'I gave Liam Gallagher his Glastonbury haircut'

Liam Gallagher on stage at Glastonbury in 1994Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Oasis made their Glastonbury debut in June 1994

  • Published

A hairdresser has spoken of cutting Liam Gallagher's hair just weeks before the singer fronted Oasis at Glastonbury in 1994.

Stuart Saunders said Gallagher was in Norwich looking for a haircut while on a UK tour.

Back then, the band were still relatively unknown, having only released their first single Supersonic two months beforehand.

Mr Saunders said Gallagher was "wonderful and very polite" and even offered him free tickets to their show in the evening.

Image source, Stuart Saunders
Image caption,

Stuart Saunders, a hairdresser of 44 years, said he was proud to have cut Gallagher's hair

"My apprentice noticed that he [Gallagher] was going up St Gregorys Alley to a certain barber shop," Mr Saunders told BBC Radio Norfolk.

"I told my apprentice to look out for him and within about two seconds he walked down again, and my apprentice said, 'Liam Gallagher's coming into the shop,' and I ran up the stairs to greet him."

Mr Saunders said they "got on like a house on fire", bonding over a shared love of music.

"He offered me free tickets but we already had tickets, so he said, 'Meet me at the stage door at 7,' which we did, and I pretty much spent all evening with him - watching from the wings and drinking free beer."

Oasis played at Norwich Arts Centre on 6 June 1994, 20 days before their debut performance at Glastonbury.

"I was so proud," Mr Saunders said. "I tell my kids and anyone else that bothers to listen, 'That's my haircut.'"

Image source, Norwich Arts Centre
Image caption,

The band, fronted by Liam and Noel Gallagher, signed a poster for Norwich Arts Centre

Oasis went on to help define the Britpop era of the 1990s, recording eight UK number 1 singles, external, eight UK number 1 albums, and selling millions of records worldwide.

They headlined Glastonbury in 1995 and 2004.

The band split in 2009 with Liam Gallagher's brother and bandmate Noel, claiming he could no longer work with him.

Rumours of a reunion have been regularly denied.

"What you see of Liam's behaviour over the years, it's not what I saw," Mr Saunders, who owns Shears in Norwich, added.

"What I saw was a wonderful, very polite young man with lots of excitement."

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