Noel Gallagher Mocks The Manchester Rioters In TV Interview
By
Stop Crying Your Heart Out
on
October 12, 2011
Noel Gallagher has said he was 'embarrased' by the Manchester riots in August - and added that the disorder was "hardly the French Revolution".
The Burnage-born musician also joked about the motives of the looters saying: "It was like 'What do we want? Leisurewear! When do we want it? Now!'"
Noel, 44, said he was ashamed to see a masked looter on television saying the chaos was "payback for the police" arresting people for "stupid things".
Speaking as he was interviewed on the BBC 2 Newsnight programme, Noel added: "Stupid things? Like what, dressing like a mushroom? This is not Fawlty Towers. They arrest you for breaking the law."
The former Oasis guitarist said that when he was growing up as a working class Mancunian he was at the lowest level of society - but he added: "There's now a level underneath that. There is the 'can't be bothered' working class."
He also blamed the modern celebrity-obsessed culture for contributing to social problems. He added. "If you constantly bombard young people on 24-hour TV with a lifestyle that they can't have...and give them no hope of ever getting it, you can't expect them not to behave like animals," he said.
Noel claimed the solution was down to a basic need for jobs and education.
"If you don't get people working and don't educate them that is it. It is the end," he said.
But he also said in the interview that he did not support any of the mainstream political parties and had voted for the Pirate party at the last General Election.
More than 200 stores and businesses were looted or vandalised during the Manchester riots on 9 August, including the Pretty Green store on King Street owned by Noel's brother Liam Gallagher, which had stock worth £272,000 stolen.
See the Newsnight interview here.
Source: menmedia.co.uk