By Dianne Bourne
Yes, it really happened. Oasis came, they saw, and they utterly conquered on the opening night of their epic comeback tour.
I was one of the lucky 60-odd thousand or so fans who can say “I was there” at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on Friday night. And what a truly special moment it was for any Oasis fan, heck, for any fan of live music, to witness the return of the Gallagher brothers on stage and back at the peak of their rock ‘n’ roll powers.
This morning is a time to reflect on all of the magic moments from that gig. And also some of the things that raised an eyebrow (or monobrow) about it all.
I woke up rubbing my eyes thinking “Did that really happen?”, rubbing my ears wondering if the ringing sound is actually going to go away, as well as a nagging thought “Did people REALLY boo at one point?”
So here, let me take you through some of the surprising moments of a special night, as well as some of the bits I probably forgot to add into my review of the show, fired off at blistering pace straight after the gig last night.
The moment the crowd booed
Let me start by saying this was a crowd in Cardiff so loud with cheers for the band that I still can’t hear this morning. I’ve seen some people who watched live streams saying they thought the crowd was a bit dead, but trust me it did not feel like that inside the stadium AT ALL, it was totally buzzing.
But the moment a whole load of people all chose to boo did leave me a tad startled. It was part way through the show when Liam returned to the stage to make an entreaty to the fans before performing Fade Away.
“Anyone here from Manchester?” he yelled in his broad Manc accent. And that’s when boos rang out!
He then said “Anyone here from Burnage?” And the crowd went deathly quiet.
Now, I know people are partisan about football and stuff but it’s not like he said “Anyone love Manchester City” is it?
Manchester is in Oasis’ DNA so come on people, just cheer and pretend you’re from Burnage for the night OK.
Let it be known I gave a big cheer for all the citizens of Mancunia while everyone else did a boo.
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The tender tributes
We all know Oasis survives and thrives off swagger. And this show had lots of it.
But it also had tender moments – like that spine-tingling entrance with Liam and Noel reunited arm in arm that left many of us pretending it was sweat, honestly, not tears we were dabbing away from our faces.
And there were lovely touches as well as the band paid special tributes to those we have loved and lost in the show.
The first of these came at the end of Live Forever. As the final guitar outro was played by Noel, an image flashed onto the big video screens, showing the Number 20 shirt of Liverpool FC footballer Diogo Jota, who tragically died aged just 28 alongside his brother Andre Silva earlier this week.
It proved football allegiances were put to one side for the Man City-supporting Gallaghers, to pay their moving tribute to the Reds star.
Then at the climax to the show, Noel launched into fan favourite Don’t Look Back In Anger. The song was adopted as the anthem of his home city in the wake of the Manchester Arena terrorist attack in May 2017.
So it was utterly perfect for the video screens to feature black and yellow bees, the symbol of Manchester, swarming as the crowd sang along to every word of the song. Goosebumps time for sure.
And finally there was also Noel’s unique tribute to Oasis founding member Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs who reunited with both Gallaghers for the first time in 16 years too.
As Noel thanked all of the band he paid his rightful dues saying: “This f***ing uber-legend here Bonehead”.
So we didn’t get much interaction from the Gallagher brothers between themselves on stage, not that any of us were expecting any Chuckle Brothers ‘to me to you’ kind of moments given the band’s history.
But Liam himself was in fierce and funny form as he bantered with the crowd between songs. Oh, and even during songs at one point when during Wonderwall he changed the lyrics to: “There are many things that I would like to say to you…. But I don’t speak Welsh”.
The biggest laugh of the night though was probably when he made a joke about the whole dynamic ticket pricing drama that engulfed the tour when it first went on sale.
“You alright you’re having a good time yeah?” He said, before cheekily adding: “Was it worth the £40,000 you paid for a ticket?” As everyone loudly laughed and cheered he swaggered out a long: “Yeaaahhh”.
That it all ran so smoothly
You never know what to expect with any live gig – but having been to thousands of shows as a reviewer for the MEN for the past 20 years I mostly know never to expect bands to come out when the published set times say they will.
So imagine my utter surprise when Cast walked out one minute EARLY on Friday night at 5.59pm. Would Richard Ashcroft do the same? Erm, yep, he came out at one minute early as well at 6.59pm.
But surely Oasis would be late wouldn’t they? They’re rock ‘n’ roll staaaaaaaars.
Nope, their intro started at 8.14pm as well – a minute earlier than scheduled.
So my advice if you’re heading to any of the upcoming Oasis shows is believe the truth – and get there early.
The setlist
Ok, this was not exactly the biggest surprise – as some of the “leaked” setlists doing the rounds on social media in the days leading up to this show were uncannily accurate.
But I mean, come on, Is there any other band who could play FOUR B-sides in a show like this and all of them get possibly a bigger reception than the chart-topping hits?
For true Oasis fans there could be no real complaints about the selection, although there’s always going to be some unpicking I suppose of why bigger hits weren’t included.
Surprising omissions I suppose would be the fact none of their later songs from albums like Dig Out Your Soul and Don’t Believe in the Truth made the cut – and I imagine some fans would have liked to have heard Let There Be Love and The Importance of Being Idle.
At the end of the day though this was a two hour set of dreams for me.
And, naturally, we don’t know what Oasis have up their sleeves for the rest of the tour so there are likely to be more surprises yet to come.
Roll on Heaton Park…
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