What happens when you put 50,000 people in the City of Manchester Stadium and Oasis together? One hell of a good night! After selling out Madison Square Gardens Oasis came back to their home town to give another memorable performance. Support band ‘The Coral’ were always going to be popular, but as always the Scousers will always play second fiddle to the Manc’s.
The band came on stage and before they had even finished the intro to ‘Turn up the Sun’ they had to stop playing as the front barrier broke. For the next twenty-five minutes Noel gave some of his own comic banter, before Liam challenged the ladies in the audience to ‘get your tits out’. Ten minutes and about 50 pairs of breasts on the big screen later, the band restarted. The crowd surged forward and you always knew it would be special. The band, along with Zack Starkey (Ringo’s Son) on drums played through older classics such as ‘Bring it on down’ and live favorite ‘Acquiesce’ before playing seven tunes of the new album. The difference here though is that after ‘Standing on the Shoulders’ was released the band felt duty bound to play tracks from the album. For this gig, every new tune was there on merit, including ‘The Importance of being Idle’ – a cross between ‘The La’s’ and ‘The Kinks’ according to Noel.
During the gig, the band played songs penned by all four members of the band and you started to realize that it is now Oasis the band, not the Gallagher brothers and the other two. Gem Archer and Andy Bell bring a quality to the band that ‘Bonehead’ and ‘Guigsy’ could never do. Having said that, for those that weren’t at Maine Road in 1996, this was their gig. The atmosphere was as good as anywhere else, and it had to be as everyone in the stadium was missing ‘Live 8’ down in London, but given the choice I’m sure no one would have preferred to be anywhere else on the night.
Who wants to see bands like ‘Travis’ and ‘Keane’ anyway?
Having seen Oasis five times now this was by far the best large concert I have seen them play. The band were amazing even if the crowd singing meant you could hardly hear the greatest British rock singer in the last twenty years in Liam. Noel let the crowd sing the chorus to ‘Don’t look back in anger’ for him, before the set finished with ‘The Who’s’ classic ‘My Generation’, which is always a superb closing tune. Any claims that Oasis are past it or that they don’t matter anymore were quashed emphatically. They are still the most important British band around.
It was a long walk home afterwards, especially with tired feet, sweat drenched clothes and no voice left, but these sort of gigs only come around every 3 or 4 years, so there’s plenty of time to recover for the next one!
Set List:
‘Fuckin’ In the Bushes’
‘Turn Up The Sun’
‘Lyla’
‘Bring It On Down’
'Morning Glory’
‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’
‘The Importance Of Being Idle’
‘Little By Little’
‘A Bell Will Ring’
‘Acquiesce’
‘Songbird’
‘Live Forever’
‘Mucky Fingers’
‘Wonderwall’
‘Champagne Supernova’
‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Star’
‘Guess God Thinks I’m Abel’
‘The Meaning Of Soul’
‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’
‘My Generation’