Sharon Latham, who has photographed Noel Gallagher and his Flying Birds for the last eight years, has spoken to NME about life on the road with the Oasis chief and her thoughts on him finally burying the hatchet with his brother Liam.
The former Manchester City FC snapper was speaking ahead of this week’s launch of her exhibition A New World Blazing, featuring new and unseen images of Gallagher senior and his band at the Gibson Garage in London.
The display, which documents Noel’s live performances as well as rare and intimate moments behind the scenes, will be on show in the guitar shop for the next six months.
“Out of all the people that I’ve worked with – and there are a lot – he’s one cool motherfucker,” said Latham from Gibson’s underground guitar showroom.
“He’s easy to work with and he’s fabulous. Because he knows it’s me, ‘It’s only Shaz’ [as he says], he made a joke about the fact once when I went to his Lone Star Studios to do a couple of PR shots. While we were there he was like, ‘Well this is the idea I’ve got in my head’. So I was like, ‘OK, rather than light it, I’ll do this and do that and I’ll use the backlight from the window’ and he was like, ‘Right yeah, yeah’.
She continued: “So I reeled off nine shots and he goes, ‘There you go, brill’ and he walked off. Then he goes, ‘Let’s have a look’ and we went on the laptop and he goes, ‘There you go that’s it, see Shaz, it would take someone about a day to set the lighting up and fuck about with it and you’ve done it in nine shots. Thanks a lot, I’ll see you soon.’ And he was off. He was there for literally 15 minutes.”
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One of her first memorable and most poignant photos of Noel was shot at the Manchester Arena, months after the tragic terror attack which left 22 dead at an Ariana Grande concert.
“That’s one of my favourite pictures,” she reflected. “Noel’s quite small in the corner because I was sat back to the right where [former High Flying Birds keyboard player] Jess [Jeremy Stacey] usually is and I got the whole arc of the arena.
“It was one of them ‘Wow’ moments. Noel was just sort of playing there in the corner but it’s more about the people and it’s a beautiful picture because it sort of evokes that much emotion from it. When I got back and I looked, I realised my daughter was in it too.”
Of the rare and behind the scenes photos that stand out, Latham points to one during Noel Gallagher And The High Flying Birds’ tour of America in 2018.
“It was in between the encore, when the band all gather round and have a drink of water. I don’t know what the joke was and I don’t know what somebody said but it’s just one picture,” she explained.
“They’re literally all howling and Noel is laughing that loud, his head is thrown back. It’s like this whole gaggle of people just laughing. Because the band’s so close and they’re so well knitted together, it’s quite a moment.”
More recently, she got to snap Noel from the side of the stage for his first ever Glastonbury performance as a solo artist in 2022.
Speaking during a Q&A at the launch of her exhibition, she said: “That was the highlight of my life. I remember before he went onstage, I said to Noel, ‘We need to get some press shots out early so I’ll come front of house’. He goes, ‘Stop there. Don’t shoot from the pit. You’re on stage and that’s it. I don’t want that, it could be anywhere. I want you on the stage, I want all of that [the Pyramid Stage crowd]’. So I got to roam around that stage and it was surreal.”
Latham continued: “I remember hiding behind [drummer] Chris Sharrock and he looks at me and I’m like, ‘Fuck!’. It was just incredible, you don’t understand the scale of it when you watch it on tele until you’re on that stage. You feel really small because of the expanse of people and flags, the noise, it’s just fabulous.”
During Oasis’ heyday, she also shot a number of their legendary shows including Maine Road and their Knebworth super-gigs in 1996.
With the Gallagher brothers now settling their differences after 15 years for a reunion tour in 2025, the thing that most excites Latham about their forthcoming shows is the fact that a new generation will finally get to see the duo onstage together for the first time.
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“What I love about this is that when I’m shooting the High Flying Birds, I often look at the crowd and I’m always flabbergasted by the fact there are so many youngsters singing back his songs at him,” she told NME.
“Then when he drops the Oasis numbers in as well, they’re just belting them back so I’m really chuffed that another generation are gonna get to see what we saw. That’s what I’m most excited about. It’ll be interesting to see them both onstage together again as well won’t it?”
As for whether she’ll get to shoot the Gallagher brothers, Latham said: “At this stage I’ve not a clue whether I’m shooting them. There’s nothing on the table.
“But, I’ve no doubt I’ll shoot Noel at some point again. It’s there, it’s not going away. It’s an unwritten thing.”
‘A New World Blazing’ is on display at the Gibson Garage in London now.