POLITICAL mimic Matt Forde has blasted Edinburgh councillors for making a rotten impression with Oasis fans.
The stand-up comic was left spitting mad when city chiefs branded the supergroup’s followers ‘fat’, ‘old’, ‘drunk’ and ‘lairy’ ahead of their three sell-out gigs at Murrayfield in August, as exclusively revealed by The Scottish Sun.
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Matt Forde provides the voice of Boris Johnson for Spitting Image.
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Matt brings his new stand-up show Defying Gravity to the Fringe.
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Matt in full stand-up mode.
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Matt doing his hosting duties.
And Matt – who does pitch perfect impressions of both Noel and Liam Gallagher – blasted back at “snobby” officials for their attacks on Oasis fans like himself.
He says: “I just think a lot of people don’t get Oasis. They basically think it’s just a load of yobs.
“But do you know what? They wouldn’t say that about any other group of people. They would only say that about white working class people. The snobbery of it is unreal.
“I went to the first Oasis gig in Cardiff the other week and it was joyous. It was phenomenal. And yes people were drinking but it was all happy stuff.
“There was no aggro, no edge, it was just a really good celebration.”
He adds: “So it’s heartbreaking to think that all these excited people are going to come to Edinburgh, after spending a fortune on their Airbnbs, only for the authorities to basically say, ‘you’re a load of losers’ and ‘brace yourself for these Neanderthals marauding through the city.’
“Is that really how you talk about tourists coming to your place?”
Matt will return to the Edinburgh Festival next month with his new show Defying Gravity.
It comes after he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called chordoma at the end of his 2023 Fringe run which led to him having the bottom of his spine removed before learning to walk again.
He has since had to have a stoma bag fitted for his bowel movements and has to “self-catheterise” several times a day just to wee.
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But in the last year Norwich-born Matt has seen his party sweep to power with Sir Keir Starmer entering Downing Street while Scots Labour leader Anas Sarwar was heading for Bute House, until a run of disastrous policies, including axing the winter fuel allowance, saw their poll ratings tumble.
Matt, 42, says: “The show title is a pun on defying calamity which I guess in my own way I did by catching my cancer early. But as a result my body has changed, although I’m still mining that for material.
“But also politically, we are living in really perilous times where you’ve got a Labour government that is trying to sort things out but with Nigel Farage breathing down their necks with the reality of a Reform government.
“There are some people out there that believe that the Reform bubble will just sort of magically burst. I don’t think that’s how it works.
“I think there are certain things about Reform that may well prevent them becoming a government, but if all other options are exhausted – with the Tories basically dead at the moment along with Labour’s self-inflicted calamities – you are sort of pushing the public towards an option that they may be uncomfortable with.”
And Matt doesn’t buy into the narrative churned out by SNP and Labour chiefs that the Reform party is full of right wing bigots.
He maintains: “Every party contains racists. I mean, the Labour Party went through a period where it was getting investigated by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Luckily those days are over.
“But the idea that one party has a monopoly on bigotry, is nonsense. I don’t believe that most Reform voters are far right. A lot of them are ex-Labour and ex-SNP voters.
“It really makes me laugh when you get like the SNP saying, ‘We’ll have no nationalism in Scotland’. You’re like, ‘Have you read your own f***ing leaflets?’ They have a cheek to attack Reform.”
He adds: “So I don’t think all of a sudden Britain is full of fascists.
“There’s a whole load of things that have led to their rise including, since the financial crash, life has been rubbish and people are skint and livid and they have every right to be.”
During this year’s run, Matt will also have a succession of big political hitters as special guests including former SNP MP Joanna Cherry – who claims she was sidelined by her party for her gender critical views – Scottish Secretary Ian Murray and controversial London mayor iSadiq Khan.
He says: “Joanna is still such a big deal in nationalist politics, and with everything that’s happened with the Supreme Court ruling (that the word ‘woman’ means biological woman), she was just an irresistible figure to approach.
“Where the SNP went wrong was they tried to put things like self-ID through the constitutional debate, by saying ‘if you are pro-independence then you must believe in self-ID at the age of 16.’
“But people were like, ‘Hang on. That’s mad – these are two completely different issues.”
He adds: “And I’ve known Ian Murray for years from when he used to be the lone Labour MP in Scotland, which shows you how quickly things can change in politics.”
With that in mind, by the time Matt returns for next year’s run, the Scottish elections will have been held next May. So does this political thinker believe we’ll have a new First Minister in place of John Swinney?
He says: “I believe Anas Sarwar will be First Minister with a narrow Labour victory. He is a really charismatic individual.
“You can never write the SNP off as they are a formidable election winning machine in Scotland and given how the first year of Labour has been in Westminster, that obviously has helped the SNP to some extent.
“But I do think that having a Labour government still helps Scottish Labour because you can actually do stuff. And if Labour has a good year, I think Scottish Labour will win.”
And Matt, who lives with his Glasgow-born wife Laura, will also be bringing with him some of his favourite impressions to Edinburgh including Boris Johnson, who he voices for TV’s Spitting Image.
But he also plans to have ‘Noel and Liam’ make a surprise appearance too.
He says: “I impersonated them for years but it started to feel slightly crowbarred in. But now they’re back and everyone’s talking about Oasis again, it means I can dust off the old stuff.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
“Unfortunately it means hundreds of thousands of fans have been forced to choose between seeing Oasis at Murrayfield or coming to see me do them at the Edinburgh Festival.”
*Matt Forde new stand-up show Defying Gravity is on at the Pleasance Beyond from July 30 – August 24. While his four Edinburgh Fringe Political Party Specials take place at the Gilded Balloon. For more info visit: mattforde.com
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Oasis will play Murrayfield in August.