Pubdate:  Wed, 30 Jul 1997
Source: The Scotsman, Edinburgh, UK
Contact: The Scottish boss of the record company behind Oasis has 
attacked politicians as drugtaking hypocrites  the day before 
he and the band's songwriter, Noel Gallagher, mingle with Tony 
and Cherie Blair at Number 10 Downing Street.

Creation Records boss, Alan McGhee, a selfconfessed former 
cocaine addict from Glasgow, said he shared Gallagher's 
contraversial views about society's attitudes to drugs and would 
tell the Government this.

Gallagher caused a storm earlier this year when he said  taking 
drugs 'was like drinking a cup of tea,' and claimed MPs are 
'bigger addicts than anyone else.'

McGhee, who spent time in a rehabilitation unit in Los Angeles 
after a breakdown due to prolonged use of cocaine and ecstasy, 
is a longtime Labour supporter who gave UKP50,000 to the party 
before the election. He has been appointed as a Government 
advisor on culture.

McGhee told 'The New Musical Express': 'I don't know if any of 
them [MPs] take cocaine or heroin, but I bet you loads of them 
drink alcohol, take temaepam to get to sleep, take Valium or 
betablockers before they give a speech. The whole thing is 
founded on total hypocricy.'

As advisor to the Department of Culture, drugs were one of the 
issues he intended to speak out about, along with support for 
the arts and the fight against music censorship.

'Being one of Britain's most celebrated cocaine addicts, I do 
know the outcome of using drugs. There's noone telling the 
truth about it.'

Today's Number 10 gathering is purely social  so who can tell 
whether among the smalltalk Gallagher and McGhee will 
buttonhole Tony Blair with their views.