So Noel Gallagher has taking his High Flying Birds onto the arena stage. That is remarkable progress in such a short period of time. Remember the former Oasis songwriter played his first ever concert with his new band in the Olympia in Dublin (which is nowhere near arena status) on October 23rd of last year. That was also the day when his album went to number one. Substantial airplay of his singles AKA... What A Life and If I Had A Gun and the inclusion of at least 9 Oasis songs in his live set all contributed to Noel selling out The Point on Friday night.
What about the gig then? For anybody who didn't know what the potential setlist was going to be beforehand Noel could not be accused of being predictable by opening with (It's Good) To Be Free and following it up with the second track from Don't Believe The Truth, Mucky Fingers, which was one of the highlights of the evening. Noel then played some of the better songs from his debut solo album with If I had A Gun in particular going down a treat. However B-side The Good Rebel left many of the punters looking bored, mainly because nobody had heard it because people don't buy singles anymore.
The first Oasis song of the night Supersonic led to one of the most memorable singalongs and left me feeling rather nostalgic. Noel played it on the acoustic guitar, and while I will always prefer Liam singing this song, his older brother need not have sang a note as every syllable was blasted out to perfection at the redeveloped Point Depot.
The first bit of banter between Noel Thomas and the crowd occurred when the man in center stage dedicated AKA... What A Life to any Man City fans in the audience. Noel's daring dedication led to some boos but the crowd weren't booing at the of the song after a fine rendition of one of the best songs on his first solo album. Old favourites Talk Tonight and Half The World Away also had me singing along with everyone else.
Noel began his encore with Whatever which was the song of the night. The idiots in the audience who were throwing beer were not going to spoil my enjoyment of this great Oasis single. Little By Little, which is one of the most under rated Oasis songs also went down very well with the sell out crowd. The Chief, as he was first called when Oasis were on their Be Here Now tour, precdictably finished with Don't Look Back In Anger. You didn't have to be Mystic Meg to forecast that this would be the final song of the evening or that it would be sung with energetic enthusiasm by the people. Noel cleverly left the punters to sing the chorus which everybody knows without his help. The Crouch End Choir were also backing Noel but I didn't notice their contribution because I couldn't hear them
Noel later described the concert as "supermegadoubletop" on his blog. It wasn't that super but it was enjoyable. What about Noel as a front man? I would have preferred to have seen more interaction with the crowd and less in jokes with his band mates. He has the ability to work the crowd, and while there was plenty of enthusiasm shown for the songs from his debut solo album it was the Oasis numbers which received the best reception. In the short term Noel will continue to do fine as a solo artist, but is fine good enough to satisfy a man who once had world domination? In the long term he needs to make up with Liam and let him take center stage singing songs written by Noel Gallagher. By the way, any sign of Stuart?
SETLIST:
(It's Good) To Be Free
Mucky Fingers
Everybody's On The Run
Dream on
If I Had A Gun
The Good Rebel
The Death Of You And Me
Freaky Teeth
Supersonic
(I Wanna Live In A Dream In My) Record Machine
AKA... What A Life
Talk Tonight
AKA... Broken Arrow
Half The World Away
Soldier Boys And Jesus Freaks
(Stranded On) The Wrong Beach
ENCORE:
Whatever
Little By Little
The Importance Of Being Idle
Don't Look Back In Anger
© Seamus Egan 2012
