CityLife

Oasis kick-off UK tour in Liverpool

BACK ON THE ROAD: Noel 1 / 2 images

BEFORE Oasis took the stage for the start of their UK tour, there was a health warning.

“Anybody jumps up tonight, they will have me to ****ing  deal with,” said boxer Ricky Hatton, reminding us that Noel Gallagher is still recovering from three broken ribs after being skittled over by a man who leapt on stage in Toronto.

Truth is the fans were too busy jumping all over each other to jump up on stage. It’s a curious thing about Oasis that while the band scarcely move at all (apart from new drummer Chris Sharrock whose Animal-from-the-Muppet-Show impression suggests he may be on piecework wages) the fans are in constant, testosterone-fuelled motion.

Plastic pint pots of God-knows-what liquid were hurled into the air from the seething mass on the floor of Liverpool Echo Arena.

Thousands of arms punched the air from amid the queasy quagmire of humanity, and there were times – Slide Away, for instance – when every line was being sung by every member of the audience, perhaps more lustily even than Liam Gallagher.

Rock 'n Roll Star

It opened with Rock ‘n Roll Star – the first track from the first album, Definitely Maybe, 14 years ago – one of a clutch of songs from a short, white-hot period of endeavour which has sustained the Oasis legend to this day.

Lyla ground into action – a monolithic rock anthem. Few bands would have the nerve to write a song so simple. Like all the best Oasis songs, it is so dense and unyielding that it seemed to squeeze all the air out of the room.

The Shock Of The Lightning proved there are new Oasis songs worth hearing (though the clodhopping Ain’t Got Nothin’ would put the contrary case).

And it was on through such highlights as the flagrant T Rex-ism of Cigarettes And Alcohol, the perfectly-crafted hooks of The Masterplan – sung by Noel – the gale force melody of Morning Glory (dedicated by Liam to Oasis’s ‘minder’ for the evening, Ricky Hatton),  the vaudevillian chirpiness of The Importance Of Being Idle and then the inevitable crowd-pleasers, Wonderwall, Supersonic, a tender acoustic version of Don’t Look Back In Anger and Champagne Supernova.

It is only later that you remember how the pace and excitement flagged for the likes of The Meaning Of Soul, To Be Where There’s Life and Songbird.

And when you look down the set list, there is stark reminder that, with the possible exception of Lyla, The Shock Of The Lightning  and Falling Down, Oasis have added little to their all-time greatest hits in the past decade.

Consolations

There are certain consolations. Liam’s wistful I’m Outta Time gets better with every hearing, but it’s not a song so cocksure and gigantic as those which made Oasis the all-conquering force they once were.

They looked, as ever, like a band who did not have to try too hard. That utter sense of entitlement has always been part of the Gallagher “charm” – a charisma which, like kinship to a football team, needs no explanation and survives a million disappointments. It’s no mistake that these are Manchester City fans.

There was a certain edginess about Oasis debuting in Liverpool (and with no concert date yet announced in Manchester).

Support act The Sixteen Tonnes – who you’d have to call a scouse skiffle group – had referred to Oasis not by name but as “that band from down the road”, and there was constant anti-City heckling bellowed at the impassive Gallagers.

Bedrock

Everyone knows that Manchester’s Oasis used the music of Liverpool’s favourite sons as their bedrock. But whereas the Beatles had 10 years of innovation and progression, Oasis have spent 14 years being what they were from the moment the first belligerent chords of Rock ‘n’ Roll Star rang out.

There are a few psychedelic titivations to the old formula on the new album Dig Out Your Soul, but Oasis plough on through the same furrow, their fans craving the familiar, the big singalong.

Oasis never were The Beatles of their generation. As one-trick ponies rocking gloriously on into middle age, they look ever more like the new Status Quo.

Did you go to the show? Let us know your thoughts.

Oasis play the Liverpool Echo Arena again tonight (Oct 8).