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Noel Gallagher says Britain better under Thatcher, slams Twitter & warns Adele

By Julia | 110% pop – Mon, Feb 6, 2012 12:07 GMT

Noel Gallagher says Britain was much better under Margaret Thatcher - and has slammed the Twitter generation.

The Oasis star reckons there's no work ethic under today's government and that lazy kids would rather "retweet than buy records".

Speaking in an interview with the Mail on Sunday he said: "We were brought up under Thatcher. There was a work ethic — if you were unemployed, the obsession was to find work.

"Now, these kids brought up under the Labour Party and whatever this Coalition thing is, it's like, Forget that, I'm not interested. I wanna be on TV.' It was a different mindset back then."

And he reckons that the Thatcher regime created an environment for a much more creative arts industry.

He added: "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.

"Now, no one's got anything to say. Write a song? No thanks, I'll say it on Twitter. It's a sad state when more people retweet than buy records."

Talking about the current music industry, the 44-year-old, whose new single 'Dream On' from 'High Flying Birds' is out March 12, said female artists have got no staying power.

Noel Gallagher reckons Adele's career will be short-lived

He added: "I feel sorry for girls in the music industry. They do have a very short shelf life.

"For instance, Duffy: who? Gone. She was massive. And I don't doubt for a second that the same thing will happen to Adele."

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1,587 comments

the-fonz • Sheffield, England • 3 months ago
Noel's early background on Wiki makes interesting reading - it does'nt mention much about a driving work ethic but it does mention about him skiving off school a lot and his regular trouble with the police and robbing the corner shop when he was 13. Strange how when you become famous you also develop a poor memory as well.
valerie • 3 months ago
Terrible comments from nearly everyone on here. You are missing the point: Gallagher is not saying that Britain was great BECAUSE of Thatcher, but that due to the political environement at the time, there was a different attitude towards work and towards the arts. There was a lot to say AGAINST the government, people wanted what they thought was being denied, such as freedom to express themselves and the right to work. It made for much creativity in music, fashion and so on. The world has changed and what people think is due to them today is money for doing nothing, everything for free and they also think that they have the freedom to express themselves when they cannot even see it is gradually being taken away from them. Twitter is not the epitomy of freedom of speech. This is of course a generalisation, so it doesn't apply to everyone, but too many are growing up with no sense of responsability, identity or ethics and it is the social disease of today.
- ken 3 months ago
  ...and today's best post goes to Valerie - who actually read and understood the article and then kept to the programme.
  Valerie, you've won a bottle of respect, a pearl of wisdom and 3 cyber kisses.
- NICHOLAS 3 months ago
  yep but you can only blame the parents guess. what? the parents were brought up in the thatcher years . and she changed the look after each other ideal to every one for themselves ideal.she began this political enviroment.she is one of many who began the overseas cheap imports program which in turn is having a depremental effect on the people who actually live here trying to survive on low income and continuing price rises.im all for equallity but in reality it wont work.reasons.....1st cl#$%$ citizens greed .unfotunataly this breeds all sorts of knock on effects. the truth is thatcher was bribed for money she did nothing to look after the interests of this country and we are still paying for it.I was one of these thatcher kids and I remember thanks to her the difficulties that were created.she created the political enviroment of that time which we still suffer.and as for all the things created you are so quick to forget all the things that happened before and after thatcher so as for gallagher .....he is talking out his junkie,theivin #$%$
- Tony B 3 months ago
  What Valerie and Ken said. 90% of people on here have completely missed the point
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Gus • London, England • 3 months ago
"Under today's Labour Government"??? I had to check the date on this article...does nobody proof-read Yahoo news stories anymore? Amateur.
- BAZ or BAZZER 3 months ago
  Excuse me.....if you read on a bit and take note you will read..."Now, these kids brought up under the Labour Party and whatever this Coalition thing is....
- mark 3 months ago
  quote from above. you try reading before u comment: "Now, these kids brought up under the Labour Party and whatever this Coalition thing is, it's like, Forget that, I'm not interested" ITS IN THE PAST TENCE..
- H 3 months ago
  Tense?
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Sheila • Milton Keynes, England • 3 months ago
We haven't got a Labour government now - journalism ain't what it used to be.
- fettesian 3 months ago
  Thank f...k for that too!
- MARK 3 months ago
  "Now, these kids brought up under the Labour Party and whatever this Coalition thing is, it's like, Forget that, I'm not interested."
  
  Good eyes Sheila(!)
- Diablo 3 months ago
  Maybe we are not cursed with a Labour government now, but we are still cursed with the money for sitting on your arse culture as a legacy of the worthless Labour party culture!
MARK • London, England • 3 months ago
Forget the Thatcher-fixation - he is right - attitudes to working have changed. People think life owes them something and that everything should come easy - it doesn't and it shouldn't
- Thedevilsuglytwin 3 months ago
  Mark, I totally agree. Firstly anything that Noel says is usually slated, and in most cases that situation is justified, however if he hadn't mentioned Thatcher, and just related the 70's and 80's era, his words would stand tall.
  Anyone you argues the fact that peoples perception of the attitude towards the current generation (not all but a vast volume of people) of today is lazy, are those who are the current generation, and cannot see the bigger picture, and what damage they are causing to their own social and economic environment!!
  I am 45 years old now, and am glad and lucky to have been part of what was probably the best two decades that have been and ever will be, the 70's and 80's
  50's - post war,
  60's - inocence and people finding their feet
  70's - too many drugs, but punk started and opened the gates for all music and the free for all ethos
  80's - best decade for all, socially, economically etc
  90's - good decade but towards the end falling away - too much commercialism
  00's - X-Factor generation!!!!!
  
  Any decade now will decline, their is no turning back. The UK is f*****D,
  
  IMHO
- Scottie 3 months ago
  I agree on the attitude these days but this has been brought about plain and simply by the lack of employment and "dole-queue" lifestyle which is firmly at the feet of Thatcher who closed all the mines and heavy industry and ruined a way of life for people who weren't going to get educated to university standard. Rather than have work to go to now all they have is unemployment which breeds it's own apathy!
- Brian 3 months ago
  When you come from the North you cannot forget what Thatcher did...decimated large parts of the North,Scotland ,and Wales.Loved in the South hated north of Birmingham..pure and simple
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Panda • 3 months ago
me thinks noel may be suffering maggies fate
- apointofview 3 months ago
  Panda. Yes, and it is the drugs that have encouraged it. Thatchers Dementia was well deserved by her own complete arrogance and nastiness.
Eric Bryce • 3 months ago
She's lost 25 lbs. and should wow everyone at the Grammy Awards. She's got class and knows how to dress for her size. As far as her appearance and her music is concerned, we don't listen with our eyes. Her next album is probably at least two years away in the future and will likely have a least some songs on it that sound like Country Music of the Nashville variety. She heard a lot of Country music while on tour of the southern U.S. and kind of got hooked. Whether or not Adele's music career will be long term or not is probably not important to her or her fans.
DAVID BOWES • London, England • 3 months ago
my work ethic came from my dad a miner who biked 10 miles to work down a black hole called a pit .
matthew • Manchester, England • 3 months ago
I would like to point out that not all kids are lazy, take me for example i hav eworked in WHsimths since i was 14, and know i am 19, and still working...
Paul C • 3 months ago
Er todays labour government.
Ken • Sheffield, England • 3 months ago
Ha classic mistake. Under Thatcher 1980-90 Globalisation had not taken off yet. China was still a communist country and India was nowhere. Today the factories we theoretically would have worked in are gone. Whole streets once filled with workshops are no more. They were torn down and houses built on them. Go look around your house, and look for something without a made in China tag on it. I doubt you'll find much! The factories which remain like the bread plant nearby use robots instead of people.

You can see these 'increases in efficiency' easily in your day to day life, 1980s. I remember bus conductors. But they fired them al and made the driver do the job of ticketting.

Or 747s they had a crew of 3 pilot, co pilot and engineer. The engineer has gone due to automation.

So where are those jobs? And before anybody says it, cleaning up streets/graffiti/litter means that they will force people already doing these jobs out of work. Meaning the problem is exacerbated. Any 'make work' actually has to be useless so as not to displace those who are working in that industry.

The Tesco workfare programs is self destructive in this regard. In that shelf stackers are put onto free labor workfare programs. So they get free labor to stack shelves. So why would they actually hire people to stack shelves in the future what they can get for free? Why buy when you can download? Why pay a living wage when you can get slaves to do it for free?

There needs to be a recognition that we're a post industrial society and that what we've been doing i..e hiding the mega unemployment in the system via more debt and government debt can't continue forever!
Enny • Manchester, England • 3 months ago
I do agree that kids these days are lazy and have no respect towards others. No disciplinary has been introduced at homes and at schools, turning them in to a fearless being who thinks they can do anything they like without facing the consequence.
Madge • 3 months ago
And before the Oasis there was music!
canbutwont • South Croydon, England • 3 months ago
I partially agree, but to be honest he should know how prosperous this country used to be as he & his brother used to burgle & steal cars from those who tried to get ahead.
RB • Dundee, Scotland • 3 months ago
Noel, I can remember back in the 90's you were New Labour's biggest supporter, very vocal you were as well. You went to 10 Downing Street to visit Tony Blair; not because he was PM, because he was Labour PM. There's lots wrong with the UK today, our society is broken i'll give you that. That's due to a number of reasons, not 'this coalition thing' as you put it. But please stop looking at the 80's through rose tinted glasses and romanticizing it, they were terrible for many people. Don't you remember the miners strikes, riots, poll tax, mass unemployment, Northern Ireland, poverty, high crime, 255 dead British soldiers in a pointless was, no hope, no future. She also sold off our assets and de-nationalized everything, the reason why fuel bills and public transport cost a fortune. Don't you remember Noel? I do.
jay • Hounslow, England • 3 months ago
i wonder how long he was on the dole for
Pooper-Scooper • 3 months ago
What's he know about it? He thinks work is nickin stones an beatles riffs !
Stephen • Milton Keynes, England • 3 months ago
Is he talking about his brother here again ? I mean his brother should know.. foul mouthed violent .. brainless yob. This is an interesting comment coming from someone who was a child at the time.
VICTOR G • Birmingham, England • 3 months ago
Perhaps, if this Foul mouth Git, had been working, when Thatcher was Wrecking British Industry. Or Even working. HE WOULD NOT love this Witch so much Get a real Job Pal!..
Grommit • 3 months ago
Sit up kiddies and listen carefully. Name me one current band, solo artist ,whatever, under the age of 35 who have had 8 UK No1 singles, 8 UK No1 albums, 15 NME awards, 4 MTV awards, 6 Brit awards. They are in the Guinness Book of Records as the most successful band between 1995 to 2005.
Blair has bred a society of 'wipe my a*se' people. Even the clever and hard working ones are degraded into having A*'s thrown at them along side not so clever ones. Where's the distinction between the real achievers when Blair and his crony's down grade everything to make HIM look like he's doing a good job.
Gallagher hit the nail on the head.