British Music Experience to celebrate iconic 90s music artwork

Bands of the 1990s – including Manchester superstars Oasis - are being recalled in a new exhibition at the British Music Experience.

Microdot – The 90s is being curated by Wigan-born graphic designer, photographer and music video director Brian Cannon, who set up the Microdot agency which created some of the most well-known music artwork in the world.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the launch of Oasis’ Definitely Maybe, and official artwork and memorabilia for the band will feature as part of the new exhibition in the Cunard Building-based music museum.

Microdot, founded by Cannon in 1990, also created the artwork for the band's (What’s the Story) Morning Glory and Be Here Now albums, and designed record sleeves for groups like The Verve, Suede and Super Furry Animals among others.

And Definitely Maybe and The Verve’s single This Is Music featured in Q Magazine’s 100 best covers of all time list.

The exhibition will shine a spotlight on some of the agency’s work, work-in-progress designs, and creations that didn’t make the final cut as well as feature a selection of original props used on some of the album sleeves and in videos.

This includes the Gibson Flying ‘V’ guitar played by Noel Gallagher for the Oasis video D’You Know What I Mean.

Some of the items on display come from America-based Brian Garcia who has the world’s biggest Oasis memorabilia collection. They include guitars and clothing worn by the band as well as the equipment on which they recorded the originals demos of tracks such as Rock ‘n’ Roll Star and Columbia.

Cannon, said: “I’m really excited by the opportunity to put together this unique exhibition which for the first time features a collection of incredible memorabilia, as well as key work from Microdot.

“I’ve always wanted to do something like this in Liverpool, and the British Music Experience is the perfect place for this with its amazing collection of British music artefacts. The team there are all real music enthusiasts and I’ve really enjoyed working with them on this project.”