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The new Ibanez Jon Gomm signature guitar has become the latest addition to the Leeds museum’s Sounds of Our City exhibition, which celebrates more than 200 years of the city’s concerts, performances and musical memories.

It has been donated by Leeds-based guitarist, singer and songwriter Jon Gomm, and the contemporary instrument will soon be put on display alongside a collection of pieces

from the museum’s collection.

Singer Songwriter Jon Gomm, based in Leeds, with his prototype Ibanez guitar he was loaning to the Sounds of The City exhibition at the Kirkstall Abbey House Museum.

They include a newly-restored 1850s Dearlove double bass, made in Leeds and a skeleton or mute violin from around 1880, which was used by musicians to practice more

quietly.

Also on display alongside the new guitar will be a glass harp, made in 1820 by Leeds craftsman Joshua Muff and played by running a chalked or moistened finger round a series

of glasses of different shapes and sizes.

The album on vinyl, 'Live at Leeds', by The Who is one of the exhibits in the Sounds of The City exhibition at the Kirkstall Abbey House Museum.

Kitty Ross, Leeds Museums and Galleries’ curator of social history, said: “The sheer scope and variety of musical instruments we have in the collection shows how much our shared

love of music has been a powerful catalyst for innovation and creativity as musicians strove to find new ways to express themselves.

“We’re extremely grateful to Jon Gomm for this kind donation and for this beautiful new guitar to become one of the newest chapters in the long and fascinating story of music in

Leeds.”

A teenager's bedroom showing pop culture is one of the exhibits in the Sounds of The City exhibition at the Kirkstall Abbey House Museum.

Jon said: “It’s not every day a local musician gets a signature model guitar produced by a big company like Ibanez. I've spent the last three years developing this guitar with them, so I

still have the prototype and I've been wondering what to do with it, so when the museum asked for a guitar, the stars aligned.

“It's just an enormous honour to be part of the exhibition. My career started on the Leeds music scene in the early 2000s, and I'm very proud of being a part of that period and having

embedded myself in the culture of this city. To mark that for posterity in this way, it feels like it mattered a little bit.”

Patrick Bourne, assistant curator of Community History with a Corinne Bailey Rae CD, and Kitty Ross, curator of Leeds History, with a Joseph Dearlive violin, one of the oldest and newest exhibits in the Sounds of The City exhibition at Abbey House Museum.

As well as instruments, Sounds of Our City also explores the different ways we encounter music at home and school memorabilia from some of the different venues associated with

music in the city.

A song book, featuring a song entitled This is our Opening Day, which was written and performed for the opening of Roundhay Park in 1872 is on display along with a doll of Leeds-

born Spice Girl Mel B, a vintage-style juke box and incredible automated machine featuring children’s TV icons Sooty, Sweep and Soo.

Coun Jonathan Pryor, Leeds City Council’s executive member for culture, economy and education, said: “Music plays such a central and important role in our lives and Leeds in

particular is a city which has a unique, rich and enthralling musical heritage.

“It’s inspiring to see that heritage celebrated at the museum and for the musicians of today to be so keen to play a part in further enriching the special legacy of music in Leeds.”

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New exhibition showcases Leeds' musical history and heritage from a Victorian glass harp to Mel B doll