Guitar collection of Scottish music legend Rab Noakes to be auctioned

The Fife-born Scottish singer-songwriter, who died in November 2022 aged 75, was a hugely influential figure on the Scottish music scene across five decades.

Born in St Andrews and brought up in Cupar, he released over 20 albums and worked with greats such as Gerry Rafferty, Lindisfarne and Stealers Wheel in a stellar career.

His extensive collection of guitars and stringed instruments is being sold off at Great Western Auctions in Glasgow between April 23 and 25. Full details here.

Items up for grabs include a 1960s Gibson B-45 12 string, a 1960s vintage Gibson B-25 12 N twelve string, and a Gibson Southern Jumbo electro acoustic six string. Fans can also bid for his 2004 Martin D-41 dreadnought six-string acoustic guitar.

Noakes was held in the highest regard by his fellow musicians and his fans. He was one of Scottish folk music’s finest ambassadors - an outstanding singer-songwriter who never forgot his roots in Fife where he was a regular visitor. At the time of his death he was due to perform at the Polish Club in Kirkcaldy in December, and also record a song he wrote about the late Jim Hyndman with some of his many friends in the Kingdom.

He always cut a dapper figure on the music scene, immaculately turned out, and was a regular figure at folk clubs across Scotland as well as appearing at major concert halls and on festival bills.

In the summer of 1970, the Great Fife Roadshow took to the road with Noakes very much at the helm. Their tour started in St Andrews and included luminaries such as Barbara Dickson, Jimmy Hutchison, Davie Craig, Noel Farrow, Des Haldane, John Watt, Jim Herd, Maureen Chalmers, Artie and Davey Stewart. He was one of the driving forces behind a 2019 50th anniversary revival gig at Lochgelly Theatre.

As well as writing and performing, Noakes was the senior producer for music programmes on BBC Radio Scotland, and, a staunch trades unionist, and he continued to champion musicians’ interests as he served on Musicians’ Union executive committee and represented musicians’ interests at the Scottish Trades Union Congress. In 2017 he was inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame, two years after a diagnosis of tonsillar