The Astoria 10 th May 2005

Sporting trademark shades and a brilliant white hoodie, Liam led Oasis out onto the fairy-lit stage to frenzied applause followed by Noel in his familiar dark denim and three or four non descript new band members. There had been no warm-up act preceding their arrival and the crowd’s initial excitement soon petered out when Oasis jumped head first into new material.

The first generation Oasis fans in situ had come to hear anthems from their teenage years, not songs for a new generation. New single “Lyla” did encourage the fans into song but the party really started with the old favourites. On hearing the intro to “Morning Glory” fans


visibly perked up and were moshing at the front by the end of “Live Forever”. The laddish crowd sprayed beer everywhere to “Rock n Roll Star,” Ricky Gervais was lucky to be on the top tier watching like a school boy smiling mouth agape eyes wide open. His buddy Jonathan Ross looked less impressed and they soon vanished.

But the crowd wanted more and chants of “Oasis! Oasis!” welcomed them back from a brief interval. Bathed in a bloody red light Liam sang “Wonderwall” and had the fans in raptures. The spot-lit Noel was drowned out by the throng for his signature “Don’t look back in Anger” and arguably two of their best songs were followed by an impressive cover of The Who’s “My generation”.

Despite the obvious rapport that developed between Liam and the drunken revellers at the front of the stage Oasis looked indifferent to a crowd there to see the Oasis of 10 years ago. As the first gig on the promotional tour for new album “Don’t believe the Truth” they will need to up the ante if they are to live up to the hype of best album since “Definitely Maybe”.

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