'I'm still playing my 1984 guitar on Oasis tour'

Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs, wearing glasses and a khaki hooded top, plays a brown-toned guitar in front of  a grey and black audio monitors on stageImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Arthurs said the guitar had been used at early band rehearsals and the massive Knebworth gigs in 1996

  • Published

Oasis guitarist and co-founder Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs has revealed that he has been using his "original 1984 guitar" on the band's 2025 reunion tour.

Arthurs joined Liam and Noel Gallagher for many of their Oasis Live '25 dates, before pausing his involvement in the tour to have treatment for prostate cancer.

Speaking as guitar manufacturer Epiphone launched a special Bonehead edition, he said his guitar predated Oasis and had been used "from the early rehearsals at the Boardwalk in Manchester all the way up to those historic shows at Knebworth and on into Liam's solo career".

"I'm still playing my original 1984 guitar on the Oasis 2025 tour, and I wouldn't have it any other way," he said.

Announcing his cancer diagnosis on 3 October, Arthurs said he was "having to take a planned break for the next phase of my care" and would be "back ready to go in time for South America".

The band recently completed dates in Australia and are due to start the South American leg of their comeback tour in Argentina on 15 November before moving on to dates in Chile and Brazil.

Paul 'Guigsy' McGuigan, wearing a denim blue shirt and jeans and holding a black and white bass guitar, Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs, wearing a black polo neck jumper and playing a brown-toned guitar, Tony McCarroll, wearing a denim blue shirt and playing a set of red drums, and Liam Gallagher, wearing a blue shirt and grey-blue jumper, play in front of a brown and blue sign which reads "Splash" and a red velvet curtainImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Arthurs has used the same guitar since the earliest days of Oasis

Arthurs started his first band in 1984 and in the late 1980s, he came together with Tony McCarroll and Paul 'Guigsy' McGuigan to form the band Rain.

The trio sacked their original frontman and replaced him with Liam Gallagher, who suggested a name change to Oasis.

Noel Gallagher joined the band shortly after and the five-piece would soon be on their way to global fame.

Alongside many memorable shows with Oasis, Arthurs also used the guitar on the band's huge debut album Definitely Maybe and its follow-up (What's the Story) Morning Glory?.

A spokeswoman for the guitar brand said they had produced a Bonehead Riviera model because "very few artists embody the Epiphone 'For Every Stage' mantra more than Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs".

"From early Oasis shows at The Water Rats in London to their era-defining nights at Knebworth, Bonehead consistently pushed his Epiphone Riviera to the limits.

"The crowds may have grown, but the wall of sound was always there in front of them.

"His solid, driving guitar work played a crucial role in shaping the band's early sound, and his most iconic instrument was the 1984 Epiphone Riviera."

Two pictures of Gem Archer - one red-toned which shows him with mid-length brown hair and a suede top on playing a red guitar and the other which shows him in a full denim dark-blue outfit of shirt and jeans, short grey hair and tinted black glasses playing a red guitar in front of a kaleidoscope-patterned background of yellow, green and red patternsImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Archer said he started using an Epiphone guitar when he "borrowed Noel's for Oasis tours and recording"

The manufacturer has also launched a special edition of its Sheraton model with fellow Oasis guitarist Gem Archer.

Archer replaced Arthurs in the band in 1999 and played on their three final albums, before playing with both of the Gallagher brothers' post-Oasis bands, Beady Eye and High Flying Birds.

"The Epiphone Sheraton first came into my world when I borrowed Noel's for Oasis tours and recording," he said.

"When I started playing with him again in the High Flying Birds in 2017, this was the guitar I asked if he still had.

"I'm playing it again together with my signature model based on his '66 original, on the Oasis Live '25 tour."

Get in touch

Tell us which stories we should cover in Greater Manchester

Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, external, X, external, and Instagram, external. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.

Related topics

Related internet links