Ex-drug fiend Great British Bake Off host Noel Fielding dated Pixie Geldof while she was still at school… and has jailed killer as a pal – we reveal the hell-raiser past of new star who ‘may be slap in Boosh’
Former party monster who dated Pixie Geldof is a risky choice for Channel 4
WHEN The Great British Bake Off switched to Channel 4, there were concerns it would move downmarket.
Fans in love with the knowing wit of Mel and Sue braced themselves for something colder and harder.
Yet few could have anticipated the mild Cambridge graduates would be replaced by a former drug user who dated Pixie Geldof when she was still at school and counts a convicted killer as a pal.
Ironically, self-styled surrealist comic Noel Fielding’s first job was in a cake shop aged just 14. He was sacked on his first day for lying on the floor eating the merchandise.
His appointment to the revamped Bake Off, alongside comedian Sandi Toksvig, even took his close friends by surprise.
Russell Brand told him: “I think anything you bake should be run by a sniffer dog before anyone vulnerable tastes it.”
This is a man who, in the past, has partied with junkie singer Pete Doherty — who once stormed into his hotel room and placed a top hat full of kittens on the floor before running off.
Fielding is also mates with hell-raising Welsh actor Rhys Ifans, with whom he spent an evening standing around in central London handing out surgical gloves to strangers.
The London-born star, educated at Croydon School of Art, is best known for the peculiar stage show comedy troupe The Mighty Boosh, which enjoyed three BBC2 series.
His TV experience also includes a long spell as team captain on panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
But in the mid 2000s as his star rose in late night television, he became a fixture in the dark showbiz underworld that went on to claim victims such as Amy Winehouse and Peaches Geldof.
The bouffant haired star became a regular in Amy’s haunt The Hawley Arms in Camden. Every drug imaginable was at his fingertips.
He admits he took pills, magic mushrooms, cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine and explained: “I took too many drugs and was hanging out with the wrong people. I got sucked into the party lifestyle.
“It was like my birthday every single day. All these people saying, ‘Do you want drugs? Do you want girls? Do you want drink?’
“You don’t really notice but gradually you end up out until 4am instead of 2am and then it would become 6am and 7am.
“Coke is always available if you want it. It wasn’t every night but I might do it once a week or something. It seems normal because you think everyone does it.
“When I took ketamine everything turned into two dimensions. I felt like I was in a weird puppet show.”
MOST READ IN TV SHOWBIZ
Fielding, 43, has blamed his ways on his parents Dianne and Ray, explaining: “My parents had lots of parties. They were hopelessly bohemian. They were just 18 when they had me.
“They were too young to be proper parents. They never said, ‘you’ve got to go to bed or you’ll be tired for school’. They didn’t mind — they let me stay up.”
So heavy was his drinking and drug use that he and his tour crew moved far beyond simple beer, wine and spirits.
He added: “We made voroccas on tour — our name for various vodka &; Berocca concoctions. Our only rider was basically lots of juices to keep people alive.”
His favoured tour diet consisted of Babybels and Hula Hoops or pickled onion Monster Munch.
He said: “I quite like bacon sandwiches because they’re colourful. Mashed potato on toast is fine. But colourful and easy to eat is best.”
But drugs soon took over his professional life and he realised if he didn’t get clean his career would be over before it had even begun.
It was during a Mighty Boosh live tour in 2006 that he was forced to accept his drug problem.
He admitted: “I thought, ‘This is too much for my head, I won’t come back from this.
“I went out all the time to try to replace the buzz of performing with alcohol and drugs.
“My body was craving a buzz. It’s difficult to chill out. The times I’ve really lost it have been after I’ve been on tour. It lasts about three months, then you calm down and think, ‘What was I doing?’”
His hard-partying lifestyle went hand-in-hand with womanising.
Having been a relatively unknown stand-up comic going from club to club across the UK, he was now rubbing shoulders with a new set of London socialites. Noel dated Bob Geldof’s daughter Pixie when she was studying for her GCSEs at school aged 16. He was more than twice her age at 33.
Noel revealed at the time: “She’s incredible. There’s a chemistry between us and we liked each other but she’s so much younger.
“When I first met her I had no idea who she was and that she was so young. It caused a lot of problems because her dad wanted to kill me obviously.
“A lot of that’s my fault for getting tempted by different things. It’s also because of groupies trying to get in my way and people pretending to be my friends.”
Previously Noel had been with long-term girlfriend and “soulmate” Dee Plume before finding fame.
His sudden notoriety also led to flings with Courtney Love and The Kills frontwoman Alison Mosshart.
He was also rumoured to have grown close to ex-flame Pixie’s late sister Peaches, but for the past five years Noel has been with Radio X host Lliana Bird.
Unsurprisingly, Noel has also had brushes with the law. He is close pals with James Browne, 57, once jailed for 18 years for manslaughter during a robbery. Noel testified for Browne when he sued the Met Police for £108,000 after his leg was broken in what was later deemed an unlawful arrest.
The pair were tackled by cops in a corner shop at 10am after an all-night party. Noel was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed.
He was dressed in his outfit from a gig the night before: his hair dyed blond and wearing dungarees, gold boots and a ladies checked jacket.
Dungarees aside, it’s a look Mary Berry would be proud of.