Review: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds In Nottingham

It's the eternal problem faced by musicians doing gigs once they've reached the stage where more than one hand is needed to count their albums.They want to play the new stuff; the crowd wants to hear the old stuff; and neither ends up entirely happy. And when you've gone solo after being in the biggest band of the past 20 years, it's a problem that's doubled.

So how did Noel Gallagher cope with this on tour with his High Flying Birds? Pretty well, actually.

Of course, it was the Oasis songs that got the best reception, but that's not to say that the new stuff wasn't well received as well.

After kicking off with the Whatever B-side (It's Good) To Be Free, it was straight into the opening three songs of the High Flying Birds album and the clear laying down of a marker.

In fact, the whole of the CD was played in order (surely something you don't expect unless you're in Rick Wakeman concept-album territory) – but, interspersed with B-sides and carefully-chosen Oasis tracks, it made for a well-received mixture.

Of the new stuff, If I Had a Gun and AKA...What A Life were naturally the favourites, while an acoustic Supersonic and rapturously-received Don't Look Back in Anger were the highlights of the years when Gallaghers came in twos.

Many of the songs benefited from the contribution of the Crouch End Festival Chorus, who are accompanying Noel on tour, although to my mind they made Whatever sound a little too much like a Halifax commercial.

And what of the man himself? Well, he's not changing any time soon - so no-one should have been shocked by the damning put-downs of a front row heckler and the industrial language (although I fear a few of the Crouch End ladies may have added a few less savoury words to their vocabulary).

What might have come as a surprise, though, was the quality of his voice - a voice which always seemed to suffer slightly when sandwiched in between Liam's snarling vocals, but which came across loud and true in a venue which has seen other singers lose their way.

Source: www.thisisnottingham.co.uk

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds embark on a UK tour in September and will tour the US and Canada alongside Snow Patrol and Jake Bugg later this year.

More details on the above dates and more can be found by clicking here.