Artist: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
Venue: O2 Arena, London
Date: 26th February 2012
Hit The Floor was lucky enough to obtain tickets to review Noel Gallagher and his extreemly High Flying Birds at London’s o2, Sunday (February 26th).
Tickets for the 20,000 capacity arena sold out within minutes which, considering it’s off the back of only one album, must have pleased the former Oasis frontman and caused sour grapes with his younger sibling Liam. Although coming from a man who stated in 2008 that they (Oasis) will never play at London’s O2 arena because it’s “soul-destroying” has certainly changed his tune with his first solo adventure, thankfully so, as the only thing being destroyed were the voice boxes of the crowd surrounding him.
Ahead of being declared a “Godlike Genius” at the NME Awards Tuesday night (1st March) Noel without intro and to an immense applause kicked into Oasis B-side ‘Good To Be Free’ leaving you to wonder if it was possibly a cynical dig at the demise of Oasis and the release from the stresses of Liam.
Joining the band on stage were the thirty piece choir of Crouch End Festival Chorus for ‘Everybody’s On The Run’ providing a spine chillingly beautiful background to Noels already soulful voice and gets the crowd roaring. The current single ‘Dream On’, proving Noel certainly wasn’t running out of batteries, was accompanied by a three piece horn section which was followed by Noels first vocal interaction with the crowd.
My personal favourite and highlight for possibly many others was the stunning ‘If I Had A Gun’ again joined by the choir bringing grandeur to the already breath-taking performance. The atmosphere was electrifying; Noels vocals were faultless if not a little quiet against the bellowing of the surrounding crowds voices.
The performance of unreleased song ‘Freaky Teeth’ was accompanied by an array of flashing strobes, the only time Noel really uses lights as a visual. Throughout the whole performance of the night the stage is only supported by a backdrop of split screens showing videos of the singles, or psychedelic patterns, proving that the man is enough of a performer without the need of pyrotechnics and visual aids.
An acoustic version of ‘Supersonic’ was refreshing, however left the crowd discussing whether ‘Wonderwall’ should have been a replacement as it was absent from the set.
Dedicating a song to “to the most important man in the world… Roberto Mancini” then asking “Is there any Man City fans in the crowd?” erupted the ‘Southern’ crowd into a chorus of boo’s. However all was forgiven when the lyrics of ‘What A Life’ blasted out, taking any negativity with it.
The encore kicked off with the instant crowd pleaser ‘Whatever’ which sounded heavenly with the backing of the choir; however as much as the crowd (and myself) were surprised and elated to hear it play it was the only time of the whole night that Liam’s raspy undertones were missed on a track.
Declaring the next song was 12 year old daughters Anaïs favourite, he preceded to say “This is for you Anaïs… She’s actually over there”; as he points to a private box to the right of the stage before striking into ‘Little By Little’.
The triumphant culminate of the entire night had to be the definitive closing anthem ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ fans linking arms holding hands up into the air singing well above Noels vocal range and still crooning on into the night, long after the band had left the stage and following out into the dark night of the o2 car park. Thus proving that if Noel Gallagher can sell out UK Arenas after a debut album he is certainly as a solo man here to stay whilst allowing us the little release we need as die hard Oasis fans by providing the echoes of the past into the future.
To summarise the night? In the words of Noel….. It was colossal !!!
Full set list:
(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
Record Machine
AKA…What A Life
Talk Tonight
Soldier Boys & Jesus Freaks
Broken Arrow
Half The World Away
Stranded On The Wrong Beach
* Encore *
Whatever
Little By Little
The Importance Of Being Idle
Don’t Look Back In Anger
