⇡ Creation Party − Halcyon Hotel, London, UK ▪︎ 22 December 1995 by Jill Furmanovsky.
On that fucking night, Creation were having a party for us. I arrived late, and that Rolls Royce was parked outside. They got all the band vintage Rolexes, really fucking nice watches, probably worth more than the car now. I was last to get called up. They said, 'We haven't got you a watch' and I was like, 'Is that my car outside?' and they said, 'Well, yeah, it is.' And fucking Liam's face! 'He got a watch,' he thought, 'and I got a car...!' I still can't drive to this day. I don't even know what happened to the car.
✎ Noel Gallagher, from Oasis: Trying to Find a Way Out of Nowhere.
a not-so-quick history of their triad with a fair share of speculation (unless specified, all book excerpts are from Goldie's autobiography Nine Lives - 2002).
Noel met Goldie in 1996 at the Brit Awards. From there, the two became very close (this and that for evidence). They quickly formed a trio with Meg, who spent quality time with Goldie whether Noel was there or not (Goldie explains some of it as him "chaperoning" Meg for Noel while he was on tour. Mind, they only knew each other for a few months then. Implying that for some reason, Noel trusted Goldie over Meg or any other guy, despite the fact that Goldie was a well known womaniser, at the time...)
rumours about what??? we'll get there later on...
Goldie would spend A LOT of time at Supernova Heights. Him, Noel and Meg were actually neighbours.
And they all loved to gift each other stuff! Goldie gave Noel a painting, Noel gave Goldie his entire studio (worth 60 000£), Meg discussed christmas gifts for Goldie in this column, Noel AND Meg organised a cake for Goldie's birthday and the couple flew him to Scotland (where Oasis played Aberdeen) so they could be together on that special day. lovelovelove! Rather touching and domestic.
Now this is where it gets 'weird' : Noel and Meg leave London for the countryside in '99. And Goldie moves there too...
"What was funny was that when I moved to Buckinghamshire, who, of all people, was living ten minutes away? My old mate Goldie! So it carried on." (Noel quote from Nine Lives)
Noel words it like it wasn't planned, but how could they not know, when they were hanging out constantly? Another quote from Noel about the Buckinghamshire situation:
Does he miss his friends? "No, not at all. Fuck, no" He looks away. "I haven't got any real friends. Of all the people I met in London my best mate is Goldie. He's just bought a house round the corner from mine. Anything he says is the God's honest truth. He's not a wanker; he's from up north too." (Esquire Magazine, February 2000) X
So Goldie was the one to follow suit, which is even more interesting given that Meg was very vocal from the start about how much she hated living there, away from London and friends. They apparently chose to be neighbours again.
April '99: Noel and Meg leave for Nice, Château de la Colle Noire for SOTSOG's recording. In her recent book Trying To Find A Way Out Of Nowhere, Jill Furmanovsky says:
"A little aside — told to Dior magazine later — apparently, Noel and Meg's daughter, Anaïs, was conceived there."
Thanks for sharing? Or clarifying? (confirming he made that confession on the very day Anaïs was born, see the Daily Record).
Back to England by the end of May. Here, the story of Noel and Goldie at a football match. Liam's here too… but he watches from the opposite side of the stadium (and here another match the three attended a few months prior in '98. Back then, Liam was sitting with them. Bad blood?)
Jan '00: Anaïs is born and Goldie calls the couple to congratulate them:
"He(Noel) was given flowers by a well-wisher and spoke at length on
the phone to top DJ Goldie about the birth." (The Mirror x)
But rumours are surfacing in London, saying Goldie might be the father. I've been going through DejaNews, and indeed, there were many discussions about it (<link is just one example). It apparently started with a blind item from a "friend of a friend", which was months later published in the Daily Mirror. There are even mentions of a reporter going to Peggy about it (Goldie supposedly met her at least once, see here).
Now regardless of whether there was some actual "insider info" to this blind item or not (wrong anyway), this rumour really took off based on sexist and racist stereotypes, and it pretty much died down when first pictures of Anaïs were published later that year. Still, the rumours were bad enough for Goldie to refute them explicitly in his autobiography (see first excerpt in this post). And if it reached Goldie, it definitely reached Noel and Meg as well.
May '00: the Barcelona debacle.
Given the context, there's a big chance Liam was referring to this specific rumour targeting Goldie. If he did, I don't think he actually believed it to be true; most likely just Liam "pushing Noel's buttons" by emasculating him + his typical misogynistic accusations towards Meg. Maybe some jealousy directed at Goldie as well? Maybe, MAYBE there was a peculiar dynamic to their trio that Liam caught on, and weaponised on this one occasion? Obviously, Liam questioning Anaïs' legitimacy on its own is a credible enough reason for Noel to be hurt by it. But if Liam involved Goldie, Noel's "best mate" at the time, that would hurt even more.
(including this pic from March '99. Just because of what it says in that SPECULATIVE context...he's lurking)
End of Aug '00: Goldie sees Noel and Meg one last time, and decides to "leave" them.
Noel and Meg break up almost simultaneously. Three of a kind...
Anaïs Gallagher: "My parents didn't know what a Ucas point was."
Saturday May 16 2026, 12.00pm BST, The Sunday Times
the sunday times published an interview with anaïs and meg today and it's cute, so I thought I'd share it on here <3 full article under the cut, but here are a few highlights:
meg about anais:
"She’s an influencer — I don’t understand what she actually does, but she’s completely independent. She lives a normal life in a not-very-glamorous place next to a railway track. Her dad pays her rent but she doesn’t get an allowance from either of us. She’s very bright and articulate."
"She gets on with her dad and her Uncle Liam, and the cousins are all friends too."
anaïs about meg & noel:
"How do you rebel against crazy parents?"
"I remember going to a friend’s house when I was applying for university. Her parents were devising a plan to get her the most Ucas points. I tried to explain this to my mum and dad and they were, like, 'What the f*** is a Ucas point?'”
"The stamina of my parents and their friends in the Nineties was incredible. I know all the stories but I can’t equate my parents with them, especially my dad, who stopped doing drugs before I was born. He was always a really great girl-dad. I was obsessed with One Direction and he made sure I got tickets."
"My personality is more like my dad’s, a bit standoffish, guarded, true to myself. I’m working on being more flexible."
Meg
Noel and I were together for three years, then married for another three before we decided to have Anaïs. We were staying at Christian Dior’s château in the south of France where Oasis were recording their fourth album, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, in 1999. I’d just been to Naomi Campbell’s White Party on a yacht in St Tropez and I got pregnant that same day.
My mum and dad came for the birth at the Portland Hospital in London and my friend the PR and party organiser Fran Cutler was there, dressed in a MASH nurse’s outfit. I was going to be induced so Noel could spend time with Anaïs before he left on a world tour, but I started pushing at 1pm and gave birth 15 minutes later.
I didn’t have a clue but I had my mum, Chris, and Noel’s mum, Grandma Peggy, a housekeeper and a nanny at home. I don’t want to talk about the end of my marriage, when Anaïs was seven months old, but I was never on my own. There was always family around and Anaïs used to stay with my parents in Norfolk and at Grandma Peggy’s sister’s place in Ireland. Peggy still lives in the same council house in Manchester where Noel and Liam were brought up. A lot of my family lived on the Isle of Sheppey. I wanted Anaïs to see that not everyone has our lifestyle.
Anaïs could so easily have been a spoilt brat but she has worked hard to find her own place in the world. She has been in therapy since she was 13 and I think that was the best thing that me and her dad could have done for her. It has been the building block that has made her into this amazing person.
I decided to send her to Bedales when she was ten because I was also an only child and I’d loved boarding school. I came out of school at 17 with two O-levels, hitched a lift to London to buy a pair of Vivienne Westwood shoes and never went home. At her age I was partying six days a week, living in squats, hanging out with roadies and going on tour with different bands.
Anaïs is completely different. She got into Camberwell College of Arts to study photography. She’s an influencer — I don’t understand what she actually does, but she’s completely independent. She lives a normal life in a not-very-glamorous place next to a railway track. Her dad pays her rent but she doesn’t get an allowance from either of us. She’s very bright and articulate. She goes to the theatre at least once a week, she has her book club and she’s never out of art galleries. She has the best people skills. I find her lifestyle and her enthusiasm very inspiring.
She gets on with her dad and her Uncle Liam, and the cousins are all friends too. They decided early on that their dads’ arguing wouldn’t interfere with their relationships with each other. This is the Gallagher brothers we’re talking about. They’ve been fighting since 1994. It’s best not to get involved.
Anaïs has never followed the pack. I’ll say, “You could make a bit more effort,” and she’ll say, “I’m not a people-pleaser like you.” I ended up in therapy because I spent so much of my life worrying about what other people think. She’s one in a million, my daughter, and I couldn’t be more proud of her.
Anaïs
How do you rebel against crazy parents? You become conservative, I guess. The character I most relate to is Saffy from Ab Fab. I was always saying, “I’ve got to do my homework,” and Mum would say, “Nah, it’s fine.”
She is still a bit wild. Mum is a fashion girl through and through. But what makes me “me” are her different sides. When I was a kid she’d help me back my horse out of his stable but she’d also take me in a black cab to Bond Street to go shopping. I loved sitting on the floor while she tried on shoes in Prada.
My mum is the most full-of-life person I know and she created a home full of joy and expression. Walking round Regent’s Park when I was little, she’d crouch next to the trees and rose bushes and point out where the fairies lived. She was childlike and so full of imagination. But I think her own insecurities distracted her from me. She worried too much about herself and what other people thought of her.
The only time I felt really frustrated was during my education. Mum couldn’t help me with difficult essays and I thought, “If only I had a parent who could, life would be easier.” I remember going to a friend’s house when I was applying for university. Her parents were devising a plan to get her the most Ucas points. I tried to explain this to my mum and dad and they were, like, “What the f*** is a Ucas point?”
All my friends wanted to stay at my mum’s because she was so fun and she’d let us get up to mischief. She’d overhear me saying I was planning to stay in and she’d be, like, “What do you mean you don’t want to go to a party?” And she’d force me out of the door.
The stamina of my parents and their friends in the Nineties was incredible. I know all the stories but I can’t equate my parents with them, especially my dad, who stopped doing drugs before I was born. He was always a really great girl-dad. I was obsessed with One Direction and he made sure I got tickets.
I’m quite empathetic but at the beginning of my mum’s menopause journey she was a f***ing nightmare. Very unpredictable, very angry. There was a lot of conflict. But as soon as she explained it I was able to stop letting it affect me personally. I’ve got quite a stiff-upper-lip, self-soothing British boarding-school mentality. If I felt ill or homesick, I’d talk myself out of it.
Our relationship is flipped in quite beautiful ways. She’ll send me emails to check over; I’ll call her if a friend sends me a slightly mean message. I don’t have a people-pleaser bone in my body, so sometimes I need advice on damage control. My personality is more like my dad’s, a bit standoffish, guarded, true to myself. I’m working on being more flexible.
I feel so privileged that nine times out of ten I’ll walk into a film or fashion event and someone there will have known me since I was a kid. And that, I suppose, is the absolute hallmark of nepotism. But it wouldn’t shock me if neither of my parents knew what I do. They don’t understand that posting on social media can be a job. That’s absolutely fine. I may have got to where I am because of my parents, but I’ve sustained it by being authentically me.
Strange habits
Meg on Anaïs
She always puts her thumbnail through her front tooth gap when she’s thinking
Anaïs on Meg
My mum has the worst table manners in the whole world
Published: Saturday May 16 2026, 12.00pm BST, The Sunday Times
