Noel Gallagher strode through a confident set composed of both classics from his Oasis days, and new songs of last year's release, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.
The songs that wove themselves into the fabric of our generation's lives in the Nineties Britpop heyday shone forth in full glory even in the absence of Oasis's usual frontman, Liam Gallagher. Noel coped well on vocals on classics such as a fully formed electric Talk Tonight, his strongest ever Bside, and the trademark singalong Wonderwall - albeit in a spartan acoustic version a semitone higher in key than Liam used to sing it - Noel had the capo on the third fret as opposed to the usual second fret for this hit.
The new material worked well with a tight backing band of more spacious arrangements than Bell and Archer used to produce in Oasis' most recent lineup.
Undeniably Beatles-esque as always, yet stamping his own inimitable unique feel onto the new songs, standouts included The Death of You and Me and the touching If I Had A Gun, as well as the cracking opener, Everybody's on the Run. The frenetic momentum of this song is a proud clarion call from a songsmith in his prime, hitting his mature years with grace and pride and feel for a melody clearly intact.
Many of the songs were played on acoustic guitars by Noel, with the lead guitarist taking lead electric duties for most of the songs.... a notable exception being the fantastic closing Don't Look Back in Anger, which had the crowd taking the helm for each and every rousing chorus, Noel looking satisfied that his song-book is well known even Half the World Away... which incidentally was played beautifully also. The elder Gallagher brother shows himself more than up to the job of frontman in the place of Our Kid.
A poignant, yet uplifting perfect end to the Big Day Out series, an hour of perfect rocknroll.
And I do believe that is the most impressive range of guitars one man has played in the space of an hour!
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