Noel: 'I'd be bigger than Elvis'

Oasis front man Noel Gallagher reckons if he was a solo artist he could be "bigger than Elvis", but said he had stopped voting because there was "nothing left to vote for".

The rocker said he did not expect Britain to get any better if Gordon Brown became the next Prime Minister because he was "no different from David Cameron".

And he said the media had made Tony Blair into a "president", adding: "It's no wonder he acts like one."

Interviewed by BBC2's Newsnight as his band received a Brit Award for its Outstanding Contribution said the biggest political icon of recent years had been Margaret Thatcher.

He said: "David Cameron is no different from Tony Blair, and Gordon Brown is no different from David Cameron.

"They're all cut from the cloth and it annoys me that the biggest political icon from the last 30 years has been Margaret Thatcher, someone who tried to destroy the working class...it freaks me out you know.

"So I don't really think there's anything left to vote for. That's why people don't vote.....why people would rather vote for celebrity talent shows than would vote for politics."

He said the so-called 'Cool Britannia' period when he famously enjoyed tea at Downing Street with Mr Blair was "a name invented by the same clown that invented Brit Pop"

"It wasn't that great and the people that were saying it was great then. It wasn't but when you look back on it now, it wasn't that bad either it was just.... those were the 90s... it was the rise of the celebrity culture.

"Tony Blair was made into a president by you people. Nobody ever mentions Labour, they mention Tony Blair now. Everything is Tony Blair's fault. You made him into a president, no wonder he acts like one."

Gallagher criticised Mr Cameron for refusing to admit or deny using drugs while a schoolboy. "To say no comment is typical of him and his party copping out," he said.

"They wait to see what Tony Blair says...and then they move in behind and switch it and change a little bit.

"It's like a song writer who's eternally ripping off someone else's song and just changing the odd line a little."

Asked about going solo, he said he would not do it because being in a band was "more fun" and he had seen other former members of bands end up as "very lonely boys".

But he left no doubt he felt he would be a great success on his own. He said: "Maybe for all the money in the world but you know...I wouldn't do it by choice.

"I could do it easily but if I was a solo artist I would be the biggest solo artist in the country easy, no messing, within a year...seriously... but I prefer being in a band.
"Being in a band there's more camaraderie...more fun, more people...it's a better laugh.

"But don't ever think that I couldn't do it. I could. I'd be bigger than Elvis. I would."
The star criticised the Government over the Unicef report ranking the UK bottom on child well-being across 21 industrialised countries. "That kind of makes me angry," he said.

"When the Labour Party got in it was all about children and education and yet 10 years down the line there's people saying that kids are better off in Poland. That's not right."

Everyone got "carried away" by the significance of Labour's 1997 landslide, he said. "It was a big deal, the landslide and all that, and everybody got carried away.

"We thought it was going to be John F Kennedy and for a year or two it was. Unfortunately for this Labour government, they are going to be saddled with the Iraq war and nobody can get around that."