Yeah, I need to throw another karma her way.

I don't agree that the spirit has gone at all. I've seen Beady Eye twice so far, at the TCT gig and at Somerset House and both were amazing gigs, both in terms of the crowds (mental!) and the music. To be honest, they have the Oasis gigs I went to beat in a few categories.

Firstly, the venues they are playing and the setup at the gigs make for a much more intimate experience. Oasis were awesome musically at Finsbury Park and Wembley, but even right down the front the band felt a long way from the crowd. It was a very detached feeling in a way, aloof megastars doing their well-drilled act and hardly noticing the crowd. The Beady Eye gigs are a different matter altogether and feel genuinely personal and intimate. The crowd are closer, the stage lower and Liam is really engaging, making eye contact, addressing individuals in the crowd, going on walkabouts and even smiling, something some of us had almost forgotten he could do. And the crowd are responding to him every time.

Secondly there is his voice. Whatever the reason for it, whether it's the new monitors he's using, the running, cutting down on fags and booze, the key of the songs, the sound setup and not having to shout over Noel's guitars, WHATEVER (personally I think it's a combination of all the above), Liam has recaptured some of the magic his vocal chords can command. When he's actually singing there are very few other vocalists working today I would rather listen to.

Musically the performances are incredibly tight too, without ever having that jaded, over-rehearsed feel that later Oasis gigs had. The band are energised and enjoying themselves.

The problem I think is the songs. First off, let me say that overall I am a fan of what LAG have produced. Sure there have been some clangers, but Noel had his fair share of those too in the later years. I would take any of the Beady Eye tracks over High Horse, Mucky Fingers, Part of the Queue, Force of Nature, She Is Love etc. How these songs made it on to albums while the likes of Pass Me Down The Wine and Boy With The Blues were passed off as B-Sides and bonus tracks I will never understand. So in saying that the songs are the problem I am not saying they are bad songs, they're songs I LOVE.

However, at an Oasis gig in 2009, how big a response did the DOYS tracks get? What would the gig have been like if only tracks off that album were played? I would wager it would have been quite similar to a Beady Eye festival gig. Whatever way you spin it, the majority of the crowd at Oasis gigs turned up to hear the big hits from the past, new tracks were a distinct lower concern. I know we die-hards lap up every new track and bootleg, but to most of the public Oasis were still all about Wonderwall, CS and DLBIA, songs the crowd could sing in their sleep because they have been heard for over 10 years, they are in people's blood.

Beady Eye don't have tracks like that. What they have are a selection of very good new songs that are less well known than an album of new Oasis stuff would have been. Now, here's where we need to make a distinction between the bespoke Beady Eye gigs and the festival appearances. At the Beady Eye gigs I've been to the crowd have been singing their hearts out to every word, going bonkers on the rockers and really getting into the vibe on the slower tracks. These are the people who bought the album, know the lyrics and basically want to be there. They've turned up to a Beady Eye gig wanting to hear Beady Eye tracks, and they're mad for it. They're connecting with the band in an intimate setting and hearing Liam sing better than he has done in years.Then you have the festival crowds. Very few will have gone to the festival specifically to see Beady Eye. This is a crowd who probably didn't buy the album, don't know the songs (they might have heard The Roller on the radio once or twice) and just popped by to see what the singer from Oasis is up to, probably half wondering if he'll play Wonderwall for them. To expect Liam and the boys to drum up this sort of a crowd in the same way as they do at their bespoke gigs is asking the impossible. Nobody goes mental for a song they don't know. The best they can hope for is people like enough of what they hear at the festival to go and check out the album, and maybe come to another gig next time they're in town.

Unfortunately, the nature of the beast is that the festival gigs are the ones that get televised, so the impression they're exporting is one of silent, fairly inanimate crowds. Breaking through that is pretty difficult. The quote about people had stopped listening to oasis in the later years is very apt, and the situation is compounded by the fact most of the public have a preconceived expectation to like Noel's stuff over Liam's. All the band can do is keep producing the tunes and putting in the performances to as many new sets of ears as possible. If it takes off and they end up as big as Oasis, great. It likely won't happen, but you can't blame Liam for saying he wants it to. And I really don't see how you can say if they planned to make it happen it would. Write the tunes, believe in the tunes, play the tunes, it happens or it doesn't.

What does the future hold? Hopefully the Oasis stigma and preconceptions will fade as the two brothers produce their different stuff. Based on what we've heard I personally don't see Noel's stuff being as successful as many are predicting. Compared with the second coming we were lead to expect the songs so far are very underwhelming, to my ears at least. And these are the singles. IIHAG is solid, but that's all, and somewhere along the way it seems to have lost the rawness of the soundcheck. The other two are no better than latter day oasis album tracks in my opinion. Their sound has more of a pop appeal than some Beady Eye stuff, but it also lacks the spark that elevated Oasis' stuff. Some of that spark undoubtedly came from Liam's voice, but it also came from the rawness of Noel's writing and the production. The High Flying Birds stuff seems to sound too clean, too manufactured. So basically I think Noel 's record will sell well because it's Noel, but not generate a significantly bigger response than the Beady Eye tunes in the long run. Fans looking for an Oasis sound are more likely to be at Beady Eye gigs I reckon, and with the state of the music scene at the moment more people are likely to come looking. Noel on the other hand I predict will have a significantly different/new fanbase. But of course this is just opinion, only time will tell.

Keep the faith, beware of darkness.

^yeah, i agree. I usually don't read very long posts but this one was a great read.

Great post liamg4e. Agree 100%.

This post captures everything I ever wanted to say about this. Agree a 100%

Best post on the forum.

K+

I second that, liamg4e has posted a brilliant argument. I'm not even going to begin to try and contest it.

Can somebody explain how to give karma on here? Never quite understood it and its never bothered me enough to ask (I know that probably makes me a bit of an idiot )

Just that liamg4e post was absolutely brilliant and sums up my thoughts entirely, so its about time I gave some out

Cheers, although I've actually done that loads of times thinking its a just a link to their profile, oops ;D

You should do what Orson Welles failed to do - Quit while your at the top ;D