At this point, Noel Gallagher needs no introduction. One of the most widely recognised names in music, along with his brother Liam. After the split of Oasis in 2009, Noel Gallagher formed his High Flying Birds and set about making an album immediately. And whilst Liam saw miniscule success with Beady Eye Noel shot straight to number one on the album charts and scored a top 10 single with AKA.. What A Life. 2 albums on and Noel is that point where he’s ready to experiment and step out of his comfort zone – this paid dividends as Who Built The Moon? Was one of my favourite albums of last year and I’ve had in constant rotation ever since!
This is my second time seeing Noel after catching him in Birmingham on the Chasing Yesterday Tour, and this time was much better. With a new album comes new bangers, and these are arguably more lively, provide a deeper soundscape and you can also belt your lungs out to them. The curiously infectious “Holy Mountain” sounded phenomenal, even with the scissors clapping away making no difference whatsoever in the background. And ultimately, the Oasis songs were just added extras because he didn’t need them at all, with 3 albums of material to throw himself at now and bangers such as “In The Heat of The Moment”, “Ballad of The Mighty I” and “Dead In The Water”. He’s only doing Oasis because of the fan service or because he genuinely loves performing them, knowing the Gallagher brothers I presume it’s the latter.
What I enjoyed the most though was how genuinely funny he was, there was very little crowd interaction before and it seemed to have been going that way this time but half way through he kept talking, having football banter and asking the Nottingham crowd if they “still have a shit football team” – to which he then pointed at the Man City flag draped in the background and said “you see that… you see that, champions of England that is”. To which he was met with a mixture of laughter, cheering and booing. This banter carried on throughout the night from this point, and it really amplified the experience, injected a lot of that famous Gallagher personality into the performance.
And this review just wouldn’t feel complete if I didn’t mention the phenomenal light show! Laser beams shot around the room, spotlights, smoke, strobe lights… it had the lot and it truly was a spectacle to behold. I hope this tour gets a DVD release because I’d love to watch it again! It can’t be long until Noel attempts a stadium tour… surely?