Noel Gallagher links games to knife crime

By Robert Purchese Published 7 July, 2008

Reckons people are becoming desensitised.

Oasis guitarist and songwriter Noel Gallagher believes videogames are partly to blame for a knife crime spree that has claimed the lives of over 18 teenagers in London so far.

"People say it's through violent videogames and I guess that's got something to do with it," Gallagher told the BBC after picking up an award at the Silver Clef ceremony in London.

"If kids are sitting up all night smoking super skunk and they come so desensitised to crime because they're playing these videogames, it's really, really scary."

Gallagher went on to rue the frequency of knife and violent crimes in the UK, and pointed to the Prime Minister and the head of the opposition and their questionable motivation in putting a stop to it.

"In my day, status was trying to be somebody, do you know what I mean, not trying to kill somebody? I was up in Liverpool for a week a couple of weeks ago and even on the news there it's every single night," added Gallagher.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (86) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • space_ace #1 4 years ago

    yes, it's way past your day, mate :)

  • zisssou #2 4 years ago

    knob and end

  • Maximilian #3 4 years ago

    Dr. Noel Gallagher phd.

    Professional Games Psychology Scientician.

  • ram #4 4 years ago

    A CELEBRITY has spoken, it is our duty to report this as news.

  • kingmob #5 4 years ago

    It's bizarre because hearing Oasis makes me want to kill people.

  • bad09 #6 4 years ago

    Of course it's games duh!! Who really thinks it has something to do with poverty, gang culture, family breakdown, loss of faith in authority, unsafe streets etc etc.....

    I guess there is also a link between being in a band and being a twat, just look at you and your brother Noel......

  • krudster #7 4 years ago

    Can I link the explosion in Coke use in the 90s to Noel Gallagher?

  • Dr.Mott #8 4 years ago

    Noel Gallagher is right up there with Bono on my "List of Twats"

  • asphaltcowboy #9 4 years ago

    I think he's got one thing right - it could well be the 'sitting up all night smoking illegal substances' thing that's doing it! Maybe combined with a lack of education, things to do and a sense of social responsibility.

  • andywilkie35 #10 4 years ago

    he's always had fuck all to say and this is no exception.

  • systems #11 4 years ago

    Oh, so it's games. I thought it was TV and cinema glamorising gang culture . I'd best buy myself a knife and go out then.

  • kangarootoo #12 4 years ago

    The headline should really say "Rock music bloke is getting on a bit, and starting to say old bloke type things". I find myself doing it sometimes these days (regarding how all kids seem to stabbing each other, when of course they aren't really), except I try use my brain when thinking of which words to put in a sentence.

    I mean...

    "If kids are sitting up all night smoking super skunk and they come so desensitised to crime because they're playing these videogames, it's really, really scary."

    Those are just a bunch of otherwise unconnected scary words, all strung together in a line. I think the big fat "if" at the start of sentence is really the clincher.

    "If kids are sitting all all night, drinking bleach and learning black magic and training dragons to eat pensioners, and they come [sic] desensitised to drowning because they are playing these video games, its really really really scary and also quite terrifying and wrong."

    See, anyone can do it using the power of "if".

  • HyperShadow #13 4 years ago

    He probably has got something of a point though. Games could contribute to the problem, as could everything else that he has listed. The thing is, its undeniable that games would have some effect on the person playing them, as would any other visual and interactive media/illeagal subject/role model/poor upbringing. What I don't like is when games are singled out as the only cause, and most of the times it us gamers who read this type of thing, immediatly jump on our high horse and get really vocal about our hobby, like all of the people above this post, the majority below and 99% of the comments in other news threads of the same nature.

  • BadDevotions #14 4 years ago

    i thought it was music glamourising gang culture....

  • Raz76 #15 4 years ago

    Is this the guy from the band who once wished their rival band died of AIDS?

  • Ghost_Dog #16 4 years ago

    If he wants to prevent street crime, he should stop his nutjob of a brother from going out and starting fights.

  • stoopidgreg #17 4 years ago

    i like joystiq's article

  • Rirekon #18 4 years ago

    "If kids are sitting up all night smoking super skunk"

    You don't think the "super skunk" might have something to do with it?

  • pbz #19 4 years ago

    Just like his music - mouth opens and nothing but complete sewage comes spilling out!



  • anomagnus #20 4 years ago

    Yea, a fucking larger lout complaining about levels of violence

    just stick to trying to be cool, you fucking shabby cunt gallagher, you weren't fucking cool years ago, and you ain't fucking cool now

    christ, i hate oasis, i hate Gallagher, i hate him so much i wish his fucking throat would explode, and a giant old woman would squat over him and pish acid into his hairy, fucking stupidface.

  • chrisjm #21 4 years ago

    listening to oasis' music makes me want to kill people

  • speedjack #22 4 years ago

    Weird - I always thought that Noel was meant to be the one with the Gallagher family brain cell?
    Edited by 1 at 07/07/08 @ 11:04

  • Laika #23 4 years ago

    @stoopidgreg - I also like Kotaku's article from 3 days ago. EG are getting a bit late.

  • aldo_14 #24 4 years ago

    You don't think the "super skunk" might have something to do with it?

    Wouldn't that make you calmer rather than more violent, though?

  • DanWhitehead #25 4 years ago

    I blame Oasis for desensitising me to the harmful effects of cigarettes and alcohol in 1994.

  • t8yman #26 4 years ago

    ...... or maybe its down to social deprivation,lack of education, lack of social opportunity,lack of personal responsibility and absence of father figures Gallagher you stupid manc cunt.
    Super skunk my arse - he sounds like my grandad.

  • smartgun #27 4 years ago

    Poor Noel. Rap music, computer games - he's obviously been reading The Daily Mail. What's his next target? My money's on either illegal immigrants or house prices.

  • canoot #28 4 years ago

    He's a prick.

  • chrisjm #29 4 years ago

    'EG are getting a bit late'

    EG must be carbon neutral from all the 4 day old storys it recycles ;)

  • Lebowski #30 4 years ago

    What a t**t-neck. Years singing / playing about doing white lines and boasting about thieving on the estate he grew up on and now he pulls a Keith Vaz.

    Move on Grandad, and try writing some decent music instead of your moribund Quoasis tripe, you T-Rex riff-thieving monkey gimp.

  • L0cky #31 4 years ago

    It's the first time I've read it, so it's worth posting!


    er... yeah that's debatable too...

  • bad09 #32 4 years ago

    Get of your high horse Nick_JC1, it has less to do with gaming and more to do with using lame scapegoats instead of speaking out on the real causes and issues leading youth on a path of crime and violence. Coming from fun filled Manchester he should be fully aware of the real problems which cause crime.
    Edited by 1 at 07/07/08 @ 10:18

  • AndyboyH #33 4 years ago

    quite simply, cunt.

  • bobthecow #34 4 years ago

    Is he just narked because the Verve had a love-in with Jay Z at Glastonbury?

    That said, kids couldn't walk the Glasto mud at night for fear of super-skunked hippies knifing their faces off shouting about their 99 bitch problems!

    I have come to realise that Mr Gallagher really is a true visionary genius to rank alongside Noam Chomsky as the greatest political theorist of our times.
    Edited by 1 at 07/07/08 @ 10:25

  • TessaTickle #35 4 years ago

    Games are obviously not the sole cause of any kind of crime but gamers should have the honesty to admit that games that simulate brutal murder and other horrible activities will have *some* form of effect on the psyche of the gamer. How this affects the gamer is down to the individual so you can not make blanket statements on how it affects people or not ("I play Manhunt 2 all the time and I'm a perfectly balanced person who contributes to society in all sorts of positive ways therefore games can't be blamed for anything.";).

    Kids should not be left to take all their behavioral cues from any single media outlet but unfortunately, in the absence of proper parental input or [insert blame here], some kids take *all* of their cues from games and TV.

    Anyway, we're doomed because what's broken here is not gaming, TV, or whatever, it's the social fabric. We're doubly doomed because everyone keeps on pushing the blame onto anyone else but themselves when in fact it's *everyone's* fault.

    I could happily launch into a dissertation on this but I prefer keeping this kind of topic for the pub.

    Cheers,

    Tessa

  • HEAVYface #36 4 years ago

    they make SUPER skunk now? woooaaahhh.

  • FaceOmeter #37 4 years ago

    this is the guy who wanted people in a rival band to get AIDS and die, right?

  • SeesThroughAll #38 4 years ago

    It's bizarre because hearing Oasis makes me want to kill people.

    Me too. Specifically, it makes me want to kill Oasis.

  • Stoatboy #39 4 years ago

    If games were to blame for the rise in violence we'd be seeing a huge escalation in deaths by rpgs, ak-47s, crowbars, katanas, uzis, tortoise shells, sniper rifles, nail guns, rail guns, nun-chuks, shotguns, autocannons and small black spherical explosives with BOM written on them. With a few exceptions knives in games generally suck, so that would be the last thing you'd seek to emulate.


    Having said that, I've been playing a lot of Civilization Revolution recently, and I'm just off to invade France with my catapult (sadly it's just a black widow rather than a mighty siege engine, but I've been rushing tech, so I'm hoping their defences aren't too advanced).

  • bad09 #40 4 years ago

    LOL @ Stoatboy

    Super skunk and RTS games to blame for rise in tyrants invading France :)

    I myself now live in a cardboard box after playing MGS4.....
    Edited by 1 at 07/07/08 @ 10:53

  • kangarootoo #41 4 years ago

    "Yea, a fucking larger lout complaining about levels of violence

    just stick to trying to be cool, you fucking shabby cunt gallagher, you weren't fucking cool years ago, and you ain't fucking cool now

    christ, i hate oasis, i hate Gallagher, i hate him so much i wish his fucking throat would explode, and a giant old woman would squat over him and pish acid into his hairy, fucking stupidface."

    said a violent video gamer, earlier today.

  • kangarootoo #42 4 years ago

    "You don't think the "super skunk" might have something to do with it? "

    Err, no.

  • kangarootoo #43 4 years ago

    @TessaTickle

    "Kids should not be left to take all their behavioral cues from any single media outlet but unfortunately, in the absence of proper parental input or [insert blame here], some kids take *all* of their cues from games and TV."

    Is it not rather the point that kids should not be taking ANY cues from violent adult rated games, and that parents should be preventing their kids from playing said games (lest they turn out all angry like anomagnus).

    As I mentioned, the big fat "If" at the start of Mr Gallagher's sentence is often used to legitimise whatever follows, but "if" kids are playing 18 games whilst smoking skunk, somewhere there is parent that needs a sturdy kick up the arse.

  • benstarkie #44 4 years ago

    Its not the super skunk- its the yellow bentines and cake that is the real culprit.

  • TheNinkyNonk #45 4 years ago

    Fact: my dad's mate taught The Gallaghers in Manchester at Barlow High School, Didsbury, where Liam still holds the school record for getting beaten up the most times in one day.

    Good job knives weren't such a big deal back then, eh Noel?

  • benstarkie #46 4 years ago

    now thats status

  • anomagnus #47 4 years ago

    @ kangeratoo

    You sound like you like the man, defending him like that

    firstly, i never said i would hurt him, i simply wished for harm to befall him, didnt he also wish some people to develop aids and die?

  • lennon #48 4 years ago

    Can any of you prove hes wrong?

  • grantc7 #49 4 years ago

    Damn, too late.

    Ah well...

    SCREW YOU GALLAGHER!

    /runs

  • Collymilad #50 4 years ago

    @lennon, yes actually. I can because I'll show you at least a dozen people (just that I know personally) that have been smoking weed and playing violent games for well over 10 years, and have never done any such thing. Don't even bother jumping on the bandwagon.

    He's wrong. Why do celebrities think they are smarter than the general populace? Noel, we don't want to hear what you have to say.

    I play a lot of violent games and do "other things" yet i havent had trouble with the police or commited any crimes, i#m 22 and that's over a period of about 10-15 years.

    Know why? Because I wasn't a psychopath deep down in the first place, which is what these people are.

    Why don't we just take away everything that might trigger a response in some psycho?
    Edited by 1 at 07/07/08 @ 12:02

  • lennon #51 4 years ago

    How does that prove hes wrong?

  • peteb #52 4 years ago

    @lennon

    can you prove he's right?

  • Collymilad #53 4 years ago

    Ok lets look at this lennon.

    Basically, he is trying to say that games are making people desensitised. So answer me this: Why is it that I have been playing very violent games for about the last 12 years and yet when I see someone dying on the news I still feel absolutely terrible, and why does the thought of stabbing or shooting someone still make me feel terrible, even though I've done it thousands of times in a videogame?

    Actually allow me to answer: The reason is because I was actually brought up properly, i was taught morals by my parents - there you go. Oh, and I also have a grip on what is fantasy and what is reality, and so what is acceptable in both - you know, like most normal human beings.

    Just because people nowadays are dragging up borderline psychopaths who might be triggered off by the slightest thing is not mine, gamers, or the games industries problem. If you go down the route of banning or censoring things because they might eventually cause some nutter to kill someone, where does it end?

    The problems with society today are due to ****ty parents. I'm not saying games won't contribute to someone who is already unbalanced doing something - but really shouldn't we be looking the person (rather than the games) when looking at why a game might drive someone to kill?
    Edited by 1 at 07/07/08 @ 12:11

  • Lebowski #54 4 years ago

    If he's so passionate about this, why doesn't he give up 95% of his millions and pump it back into deprived areas of Manchester, helping kids off bad estates and steering them away from evils likle BioShock and Tetris?

    Bet you he doesn't, ergo, he's a sound-biting has-been who knows nothing about what he's talking about outside a Daily Mirror article and something he heard on Five Live.

  • thats_all_folks #55 4 years ago

    He has no idea what he's talking about. Im sick of hearing this shit, the way the older generations talk about there day as if they were living in a upotia. In my grandads day there were 2 world wars, and in my dads day there was a HUGE gang culture. It just seems odd that they want to blame games which keep kids off the streets in the first place.

  • crazyhorse174 #56 4 years ago

    Err...doesnt he have a new album coming out soon? Wouldnt that explain why he's trying to get as much publicity as possible at the moment?

  • stampax #57 4 years ago

    funny article funny comments.

  • anomagnus #58 4 years ago

    @lennon

    can anyone prove thats hes right?

    Its more than clear, that despite the fact that MILLIONS of people play games, and the average of a gamer is late 20s, there has been no wave of violence washing over society.

    The fact is, the majority of the scumbags that crowd the streets are wastel kids, under 18, getting drunk on booze that is too cheap and easy to get, uncared for by parents that don't give a shit about them, reared in areas that have been chronically underfunded, and and watched by a police force to afraid to approach them, and too bound up by red tape to do anything.

    Edited by 1 at 07/07/08 @ 12:33

  • anomagnus #59 4 years ago

    you could solve these problems by freeing the police from most of the restrictions that govern their day to day activities

    but then you'd have the guardian readers complaining about civil liberties, and the trendy 20 something liberals talking about their rights being infringed by the 'fascist' police force, all the while buying their coke for the trendy parties, pumping money back in to the gang land thugs the propagate the problem anyway.

    I see little point in civil liberties, if you can't leave the house due to thugs lining the street.

    If the cops could walk over, and give the little shits a proper slap, confiscate their beer and threaten their parents with fines, and then criminal sentences, we'd see less crime.

    Never happen of course.

  • bad09 #60 4 years ago

    @ anomagnus

    Some police forces haven't got a clue either. Every time there is a stabbing in Peckham (south London for those that don't know) they set up searches at the train station during rush hour in the hope of catching the evil gangs. Totally pointless of course as we all know criminals don't commute at rush hour. Funny thing is if they set if up on the high street just down the road and done it at night they'd probably would actually catch someone......

  • bitesize #61 4 years ago


    frankly, if kids are smokin all night then goin out to stab people... well they need some better weed. they really shouldn't be able to get off the couch after a night on the skunk...

  • actionfitz #62 4 years ago

    "If kids are sitting up all night smoking super skunk and they come so desensitised to crime because they're playing these videogames, it's really, really scary."

    I think what's scary is that there are perfectly reasonable people people out there who will sit up and take note when this uni-browed prick opens his mouth and offers us his expert opinion.
    OMG teenagers are on a 'stab-athon' in London! ban the videogames!! - its more socially acceptable than castrating the worthless scumbags who refuse to 'parent' their kids and let them roam the streets like pack animals.
    /rant off.

  • BobsUncle #63 4 years ago

    Just you wait until some kid saves the day in Iraq by picking up an AK-47 and knowing he has to load it wth 7.62mm ammunition, then fire in short controlled bursts because he knows full auto will impare his accuracy because the AK-47 is not as accurate and the M4 or M16 but has greater stopping power.

    It'll happen one day. Imagine the news story.

  • SpikeRocks #64 4 years ago

    Noel is wath you call in Sweden "en jävla rövhatt" and thats not a good thing.

  • agparrot #65 4 years ago

    My Mrs wants to open Wembley Stadium to all knife-carrying types and allow them to battle it out on the understanding that:

    1) There will be no medical assistance, or any other sort of assistance, as the gates will be locked once everyone is in.
    2) Anybody who goes in will be allowed to take any weapons they want.
    3) No prosecutions will follow this presumed bloodbath.
    4) Refreshments will not be provided.

    She seems to think this will result in either a cull of knife-wielding hoodie maniacs by their own peers, or a sudden realisation that violence is wrong.

    I personally think that nobody would turn up for it, because they might actually get hurt, and that this is part of the problem - linking the expectation of stabbing or being stabbed to the act of carrying a knife.

    I knew I shouldn't have let her watch Battle Royale.

  • BlackKraken #66 4 years ago

    Gun and knife crime is bad, but the day we take anything noel gallagher says seriously?
    It sends shivers down my spine...

  • TessaTickle #67 4 years ago

    @kangarootoo

    ""if" kids are playing 18 games whilst smoking skunk, somewhere there is parent that needs a sturdy kick up the arse."

    Absolutely, without a doubt. However,like I said, this is just one of the arguments being bandied around by the many parties involved, none of which are prepared to examine the real problem because it would take some self-examination.

    Right now, we're in a gridlock between two positions : 1) "ban games" and 2) "bad parenting" where both stances are a cop-out.

    I know I'm going to sound like an old crone but society *is* going to shit. I'm not saying it was better before : we had old white male patriarchs telling us what our station was and how to behave and now we've gotten rid of all that, we don't know what to do with our hard-earned freedom.

    Like I said, pub conversation. I'll look you up next time I'm in the area and we'll get absolutely hammered whilst working out the details.

    Cheers,

    Tessa

  • Lebowski #68 4 years ago

    "Where were you while we were getting high?"

    Dunno. Playing Tekken?

  • mcwildcard #69 4 years ago

    And I suppose it's Video Nasty's fault that your last couple of albums have been shit?

  • Alyweb #70 4 years ago

    The words bell and end come to mind. What a top hat!

  • corposant #71 4 years ago

    It wasn't that long ago people were blaming pop music for the anti-social actions of malcontent youths. Thing is no-one's buying pop music anymore are they! This Gallagher bloke should be grateful that his brand of bland dad rock is now so mainstream that the ranting hordes of Middle England consider him safe and cosy. It gives him a platform to spout his ill-considered 'grumpy old man' nonsense to anyone that'll listen to him, which is less and less the yoof. They're too busy playing video games because mindless repetitive button mashing is still more entertaining than Oasis (isn't that a soft drink brand?) songs.

  • rhubarbandcustard #72 4 years ago

    I like Oasis and I like Noel Gallagher. Lots of snidey comments about him and his brother.

    Considering the shit that's in the charts these days I think the guy should be heralded as the last of the greats. There hasn't been a single decent new UK band in over 10 years now.

    UK music is the pits.

    Noel Gallagher is more than welcome to speak his mind.

    On this particular topic, though, he is talking bollocks. Oh well.

  • johnnybrn #73 4 years ago

    Oasis were shit, derivative un-original Beatle copycat shit! I am glad they are off the airwaves. And Blur were better

    Noel always had a mouthy gob, thing is these days no-one gives a fuck.

    Don't they have a new album coming out so maybe hes trying to drum up a little publicity?

  • johnnybrn #74 4 years ago

    Maybe I'm so enraged because we struggled through Rock and Roll star on Rock Band last night and get its friggin difficult at the end!

  • kangarootoo #75 4 years ago

    @anomagnus

    "You sound like you like the man, defending him like that "

    I think there is probably some middle ground somewhere between liking him (I don't) and wishing him all sorts of nasty illnessess :)

    Anyway, I was just poking fun at you. Didn't mean anything serious by it.

  • rowsdower #76 4 years ago

    Ah Noel Noel Noel. New album on the way so you thought you'd get a bit of publicity by saying something stupid in the papers? Come on, give us a bit of credit. We've seen through transparent nonsense like this before and we'll do it again.

  • bitesize #77 4 years ago

    I think the guy should be heralded as the last of the greats.

    i don't have the words to say how much i disagree with you. i've tried, but it just ends up in a sweary rant - so i won't bother.

  • silke #78 4 years ago

    Haha, the great mind himself has spoken!

    I need to be myself
    I can't be no one else
    I'm feeling supersonic
    Give me gin and tonic
    You can have it all but how much do you want it?
    You make me laugh
    Give me your autograph

    Enough said.

  • assache #79 4 years ago

    The main thing that turns people to knife crime is pop bands managing to get around six albums out of four Beatle chords!

    Shit! Wonderwall is on the radio............... Another knife attack!

  • assache #80 4 years ago

    @Rhubarbandcustard

    No bands in the last ten years! You really need to stop listening to mainstream radio and get out more.

  • rhubarbandcustard #81 4 years ago

    assache - no UK bands in the last ten years. That's a big difference

    The music scene globally goes from strength to strength, Coheed and Cambra my own particular faves, but the UK does not produce any decent music anymore. Not to my ears anyway. British music is terrible.

    Terrible I say.

  • silke #82 4 years ago

    @WaxBrazillian

    Haha, a big hello to you too Liam!

  • antonluyt #83 4 years ago

    That's right. Ban violent video games, arrest people who carry knives. Throw them all in jail. The rest will start walking the streets with boards, or boards with nails in them. Then what? Arrest everyone coming out of a hardware store?

  • zedzee #84 4 years ago

    He's only saying this because he's simply shite at everything he does.

  • wingzerosys #85 4 years ago

    The Patriots exist in real life under a different name of course.

    I would love the Govement to ban games, lets see what happens then.

    Bored gamers (myself included), angry gamers, riots, more crime, heck we gotta find sommat else to pass the time.

    Games keep me sane, happy, distracted.

  • peppergomez #86 4 years ago

    fat poof