Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds performing at The Piece Hall Halifax on Tuesday 21st June 2022



Images and Review by Kevin Cooper

Halifax’s picturesque Piece Hall was swathed in sunshine on Tuesday night for the 5000 fans that had turned out to see Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds put on a brilliant performance. Arriving on stage to rapturous applause and cheers from the sold out crowd, they opened with the dynamic Fort Knox.

After forming the now eight piece band in 2010 following the well documented break up of Oasis, they have released three studio albums, a compilation album, and four EP’s with their self titled debut album topping the charts back in 2011, so obviously some of their own material was given an outing.

Holy Mountain, It’s A Beautiful World and She Taught Me How To Fly, from 2017’s Who Built The Moon? landed well with the adoring masses as he motored through nine HFB songs in total. Wandering Star teased the fans into singing along, but it was a mass sing along to Dead In The Water that really got the show going.

Fronting his own band and not being able to hide behind his brother Liam, has meant that he has to put himself out there and as a result his between song banter was hugely entertaining. He told the adoring crowd that Yorkshire tea was the best but that Yorkshire was a shit hole, and of course the subject of football was never far from being mentioned. Throughout the set Noel was his usual snarly self, but obviously getting more comfortable being the front man because now he actually gets to smile.

Then came the eagerly awaited Oasis classics. Little By Little got a huge cheer as did The Importance Of Being Idle whilst Whatever had the crowd singing the words back to him. With the run in to the end of the set including the brilliant Wonderwall and Half The World Away, Stop Crying Your Heart Out had everyone with their arms aloft revelling in a mass sing along.

For the encore there were a couple of HFB songs which included the tender If I Had A Gun…which was a highlight as was AKA…What A Life! with the crowd forming their own choir. And finishing the set with a song that has encapsulated so much in recent years and means so much to so many people, the ultimate sing along Don’t Look Back In Anger was a truly astonishing moment and capped off an unforgettable summer’s evening in Halifax.