observer journalists whose parents 'voted for Thatcher'

I'm not having the Guardian in my newsagents. No way. It's wrong."

Ok, so they're not exactly the words that tumbled out of the Oasis man's mouth in today's interview with NME, but he's undoubtedly got a new target to mouth off about. And this time it's, er, us lot at the Guardian and Observer.

Here's what Noel did say, when asked about the Jay-Z debacle: "If people in the fucking Observer and the Guardian wanna get on their high horse about it, there's not a great deal I can do."

He then realises that he's overstepped the mark and backtracks with a nervous apology. Only joking. "It really pisses me off," he continues, "all these spotty herberts whose mams and dads voted for Margaret Thatcher all those years are now sitting on some moral fucking high chair."

Ouch! A quick email circular around the Guardian/Observer music desks provoked a (mild-mannered) storm of protest.

"My parents were fully active members of the Labour party, and I had to go out bloody canvassing with my dad, but if Noel Gallagher wants to get on his high horse about it, there's not a great deal I can do about it," said the associate editor of the Observer Music Monthly.

"My family come from Wales, so the chance of them voting for Thatcher is roughly the same as a cat in hell," came the response from a Guardian subeditor.

"Um, I've always had pretty clear skin," was my contribution. Take that, Noel!

Actually, it's not the only time I've encountered the wrath of the Gallaghers. The first time I met them, Noel told Radio 1's Zane Lowe that he'd been tricked into making a series of outrageous comments because NME had sent "an edgy kid" to interview him. The second interview, meanwhile, ended with Liam staring at me for a good full minute before deciding "You're a fookin' weirdo you are ..." He then went on to list a series of music videos he'd seen me appear in, which was a surreal experience to say the least.

Now, we could go on about Noel's rather Thatcherite ideas here ("If you want [our album] for nowt, you can have it - but you're paying £70 to come and see us live," froths the multi-millionaire at one point).

But really, if he's prepared to back down on his Jay-Z dissing (and let's face it, that's what he's doing here, what with referencing the time he went to see the Def Jam tour in the 90s), we'd like to call a truce, too. After all, phrases such as "moral high-chair" would instantly earn Gallagher a job on these desks. And if we could see a bit more of that, and a little less "True perfection has to be imperfect/I know that that sounds foolish but it's true" on the next Oasis record, the world would be a better place.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk