On stage are the two brothers, Liam and Noel, as well as long-term Oasis members Gem Archer and Andy Bell.
“G’day,” says Liam, tambourine aloft, before launching into the electric Morning Glory, back-to-back with Some Might Say.
This mid-’90s era of the band is a wall of scratching guitar, salty vocals and killer choruses. Liam is in fine form – that irascible voice, the way he leans forward into the mic, arms behind his back, and all that swagger. “Marvellous stuff,” he says after a song. “Decent.”
I hate to stray from the official narrative, but I’m a believer that the band’s 2009 break-up was less about the Gallagher brothers’ feud and more about their waning relevance. There’s a reason this concert is almost entirely made up of the highlights from that triumphant trilogy of albums ending in 1997’s Be Here Now. Anyone would think Oasis went down in flames at the end of the ’90s at their peak, rather than staggering on for a further decade of averageness.
Oasis are not the best band in the world, but they’re special. Where the band excels is in synthesising the best of their childhood influences into something unmistakably them.
Their formula is limited, but they stretch it to amazing results. They channel, at various points during the concert, T-Rex, Slade and the Stones. John Lennon’s voice echoes through Liam’s.
Beatles references echo through almost every song (in a sweet moment, Whatever fades into a refrain of Octopus’s Garden).
Liam Gallagher and his maracas at Marvel Stadium on the first night of Oasis’ Australian tour. Credit: Richard Clifford
While they wear their influences on their sleeves, their best work is about finding beauty in dead ends and remnants. Liam dedicates Bring It On Down to glue-sniffing. “All I need are cigarettes and alcohol,” he sings. “While we’re living / The dreams we have as children fade away.”
The crowd in Marvel Stadium is predominantly male and aged over 30. The night clashes spectacularly with Halloween. I spy a man in Union Jack underpants and very little else. Another wears a “God Save the King” T-shirt, which is arguably weirder. The crowd veers into wildness a few times. Someone appears to let off a flare. “Naughty, naughty,” says Liam.
After two peaks of the Oasis formula, Supersonic and Roll With It, Liam pops off for a cup of tea, and Noel, the songwriter of the duo, takes the spotlight for a bracket including the enduring Half the World Away, and the 2002 track, Little By Little, before Liam returns with his massive jacket and sunglasses, hitting his tambourine with his maracas.
“He doesn’t do a lot, does he?” a friend says to me. And sure, there are moments when Liam stares into space with vaguely stoned menace, and I don’t always understand what he’s on about (there’s an anecdote about meeting a kangaroo at the seaside that puzzled me), but he is in full command, his voice perfectly complementing his brother’s guitar tone. The refrain of Live Forever is beautifully crushed by distortion.
Feud? What feud? Liam (left) and Noel Gallagher embrace on stage. Credit: Richard Clifford
After Rock and Roll Star, Liam calls it: “I’m a princess these days, and I need to go to fucking bed.” But the inevitable encore is the heart of the show. Noel sings The Masterplan before launching into Don’t Look Back In Anger, the band’s most essential work. Men in the crowd embrace. I see tears. “The male loneliness epidemic just ended,” my friend says.
And then, probably the first pop song I ever loved: Wonderwall, its lyrics known by everyone who has ever had a beer in a pub anywhere in the world. And here’s the only man in the world who can justify picking up an acoustic guitar and singing it, doing just that.
Someone near me lights up a joint as the closer “Champagne Supernova” reaches its apex, chorus carried aloft by 50,000 people, drunk and euphoric. Noel puts the tambourine on his head like a halo. The brothers hug once more. The make-believe feud is over. Amen.
The audience was mostly men, and mostly aged over 30, but all captivated. Credit: Richard Clifford
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