Oasis At Roundhouse, NW1 - The Sunday Times Review

Participants in the BBC Electric Proms are, states the festival’s website, “challenged to come up with new and original material or arrangements of their music to reflect the central theme of the festival, creating new moments in music”. To judge by this closing concert of the Proms’ third annual season, somebody forgot to tell Oasis — or, more likely, they simply ignored the advice. With a 20-song set that matched almost exactly the one they are currently touring British arenas with, the band paid lip service to the Proms’ ethos by being joined on stage by the 50-strong Crouch End Festival Chorus. That the singers were used on only six songs, and even then were, for the most part, inaudible, gives you some idea just how half-cocked the evening was. (A similar problem occurred during the Streets’ show earlier in the week, when the Heritage Orchestra got slightly lost in the mix.) And a surly and visibly wired Liam Gallagher, majestic when staring down a stadium crowd but risible glaring out, shades fixed to his face, and apparently balding, in such an intimate space, seemed unwilling to acknowledge the choir’s presence — bar a cursory “nice one” at the very end.

It was, as it so often is, left to Noel to inject some humour and passion into the proceedings. Addressing Daniel Craig in the gallery, he muttered: “I might see if I can blag it so that he can get me the next James Bond theme tune instead of f***ing dopey Americans doing it all the time.” He then took a pop at the insufferable Russell Brand, also present, which led some to heckle the comedian with mocking cries of “Who are you?”. Later, after Liam had remembered to introduce the band’s new man behind the kit (Chris Sharrock), saying, “Oh, by the way, that’s our new drummer,” Noel quipped, “Or as we call him, ‘number 32’.” And, backed by the choir on The Masterplan and a sublime Don’t Look Back in Anger, he exuded a commitment and vocal warmth almost totally absent from the performance of his brother.

The six songs included from their only mildly diverting new album, Dig out Your Soul, reinforced the sense that Oasis these days trade chiefly in former glories. Their performance of Shock of the Lightning might have exuded some of the old menace, but it’s still not a patch on Champagne Supernova or Cigarettes and Alcohol, incendiary here, and both moments where the packed crowd joined in with full-throated fervour.

So surplus to requirements did the poor choir seem that the show was better viewed as an opportunity to see one of the biggest live bands in the world in an unusually small setting. And, on that basis, there were thrilling moments, where the realisation that this was possibly a never-to-be-repeated experience seemed to dawn on the audience as one — nowhere more so than during the encore, when the imperishable Champagne Supernova was followed by the band’s traditional set-closer, I Am the Walrus. On the latter, the choir finally came into its own, attacking the “ho-ho-ho, hee-hee-hee, ha-ha-ha” backing vocals with gusto. At last, they could be heard. A rousing finale, then. But of “new and original material or arrangements” there was none.

Source: www.timesonline.co.uk