Pete Waterman reveals how he helped "gas fitter" Noel Gallagher get his start in music

30 January 2023, 18:04

Pete Waterman and Noel Gallagher — Pete Waterman has recalled when Noel Gallagher used to steal the guitar strings from his studio. Picture: 1. David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images 2. Matt Crockett/Press

By Jenny Mensah

The songwriter and producer has recalled Noel's stint as a "gas fitter" in Manchester and how he was situated opposite his

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Pete Waterman has recalled when Noel Gallagher was a gas fitter and used to visit his recording studio.

The music mogul, who was one third of the Stock Aitken Waterman hit factory has revealed to NME that the former Oasis songsmith was probably one of the most surprising fans of his back catalogue as he used to pop into his studio.

“I’ve had some absolutely unbelievable conversations with him,” Waterman said. "When he was a gas fitter in Manchester, my studio was across the road from him, so he’d nip over at lunchtime and steal my guitar strings because he couldn’t afford them."

He added: "He always credits me with giving him his start. Without my free guitar strings, he couldn’t have carried on."

Waterman may have let Noel take away his guitar strings, but it was Johnny Marr who gave a "skint" Noel Gallagher a guitar.

Speaking to Radio X's John Kennedy, the former Smiths guitarist shared the circumstances that led to him giving the pre-fame Oasis rocker a helping hand.

“Yeah we went to a guitar shop. I didn’t give him a guitar from the shop. I gave him one that was much more valuable,” he laughed.

Marr explained: “He was skint back then and I just liked him."Honestly, I had no idea - who would have known that Oasis were going to be (so big). They didn’t know! No one could have predicted what was going to happen to them.

"The Hi Hello singer added: “He was just this guy who I recognised was intense and really serious about what he was doing, and he was skint and I had a load of guitars and I thought right OK well i’ll give him this guitar.

"And you know, it could have come to nothing and really it would have made no difference to me. And I had some people give me a helping hand when I started out. Little things here and there, and you need it."

Watch our interview with him below:

Johnny Marr on how he gave Noel Gallagher a guitar

The pair's relationship has continued from strength to strength, with Johnny Marr featuring on Gallagher's forthcoming album, Council Skies, which is to be released on 2nd June.

The theme of childhood and youthful dreams has also filtered into the album's title. Speaking on the Radio X Evening Show with Dan O'Connell, Noel explained the inspiration behind the name.

"The title comes from a book by the artist Pete McKee. I was writing the song which was to become Council Skies, but it wasn't called Council Skies. There's a bit in the song when I was writing it, where a phrase was missing - I didn't know what that phrase was gonna be."

Noel went on: "Pete's book happened to be on my coffee table at home. So I called him up and said, Can I use this title? And he said yeah. And I rewrote the song and then subsequently a lot of other things started to fall into place."