When it comes to life’s challenges, Noel Gallagher has never been one to look back in anger.
He shouldered one of the world’s worst cases of sibling rivalry in a childhood marred by abuse; The 56-year-old always seems to rise to the occasion.
He’s now a single man after splitting from wife Sara MacDonald after 22 years as a journalist, returning to the party scene he was famous for in his ’90s heyday.
Appearing on Matt Morgan’s latest podcast episode, the rock ‘n’ roll star opened up about how he’s embraced the single life, including a recent dinner with ’90s supermodel Cindy Crawford, and how much he loves the super-strong drugs of Amsterdam.
The High Flying Birds frontwoman has been busy organizing her new “bachelor pad” in Maida Vale, London, after her divorce from MacDonald, 52, left her disillusioned with the “isolation” of her now-empty country life in Hampshire. .
MacDonald reportedly walked away with an estimated £20 million along with his £8 million estate after the former couple reached a divorce settlement.
Gallagher said: “I’ll have about five months off when I finish this tour. I’m looking forward to it because I’m moving to my new house in London so I need to make sure my new house looks nice.
“I’ve done all the planning. It’ll be move-in ready for Christmas, but it won’t really feel like a home until you’ve lived there for six or seven months.
“I’m looking forward to being on leave from January until the end of May… and I’ll be living in London. I haven’t lived in London for about four years and I’m really looking forward to getting back to London and being around.
“I’m always in London but in 2019 I lived in Hampshire. As I can’t drive I can’t go out and do anything and I have to plan everything days in advance.”
He continued: “I’ve forgotten what it’s like to be in London and I can just go to the shops and if I run out of bread I can also go to Gail’s bakery. I miss it and can’t wait to start again – spontaneous nights at the bar, you know what I mean?
“Whereas when you’re in the countryside, especially when you live alone in the countryside, it’s a pretty isolated life. I’m not knocking because I really enjoy the solitude, especially with the personal belongings I’ve been carrying around on my plate for the last few years, so it’s been good.
“But I’m really looking forward to getting back around the fucking people.”
Gallagher’s move will bring back memories of his days at his Oasis in Supernova Heights, his terraced base on Steele’s Road in London’s Belsize Park, where he threw non-stop parties.
The property, whose name is engraved in the glass above the front door, was made famous by the wild parties thrown by the singer and his then-wife Meg Mathews, 57, with guests including Gallagher’s old friend Kate Moss. a few weeks – and members of the Charlatans and Sex Pistols.
Gallagher recently reunited with other guests, including Beck, Matthew McConaughey and Cindy Crawford, at a dinner hosted by Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones and Madonna’s manager Guy Oseary.
Gallagher seemed particularly excited by the former supermodel’s presence, describing her as a “f***”.
He said: “My friend Guy Oseary, who is U2’s manager and Madonna’s manager… I called him and said, ‘I’m in town for a few days,’ and he said, ‘Do you want to come?’ To my house for dinner? ‘I’ll call some people.’
“And I said, ‘Okay.’ Of course I was there when I went to this dinner; Beck, Steve Jones, Matthew McConaughey and – get this – Cindy Crawford. What about this?
“Beck and I had met a few times and we were both chatting about writing the new Black Keys album together, so we were chatting about it.
“And Beck’s bassist was also a bassist. [High Flying Birds album] Who Built the Moon?, we were chatting about it and of course Jonesy is one of my favorite people of all time and I was chatting to him about the Danny Boyle Pistols biopic. It was just a nice dinner. He showed up on his motorcycle.
“Then this woman came out to this dinner and said, ‘I’m Cindy,’ and I said, ‘Damn, that’s Cindy Crawford.’ “I couldn’t believe it. “He’s in f*cking shape, he’s fit as a fuuuu*k.”
Gallagher admitted on one of Morgan’s recent podcasts that he was “extremely hungover” after a rowdy night on the tour bus, and recalled how much he loved a weed vaporizer “far away” in Amsterdam called “the volcano.”
“It’s a pretty big deal,” he said. “It’s the same theory as e-cigarettes, where it’s pure weed smoke. Let me tell you, it’s very far away.
“I will put you on a volcano and push you into a canal and escape. I don’t have to pay attention to such things; I just buy the most expensive thing in the store.”
I don’t think it’s possible to take me so high
Gallagher joked that it would be helpful to “deliberately get high” to try fellow musician Neil Young’s cure for getting “too drunk” – which consists of eating black pepper.
But Gallagher boasted: “I don’t think it’s possible to get me too high.”
Since the announcement of her split from MacDonald, the “Wonderwall” songstress has been spotted out and about in London and living it up at her favorite venues, including the Chiltern Firehouse.
He also recently joked about turning into “Adventurer Dad” while vacationing with his kids in the south of France, Iceland and Italy’s Amalfi Coast.
This jet-setting lifestyle is a far cry from Noel’s turbulent upbringing in Manchester, where he and his brothers Liam and Paul were terrorized by their alcoholic father Thomas.
In the documentary supersonic, Gallagher described how his father “instilled talent in him.”
Both he and Gallagher’s oldest brother, Paul, struggled with a stutter that was made worse by their father’s abuse. Their mother, Peggy, later requested legal separation and raised her three boys on her own.
The singer-songwriter claimed that despite the trauma she experienced, she never acknowledged the abuse or discussed it with a doctor or therapist.
“My father was stealing the living daylights out of me,” he said. “I never felt like I had to talk or write about it. I know I thought it was nobody else’s business. “You can’t let those things affect you in any way because then you’ll carry that weight around your whole life.”
That doesn’t mean he doesn’t hold a grudge or two.
The infamous Oasis split in 2009 ended in long-running fisticuffs and brawls between the estranged Gallagher brothers.
Four years ago, Noel hinted that it was a row that began in 2000, when Liam questioned the paternity of his brother’s 23-year-old daughter Anaïs, and that damaged their relationship, perhaps irrevocably.
“I never forgave him because he never apologized,” Noel said.d Q Magazine In 2005, he broke his silence about the incident for the first time. “He’s my brother. I hope he’s reading this and realizes that. He’s my brother, but he’s going to stay away from me until he apologizes for what he did.”
Despite all the public controversy, the relationship between the Gallagher brothers appeared to have thawed in recent years, fueling fans’ dreams that the Nineties could make another comeback with Oasis reuniting.
Liam reached out to his brother on
Noel admitted earlier this year that she and MacDonald decided to divorce after reaching a “crossroads” in their lives.
“It’s not uncommon for people in long-term relationships to go their separate ways in their fifties,” he said. Big problem.
“I know many people in the same situation as me and Sara. “Especially after the pandemic.”
She and MacDonald announced their separation in January this year in a brief statement saying their two children, Donovan, 16, and Sonny, 13, remained their priorities.