29 June 2018 (gig)
05 July 2018
On a beautiful summer’s day Finsbury Park was awash with Oasis fans and chants of ‘Football’s coming home’. The heavily male beer swilling audience were clearly in good voice and putting the bar staff through their paces with queues of over two hours reported. From what I witnessed it was the first time any of the staff had been near a bar let alone a cash register and were completely clueless. Still, with most people wondering around with either four pints or none the mood remained jovial.
The Sherlocks opened the main stage with their indie infused pop riffs with DMAs and Loyle Carner following. Main support came from Finsbury Park band Wolf Alice, who clearly relished the chance to play to such a vast crowd on home turf.
The Second Stage hosted a further array of talent including Twisted Wheel and headliners Dream Wife. The female fronted Dutch indie-groovers had style and swagger to rival the former Oasis frontman. Richard Ashcroft was a surprise pop-up guest on the main stage offering up a delightful four song acoustic set closing on Verve classic ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’.
As the Manchester City Champions chant poured from the speakers, Oasis’ ‘Fuckin’In The Bushes’ was the stage intro that saw the video screens flick on in black and white mode to follow Liam Gallagher’s long walk from backstage dug out to onstage screaming adulation. No time was wasted before launching into ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’ to the delight of the huge crowd. The main stage sound quality had been shaky all day but luckily with literally every person singing along to each word any such problems where buried. His biggest solo show to date Liam pulled no punches with ‘Morning Glory’ second on the nights set list.
It always baffles me why you would queue up for two hours just to fling your pint 20 meters in front of you and douse everyone with beer but on this gorgeous summer’s evening an umbrella would not have gone amiss. In a 17 song set list we had 12 Oasis songs climaxing with a poignant acoustic version of ‘Live Forever’, ‘D’Yer Wanna Be A Spaceman’ rarity and ‘Wonderwall’. Praising the audience Liam tweeted after the show “There are no words to describe that crowd tnight in Finsbury Park I fucking adore every single 1 of you Live forever LG x”.
A crowd sing-a-long from start to finish it was a job well done by Liam and his band letting Noel know that he can handle stadium sized crowds too. With a new album underway and set for completion this year he may well be back for more before we know it.
Manchester City Champions Chant
Fuckin' in the Bushes
1. Rock 'n' Roll Star
2. Morning Glory
3. Greedy Soul
4. Wall of Glass
5. Bold
6. For What It's Worth
7. Bring It on Down
8. Slide Away
9. Whatever
10. I've All I Need
11. Whatever
12. Supersonic
13. Some Might Say
14. Cigarettes & Alcohol
15. Live Forever
16. D'Yer Wanna Be a Spaceman?
17. Wonderwall
