ShareNoel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds performing their Who Built The Moon Tour at The Motorpoint Arena Nottingham on Monday 30th April 2018.
Images and Review by Kevin Cooper
The man who was once part of one of Britain’s most iconic bands looked completely at home taking centre stage at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena last night, supported by his High Flying Birds which included his former Oasis band mate Gem Archer and scissor playing Charlotte Marcionneau.
Touring to promote his third studio album, Who Built The Moon, Noel Gallagher began his set with four new songs which were already familiar to this packed crowd. Fort Knox had the rocking beats of the 1990’s and Holy Mountain was pure glam, with a riff not too dissimilar to Bryan Ferry’s Let’s Stick Together.
Other new songs, Keep On Reaching and It’s A Beautiful World were followed by three offerings from his 2015 release, Chasing Yesterday. Dressed in a denim jacket he powered through tunes which included In The Heat Of The Moment, Riverman and The Ballad Of The Mighty I, which were backed by everything from trombones to tambourines and even Marcionneau’s tin whistle.
And all of this was accompanied by footage of orange suns, vintage newsreels and spinning kaleidoscopes, which added to the impression that Gallagher is moving away from the Oasis style lad rock to a more psychedelic sound, as shown by Be Careful What You Wish For and the lovely She Taught Me How To Fly.
A man of few words is Mr Gallagher and in fact nine songs had passed before he uttered a word, and that was only to ignite the fans with words about their local football team. But they completely forgave him when he delved back into the Oasis catalogue. Favouring less celebrated but clearly appreciated gems such as The Importance Of Being Idle, the jaunty Half The World Away and the anthemic Little By Little, Gallagher heard his penned words being sung right back at him.
Finishing the main set with Wonderwall and AKA…What ALife! Gallagher’s stony face final broke into a smile. Back for a rousing rendition of The Right Stuff alongside a female vocalist as part of his encore, whilst Go Let It Out and Don’t Look Back In Anger gave ample opportunity for men in the audience to put their arms around each other and bellow along to the words.
The proud Mancunian rounded the night off with a joyful performance of The Beatles’ All You Need Is Love, before leaving the stage saying “Thanks for coming to see us…I’ve been me” as he bid this still singing crowd farewell.
