Noel Gallagher named as this year's Official Record Store Day UK Ambassador

Singer-songwriter Noel Gallagher has been announced as the ambassador of this year's Record Store Day UK, an annual celebration of the nation's independent record stores.

Taking in Gallagher's lengthy history of supporting indie record stores and previous five Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds Record Store Day releases; the Mancunian is arguably the perfect choice for the role.

“Record shops were really important when I was growing up," Noel said of the news. "It’s something that’s in my DNA. I think if we can keep record shops open for as long as possible, we owe it to the young people of this country. For this year’s Record Store Day I’ll be getting involved. I’ve got something unique coming out. Hopefully the fans will like it and they’ll keep the flame burning for your local record shop.”

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds are set to release Back The Way We Came: Vol 1 (2011-2021) on June 11th – a reminder of the breadth of classic songs from the first decade of Noel Gallagher’s latest outfit.

And as part of his official role as Record Store Day’s ambassador, there will also be a special limited-edition, numbered, hand-pressed, coloured double LP version of the album - with an exclusive art print created for indie record stores and released on first Drop on June 12th.

Hundreds of artists are releasing special and exclusive vinyl records to support the 250 shops who have faced enforced closures for more than three months this year alone. The success of this year’s Record Store Day event will be more crucial to retailers than any previous endeavour.

Every year, Record Store Day enlists one ambassador to represent record shops across the UK. In previous years the role has been taken on by the likes of The Big Moon, The Mighty Boosh, Rag 'n' Bone Man, Sir Elton John, Kae Tempest and Izzy Bizu, among many others.

The ambassador works in tandem with Record Store Day to encourage music lovers to support their local record store and discover the joys of vinyl.

Noel Gallagher is known as the principal songwriter, guitarist and occasional lead vocalist of Oasis - one of the biggest bands ever to emerge from the UK. Gallagher has an unprecedented ten consecutive chart-topping studio albums in his homeland so far, with three consecutive No.1's and over 2.4 million album sales globally for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.

Record Store Day is widely regarded as a key player in phenomenal resurgence in vinyl. Sales topped over than five million units in the UK last year, compared to just 205,000 in 2008 when Record Store Day began. The success of the event has sparked a huge turnaround in fortunes for the nation’s independent record stores, who have weathered the COVID-19 pandemic with brute resilience.

Watch Noel Gallagher's’s special video message to record shops below:

Check out Gallagher's performance of 'Dead in the Water' on last Friday's Late Late Show on RTÉ here.