EXCLUSIVE: Moment Noel Gallagher was 'kidnapped' in a van while he was a roadie
As Never Mind The Buzzcocks returns, Inspiral Carpets musician Clint Boon reveals what happened when Noel Gallagher was his roadie
Back in the day before Noel Gallagher became one half of superstar Britpop band Oasis, he was a roadie for the 80s/90s rock band Inspiral Carpets. After meeting the band in 1988, Noel auditioned to be their new singer when Steve Holt left, but was unsuccessful. Instead, for the next two years, he became part of the road crew for the Inspiral Carpets, which was part of the Madchester movement and featured keyboardist Clint Boon.
In a hilarious anecdote on an upcoming new series of Sky’s cult music quiz show Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Clint reveals some trouble Noel got into as their roadie. Host Greg Davies asks: “Noel Gallagher was your roadie, is that right? Didn’t he get kidnapped?”
Musician Clint explains: “The mini bus with the Inspirals in and Noel was in London and there was a bit of a traffic jam. About two or three vehicles ahead was a Luton van and our drummer Craig, had been mithering for ages for a cooler fan, you know to cool him down on stage, and we couldn’t afford one.
“And the one thing in the back of this van, with the door open, was a cooler fan in a box. The van’s at the red light, our bus is a couple of vehicles behind, Craig says, ‘Noel, there’s one of them f***ing fans that I want, go and get it.’ So Noel jumps out the van, runs round to the Luton, climbs in the back of it, picks the fan up and then the lights change to green and he f***ing drives off.
“And Noel’s stood there like that (*swaying while holding the box). So he went missing for like half-an-hour and we found him stood at a pedestrian crossing in Crouch End with a f***ing fan in his hand.”
The clip is on episode one of the new series of Buzzcocks, which kicks off with special guests Bez, Clint, Patsy Kensit and and Danny Goffey, with Noel Fielding and Sophie Willan as team captains and regular panellist Jamali Maddix.
Greg Davies says: “We have great guests this series and they really delivered. I was saying to Debbie Gibson... now that’s a sentence. Who’d have thought our paths would cross? It's a first, really, that no one in this series, (none of our guests, at least), irritated me. Whether that makes for good TV or not, we’ll see.”
He adds: “We do a Britpop vs Madchester episode, and of course I was around at the time and it’s not like they were competing cultural movements at all, so it’s a slightly manufactured idea that there was any competition between the two. But we had some great characters from that time and I consider the 1990s to be my glory years so it was pretty exciting – having Bez as a team captain was an interesting choice.
“Whether his captaincy skills will lead to other positions and responsibilities is questionable. We also had Clint Boon from the Inspiral Carpets, who I loved as a kid... Okay as a 30-year-old. The great Danny from Supergrass was on too as well as was Patsy Kensit – who as we all know was once married to Liam Gallagher.
“As the host, I’m always trying to drive the laughs and silliness, but the warmth and wholesomeness was sort of unavoidable. And I sort of think that’s in the context of the Oasis reunion – there was a lot of love for the boys getting back together. Obviously, we spoke in depth about massive drug use and hedonism – it wasn’t all diary entries of glassy eyed elderly people.”
*Never Mind the Buzzcocks series 5 starts on 7th October at 9pm on Sky Max and streaming service NOW
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