Oasis’ Noel Gallagher gave me his Wonderwall guitar

When she was referred to as by a grovelling Liam Gallagher apologising, Lynne Brine puzzled what on earth was happening.

“Hello, it is Liam Gallagher right here, there’s been a little bit of an incident at Abbey Highway,” mentioned the voice on the opposite finish of the road.

The Oasis circus was at its Nineteen Nineties peak and her teenage son was a part of the band’s internal circle as an engineer for his or her third album – as Mrs Brine thought “what has occurred to my boy?”.

It turned out a livid Liam had smashed up the guitar she gave to her son Nick, considering it belonged to Liam’s brother and bandmate Noel.

Nick’s compensation was one thing cash cannot purchase and a bit of rock’n’roll memorabilia – a guitar Noel used to create Oasis anthems like Wonderwall and Do not Look Again in Anger.

“It was the morning after a heavy evening and Liam was worse for put on,” remembers Nick, who was at Abbey Highway as a studio engineer on their third album Be Right here Now.

“Noel had mentioned one thing about him within the papers and Liam kicked off. I am in Abbey Highway’s well-known Studio Two organising gear and hungover myself, then wanting up I noticed a guitar come flying over from the management room.

“It was Noel’s Fender Jag and it smashed to bits. I run to the management room and Liam additionally made a giant dent in Abbey Highway’s mixing desk.”

Nick had labored with the Gallagher brothers beforehand on their hit report (What’s The Story) Morning Glory and had seen flashpoints like this earlier than, so he simply left Liam alone.

“Then I see one other acoustic guitar flying excessive and in a thousand items on the ground – and realise that is my guitar,” Nick added.

“I believed it finest if I did not say something. Noel got here in and mentioned ‘what the hell is occurring?’. It kicked off.

“Noel noticed his guitar smashed up, then factors to my smashed guitar and says ‘whose is that?’ Liam replies ‘that is your guitar too’, to which Noel replied ‘it ain’t mine’.”

It was Nick’s £100 Seventies Japanese Fender that was in items.

“I sheepishly put my hand up and mentioned ‘truly Liam, it is mine’

“Then there was a giant argument about who was going to purchase me a brand new one. I advised them it is not worthwhile nevertheless it has fairly sentimental worth as my mum gave it to me.”

Liam promised to take Nick to Denmark Avenue, an space of London well-known for musical instrument retailers, to purchase “no matter guitar I wished”.

“Noel replied to Liam ‘what the hell have you learnt about guitars?’,” recalled Nick. “He mentioned ‘I’ll get him a guitar’. There was one other kick off about who was going to purchase me a brand new one.”

After giving his temperamental youthful brother a telling-off, Noel insisted Oasis frontman Liam name Nick’s mum Lynne, at residence in south Wales, to apologise.

“It was like: ‘Hey Mrs Brine, Liam Gallagher right here, I am ringing to apologise…’, he advised her what he’d achieved and was sorry.

“That typified Liam, offended one minute then angelic the subsequent, I’ve at all times loved his firm.”

The Oasis celebrity then handed Nick a bit of historical past – a Takamine Acoustic, the guitar Noel used of their iconic Knebworth and MTV Unplugged concert events.

“Did I give it to you? No means,” Noel mentioned to Nick when the songwriter returned to Rockfield Studio in south Wales in 2020 for the twenty fifth anniversary of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory.

“I used it on this report, so that is the one I performed Wonderwall on.”

For comparability, final yr an Epiphone Les Paul electrical guitar utilized by Noel offered for £130,000 whereas a Silver Sparkle Gibson Les Paul offered for £226,000.

Nick has, in reality, needed to insure the guitar as a bit of superb artwork and public sale homes have estimated a beginning information worth of £100,000 if Nick had been ever to promote it.

“I used to be gobsmacked, I mentioned ‘it is OK, it is superb’ however Noel insisted I take it,” recalled Nick. “It greater than made up for the smashed guitar, I could not consider it.”

It is simply one other pinch me second that turned the norm for Nick from the second Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown gave him a raise to choose up his GCSE outcomes.

Considered one of his first engineering jobs was with the Roses for the epic 14-month recording of their Second Coming report at Rockfield.

“Ian was within the studio studying about GCSE leads to the paper and requested ‘Nick, how did you get on?’,” recalled Nick.

“I would acquired a job at Rockfield straight after leaving college and mentioned ‘I am working right here now’ so I wasn’t bothered.

“He mentioned ‘come on, I will take you down. You have to discover out your GCSE outcomes’.”

Nick arrived at Monmouth Complete College minutes later in Brown’s purple Ford Fiesta and the singer, one of many largest names in British music on the time, walked in with him to get his outcomes.

“It was surreal, my mates could not consider it,” remembered Nick.

“However the Roses had been so all the way down to earth, an awesome pleasant band to work with that allowed my band to make use of their equipment once they weren’t utilizing it. It was unbelievable.”

The Roses gave Nick his first recording credit score too because the then 16-year-old performed tambourine on their hit single Love Spreads, nonetheless their highest putting single, which reached quantity two in 1994.

“I nonetheless get a pleasant cheque from it yearly,” joked Nick.

It was round this time when Nick first met Oasis as they had been recording their debut album Positively Possibly up the street at Monnow Valley Studios.

That they had come down to provide their demo tapes to Nick, hoping he would go them on to the Roses.

The next yr he first shared a studio with them at Rockfield as they recorded their seminal album (What’s The Story) Morning Glory in Monmouth in a six-week session – earlier than becoming a member of them at Abbey Highway to make Be Right here Now.

“These Be Right here Now Classes had been loopy,” recalled Nick.

“We had press hounding us on a regular basis to listen to the songs, get any data as a result of in 1997 Oasis had been headline information nearly day by day.

“I used to be answerable for locking the tapes away each evening so if anybody snuck or broke in, no-one might get to the tapes.

“Maintaining them secret was virtually a navy operation which was made troublesome as Liam used to convey individuals again to the studio from the pub to listen to the recordings.”

One welcome customer was Hollywood film star Jim Carrey who unexpectedly visited the studio made well-known by The Beatles whereas Brine was working with Oasis.

“Jim was an enormous Beatles fan and their legendary producer Sir George Martin had invited him in for a go searching,” recalled Nick.

“I liked his movies, particularly Dumb and Dumber. The Masks and Ace Ventura, then impulsively he is standing subsequent to me, whispering ‘that is loopy, I am in Abbey Highway and George Martin’s displaying us round.’

“I keep in mind considering in the event you assume that and also you’re a correct Hollywood A-lister, what about me?! I am only a regular teenager from south Wales.”