GioGoi, Liam Gallagher and the ‘holy grail’ Oasis tape

In the early 90s Anthony Donnelly was flying Manchester’s flag, organising the North’s first Acid House parties, the most famous of which were SWEAT IT OUT and JOY.

He is one of the Co-Founders of GioGoi, along with his brother Christopher Donnelly.

The beginnings of GioGoi

During the Acid House revolution, Manchester was at the epicentre of this amazing cultural movement that is still being celebrated today.

Ironically, GioGoi said that the current collaboration between authorities and promoters to facilitate parties has “made them sterile.”

“They claim the Acid House revolution for themselves – don’t believe a word!” they added.

“This is not how it is or how it was.

“We know who was on the roofs, holding off the police with sieges, building stages, and erecting circus tents in fields, making it happen with no permission from anyone except the farmer.”

From this scene, the Gio-Goi fashion label emerged, financed through illegal Acid House parties.

With its roots in the bands and DJs at the heart of Manchester’s dance culture revolution, the brand took the UK by storm.

It was at the heart of Manchester’s dance culture revolution.

Freedom to party protest Albert Square

GioGoi was born out of frustration; organising the first mass freedom to party protest in the city, in Albert Square, with tens of thousands of fans up in arms.

A GioGoi member of staff booked the square officially, a wagon with a sound system was hired and DJs brought in from all over the UK.

The police had no idea and then bang at 2pm the wagon drove on to the square and the sides were ripped open and it was ON!

A representative from Gio-Goi explained, “Gio-Goi was all about fighting for the right to party. Our brand came from the streets of Manchester with no silver spoon, unlike other brands that have since emerged from the boardrooms of London and overseas, hijacking the city for themselves.”

They continued, “Today, huge corporations with massive budgets operate in Manchester, claiming to be part of this historic time, but they can only offer a watered-down version of what the scene represented: freedom and anti-establishment.”

“The youth flocked to GioGoi in droves,” they added, “which allowed the label to become an established brand.”

Gio-Goi and Britpop

When Britpop arrived GioGoi became even more famous and was popular with a multitude of other artists.

One noteable supporter was Liam Gallagher who wore the brand since the very beginning.

Liam was wearing a denim GioGoi shirt with green tab and steel plate saying ‘dedicated to those dodging the rain n bullets’ on the bottom right on Oasis’ first appearance on Top of the Pops performing ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Star’.

Following this, GioGoi evolved as the Manchester fashion and music revolution thrived globally.

Liam Gallagher x GioGoi

A GioGoi spokesperson said: “We have not had a chance to ask the question how Liam was acquiring GioGoi clothes before we knew of each other.

“We kept getting calls about this kid from Burnage called Liam who had all our samples on.

“He was just a kid who lived in an avenue in Burnage, that’s all we knew.

“We were smashing it at that time; our samples were like platinum.

“But this kid had more of our stuff than we did. We spent a few weeks looking for the lad Liam and never trapped him.

“Fair play to him, all Mancs are talented at blagging.

“We first met Liam at the M.E.N Arena when Oasis played there for the first time,” the spokesperson continued.

“Liam commented on what a great coat our kid was wearing and how smart it was, buttoned up high, a white plastic fabric Stone Island coat.

“The following day he appeared in the paper wearing the exact same coat walking through an airport with our pal who was head of security for Oasis, Kev Camp from Top Guard.

“Liam was rocking the same coat buttoned up exactly the same way; the rest is history – the button up was born with a Liam Gallagher and GioGoi leading the way. With a GioGo sweatshirt complimenting the look.”

Liam Gallagher Prince of Wales Camden shoot

An infamous GioGoi shoot with Liam took place in the toilets of the Prince of Wales in Camden. GioGoi’s HQ was always in Manchester but they had moved to London for international business and opened the pub as the GioGoi offices in King’s Cross were mobbed with celebrities and buyers from all over the world.

“We moved the madness of the success of GioGoi from the office to our own pub,” added the GioGoi spokesperson.

“The lad who did the shoot with Liam was James Ormandy aka Sparrow and Frank Rizzo, Liam’s pal. Sparrow was the best friend of DJ Sasha.

“It was hilarious: you had the biggest front man from the best band in the world who could have had a GQ or Vogue front cover doing a shoot for GioGoi in a pub toilet.

“It was about as Mancunian as it gets.”

GioGoi X Pretty Green

Liam kept on supporting the brand being pictured wearing GioGoi out and about and in the recording studio especially the sportswear track tops. More recently GioGo collaborated with Liam’s ex-clothing label Pretty Green, producing the iconic ‘Acid Kings’ design, stating that the Acid House range by Pretty Green was inspired by GioGoi.

GioGoi is currently solely sold online.

GioGoi online only

The company spokesman added: “We have lost faith in the High Street. The whole industry is full of bullshitters and pretenders. We would rather sell to one person that is having it than a thousand that are not.”

“We’re still heavily involved in the fashion business and have a full sneaker/trainers collection about to drop and to celebrate this we’re organising a full-on original warehouse party in collaboration with our new brand MDCR mdcrofficial.com later in the year, using a whole new generation of youths who like GioGoi want a new revolution and a new Manchester.”

Oasis’ first ever demo tape

Anthony has loaned some pieces of his memorabilia collection to the current hit Oasis Exhibition at Salford Lads Club show, described as the biggest and best Oasis collection in the world.

Alongside framed signed gold and platinum discs, Anthony is behind the rarest piece in the exhibition, the band’s very first demo tape.

Anthony Donnelly co-owns the tape with Kyle Dale from Bittersweet Home, organiser of the exhibition. Fans describe the tape as the “holy grail” for Oasis collectors and “the number one memorabilia item of the biggest band in the world.”

A cassette of three tracks recorded at Out of the Blue studios, Manchester in Autumn 1991.

This tape, recorded in 1991 before Noel Gallagher joined the band, is considered a “holy grail” for collectors. It includes three tracks recorded at Out of the Blue studios, with a unique backstory involving plastering work in exchange for studio time.

This was the very first studio recording done by Oasis, with three Liam/Bonehead written songs being recorded.

Noel, in the band’s first press article in the 22nd October 1991 edition of Uptown magazine, claimed that the band had the opportunity to record the demos for free as drummer Tony McCarroll was a plasterer by trade, and agreed to work on the walls in the building in exchange for some recording time.

McCarroll, in his book Oasis: The Truth – My Life As Oasis’ Drummer concurs, saying it was negotiated by Bonehead’s brother Martin, and that Bonehead, bassist Guigsy and McCarroll had done the plastering work.

He also confirms that this session was done before Noel joined, mentioning that the later Abraham Moss session was their first as a five-piece.