Beatles enthusiast Noel Gallagher sympathizes with Paul McCartney's acromonious split from second wife, Heather Mills McCartney, having been through a painful divorce himself.

"I feel really bad for him, to be honest," Gallagher said while in Toronto this week to promote the Oasis best-of CD Stop the Clocks.

"I know what he goes through, man, getting divorced, and your f---in' soon-to-be ex-wife is just being a f---in' absolute lunatic. I've been there. I feel for him because she's putting all these stories out there that he's a wife-beater and and he's an excessive drinker. And he's a hippie, man. And it's so f---in' ridiculous. But, no, I feel for him because he's quite a dignified chap, and he's one of the Beatles, and it's not a very nice end to a period of his life, is it."

McCartney recently took the high road during a BBC radio interview but Gallagher said that may soon change.

"That's all right 'til the s--t starts flying in court, isn't it? I mean, I've been there. It just starts off all very (nice) like that and then it'll get quite nasty."


Gallagher said he had a great time last month picking up two awards at the Q Awards in London.

"I like the Q Awards. It starts at midday and it's kind of an endurance test. We didn't get in 'til four in the morning."

Unfortunately, it began with champagne and ended with tequila but the company Gallagher kept was pretty cool.

"We were kind of out with the Arctic Monkeys and The Kooks and Kasabian and Paul Weller was out and we were in a group and we all went to one place and just sat down and got (wasted).

"We all ended up dancing all night. We had this bar to ourselves. It wasn't organized. It just so happened that there's nobody in. And the deejay was kind of, 'Wow, f---in' hell, there's a lot of rock stars here.' And we were all just being very silly boys just dancing on the dancefloor. Funnily enough, all the girls sat down going, 'Look at them! F---in' idiots!'"

Gallagher seemed nonplussed about Oasis' greatest hits' Stop the Clocks coming out Nov. 21, the same day as the Beatles' album LOVE and another U2 hits collection.

"It's quite funny because I'll be going into the record shops and buying both the other albums."

As for LOVE, of which he has heard snippets, he said: "I think what they've done is quite phenomenal. There's a lot Beatles fans and other acts in England going, 'Oh, it's sacrilege.' From what I heard, I thought it was f---in' awesome