"Liam Arrested After 'Pub Brawl'"

Liam Gallagher was arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage to a camera on November 4, following an alleged fight with a freelance photgarpher outside a pub in London's Primrose Hill.

He was taken to Kentish Town Police Station and questioned, before being released on bail. He is now due to return to the police station on a date yet to be decided. The police will then decide what offences, if any, Liam will be charged with.

The photographer, Mel Bouzad, claimed that Liam and his entourage attacked him in the street around 5pm outside the Pembroke Castle pub, after he tried to get pictures of the Oasis singer.

He told Radio 1: "I approached him to take a picture, and he turned aggressive. A scuffle broke out. He broke my camera and stole a film...I wasn't breaking any law. I certainly didn't provoke them. Gallagher hit me in the stomach and it really hurt."

However, one source close to Oasis claimed last week that the incident was a set-up. The source said: "I don't think any blows were exchanged, and I don't think there was any damage to the camera."

Asked if Noel Gallagher had been with his brother at the time of the reported fight, as one tabloid claimed, the source said: "No, but Noel was in the area."

On the morning after the incident, Chris Evans sprang to Liam's defence on his Virgin radio show. Not only did Evans furiously attack Bouzad, he announced the snapper's mobile phone number and the PIN code with which listeners could access the messages on Bouzad's personal pager.

Evans said on air: "Liam Gallagher goes out for a quiet drink, gets a camera stuck in his face by a photographer...then gets arrested and put in the back of a police van and the photographer gets a photograph. Now, what kind of world are we living in, when it comes down to photographers calling the police so they can get a photograph of somebody being arrested?"

An employee at the Pembroke Castle told The Maker: "I missed what happened by just a few minutes, but somebody that I work with said that Liam definitely didn't hit anyone. He went outside to ask for the film from the camera and got it."

Kentish Town Police issued a statement stating: "We can confirm police were called by a male alleging that his camera had been smashed in an incident outside the Pembroke Castle pub, NW1. Police attended at 5pm on November 4th and arrested a 26-year old male on suspicion of criminal damage to the camera."

tabloid tales

Noel Gallagher had something to celebrate in the midst of troubled times last week, if the Sunday Mirror is to be believed. He was alleged to have bought a £1 million villa in Spain. What's more, it'll have a swimming pool built by Rod Stewart, in a manner of speaking. Noel reportedly said that he was paying for his pool "out of royalties from the Stewart cover version of my song 'Cigarettes & Alcohol'".

Noel will probably be hoping that the tabloids won't bother to chase him all the way to Spain for a quote whenever Liam gets in a spot of bother. Last week, The Star claimed to have dropped in at Supernova Heights and asked Noel [via his entryphone] for his thoughts on the incident involving Our Kid and photographer Mel Bouzad. They used Noel's alleged response as their headline: "If it had been me, I'd have killed the c***."

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c 1998 Andrew Turner

aturner@interalpha.co.uk

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