Social Diary - Meg Matthews

Reprinted from The Sunday Times, Aug. 16, 1998:

You might think that life as the wife of Noel Gallagher was all parties and premieres and Kate Moss kipping in the spare, colourfully carpeted, room. And you wouldn't be far wrong. But there's also walking the dogs and curling up of an evening with a cup of hot cocoa.

Take last Monday. After a brilliant evening in Dublin, where we had gone to see Run DMC and Fun Lovin' Criminals, I had to catch an early-morning flight to make a meeting with my business partner, Fran Cutler, at our PR company, 2-Active - there are a million things to organise, including the premiere party for the new Brit movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. I managed to leave the office early so that I could drive back to the country to be with Noel. I arrived home only to be jumped on by five furry dogs. True to my outrageous rock'n'roll lifestyle, that night all seven of us stayed in and had an early night.

The next day I drove to Nottingham with Noel (no, we didn't take the Rolls) as, later that night, he was going to play an acoustic set with Paul Weller. Having got there, we all decided to stay over in a hotel. Bad move, as morning found me with a raging hangover on the first train back to London. I was still fragile when I met up with Alan McGee at Creation Records, home of Oasis, of course. Business concluded, we got down to the really important things in life, like Alan giving me my Chelsea season ticket.

It was such a warm evening that I fancied dinner in the garden, so I invited a few friends over - Anna Friel, Jonny Miller, Fran Cutler, DJ Craig Campbell and Sara Sugarman (a film director), who has just cast me in her new film based on Kathy Lette's novel Mad Cow (not the title role, just a cameo). We couldn't decide between Indian and pizza, so we had both. I went to bed very late.

The next morning I went to meet Ed Bains, a good friend who is hosting a new cookery programme. He wants me tobe a guest - I've always wanted to be on never asked me - so now's my Celebrity Ready, Steady, Cook! but they've chance of TV fame.

I managed to squeeze in a quick shop the following morning - after all, I have a reputation to keep up. Friends have started calling me Mystic Meg, so I popped into Browns in South Molton Street for a new image, but only came away with a pair of shoes. The jungle supremo Goldie called me on my mobile, but as he was in the middle of Hungary I could hardly hear a word he was saying. We soon tired of saying "What?" every three seconds - perhaps his gold teeth were corrupting the signal.

Drove to the country to meet Noel, and when I got there we took the dogs out for a long walk. Drove back to London on Saturday to see Carleen Anderson, Finley Quaye and Paul Weller in Victoria Park, Hackney. This was without doubt the best gig I have seen all year, especially when Noel joined Paul for his encore. After the show, everyone piled back to Supernova Heights and ended up crashing for the night. After a fry-up the next morning, we spent the afternoon watching the Charity Shield on the wide-screen TV. Feeling competitive after the match I challenged Noel to a game of croquet. He won.

Life in the fast lane, eh?

people are Steppin' Out with Meg!