PARIS (Reuters) – A 1960 Gibson electric guitar used by Oasis star Noel Gallagher before it was smashed up by his brother and former band mate Liam Gallagher during a row on the night the band split sold at auction in Paris for 300,000 euros ($315,900) on Tuesday.
Liam Gallagher wrecked the red Gibson at a festival in the French capital in 2009, shortly before the band had been due on stage, in a fit of fury that was to become a cult moment in music history.
It was later painstakingly repaired by a French luthier.
“This 1960 Gibson 355 serial #A34884 was the guitar that Liam Gallagher smashed up in Paris 2009 the night Oasis split up,” Noel Gallagher wrote in a note presented with the guitar.
“It was also my #1 favourite guitar that I used to both writing and recording using it on many Oasis recordings as well as using it live! Peace, love + bananas!!”
Formed in Manchester in 1991, Oasis had its heyday at the height of Britpop fame in the 1990s, with hits such as “Don’t Look Back In Anger” and “Wonderwall”.
But the brothers’ famous feuds led to a break-up in 2009, after tempers flared at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris, prompting Noel to quit the group
($1 = 0.9497 euro)
(Reporting by Lucian Libert; Editing by Richard Lough and Jonathan Oatis)
