THE MUSIC IS MORE THAN ENOUGH
JUST over a year after little brother Liam made his comeback at the same venue, Noel Gallagher plays The Ritz on Wednesday - giving fans a chance to get up close and personal with The Chief.
Currently in the midst of a world tour, Gallagher Snr just doesn’t play shows this small any more.
Thanks to Absolute Radio, he’s back in his home town just a few hundred yards from the flat he wrote Definitely Maybe in - for the one off show.
India House on Whitworth Street is where it all started for Noel - penning Oasis eradefining debut album Definitely Maybe. He lived there for five years, before moving to London in 1994 - as the Burnage band were preparing for take off.
“I wrote (What’s The Story) Morning Glory and Definitely Maybe in that flat,” he told CityLife in 2012, just as the High Flying Birds were taking their first steps.
“I’d love to stand and look out of that window again.
“I spent a lot of time staring out of that window smoking. I refer to them as the glory days.”
Nowadays, arenas, festivals and open air theatres have become familiar territory for Noel, as he takes Who Built the Moon? across the globe. In the Oasis days, and even shortly after the split, Noel and his acoustic guitar were responsible for some breathtaking moments.
The now-infamous MTV Unplugged session in 1996 where Noel had to stand in on vocals after Liam backed out minutes before (“About an hour before we were due to go on he turned up absolutely s***faced,” Noel remembered) - remains one of the band’s defining moments.
It also marked Noel out as a singer able to carry a full set - and may even have planted the seed for a solo career.
For a man who admitted he was not really frontman material, the solo part of his journey has been largely successful.
His latest LP may have divided some fans - mostly the ones who pine for an Oasis reunion above all else - but won him plenty more.
He’s still got the swagger but has become (slightly) more self effacing over the years. At his recent gig in Scarborough, Gallagher thanked fans for making sure that his tickets ‘cost a tenner more than Britney Spears.’
“Who thought we’d ever live to see that day, eh?”
Speaking of his qualities as a frontman, Gallagher once said that “there wasn’t that much to see”.
“All I have is the music,” he said. When you’re back catalogue is as weighty as his, that’s more than enough.
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds play The Ritz on Wednesday, July 18. The gig will be broadcast on Absolute Radio with Danielle Perry at 7pm on the July 26, and highlights of the show will be available at www.absoluteradio. co.uk. Fort Knox Holy Mountain Keep on Reaching It’s a Beautiful World In the Heat of the Moment Riverman Ballad of the Mighty I If I Had a Gun... Dream On Little by Little The Importance of Being Idle If Love Is the Law Dead in the Water Be Careful What You Wish For She Taught Me How to Fly Half the World Away Wonderwall AKA... What a Life! ENCORE The Right Stuff Go Let It Out Don’t Look Back in Anger All You Need Is Love