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Gordon in the morning: Noel Gallagher's clarification
Here's some oddness: Gordon has got hold of both Noel's interview with the Mail On Sunday yesterday, and the blog entry where Noel tries to fix some of the damage.
Let's first see what Noel had to say:
There is a headline that implies that I am of the opinion that the years spent under the rule of that soon to be dead granny, Maggie Thatcher, was good for the soul. I've read the story and I must say it's very misleading; any great working class art, fashion, youth culture etc came to be IN SPITE of that woman and her warped right wing views and NOT BECAUSE of them. Also for the record, on the day that she dies we will party like it's 1989. Just so you know.Funnily enough, a lot of people are already saying 'well, there you go, then, he was misquoted'.
Except, you'll note that Noel doesn't actually claim to be misquoted. Just disagrees with the way the story was presented by the Mail.
Certainly, while Gordon notes Noel's clarification, he still runs it under the headline:
Noel Gallagher: Kids had work ethic under Maggieand fillets out the key quote:
...but I'm no Margaret Thatcher fan
Noel said: "We were brought up under Margaret Thatcher.Noel's blog entry doesn't even engage with the private school or work ethic stuff; in fact, the only thing he seeks to "clarify" is whether the creative boom was in spite of, or because of. Interestingly, he's actually withdrawing the only thing he got right - you can't have a creative reaction to a thing unless it's because of that thing.
"There was a work ethic — if you were unemployed, the obsession was to find work.
[...]
He said: "Under Thatcher, who ruled us with an iron rod, great art was made. Amazing designers and musicians. Acid house was born. Very colourful and progressive."
Gallagher could have used his blog to engage with the political points of the piece; instead he just wishes an old woman with Alzheimer's dead. He's hoping he can segment his audience; segment his messages. It's no wonder he hates Twitter.
But why would you give an interview to the Mail On Sunday, and say those things, in the first place, Noel?
1 comment:
To ask that question is, I think, to answer it.
The point about a creative reaction to a thing happening because of that thing can, of course, apply to the Beatles just as well as to anything created in the Thatcher years; few would dispute that they were a creative reaction to the narrowness and insularity of Britain in the 50s (the other long post-war period of Tory rule), its refusal to admit that its global dominance was over and that it therefore needed to reinvent its culture fundamentally. Since Noel Gallagher has never shown any sign of understanding where his supposed heroes came from - almost appearing to think that they emerged fully-formed in isolation from the wider world, a reaction to nothing and framed and shaped by nothing - that isn't really surprising.
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