Tony Blair joins band’s postteenage fan club

What do prime ministers do in their imperial phase? Summon rock managers to Chequers for a debate about obscure Scottish “indie” bands. Alan McGee, the impresario who discovered Oasis, was called to the PM’s country retreat at Britpop’s height. “Blair is in a T-shirt and Bermuda shorts and we’re discussing the new Oasis LP, the Beatles . . .” McGee told Uncut. “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,” added McGee, who quit drugs shortly after meeting the Gallagher brothers.

A spokeswoman for Teenage Fanclub, who reached No 31 with What You Do to Me (by Blake) in 1992 said that they found this endorsement “pretty weird”. After a Chequers tour by Cherie Blair, McGee concluded: “She was obviously way ahead of him [Tony], mentally. She was intellectually his superior.” A funny way to keep a secret . . .

The Face: Sarah Silverman

Sarah Silverman has been described as the “world’s hottest, most controversial comedian” and “America’s best-kept comedy secret”. Both are true.

A select few British comedy fans will have watched her eponymous series on Paramount while an even more select number caught her one UK appearance at the 2006 Amnesty Secret Policeman’s Ball. The release today of her debut movie, Jesus is Magic, won’t turn this 37-year-old Jewish comic into a household name, but it certainly demonstrates why she is being described as a female Lenny Bruce. Her shows are edgy, controversial and brilliant. At their heart are her Jewish-American princess persona and an ironic “endorsement” of racism and sexism. As she says: “I don’t care if you think I’m racist, as long as you think I’m thin.”

Ministers seeking an excuse to resign could copy Gilberto Gil, the Brazilian Culture Minister, who has quit to spend more time with his jazz-rock fusion ensemble. Gil, a leading light in the 1960s Tropicalismo movement, says public speaking was affecting his singing voice. Perhaps David Miliband could yet join his violinist wife Louise in the London Symphony Orchestra.

The Insider: The Private Diaries of a Scandalous Decade, Piers Morgan’s name-dropping account of his newspaper editing career, must be so Nineties. Amazon yesterday offered the revelatory tome for the princely sum of just one penny. Fans of the talent-show judge’s fine wit need buy only 1,500 copies before qualifying for the free Super Saver Delivery under the retailer’s generous scheme.

Some folks complain that Snoop Dogg’s new Bollywood incarnation is culturally insensitive. But the leading man Akshay Kumar insists the hip-hop star looks the part for his contribution to the new Hindi blockbuster, Singh is Kinng. Snoop is now planning an album of pimp-rollin’ Punjabi rap.

Postscript

Gillian Anderson has a theory about why the X-Files film has not done as well as expected in the US. “People in the States are so used to CGI, action and sex and we don’t really offer a lot of that in this film,” she says. No CGI? You mean it’s all real?

Alice Cooper tells Leona Graham on Virgin Radio that criticism of his band by Mary Whitehouse was the greatest thing that could have happened. He says: “We were sending her roses every day saying thank you. And she couldn’t figure out why.”

Has Katie Price, aka Jordan, actually found a gap in the market? At the Horse of the Year Show in October, the glamour model turned equestrienne will launch her new equestrian clothing range and will perform dressage to music. “I’m working on something with a definite ‘wow’ factor. I can’t wait,” she says.

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