Designer of Oasis and The Verve albums to take to Glasgow's King Tut's stage

Graphic designer Brian Cannon, who created the record artwork for everything released by the bands in the ‘90s, will take to the stage at King Tut’s next week for a presentation and Q&A to share his stories of how “a working-class kid with no money and no contacts set out to design the best sleeves for the best bands in the world and remarkably pulled it off”.

The 56-year-old says he set out to design record sleeves when he was just 11-years-old and first started listening to punk rock, and he realised he didn’t have the patience to learn to play the guitar to become a rockstar.

Brian Cannon

The Microdot founder said: “I went away and did a degree in graphics and then, I refused to get a job as such, and just through sheer persistence and some lucky meetings I ended up meeting Richard Ashcroft out The Verve when he was a young student before the band had formed and got to work with them.

“Then I met Noel Gallagher by chance in a lift talking about Adidas trainers before Oasis was signed even and got the chance to work with them and basically did all the artwork for everything they released in the 1990s.”

He continued: “I’d always been interested in art and drawing as a child so I thought if I marry the two together, my love of music and my talent for art, I can get involved that way and that’s what I did.

“It was a dream come true, it’s what I set out to do in the first place so to actually see it happen was quite remarkable really.”

Brian, who grew up in Wigan, started working with both bands before they’d released any records and says those attending the event will not only have “a right laugh”, but people will hear stories they won’t hear anywhere else.

He says: “What you often find on the internet or on YouTube for example is there’s a lot of videos about Oasis, but it’s all third-hand stuff, it’s just something that somebody’s read about.

“This is from the horse’s mouth, I was there, I wasn’t just brought in on occasion to do some work with the band, I was part of the gigs and people are going to hear stories that they won’t hear anywhere else and be able to buy stuff that they can’t get anywhere else so it’s a pretty unique event.

“I can’t be caught out by any question because I know more about the subject than anybody else obviously.”

He added: “It was life-changing, quite literally.

“I’m not being over dramatic about that, working with those two bands in the ‘90s has defined my career and my life pretty much.”

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For the event, the King Tut’s stage will be transformed into the Microdot Boutique, which is the company’s physical store, and will be turned into a pop-up shop following the presentation and Q&A.

Brian says the choice of venue was obvious.

“We chose the venue King Tut’s obviously because that’s where Oasis were discovered,” he said.

“We did look at other venues in Glasgow, but it had to be there really because that’s where they were discovered.”

He continued: “I actually can’t wait, and this will be specifically tailored to Glasgow, this isn’t some sort of generic event that we’re touring around, this is specific to Glasgow.

“We’ll have a specific event poster for sale and that will be Glasgow-themed.

“A lot of the work revolves around the fact Oasis was signed on the very stage I’ll be giving the speech from, so it will be entirely Glasgow-centric this night.”

Brian Cannon will be at King Tut’s on Friday, July 1 and Saturday, July 2.

Tickets can be purchased HERE.