Liam Gallagher has no time for the nostalgia market. At the first of his two nights at The O2, the 47-year-old branded heritage acts who bring nothing new to the table as “c****” before cementing his stance with a set split pretty evenly between solo material and Oasis classics.
Certainly, Gallagher has much to be proud of on the former score, having racked up his second consecutive solo number one album with September’s Why Me? Why Not.
Songs from it received a warm welcome last night, be it the glammy stomp of lead single Shockwave, Halo with its staccato Let’s Spend The Night Together-style piano chords, or The River, which featured his youngest son Gene on drums. And when Gallagher felt the audience response fell short, he was quick to whip them back into shape, taunting after Be Still, “this ain’t f***ing Oxford Street, and I’m not f***ing Peter Andre, so show up.”
Inevitably, it was Oasis material that received the most frenzied reception, uniting diehard fans with younger recruits who never had the opportunity to see the band play live back in the day. Joined by original rhythm guitarist Bonehead, Gallagher’s five-piece band — plus three backing vocalists — dispatched suitably incendiary renditions of Morning Glory, Supersonic and Columbia, while Wonderwall and Champagne Supernova provoked mass singalongs and set thousands of smartphone lights twinkling.
Most surprising was an outing of Gas Panic!, from Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants. A turgid sprawl on record, live it proved a claustrophobic highlight, and the perfect vehicle for those distinctive, sneering vocals.
As for Gallagher himself... well, he remains as compelling a frontman as ever, as arrogant as he is quietly appreciative. And it’s laudable that he’s making efforts to move beyond his former glories, even if performances like these only reinforce that he’ll be forever defined by them.
