For the low, low price of £5m, you could own a key part of Oasis history. No, not Liam’s tambourine, or even a lock of Bonehead’s departed barnet. We’re talking, of course, about ‘Supernova Heights’, the legendary party house that Noel owned in the ’90s. It’s located in the swish north London postcode of Belsize Park, and was a heartening sign of the upwardly mobile times. The oiks had invaded the upper-classes. They wanted to be free, free to do what they wanted do. They wanted to get loaded and have a good time.
Readers, Noel, Liam and their ever-revolving cast of friends, relatives and hangers-on did just that, until Noel sold the gaff in 1999. It was later bought by David Walliams, who’s now put it up for sale for that cool five mil. Here, then, is a potted history of the coolest pad in London town, a relic of a city that once swung with the reckless abandon of a Britpop star hanging from the chandelier.
Pre-Noel
Before Noel bought the house, the neighbourhood was posh in a bohemian kind of way. AGuardian article published at the fa*g end of the ’90s (which documented Noel selling up, a moment in the property’s history that we’ll come to later) described it as “an area that prides itself on its exclusive, quiet intellectualism,” and, less forgivingly, referred to “the staid folk of Hampstead”. But all that was to change, as Liam and Noel rode into town, presumably atop speeding mopeds, spurting champagne from popped cork all over the poor (not actually poor) neighbour’s windows.
Noel’s house party
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It was all back to Noel’s, all the time, during the glory days of Britpop excess. He and then-wife Meg Matthews hosted legendary parties at the seven-bedroom Supernova Heights – the front door of which was emblazoned with glass bearing the name of the beloved house – on Steele’s Road. A Telegraph article from the dying days of Oasis fondly remembered those four walls: “supermodels lolling against the fridge, white lines everywhere, and endless gabbing about crop circles and conspiracy theories.” If this sounds like rose-tinted mythologising, Noel did nothing to shatter it.
In 1997, as part of a broadcast aired on Christmas Day and fittingly titled ‘All Back To Mine’, radio host Sean Rowley visited Noel at Supernova Heights to talk about the music that inspired him. In typical form, he was more interested in boasting about thebacchanal excess of his rockstar abode. Rowley asked to hear some Sex Pistols records, and Noel replied:“All my Pistols tracks, right, have been trashed in this house. We’ve had proper pogoing sessions round here. We’ve had the police round here one night. On my 30th birthday. I’ve got a coffee table downstairs that holds about four ashtrays. There must have been 15 people on it and the police show up and we were going, “And I wanna be anarchy”. ‘Excuse me, sir, could you turn the noise down?’ It’s the Pistols, man, you know what I mean?”
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We do know what you mean, Noel, we do know what you mean. The doorbell rang midway through the interview, but Gallagher Snr. dismissed it. He said, “it’s probably fans for autographs,” which led him to launch into yet another killer anecdote: “Here’s a funny story. Kate Moss’d be staying here for a couple of weeks and I’ve got loads of shopping, so I’m trying to open the gate and there was these four girls, they’ve got these books and they’re going, ‘Can you get me Kate’s autograph?’
“You’re coming round ‘ere, to my ‘ouse, asking for supermodel’ autographs? You taking the piss, or what? Do you not want mine? Well, I’ll tell you what, you’re not going until you have mine. You’re having my autograph now! I ended up walking up the street going ‘C’mere! No, c’mere! Gimme the book! Gimme the book! ‘No, I don’t want your autograph.’ ‘Gimme me the book!’”
Rowley even raided Noel’s fridge. Its contents: 48 cans of lager, two bottles of cranberry juice, even more lager, half a jar of marmalade and a jug of Bloody Mary that was well past its best. Rock’n’roll! And the mildly underwhelming revelations don’t end there.NME visited in 1998 and learned that the area outside the property was often overrun with Italian exchange students from a nearby school, for some reason.
Post-Noel
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Just as Britpop had come up, it must come down. After the bloated embarrassment that was Oasis’ co*ked-up, overblown third album ‘Be Here Now‘ (yes: we still kind of love it), Noel ditched the drugs and, in 1999, sold up and moved to Hertfordshire. David Walliams bought Supernova Heights for £3.2m in 2005 , and the property is currently listed for £5.3m. The neighbourhood is now a little more Oligarchic than it was in 1995, but if you’re into helipads and banks vaults in the basem*nt, then – boy oh boy! – you should be there now.
