Review by Alan Steenson for MPM
Having watched Oasis a few times back in the 90’s once at their Belfast debut and the second time supporting REM I was interested to see how Liam Gallagher would perform without his older (‘and some might say’… more talented) brother. (see what I did there with the Oasis pun?)
Support for Liam Gallagher was
Kasabian who I have not seen before and local debutants Esmeralda Road.
35000 + tickets were sold for this outdoor event and looking at the sky I feared for the rain… and for you non oasis fans (like me) that was what they were called before they plumped for Oasis.
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So, with trusty poncho in hand, we settled down for the first act of the evening Esmeralda Road a seven-piece outfit from Belfast.
Their lead singer had a voice which didn’t appear to belong to his youthful face and their music was a real mixture of different styles that found it hard to pigeonhole to one genre, a fine mixture of Jazz/funk/ska and blues with throwbacks to bands like The Associates/ Jameraqui and Orange Juice. They received a good reception from the crowd that were slowly filling up in time for Kasabian.
Kasabian have gone through a major line up change after the sacking of their lead singer Tom Meighan who has went on to forge a solo career. With Serge Pizzorno taking over the lead vocals it was going to be a real change to see how he performed.
There was no need to worry about a change in the energy of this band from the walk on to guitar feedback to the opening chords of the anthem “Club Foot” the crowd went into bounce mode with the first few bars with Serge taking control of the stage left to right throwing moves and posturing like a showman, the backdrop unfolded the word ‘Happenings’ the name of their latest album and all thoughts of Tom Meighan went out the window in that opening minute.
Dressed in a blue and white casual jacket Serge looked like he was buzzing with the reaction of the crowd.
Underdog was next from the classic ‘West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum’ with no let up in the positive energy that Serge delivered in spades, the threatened rain decided to make an appearance which did dampen the mood but only until Serge demanded the crowd to bounce, bounce, bounce, which they duly did amidst a pumping bass line.
The new album then took centre stage with the single ‘Call’ a rousing song with an instantly catchy chorus and sounded wicked live, the new album is worth checking out if you get a chance. Following Call was ‘Shoot the Runner’ from their second album ‘Empire with even more attitude and posturing from Serge and a huge thank you from him to the crowd. ‘You’re in Love with a Psycho’ which had the first of three major sampling novelties of the evening, for this song it was ‘Groove is in the Heart by Delite’ which was a total surprise and it strangely worked well and mixed into ‘Coming Back to Me Good’ and the second sample of the evening ‘Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys’ brought us into ‘’Treat’ from ‘48:13’ album with Serge interacting with guitarist and drummer singing ‘sitting with the Junkies with margaritas’ whilst the drummer gave his kit a real good thrashing towards the end of the song.
The highlight of my evening from both Kasabian and Gallagher and the third bit of sampling from ‘Faithless… Insomnia’ sent the crowd into a frenzy mixing into the familiar opening bars of ‘Vlad the Impaler’ my personal favourite Kasabian track and one that sounds bloody amazing live, from front to the back the crowd was jumping and you could see Serge’s reaction was one of immense thanks, he said a few words about Liam and how much it meant to him but for me this song alone deserved a headline spot this evening with full stage show to compliment the already amazing sound. No time to rest though, two more songs to treat us with ‘L.S.F. (Lost Souls Forever)’ and during this he said he would joining the masses in the front to bounce along to Liam Gallagher, ‘Fire’ ended the Kasabian set this evening with the crowd in full mental mode during the chorus build up…. Not sure how Liam Gallagher can top that but lets see…..
During the break for LG (I shall refer to him as this as I will get repetitive strain typing Liam Gallagher a lot) the stage transformed to a homage to the album cover of ‘Definitely Maybe’ with nice touches such as blow up flamingos, a huge hanging Globe, picture of Burt Bacharach, Palm Trees, an old TV screen and a picture of George Best, ironically not a City player but was requested by Bonehead the guitarist at the time of the album recording who was a Man Utd fan…. And now he took centre stage as he was in Belfast… a nice touch by LG.
Along with the various stage paraphernalia there was a backdrop video display that was projecting 2024, as the stage was being dressed the year counted backwards. This was to signify the 30 years that was the whole point of this tour.
The sounds accompanying this transformation of the stage were from the previous decades with the crowd joining in when ‘Teenage Kicks’ was played, but the real buzz happened when the clock struck 1995 and ‘I am the Resurrection’ by the ‘Stone Roses’ got the crowd in full voice and when the clock hit 1994 the date of the album release there was screech of guitar as the band opened up to ‘Rock n Roll’ star with LG entering stage right walking with menace to the mic in the trademark overcoat, hat and shades and burst into song as imagery of him flashed across the huge screens from the past, with the final lyrics of rock n roll star he announced to the crowd that “they f**king were Rock n Roll Stars” and shouted “Are there Belfast Vibes in the area?”, as his band launched into ‘Columbia’, this time with a group of backing singers getting the crowd into action with hands above heads clapping a pulsating song with great guitar work ending with LG asking the crowd if there was many City fans in the crowd? The loud chorus of boos pretty much answered that, as LG announced the next song was dedicated to Sheikh Mansour a terrible pun to the next up ‘Shakermaker’ with accompanying pop art style imagery on the backdrop with LG giving the maracas and tambourine a run out and a typical ‘nice one’ from LG as a thank you at the end of the song.
‘Up in the Sky’ followed with the displays showing 1950’s kids with 3d glasses in a cinema and giving a psychedelic feel to the imagery, LG delivered decent vocals which for me is a very average song (did I mention I was not a huge fan?) anyway on with the show and my opinion is just an opinion and not reflective of an artist who has plied his trade with great success both in a band and as a solo artist. ‘Digsy’s Diner was next and for me the tune of the evening and obviously a real crowd favourite a real stomping track that deserved to be longer. ‘Bring it on Down’ delivered a good strong drum intro and was also one of the better songs of the evening for me. LG asked the crowd if they were enjoying themselves and was met with a huge roar of approval. Things slowed down with the song ‘Half a World Away’ (the Royal Family Theme Song) that was originally a Noel Gallagher vocal which was delivered with equal aplomb. ‘Do You Wanna be a Spaceman?’ followed with LG asking “Hands up if there are any glue sniffers in the house?”…. With a retort of “you lying f**ckers, this is a song for all of the Space Cadets out there!”
‘Fade Away’ brought us back to the harder edge songs of Oasis with LG saying it was a really old song and one that was as old as Bonehead, who was playing on this tour with LG so clearly, he hasn’t fallen out with everyone in the former band.
The classic ‘Whatever’ introduced strings for the first time with a sky backdrop and the first nod to the influential Beatles with Octopus Garden lyrics being sang back and forth between LG and the crowd. Another Oasis classic single ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’ followed with a quick dedication to Serge of Kasabian, much mutual respect between these guys, a very average ‘Married with Children’ followed until a screech of guitar launched us into the ‘Supersonic’ with a red vibe across the stage blasting out another classic track during the chorus the crowd reacted well front to back.
‘Slide Away’ was dedicated to Felicitie and Floella that I can only assume were in the crowd or the backing singers but either way the track sounded good with a frenzied end that the crowd seemed to lap up.
Two more songs ended the evening the first of which was the timeless ‘Live Forever’ to deliver the trademark ‘shiiiiiiine’ lyric … overall LG voice has not changed a bit, he still carries the attitude and for me was never someone I could warm to live or on record but like I said there were 50 odd thousand people there that would strongly disagree, so to you lot I hang my head in shame (well I wont but it will make you feel better)
The last song of the evening was a cover of the Beatles ‘I am the Walrus’ a good version and one that I even enjoyed back in the day, as it really suited his voice, this sent the masses home very happy and whilst 99.99% of which were very happy I couldn’t help thinking that Kasabian should be headlining next year at some point.
