“One of the first times I met Noel, I was round his house. He went, ‘This is what I played on Don’t Look Back in Anger.’ I was like, ‘What?’” Gem Archer on the Strat’s secret spot in Oasis history

When Epiphone unveiled the Noel Gallagher Riviera in 2022, all Oasis fans instantly recognized the guitar.

This was the spitting image of the 1983 Riviera from the Don’t Look Back in Anger video; this was the Don’t Look Back in Anger Riviera. And it was one of the most important electric guitars in the history of the Manchester rock ’n’ roll institution. No question.

But, speaking to Guitar World, Oasis guitarist Gem Archer reveals that it’s not actually a Riviera that we hear Gallagher play on Don’t Look Back in Anger. Gallagher might have been Gibson all the way on this blockbuster Oasis reunion tour, but he switched codes here. This guitar came out of Corona, California.

“Yeah – I think it was a sunburst Strat,” says Archer of the Don’t Look Back in Anger guitar. “One of the first times I met Noel, I was round his house and he went, ‘Do you wanna come upstairs and see some guitars?’ And he went, ‘This is what I played on Don’t Look Back in Anger.’ I was like, ‘What?’”

Don’t Look Back In Anger was a big moment for Gallagher. It was the first time he sang lead on an Oasis single. It scored their second number one. It arrived at the last minute.

If he first got the idea for the song in Paris, it was a soundcheck before their first arena show on April 22 1995 in Sheffield when the song took shape; strumming chords onstage, some to and fro with his brother, Liam, a nonsense lyric opening up the verse and a chord progression that presented the Beatles influence writ large – they had the tune.

No time to waste, Gallagher decided to throw Don’t Look Back in Anger into the set, one of three songs he performed on acoustic guitar that night, and giving a shout out to music journalist Paul Mathur. A few weeks later, they were in Rockfield Studios, Wales, committing it to tape during the (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? sessions.

Oasis - Don’t Look Back In Anger - YouTube

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So why doesn’t Gallagher use a Strat more often with Oasis? Archer, who also plays alongside Gallagher in High Flying Birds, says it's horses for courses.

“He plays Strats with High Flying Birds, but in Oasis that’s not his thing,” explains Archer. “He doesn’t need all the bells and whistles live – it’s a direct thing, and he’s not gonna go from his wall-of-sound Les Paul to suddenly playing a Strat. It’s not needed.”

As for Archer? He uses his signature Sheraton to play lead on Don’t Look Back in Anger.

“For Some Might Say you just don’t dig in as much, and it cleans up. It feels alive in my hands,” he says. “With Bring it on Down I lay into it, and it’s sitting between Noel’s ES-335 and Bonehead’s Epi. The Sheraton has a lot of definition that I need for picking out lead lines – like on Don’t Look Back in Anger, which was done with a Strat on the record anyway.”

Earlier this year, Archer and his fellow Oasis co-guitarist Bonehead both teamed up with Epiphone for a pair of signatures that revived some of their most iconic instruments.

Guitar World's full interview with Gem Archer will be published in the coming weeks.