{"id":335323,"date":"2025-08-11T09:04:29","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T09:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/335323\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T09:04:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T09:04:29","slug":"sifters-records-after-oasismania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/335323\/","title":{"rendered":"Sifters Records after Oasismania"},"content":{"rendered":"

– Advertisement –\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is supposed to be a hobby,\u201d said Peter Howard from behind his counter at Sifters Records in Burnage. \u201cThe last two weeks have been no hobby, trust me, it\u2019s been mayhem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been queuing out the door and down the street, and I\u2019ve just sat here selling with my head down, \u2018Don\u2019t look up, if you look up you panic\u2019. I\u2019ve had no chance to play with my box of 45s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sifters Records<\/p>\n

\"\"A musical Mecca for many <\/p>\n

When Peter set up Sifters in April 1977, his ambitions were much the same as they are now: a place to buy in collections and sell them to local record lovers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started with bugger all to be honest,\u201d Peter explained. \u201cThen we went round the houses, collected some more LPs and stuck them in, and that was the start. We got cheap rent because we had a plumber upstairs, and we had to answer his phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very happy with the rent, but then when people were ringing up while we were busy on a Saturday, saying they\u2019ve got a burst pipe and giving us a load of abuse, the novelty wore off a bit,\u201d he said with a chuckle.<\/p>\n

It would be at least another ten years before Sifters\u2019 most famous customer, Noel Gallagher, would walk in to spend his roadie wages (or his dole) on second-hand records. Another five years followed before this slim and unassuming shop on Fog Lane would be immortalised on Shakermaker, the second single on Definitely Maybe<\/a>, and one of a collection of songs written in building site prefabs and then performed to millions across the world.<\/p>\n

Which Oasis song mentions Sifters Records?<\/p>\n

\"\"Cain and Abel <\/p>\n

Thanks to Noel\u2019s nod to Mr Sifter, this local spot in a quiet suburb of South Manchester then became part of a mythology still adored 30 years later, especially in the last year alongside the media circus that has surrounded the band\u2019s return to the stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe mentioned at the time that the song was already in the pipeline, and then we were waiting with bated breath for it to come on the radio,\u201d remembers Peter. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit of the runt of the pack compared to the other singles but he said it\u2019s grown on him since. We had people coming in for autographs and to take pictures, no selfies then but the same sort of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musical pilgrimages from around the world <\/p>\n

Even in the fifteen years between the band\u2019s sudden but not unexpected split in 2009 and the sudden, and very much unexpected, announcement of a reunion last summer, Sifters still saw regular pilgrimages by fans from all over the world. But while the steady stream of Japanese and South American tourists became a part of life for Peter, the interest in his shop skyrocketed on 27 August 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe day they announced the reunion it was even worse in here. We had the press and TV lot waiting for me outside, and I don\u2019t open til 1 o\u2019clock,\u201d laughed Peter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI could see them as I drove past, checking their watches and moaning, a fella from the Evening News saying \u2018What time do you call this?\u2019 I said, \u2018I\u2019m prolonging my career\u2019. Two hours of tedious interviews, we could\u2019ve just done a press conference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oasismania returns to Manchester<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the weeks running up to the Heaton Park gigs, the sense of Oasismania building across the city centre could be seen in Burnage as fans descended on Sifters in a bid to get a glimpse of the Oasis origin story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been an event,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople have come from Australia, America, South Korea, Japan, it\u2019s like a holiday with Oasis performing in the middle of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been great, they\u2019ve all come in with bags of merch and clothes, they must have spent loads. And the band will be making billions, so they don\u2019t really need to do anything else unless they want to. They wanted to do it for fun, and they certainly don\u2019t need the money now.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the association with rock \u2018n\u2019 roll\u2019s Cain and Abel has no doubt helped keep the Sifters till in operation, Peter has no plans to cash in on his part in the band\u2019s mythology, instead opening up at 1 pm every day for the same reasons he did back in 1977.<\/p>\n

What does the future hold for Mr Sifter?<\/p>\n

\"\"Mr Sifter <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t need much money,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve got my pension. I just need to make a bit, which I\u2019m quite happy with. If I last another three years, that\u2019d be good. I\u2019ll be 80 in three years, so I\u2019m aiming for that, and then anything after that will be a bit of a bonus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be quite happy to return to normality. I don\u2019t even like playing Oasis in here because I don\u2019t want people thinking, \u2018Bloody Sifter, does he ever let up? He\u2019s obsessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can see what\u2019s happening at Sifters Records by clicking here<\/a><\/p>\n

– Advertisement –\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"– Advertisement – \u201cThis is supposed to be a hobby,\u201d said Peter Howard from behind his counter at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,26696,393,4884,2465,269,120041,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-335323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-burnage","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-music","14":"tag-sifters-records","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115009334291555215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}