"Gallagher's Lived For Drink And Drugs"

by Janine Gibson

New father Noel Gallagher has revealed that he and wife Meg Mathews spent so much of their marriage surrounded by drugs that he worried that quitting them would end their relationship.

In an interview with today's Guardian Weekend magazine, the Oasis star describes his decision to undergo cold turkey and confesses that his wife's pregnancy made it easier for them to give up drugs and move out of London to the Buckinghamshire countryside.

Gallagher, 32, whose daughter Anais was born on Thursday two weeks early at the Portland Hospital in central London, describes their life at their former London home, Supernova Heights, as a continuous party with an open bar, until he decided it had to stop. He said he was worried that their relationship would be different without the drink and drugs.

"We met through drugs. Our relationship was surrounded by drugs. We got married when we were pissed, though we weren't drunk when we decided to get married. When I decided I was going to come off it and change the way I lived, in the beginning it was like - how's that gonna be with our relationship? Am I still gonna like her?"

Gallagher also discusses his mixed feelings over his younger brother, Liam. The Oasis frontman, who is also now a parent with his actress wife Patsy Kensit, recently disappeared on a three-day binge. "If it wasn't for me he'd think it was all right to go on a bender for three days and not see his kid. There's two sides to Liam: when he's pissed he's fuckin' horrible and I hate him, and I really mean that. I fuckin' hate him. It's just psychotic alcohol bullshit and I've got no time for him."

Talking to Lindsay Baker, Gallagher is confident that Oasis have moved on from their early excesses and that the band's new album and forthcoming tour will be less known for the off-stage antics of the brothers.

"Everyone likes a drink and all that, but the chaos seems to have left, and I think we all know we're not some young punks any more. I don't like to say that we're responsible adults exactly, but we want to put on a good show for the people who've bothered to come and see us after all these years."

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c 2000 Andrew Turner

aturner@interalpha.co.uk

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