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Noel Gallagher is showing off his private guitar collection at a new exhibition – and there’s FREE tickets

It's to celebrate 150 years of Epiphone.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 14th September 2023

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”.

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“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.

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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