Key events
Here’s Laura’s lovely report from earlier in the day, speaking to the fans who have devoted so much energy to coming to this concert – including in some cases, coming from the other side of the world.
Outside the stadium there is another merchandise booth, where Marina, 36, and Shun, 29, are waiting holding a Japanese flag. They have flown 16 hours from Tokyo to see Oasis for the first time. It is personal for them, too. Marina translates for Shun: “He has a brother and it was not a good relationship, similar to Oasis. But they are in a band: Shun plays drums and his brother plays guitar, and they have a good relationship now. The music helps.”
At least a few fans seem to have travelled from even further away. Back in Spillers, a group of three friends are wearing T-shirts that say: “We live in desert looking for Oasis – 2025.7.5 – From Shanghai to Cardiff – 8,100km”. The trio travelled to the UK last month for their first Glastonbury and to finally see Oasis live after 20 years of being fans.
Teresa, 37, has loved the band since she was 13. “When I feel sad, their songs make it better,” she says. “The songs mean a lot – their spirit gives me the hope to meet difficult things and it can become the energy for me. I think the concert will become very important for me in my future life.”
And here’s my writeup of the night itself.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
In my liveblogging haste I made the pics rather Gallagher-centric – big respect to the other players in the band, who do really give Oasis the thunderous heft they showed off tonight.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Here’s some video of that Diogo Jota tribute.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Maybe there wasn’t all that much warmth between them on stage – but just seeing this is enough to melt even a hard heart.
Lot of love for this fella too, who did sterling work with a YouTubed livestream for a fair chunk of the evening.
And a new folk hero is born.
The full setlist
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Here’s the full setlist from tonight.
And a host of the pics all in one place.
Oasis end with Champagne Supernova
Laura Snapes
They made it. It’s gone so fast. Feels quite emosh. There’s the car ready to take at least one of them away!
Liam clapping the front row, making a few thank you prayer hands, pointing at the crowd. And he claps Noel on the back and everyone screams. Liam gets in the car and it’s driving off even before the final notes have rung out.
Laura Snapes
Don’t Look Back in Anger comes garlanded with bees in yellow on the visuals – a nod to the icon of Manchester, and how the song was taken up as an anthem in the wake of the Manchester Arena attack. And then Liam’s back for Wonderwall: “There are many things that I would like to say to you but I don’t speak Welsh,” he sings.
Another really clear moment of vocal interplay between them, Liam doing “maybee” and Noel doing “you’re gonna be the one that saves me”. ONE HUNDRED SINGLE TEAR EMOJIS. Come on lads have a hug. Liam bids us farewell: “Thank you for being with us over the years. We are hard work – I get it. Champagne Supernova. Nice one!”
Laura Snapes
The encore begins, and with Liam still off stage, Noel comes on to perform The Masterplan with “our 14th drummer, Mr Joey Waronker, and this fucking uber legend here, Bonehead. This one is for all the people in their 20s who have never seen us before who have kept us shit hot for the last 20 years.”
Following Cast’s nod earlier on, there’s another tribute to the late Diogo Jota, at the close of Live Forever.
Laura Snapes
Whatever next, then Live Forever. Love the bite on “things they’ll never see” – the tension in Liam’s face makes it seem as if he’s still feeling every second of it. Meanwhile Noel has not shifted from a face that says: “It’s gonna be murder finding a parking space.”
Then Liam announces: “This is the last one: Rock’n’Roll Starrrrrrrr”. The woman behind me hasn’t heard of encores. “They haven’t done Wonderwall!”
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Alexis’s favourite Oasis song now: Slide Away. I can see why: there’s real desperation to that “let me be the one”. Amazing bridge, too. I’m back on a crap live stream but the Gallaghers’ twinned vocals still sound amazing on this, with Noel taking an unusual higher harmony. “I really wonder how different this feels to Liam doing the Definitely Maybe tour solo. He and Noel might as well be in different universes on this stage,” Laura tells me.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
“What’s happening? Everyone having a good time yeah? Is it worth the £4,000 you paid for a ticket?” A bold tack to take, Liam, after that whole dynamic pricing scandal. Having vampirically sucked up everyone’s recent disposable income, into Cast No Shadow they go. I never got why Liam always sings this differently live, with that high note at the end of each line. Takes a bit of the melancholy off I reckon.
Laura Snapes
Back to back Be Here Now numbers, with Stand By Me next. It’s so insanely loud, the outer reaches of sound crackling like setting lava.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
A couple more shots of the joyous and semi-disbelieving crowd.
Laura Snapes
Little By Little brings the first song outside of the 1990s. Even during this Noel still looks a bit like he’s here under duress, but he’s doing these numbers not acoustically as some had thought, but with a big rock production from his backline.
Then Liam comes back on for D’You Know What I Mean? I really like this one, thanks to a heavy rotation of Be Here Now in the car when I was eight. And I used to work with Hamish MacBain at NME – co-author of a new book about Oasis with Ted Kessler – who had a habit of standing up in the office and asking “d’ya know what I mean?” in a way that usually meant “what is this shit?” that I found very enjoyable.
Laura Snapes
Half the World Away. The moody, reflective tone is quite nice, though I prefer the heavier songs that contain these unexpected emotional shades within them, rather than Oasis’s more uniformly melancholy hits.
Sidenote: the closeups of Noel are really showing how both Gallaghers are blessed with a hairline that many men their age would kill for.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
The photographers have whacked on their telephoto lenses because we’re getting some more closeup shots coming in now.
Laura Snapes
I think it was Dave Stewart from Eurythmics who said that when they got incredibly successful, he got “paradise syndrome” – ie, he wasn’t able to enjoy it because the rewards were so relentless. The barrage of hits here so far feels a bit like that, almost enough to make you blase. Oh, Roll With It? Communal fervour off its nuts? Some primal howl emanating from inside that I didn’t know existed? Yeah, whatever.
Noel’s now doing Talk Tonight. Is it rude to say this is a built-in loo break? Liam has definitely taken one.
Laura Snapes
Roll With It now. For anyone hoping for a great fraternal reunion tonight, so far Noel and Liam haven’t even looked at each other, let alone been within two metres of each other. But Liam’s certainly chirpy enough: “How you getting on then, alright? You’re looking good. Especially you there. Stunning. Fucking stunning.”
