If Sir Paul was almost ingratiatingly eager to please, the same could not be said for surly Oasis, playing the big Friday night slot. It was a neat pairing, given the Gallagher brothers' obvious fixation with Lennon and the fact that their new drummer is Ringo Starr's son.

Singer Liam prowled on stage in what looked like a full-length white dressing gown, for all the world like a boxer pre-fight and with the testosterone to match. If "our kid" had been sampling the delights of Glastonbury's hippy periphery ("Build Your Own Spaceship: £10", for instance, or "Steve Judd's evening workshop; Where do Fairies Come From") he had failed to soak up the spirit of peace and love. In 90 minutes no trace of a smile crossed his face.

From the opening swagger of "Rock 'n' Roll Star" to the encore of The Who's "My Generation", Liam kept up his feral menace, staring out from his Lennon glasses and baring his teeth into the mike like a wolf eyeing a juicy vole. It was as if he had heard the wag who shouted: "Play 'Parklife'(Blur's hit)".

While Liam acted the alpha male, his older brother Noel (he with the Playpeople hair) was more subdued.

The notoriously fractious pair, rumoured to have requested separate backstage facilities, were barely looking at each other - let alone trying to charm the audience. The band have the hits to back up their arrogance but the likes of "Cigarettes & Alcohol", "Don't Look Back in Anger" and "Champagne Supernova" put the weakness of more recent songs into stark relief. Afterwards Michael Eavis, the festival organiser, expressed his disappointment in the Gallagher boys.

financial times.com