“He’s like a poster from my bedroom wall that’s come to life. He’s got this black Strat with nine pickups and he’s saying, ‘Do you think it’s a bit mad?’”: Noel Gallagher on guitar shopping with Johnny Marr

Noel Gallagher and Johnny Marr

 They say never meet your heroes but that’s a lot of nonsense. Just ask Noel Gallagher, who not only enjoyed a unlikely musical partnership with the late Burt Bacharach but struck up a friendship with Johnny Marr in a remarkable few days in May 1993 that found him shopping for vintage electric guitars with the former Smiths guitarist days before his life would change for good.

Gallagher was speaking to Gibson TV in the latest episode of its Icons YouTube series and in an interview that spanned his career there was one common thread – songwriting. His favourite players? All songwriters. “I am kind of more draw with guitar players who compose – I suppose all guitar players do – but like Neil Young,” he said. “I’m more into the writers than the players if you know what I mean.”