Johnny Marr’s Iconic Guitar That Led to Hits by The Smiths and Oasis

In the early days of Oasis, Noel Gallagher couldn’t afford to purchase a Gibson Les Paul. So he played Epiphone’s knock-off version. It was fine by him because The Beatles played Epiphone guitars, too.

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But as Oasis began recording their debut Definitely Maybe, Johnny Marr sent Gallagher a few of his guitars to help with the sessions. These sessions took place at Monnow Valley Studio in Wales and were the Manchester band’s first attempt to record Definitely Maybe.

The Guitars

One of the guitars Marr sent was a black-and-white (Jetglo) 1982 Rickenbacker 330. As Gallagher opened the case he said, “Surely he’s not f—ing mad enough to send down the Smiths’ guitar to a load of scallies from a council estate in South Manchester.” But it’s exactly what he did.

He also lent a Gibson Les Paul. When Gallagher lifted it from the case, the first thing he played was a chord sequence that later became “Slide Away.”

Inside a bedroom at Monnow Valley, Gallagher plucked the simple chords of a future Oasis classic. Thousands of guitarists have played through a similar chord progression. But when Oasis fans hear Gallagher play the opening notes to “Slide Away,” it’s enough to send them through the roof of a roofless open-air stadium.

The Details According to Marr

In Marr’s Guitars, Marr said he watched Oasis play in Manchester in front of 15 people. Gallagher asked what he thought of the show, and Marr said it was “great,” but noticed Gallagher was taking a long time to tune his guitar between songs.

Marr suggested he should bring a backup to the gig. But Gallagher only owned one guitar. It prompted Marr to look around his studio for another guitar Gallagher could use.

How Gallagher received Marr’s 1953 Les Paul has grown into a sprawling piece of rock and roll myth-making. Joking, Marr said they “met on a grassy knoll under a moonlit sky at midnight and I passed over the Les Paul to him.”

British Rock History

Years after Marr had given the Les Paul to Gallagher, the Oasis songwriter learned Marr had received the guitar from Pete Townshend. The guitar needed work, and a luthier in New York informed Gallagher the neck didn’t match the body. (Perhaps one of many instruments Townshend had smashed on stage with The Who.)

He asked Marr for more details only to find out it was yet another Smiths’ guitar. The guitar he used to write The Smiths’ single “Panic.” Two iconic bands, two iconic songs, one guitar. The guitar’s past follows Townshend (possibly) destroying it, to The Smiths’ lament about the state of pop music, to a giant of Britpop.

After learning the guitar’s history, Gallagher said, Marr “ain’t getting that back.”

Thanks to Johnny

You can hear the Les Paul on most tracks from Definitely Maybe. But the intro to “Cigarettes & Alcohol” gives you an idea of why Gallagher fell in love with the instrument. That track, with its T. Rex riff and hissing intro, distills the swagger of a band destined for stadiums. Though this was in their pre-Wembley days, it sounds like a band already too big for the venues they were playing at the time.

Still, Gallagher remains grateful to Marr for the Les Paul. He said, “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t give thanks and praise to Johnny.”

Photo by Phil Barker/Guitartist Magazine