The latest in news from the cultural universe
Just For Culture
  • Home
  • Art & Literature
  • Music
  • Day & Nightlife
  • Film & TV
  • About Us & Contact

Live Review: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Electric Fields Festival, 31 August 2018

5/9/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Oasis are such a marmite band. Those who like them, love them. Those who don't like them, despise them. Personally, I think they're quite good but, then again, I am my own man. I could take or leave marmite as well, but now I'm bragging.

Aside from me being such a free-thinker, I think the reason for my relative indifference is I was too young to get fully caught in the wave of Brit Pop world domination. I'd heard a few Oasis songs but hadn't really got all the shit the went with it. Rather than Oasis vs. Blur, I got the much milder The Cribs vs. The Pigeon Detectives.

Had I properly been there at the time, I would have thought that the Gallagher brothers were twats and would probably write them off immediately. However, by the time I came to this realisation I kind of already liked their hits, forcing me to appreciate Noel Gallagher as a songwriter but maybe not as a person.

I didn't anticipate the amount of Oasis songs Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds would play during his headline set at Electric Fields. With three albums of their own, they easily could have thrown in 'Don't Look Back In Anger' and be done with the Oasis stuff, however, Noel knew what the crowd wanted. I never thought I'd compliment a Gallagher brother for not having a big head but it was nice to see Noel Gallagher put his audience before his ego.

That's not to say his High Flying Birds stuff pales in comparison. The pounding rhythm of 'A.K.A. What A Life' was exhilerating, 'Holy Mountain' is a great piece of bombastic fun and 'In The Heat of the Moment''s chorus is just fucking huge. So huge, in fact, that the drummer tried to emphasise it with what would have been a sweet drumstick toss... had he caught it. He recovered very well and almost got away with it but I saw it and I found it very funny.
Picture
An early highlight of the set came when the band played 'If I Had A Gun...' which is one of the best indie ballads within this decade. I believe that if 'If I Had A Gun...' had been released during Oasis' heyday, you'd hear it alongside 'Wonderwall' and 'Live Forever' at every indie disco across the country.

The set just displayed how prolific a songwriter Noel is with a brilliant, extensive band including keys and brass making each song sound as rich as they could be.

When Noel played Oasis songs, however, he played them at slightly different tempos which kind of displayed the magician's assistant's legs in the box before she even got in. He sticks to very similar chords and patterns so when he played 'Whatever', I thought it was 'Wonderwall'; when he played 'Half The World Away', I thought it was 'She's Electric'. Still, it was great getting the chance to hear these huge Brit Pop anthems live.

A nice touch was that Oasis' long term guitarist Gem Archer was also up there with Noel. An even nicer touch was that Gem Archer looked like he's in the middle of morphing from a mid-2000s Noel Gallagher into a mid-2000s Paul Weller. Another fun doppelganger was a guy in a parka standing close to us who was the spitting image of a pissed off Liam Gallagher. We created the narrative that he was the real thing, spitefully watching as his estranged brother killed it onstage. My friend pointed out that he saw him singing along, realised he was being watched and immediately stopped, adding the detail that he actually quite likes the High Flying Birds but doesn't want anyone to know. Poor guy. No one wants to be caught having a good time.

On a hangover, I'll tend to watch videos that make me feel better about the world: deaf people hearing for the first time, soldiers coming home and surprising their kids, you get the idea. One of the staple categories are big singalong, normally at music festivals. Before the show, I was very much looking forward to 'Don't Look Back In Anger' for that exact reason.

Noel clearly appreciated this as well as he dropped out during the choruses of the Oasis songs and just letting the crowd belt it out.

I wasn't hungover but there's still something almost transcendental about singing these choruses that everyone knows at the top of your lungs among hundreds of strangers. Something unifying about Oasis lovers, haters and wildcards like myself coming together to scream that Sally can't wait.
4/5
Grant Robertson
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Music

    Bringing you the latest music news, features and opinions from the JFC mind

    Archives

    May 2021
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    June 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    June 2013

    Categories

    All
    2013
    2014
    2015
    Abandon Ship
    Aberdeen
    Album
    Alex Metric
    Alternative
    Austin Carlile
    Band
    Becky Hill
    Beyonce
    Biffy
    Biffy Clyro
    Blackened Sky
    Blog
    Bono
    Broken Social Scene
    Calvin Harris
    Camden
    Charlie Simpson
    Chart
    Chris Martin
    CHVRCHES
    Clyro
    Coldplay
    Dance
    Dangermouse
    D&B
    Deadmau5
    Decade
    Drum And Bass
    Dublin
    EDM
    Ella Eyre
    Exclusive
    Festival
    Full Crate
    Gecko
    Genre
    Ghost Stories
    Giorgio Moroder
    Girl Friend
    Glasgow
    God Level
    Gorgon City
    Gwyneth Paltrow
    Handguns
    Heart To Heart
    Hit The Lights
    House
    Hudson Mohawke
    If I Go
    Indie
    Infinity Land
    Innovative
    Interview
    In The Lonely Hour
    Ireland
    ITunes
    Jesse Glynne
    Jess Glynne
    JproD
    Jurassic 5
    Kanye-west
    Kilmainham
    Kings
    King-tuts
    King-tuts020c7650de
    Knife Party
    Latest
    Liquid Room
    Little Matador
    Little Mix
    Live
    Live Review
    Living Without You
    London
    McBusted
    Mentirosa
    Metric
    MK
    Monarchy
    Money On My Mind
    Motion
    Music
    Myspace
    Neck Deep
    New
    New Music
    News
    New Wave
    Of Mice & Men
    Oliver $
    Oliver Heldens
    Online
    Only Revelations
    OPM
    Opposites
    Overdrive
    Paloma Faith
    Paul Epworth
    PAWS
    Pendulum
    Pop
    Pop Punk
    Pop-Punk
    Punk-Rock
    Puzzle
    Rating
    Reasons
    Remi
    Remix
    Review
    Ric Ocasek
    Rivers Cuomo
    Rob Swire
    Rock
    Royal Hospital
    Rudimental
    Ryan Tedder
    Sam Smith
    Scotland
    Scottish
    Simon Neil
    Single
    Singles
    Slam Dunk
    Sleep Deprived
    Social Network
    Songs Of Innocence
    Soul
    Synthpop
    Technology
    The 1975
    The Pierces
    The Story So Far
    The Xcerts
    Tour
    Twin Atlantic
    U2
    Video
    Wah Wah Hut
    We Are The In Crowd
    Website
    Weezer
    Xcerts
    Yeezus
    Youth Culture Forever

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.