Everyone likes a good argument, at least if you’re not involved and you’re very far from the scene of conflict. Either way, just to prove that’s the case, the same guitar that was involved in Oasis’ final fight before they broke up has sold for £325,000 at an auction held by Artpèges gallery.
Apparently, the Gibson ES-355 guitar previously belonged to Noel Gallagher and was broken during the band’s final conflict back in 2009, as the rising tensions between the two Gallagher brothers led to Noel leaving the group. The group were just minutes away from performing a set in Paris for the Rock en Seine festival, leading Bloc Party (who were also performing that day) to tell a confused crowd of their last-minute cancellation.
Noel recalled this period as follows: “I didn’t feel a sense of relief because I knew there was a shitstorm coming. And there was going to be a lot of nonsense talked about it. One of the biggest bands ever imploded, finally. And I couldn’t go back to England because the press had descended on my house and my missus was there with my kids.”
The significance of the guitar wasn’t lost on the gallery’s co-founder Jonathan Berg, who said that it epitomised a “cult moment“ in music history. “Things had been brewing for a while between the two brothers. It exploded backstage, one of Noel’s guitars got broken and that led to the group breaking up.”
Arthur Perault (also a co-founder of the gallery) claims that Noel didn’t want the guitar anymore because it reminded “him too much of Oasis“.
Despite selling for £325,000, the auction still didn’t beat some expectations, with estimates reported last month that it could go over £415,000. But it still did well on the starting price of £125,000, so you can’t put the brothers down too much for having an inexpensive argument.
Either way, the consequences of that fight can still be felt today, and not just in the auction. You can read here about Liam Gallagher saying he still hasn’t seen Noel in around ten years.
However, to be fair to them both, their solo careers have been taking them along nicely ever since. Liam’s been working with Dave Grohl on his single “Everything’s Electric“, and will soon be on his third solo LP with the release of C’mon You Know later this month.
Noel’s new outfit Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds has released three albums since 2011, and their greatest hits album Back the Way We Came: Vol. 1 (2011-2021) was released last year, topping the UK Albums Chart. Even if they’re not together, it doesn’t seem like you can shut either Gallagher up for long.
