A guitar that was damaged during a backstage argument between Oasis‘ Liam and Noel Gallagher that led to the band’s break-up has sold at auction for £325,000.
The red Gibson ES-355 guitar was broken backstage at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris in August 2009, where the band notoriously cancelled their set at the last minute after Noel left the band with immediate effect.
It was announced last month that the guitar would be going up for auction, with a starting price of €150,000 (£125,000). Auctioneers were predicting that the item could go for as much as €500,000 (£415,000), but in the end it sold for €385,500 (£325,000).
The auction was held by the Artpèges gallery, with founder Jonathan Berg saying that the guitar represented “a cult moment” in modern musical history, adding: “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.”
The gallery’s co-founder Arthur Perault said that Noel got rid of the guitar in the end because “it reminds him too much of Oasis”, according to The Guardian.
Oasis split after the row at the French festival, with Noel recently recalling how he sat in the back of a car at the music festival before he decided it was time to quit the band.
“And the driver pulled off and that was it. 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,” he said.
“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.”
He added: “So we had to kind of spirit her out in the middle of the night and they came to join me in France somewhere. And then when we eventually got back to England, of course all fucking hell broke loose.”
While his argument with Liam was the final reason for the split, he admitted it wasn’t “a decision [he] took lightly”.
Liam Gallagher recently said that he hasn’t seen his brother and Oasis bandmate Noel in about 10 years. The Britpop icons split up in 2009, and despite countless rumours of the band’s imminent reunion, the Gallagher brothers are still not on speaking terms.
In a new interview with Esquire, Liam revealed: “The last time I saw Noel was at a football match about 10 years ago. It’s a shame, isn’t it?
“The good times outweigh the bad times,” he added. “I think it’s best to just leave it at that.”