As Liam’s hugely successful “Definitely Maybe” tour winds down prior to his summer festival appearances, a fourth sold out night at Manchester’s new Co-op Live arena finds him on fine form vocally, although as ever a man of few words.
There are two ways to approach a full album show; one is playing the thing from beginning to end and the other is to intersperse it through the evening.
Liam makes the sensible choice tonight and delivers a hits sandwich, deftly kicking off with regular opener “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” and tearing through “Columbia” and “Shakermaker”, before heading off to take in seldom performed B-Sides; like “D’Yer Wanna Be a Spaceman?” and reviving a demo from the time, “Lock All the Doors”, sensibly saving heavy-hitting singles like “Supersonic” and “Whatever” for later in the set.
The audience is a good mix of people who remember the summer of ’94, the snarl of Liam’s voice cutting through on the radio and firing the starting gun on Britpop, a term only coined the year before… and those who were still at school when Oasis’s fateful V Festival appearance signalled the end of the band.
The intro-video tonight includes a soundbite about The Beatles, and it’s hard not to feel that Liam has managed to achieve the same kind of enduring cross-generational appeal as his mop top idols.
The sound mix tonight is ear-ringing loud for the most part, and it’s when things quieten down and the audience get to hear each other that the magic really happens, notably on “Whatever”, when the communal singing reaches spine-tingling heights.
It’s a shame they felt a need to rock-up the set closer, “Married With Children”, as it could have been another great singalong – maybe it was, but you couldn’t hear them.
Bands frequently have their best “non-album track” on their first release, and Oasis was a band so on top of their game during the first album, that tracks like “Half A World Away”, which was later to find a second life thanks to the Royle Family’s use of the track as the TV sit-com’s theme tune, was tucked away on a B-Side, but is greeted like a number one single.
Liam goads the crowd before “Cigarettes & Alcohol”, that they’ve not quite put the venue on the map yet and suggests they might want to put their back into the next one, resulting in a beer shower so thorough, both across the floor and from the tiers of seats, that you have to assume the Parkas on display throughout the audience are not so much fashion items as just sensible dressing for the elements.
For a 30th anniversary tour, anyone looking for introspection, or context between songs will be sorely disappointed. Introducing “Good To Be Free” with, “it’s better to be four”, and dedicating songs variously to his mother, “the Italians”, “the Burnage massive” and the ornamental flamingos he shares the stage with are really as far Liam’s stage banter goes. For the non-album tracks, the most they get by way of introduction is a casual, “here’s one we found in the shed”.
As this is a show with a strict brief – all of “Definitely Maybe”, only Oasis and nothing can be played that was written after 1994, even the cover of “I Am The Walrus” that closes the night was performed regularly by the band at that time.
Visually, it’s reliant on the screens as Liam is seldom visible, in his usual black coat and trapper hat, so it’s good that there’s fun staging, strewn with “Definitely Maybe”-related detritus, a giant world globe behind him, a couple of flamingos to the left, a TV to the right.
The on-screen visuals veer between earnest (Lennon and Marley during “Live Forever”) and downright daft (the word “lasagne” during “Digsy’s Dinner”).
Would it be better if it was Oasis? Maybe. While a reunion feels simultaneously inevitable and impossible, that’s not on offer for now. Was this a tour to remember? Definitely. We can only hope there’s a similar show coming for “What’s The Story, Morning Glory?” in a few years time.
Definitely Maybe Tour Setlist
Rock n Roll Star
Columbia
Shakermaker
Up in the Sky
Digsy’s Dinner
Bring it on Down
Cloudburst
I Will Believe
Half the World Away
D’Yer Wanna Be a Spaceman?
Fade Away
Lock All the Doors
(It’s Good) To Be Free
Whatever
Cigarettes & Alcohol
Married With Children
ENCORE
Supersonic
Slide Away
Live Forever
2nd ENCORE
I Am the Walrus
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Enjoyable support sets tonight from Liam’s lad Gene’s band Villanelle, with an early start at 7pm, and then Liverpool legends Cast.
Words & photos: Mike Gray * [Except Viallanelle pic]
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