The Gallagher brothers – alongside Bonehead, Gem Archer, Andy Bell and Joey Waronker – lit up Heaton Park over the weekend with two spectacular nights
If you miss the histrionics of the final Oasis years, the chaos on confusion on stage, this new tour may not be for you.
But having now seen it three times in a week, I think there are plenty of signs Noel Gallagher is moulding the band into a sharper sounding unit. And at the heart of it is a consistent vocal performance from brother Liam.
On Saturday night at the end of the show the brothers hugged and then Noel pointed over to his brother in a clear show of admiration and to tell the crowd just how much he loved Liam’s performance. It was a shocking sight, the total opposite of their old rows on stage.
This symbolic show of respect – Liam raises Noel’s arm aloft to start the shows too – means they are surely starting to get on better behind the scenes too.
Noel is loving working with Liam’s voice again. And perhaps he is now relaxing into the gigs a bit more as we saw some extra little guitar ad-libs, with longer intros and outros of songs are on display compared to the Cardiff comeback.
To my ears the band’s keyboard player Christian Madden has also been turned up on notch on some songs to good effect. And new drummer Joey Waronker has found his feet and the band is sounding tighter.
“What a f**king joy,” Liam said towards the end of the gig as they prepared to sing Wonderwall, and he wasn’t wrong.
If he keeps his end of the bargain and rests now and can keep his voice on track, Noel can tinker with the sound and the wall of guitars and the gigs will only get better.
Would I like more stage interaction? Of course. And some of the lines on stage are now pre-planned which doesn’t feel very Oasis. But the Gallaghers have grown up, and like their mature fans who can only manage to jump up and down for the odd song in three these days, this style of set is what they need to make things work.
And if Liam protects his vocal chords, little by little Noel is going to make Oasis even better.
Saturday night also saw Richard Ashcroft change up his set list in the support slot, bringing in Weeping Willow.
Fans who are going to more than one Oasis show, myself included, would love to see Noel do this but I’m not sure it’s very likely, he will concentrate on getting this set right, they will want to stick to the ones that worked best in rehearsals.
So roll on the next two hour singalong at Heaton Park. And long may the Gallaghers love in continue.