Noel Gallagher picks his top three guitar heroes
There tends to be no bigger fan of Noel Gallagher’s music than Noel Gallagher himself. Although he may have had his spats with his brother over the years, Noel’s penchant for writing massive hooks has not gone unnoticed, crediting himself as one of the greatest songwriters of his generation. Then again, Gallagher also knows how to share his love of rockers’ past.
First of all, it’s no secret that Gallagher has tremendous admiration for the work of The Beatles. All it takes is a cursory listen to albums like Definitely Maybe to see how much the Fab Four have rubbed off on him, from the songwriting of John Lennon and Paul McCartney informing him to the blatant rips from their catalogue like nicking ‘My Sweet Lord’ for the guitar of ‘Supersonic’.
Regarding artists that made him pick up the guitar, Gallagher tended to drift towards the indie circuit for his muses. While growing up in Manchester in the late 1970s, Gallagher was informed by punk rock, with his first guitar hero being Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols, telling Gibson: “My first guitar hero was Steve Jones from The Sex Pistols. Still one of my favourite ever guitarists. Steve Jones was the first, and then Johnny Marr”.
Coming right after the initial wave of punk rock hit, The Smiths brought a quirky indie fascination to the guitar. While Morrissey may have moaned on about the struggles of everyday life, Marr was performing different intricate lines that would leave most modern guitarists’ heads spinning. When talking about Marr’s technique, Noel was still left aghast, saying, “[He] was the one that was like, ‘Fucking hell, what the hell is he doing?’. I still can’t tell you”.
Marr would become a close companion of Gallagher’s as well, befriending him when Noel was still coming up with Oasis. After being gifted a guitar by Marr in the Definitely Maybe era, Gallagher famously took it out of the case, went up to his room, and wrote ‘Slide Away’ in minutes. Marr would also eventually work his way onto Noel’s solo records, playing lead on songs like ‘Ballad of The Mighty I’.
Not every guitar hero that Noel loved had flash, though. Seeing Paul Weller from The Jam as an essential inspiration, Gallagher recalled, “Weller, he wouldn’t be the standard guitar hero because he was the main man and the songwriter. He’d fall more into the songwriter category”. While Weller’s technical ability may have been limited by comparison, his approach to songwriting may have had the most significant impact on Gallagher going forward.
Never willing to play anything that flashy, Noel’s penchant for songs was shaped by what Weller was doing, taking the building blocks of basic chords and creating timeless melodies around them. With that approach to songwriting filtered through the power of acts like The Stone Roses, Noel found the formula for Britpop excellence on songs like ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’.
Once he had his first taste of success, Gallagher would also get a chance to work alongside Weller, who contributed one of the best performances to What’s the Story Morning Glory. Recalling in a retrospective, Noel said: “[Weller] was originally going to play on the song ‘Morning Glory’, but ‘Champagne Supernova’ is crying out for a guitar solo. He came down and played and thank God he did”.
Even though every guitar hero Gallagher listed falls into a different category of rock and roll, each of them has been a cornerstone in building the Britpop explosion of the 1990s from a fad to a rock and roll institution.
Noel Gallagher’s guitar heroes:
- Steve Jones
- Johnny Marr
- Paul Weller
