As a young PhD student, Rupa Huq interviewed Oasis legend Noel Gallagher for Big Issue in 1999. Some might say that was a career high, but she would go on to forge a path in politics – as a Labour MP since 2015. In this week’s magazine, she recalls their conversation, recorded in a time of Britpop, political change and cautious optimism, and draws parallels with today’s culture.
“Noel’s wise words in 1999 addressed my thesis topic “youth culture”: one of substance and substances which provided great cover for exploring all sorts of things in the name of research,” she said.
“After cornering him at an NME awards night, I netted a phone interview for a quieter moment via a landline number he wrote on a cassette liner card for me. It was a pre-mobile era but I recorded the thing on a C90 as best I could, and found him engaging, charming and thoughtful.”
Read more in this week’s Big Issue.
What else is in this week’s Big Issue?
Academics put trackers on homeless people. This is what they learned.
People experiencing homelessness wore trackers on the streets of London for three months as part of an innovative study to find out where rough sleepers go in a bid to help them access more support.
The study revealed the difficulties people encounter while rough sleeping, both in bedding down for the night and accessing healthcare services. Heatmaps showed participants spent hours every day searching for quiet spaces with some travelling on foot into remote areas to find bushes, benches or islets in the river to find a place to sleep, even in extreme weather.
