Noel Gallagher is showing off some guitars from his own private collection at special exhibition opening in a few weeks time.
To celebrate 150 years of Epiphone instruments having played a key role some of music and pop culture’s biggest moments, a brand-new exhibition is set to be unveiled at the British Music Experience (BME) in Liverpool later this month, and with the former Oasis guitarist being one of the brand’s most-loyal artists, it’s only right that he be honoured.
The Manc music legend is lending four guitars from his own private Epiphone collection to the new exhibition that bears his name.
Among the guitars on show at the temporary exhibition will be Gallagher‘s Epiphone Riviera with Bigsby from the Defintley Maybe album cover, as well as his Epiphone Frontier FT110 used on the (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? recording.
Noel admitted that he started playing Epiphones “because of The Beatles”.
“I didn’t know anything about guitars then,” he continued.
“They looked good, they felt good, and I could make them sound good. I’m a songwriter, not a guitar player. You know, that’s my thing, so I’m not one of those people who can sit in a guitar shop and play lots of things.
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“I will literally play an E chord, and if it had sounded great and felt good, I would have just said, ‘Yeah, I’ll take it.'”
Speaking ahead of the exhibition opening in a few weeks time, Kevin McManus, who is the Head of UNESCO City of Music for Liverpool, said: “Epiphone 150 celebrations landing in Liverpool is a great coup for the city.
“The story of the brand is fascinating and sits perfectly at the British Music Experience [as] the space the Museum is housed in is the old marble clad passenger halls of The Cunard Building and it was the very space where the physical exchange between America and the UK started with the back and forth of people but also music and culture on the vast passenger ships.
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Noel Gallagher is showing his private guitar collection off at a new exhibition / Credit: Epiphone
“Epiphone tells the story of an immigrant family reaching the shores of the USA and living the American dream, and this dream crossed the pond again and forms an important historical part of our music scene from BritPop to the Beatles.
“We are thrilled for the BME and Liverpool to host this line up of iconic guitars.”
To celebrate the launch of the exhibition, the BME and Gibson are giving away 150 tickets to the launch night on Wednesday 27 September for FREE, and they’re being offered on a first-come-first-served basis from the BME website here.
You can catch Epiphone 150th Anniversary: Featuring the Guitars of Noel Gallagher at the British Music Experience in Liverpool when it officially opens on Wednesday 27 September.
The guitars will be on show until the exhibition closes on 14 January 2024.
Featured Image – Epiphone
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Scouting For Girls on Chesney Hawkes, Manchester gigs, Old Trafford and new tour
Thomas Melia
In case you missed it, British boyband and pop-rockers Scouting For Girls have announced a 20-date UK tour for early next year.
They’re already planning potential set lists for the tour already including some very special surprises as well as an entire brand new album.
Lead vocalist Roy Stride reminisces on life in a boyband, career highlights and just how excited he is to play Manchester once again.
After playing at Manchester Cathedral earlier this year, the boys are coming back to one of Manchester’s city centre music venues for a 15-year anniversary tour for their sophomore LP, Everybody Wants To Be On TV.
With the announcement of a new tour, can we expect any new music to coincide with this?
We have announced a new album that will come out after our tour. This tour is all about celebrating the second album, we’re going to slip in maybe one or two new songs into the setlist as we go, though.
How excited are you to be coming back to Manchester after the reception of your cathedral gig earlier this year?
That Manchester Cathedral gig was like it, I was gonna say biblical, but it really, it really, like, it was an amazing place to play it and it, it was unlike any gig we’d done before. Audience participation and people singing along works so well in a cathedral.
It really was a great feeling.
Are there any songs that you’ve put out on Everybody Wants To Be On TV that have grown on you over time or become your favourite all these years later?
There’s a song on there called ‘Posh Girls’ which I still can’t believe we put on the record, but it’s so ridiculous and fun, you know, that’s probably a real favourite of mine. It’s a real live favourite too.
Scouting for Girls are heading to O2 Apollo in Manchester early next year.Credit: Press Shot
This time round you’re playing O2 Apollo and in the past you’ve played multiple venues in our city centre, which has been your favourite?
Night and Day Cafe and O2 Apollo but we’ve even played old Trafford. We played in between a football or rugby game, that was pretty epic.
There’s a video which went round our band and crew WhatsApp group of the first time we played [O2 Apollo] in 2010, like when the album first came out.
We played the Royal Albert Hall the night before with these trumpet players, and they got really drunk and ended up staying on the tour bus with us. The trumpet players weren’t supposed to be there, but we hid them in the Manchester crowd and got them to play this fanfare intro.
It was really bad because they were just incredibly hung over, it was all over the place and our guitarists’ were just filming it but it’s still a real core memory for me.
It’s not just Manchester you’re stopping off at either, you’re playing a 20 date UK tour, how are you feeling ahead of playing a tour this big?
I love traveling around the country. I love being on a tour bus. I love getting a show really good. Our shows are quite fluid and they change, and the setlists change, but when you get really tight on tour it’s a magical place because you go on stage and you know, whatever happens, it’s going to be amazing.
And in fact, the weirdest stuff that happens, whether I end up in the crowd or the balcony, doing a conga – it’ll be a great night every night.
On your album you have a song titled ‘Michaela Strachan’, you all met for the first time last year at your Shepherd’s Bush show – Have you considered the potential of her joining you on stage during this song?
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Maybe. I don’t know, however, I’m quite a good friend of Chesney Hawkes, who was just in the Big Brother house, and he was supposed to play a couple of songs last tour.
He was going to pop up and play like ‘The One and Only’ at one of our shows last year and we couldn’t make it happen because our guitarist ended up having a baby early and we didn’t have enough time to do it. I think we will have to play ‘Michaela Strachan’ on tour, though.
You have a song titled ‘Elvis Ain’t Dead’ named after the rock ‘n’ roll legend, besides the Memphis icon, who are your favourite music legends?
I’ve got a holy trinity: The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The [Rolling] Stones, everything goes back to those bands for me.
I also like REM I’d love for them to get back together. They were one of the first bands I saw and when they split up I honestly mourned when they split us up, I was depressed for like two weeks. Their last album was so good.
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They’ve done a few shows now so I don’t whether they’ll get back together, but that is definitely something I would love to see.
With this tour celebrating the remarkable 15 year anniversary of Everyone Wants To Be On TV, are there any songs off this project you wish fans showed more attention to when the album initially came out?
There was a song called ‘Take A Chance’ which was the last single, I hadn’t listened to the album for many years but going back and listening to it properly there’s some really good moments on it.
You spoke on social media about your single ‘The Place We Used To Meet’ and the album of the same name being very personal to you. Did fans respond the same way they did to your first few records?
It was a slightly different record. I suppose the songs were a bit more like this inner love song in terms of being more introspective, a bit more ballady. We still had an amazing response to it and we’re really, really proud of that album. But I don’t think it had like a banger like our first records.
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If you could pick one song off The Place We Used To Meet that each of you connects to the most, what would it be and why?
Glow. It was one of the singles and it’s all about how I sort of met my wife and how we met in Tokyo, got engaged, went back to Tokyo and I proposed to her. I went and did a video [for ‘Glow’] in Tokyo too. So it’s really special.
I think we’re working out what songs we’re going to put in the festival set but I think that’s still got to be in there.
Have there been any moments in your career that have made you feel like ‘The Luckiest Boy In The World’?
‘This Ain’t A Love Song’, because it went to number one and we got to play ChristmasTop of the Pops. It was a massive thing for us – that was definitely a bucket list moment.
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We also made Pete, our drummer, wear a Santa costume and told him we were all going to dress up, then we walked out the dressing rooms and he was the only one in an outfit, so he’s just there with this whole Santa costume and beard set while we’re just dressed looking normal.
To this day, he can’t prove that he was actually on Top of the Pops because it just looks like a guy with a massive beard.
Scouting for Girls are heading out on tour to celebrate 15 years of ‘Everybody Wants To Be On TV’.
Tens of thousands of gig tickets for major concerts will be slashed in price this week
Daisy Jackson
Music fans will have the chance to grab themselves significantly cheaper gig tickets this week, with the return of Live Nation’s Concert Week.
Tens of thousands of tickets to major shows – including several arena gigs here in Manchester – will be slashed in price as part of the huge celebration of live music.
This is the second time that Live Nation’s Concert Week has taken place in the UK, following a decade of similar events over in the US.
The event brings exclusive access to special offers, promotions and prizes to fans, including more than 80,000 tickets at special concert week rates.
You’ll find cheaper tickets to everything from hip hop arena gigs to smaller pop concerts, and even arena shows.
Live Nation’s Concert Week runs from 5 to 11 May, with 80,000 discounted tickets available in a flash sale from midday on Thursday 8 May.
In Manchester, shows that are included in the sale will include Catfish and the Bottlemen at Heaton Park, John Legend at Co-op Live, Kevin Hart at the AO Arena, and even Chris Brown (who has almost sold out an impressive four nights at the venue).
There are plenty of open-air concerts included in the sale too – both Heaton Park the Piece Hall over in Halifax have discounted gigs available.
Other artists included in the sale are Busted, Iggy Pop, Olly Murs, Nelly, Lil Baby, Marti Pellow and loads more, with plenty more names elsewhere in the UK.
Fans can already see the full list of participating Concert Week events HERE, with tickets actually on sale for a limited time from midday on Thursday 8 May.
Manchester gigs included in Live Nation’s Concert Week
Emily Sergeant -
14th September 2023 
