Tony Blair and his groovy friend

Alan McGee, one of the leading figures of the 1990’s Brit pop explosion (he discovered Oasis), has revealed for the first time the curious relationship he enjoyed with Tony Blair. Talking to the music magazine Uncut, the music impresario tells of the time he was invited to Chequers for a pow-wow with the Fender Stratocaster-playing prime minister. He was under the impression the discussion would be about the how to mobilise the youth vote - but it turned out the PM just wanted to talk music.

Says McGee: "Blair is in a T-shirt and Bermuda shorts and we’re discussing the new Oasis LP, the Beatles…We talked about who was the best songwriter in Teenage Fanclub - he thought Gerry [Love] and I thought Norman [Blake]. That was the conversation I was having with Tony Blair. That’s how strange, how totally f***ing psychedelic things had become."

McGee also attended the famous "Cool Britannia" cocktail party soon after the Blairs’ arrival in Downing Street along with Noel Gallagher (the Oasis man asked Blair how he’d managed to stay up all night on election night, to which Blair "coolly" replied: "Probably not the same way as you"). But while McGee was not wildly impressed by Blair, his wife Cherie was a different matter. McGee concluded: "She was obviously way ahead of him [Tony], mentally. She was intellectually his superior." ·