Noel Gallagher, in his first interview since his marriage broke up,
reveals why life with Meg was impossible. By Paul Connolly

Noel Gallagher stirs his mid-morning Bloody Mary and sighs. "If I
could sum it up, she became more heavy metal and I became more of a
hippy. She became more Ozzy Osbourne and I became more Donovan," he
says.

The Oasis frontman is, of course, referring to his estranged wife of
three years, Meg Mathews. His subsequent relationship with PR woman
Sara MacDonald has fattened the gossip-eating monster this autumn. So
while he's ostensibly here to talk about his band Oasis's new live
album, Familiar to Millions, he knows that the collapse of a marriage
many thought would survive the rigours of the rock'n'roll lifestyle
is fair game.

Despite the fierce public scrutiny their relationship endured, we
didn't see the split coming. Play the video of the live album (filmed
on the first of Oasis's two nights at Wembley last July) and you'll
see a touching exchange. She's in the front row of the VIP area
beaming up at her husband while he good-naturedly pokes fun at her.
"Hey, mind your credit cards everyone," he says, grinning down at her.

Months later Noel recalls that moment. "We were still getting on
quite well. I was onstage and she was pissed.

"And that sums it up. We weren't happy, privately, but publicly we
looked quite happy. At the end of the day if you're not happy, then
life isn't worth living," he says.

The rot set in about two years ago, Gallagher concedes, rubbing his
hand over his face as he recalls the early stage of the marriage's
breakdown. "For about a year leading up to Meg getting pregnant
(Anais, her daughter by Gallagher, was born in January this year) I
was thinking this ain't gonna work. Then Meg got pregnant and it was
OK, because they're nice and mellow when they get pregnant. And after
that it all went a bit pear-shaped, getting back to the way it was
years ago, the constant larging it. In the end I just couldn't be
doing with it any more."

Gallagher stamps on any suggestion that he has "mellowed", insisting
that he has never really swallowed the classic rock'n'roll lifestyle
with his daily dose of Guinness.

"I was never that mad anyway," he says, his voice rising. "You
wouldn't catch me charging up and down Oxford Street with a spear
taking out tourists. I used to take a lot of drugs and stay out for a
couple of days but I was never one for standing on tables playing air
guitar to my own songs, which (brother) Liam's always doing.

"He's probably doing that right now actually, standing on a table
playing air guitar to little James (the son of Liam's ex-wife Patsy
Kensit)," he grins, calming down for a moment.

"I can't be doing with bulls*** in my life any more. All that
celebrity thing and hanging around with famous people, it's all
f***ing bollocks. When I stopped taking drugs it was a slow process
of waking up and going 'how did it get like this?' It was just before
the Reading Festival (in late August) and I thought I can't be doing
with this any more. So we split up; it was a mutual thing."

However, he still loves Mathews. "Of course, I always will. She's
Anais's mam. Part of her will always be with me. You don't spend
seven years with someone and then just cut them off. Part of me will
always love her but part of me will always dislike a side to her
character."

Noel catches himself, a sense of fair play coming to the fore. "But
I'm not blameless. The reason the marriage fell apart was because we
both allowed it to. I couldn't be a***d trying to patch it over
anymore, it just wasn't worth it." And he is clearly under no
illusion over his part in the marriage's failure.

"She'd say I was a miserable t***," he smiles. "That I'd spend more
time with my guitar than I did with her. That I'd spend all my waking
hours in the house not joining in and not being part of her circle of
friends. Which is true. You are who you are. You can't and shouldn't
change for anyone."

The marriage of Noel's parents was notoriously fractious and he
admits that he really wanted to make his work as a result. "Yeah, it
was kind of like someone's going to have to break the chains."

But he's adamant that he and Mathews made the right decision. "I saw
my mum and dad going through hell for 18 years, when they should've
split up as soon as they realised they had big problems. If two
people are in a relationship when they're making each other
miserable, then that transfers to the kid. It's better if the
partners remain friends than live in the same house. There's the
romantic notion of mummy and daddy sitting around the kitchen table
at eight o'clock in the morning, eating corn flakes and discussing
the state of the nation. But that's bollocks, that's not real life."

Surely he must worry about the effect the impending divorce will have
on Anais.

"I suppose I'll get it in the neck when she's about six or seven," he
says. "I'll just go, 'Look, join the club, my parents split up and it
didn't do me any harm'."

When it comes to the issue of custody Noel is insistent that Mathews
should keep Anais. "That's not even an issue. She stays with her mam.
Because that's what babies do. But when I have her and then have to
give her back it's heartbreaking. But I'm 33, not 21. And I'm from
Manchester. I'm not living in cloud-cuckooland, where you swot up on
life from some manual. I've lived it. And you have to be grown-up,
you have to be an adult."

Noel initially refuses to countenance that such a traumatic split
could have depressed him. "I only cried once in 18 years when my mum
and dad were going through it. I don't see the point," he says trying
to brazen it out before he softens after gentle probing.

"I suppose you get moments when you sit on your own before you go to
bed at night on your own and for the seven years previously you've
slept with someone else," he offers almost begrudgingly. "And then
you're very aware you're on your own. And you turn the telly off and
you go, 'oh bugger'."

The split has meant Noel moving back to London where he is staying in
a hotel while waiting to take possession of a house in Marylebone.
"Yes, I'm back in London, unfortunately. Under duress, I have to say.
It's Anais's home (the marital home was in Buckinghamshire) but you
can't bring up a child in London. I'm not that happy with being back.
I spent two years in the country and it was mega because I just
watched telly and did f*** all. But I don't want to be in London
because you end up going out every night, he says sipping a Bloody
Mary at ten o'clock in the morning," he adds grinning.

Noel's very keen to see his brother Liam's new flat which Liam bought
after his split with Patsy Kensit. "I can't wait. He's 28 and he's
never lived on his own, poor flower. He phoned me the other day when
I was at me mam's in Manchester with Anais and he sounded really
happy. I said, 'You sound happy, what's going on?' He said, 'you'll
never guess what I've had. Acu-punc-ture. F***ing acu-punc-ture'."

"I said, 'What've you had that for?' And he claimed that this bloke
stuck a needle in his stomach and smoke came out. My theory is that
his girlfriend (All Saint Nicole Appleton, who Noel claims has made
Liam the happiest he's ever seen him) had it and looked good and he
thought, 'I'll have a go of that'."

After the summer's events when it seemed odds-on that the brothers'
feuding would finally put paid to the biggest British rock band of
the past 30 years, Liam and Noel seem to be talking again. "We've
always fought. The next tour we're on, one of us will walk out. We
both do it. It's just the way it is. And then we don't see each other
for six or seven weeks and it all calms down."

There's been much speculation that the funeral of his grandmother
Margaret in Ireland in September was the venue for the
reconciliation. Noel waves this away and instead offers an anecdote
that suggests that it doesn't matter how rich and famous you are,
your relatives will always bring you down to earth.

"The last time I was there (Charlestown, Co Mayo) was in 1994 and
we'd had two singles out, Supersonic and Shakermaker, and we'd just
started making it. I stayed in this B&B, the Riverside. So this time
we were in this pub and me Uncle John told me that they'd put a
plaque above the bed I slept in: 'Noel Gallagher stayed here
September 1994'."

Noel, by now grinning like a loon, continues. "So I said to me mam,
before we go to the funeral tomorrow, let's get a camera and
photograph this plaque for the crack. So we go down to the chemist
and buy a couple of disposable cameras and when we get to the B&B,
the landlady opens the door and says 'Hello Mr Noel, I haven't seen
you for years. What can I do for you?' I say, 'We won't keep you
long, I'm just here to photograph the plaque.'"

"She says, 'What plaque?'."

"The plaque above the bed."

"There's no plaque above the bed here."

"So I'm like 'right, we've got a funeral to go to, so I'm off.'"

"And she's shouting up the road at us: 'What plaque above the bed?'"

"When we get to the church, all me relatives are outside the church,
smoking and laughing their heads off. Bastards."

Oasis's detractors are suggesting that Familiar to Millions is just a
way to make some more money before they split up.

"Absolutely," Noel laughs.

So why not a greatest hits like their old arch-rivals, Blur?

Noel laughs throatily again. "Well, we can fleece some more money off
the kids next year can't we? Seriously though, we haven't finished
yet. Greatest hits have a sense of finality about them; there's
hopefully a lot more to come. I'm off to the studio this afternoon to
record some more songs so we're carrying on. Whether or not any of
them come out is a different matter."

As the video attests, Noel is one of the most laidback on-stage rock
stars. "Well I've been playing live for ten years now. It's a doddle.
It's not as if we're playing space jazz. They're Oasis songs, they're
a piece of p***. Even you could probably play them," he suggests
generously.

But it's clear he still loves the live buzz. "It's better than any
feeling when you hear the crowd roaring. It's better than drugs and
I'd like to say it's better than sex but me being a veritable tiger
between the sheets, unfortunately it's not," he grins wolfishly.

But he's unwilling to be drawn on his new girlfriend. "It's not for
public consumption," he says. "I have had one very public
relationship and I'm really not up for speaking about it. I'll say
one thing; I have a girlfriend and she's lovely. And that's it."