"Opening up with Rock N Roll Star saw the need for vocals dispensed with as it seemed as though everyone in the venue was screaming the lyrics back at the group.
The start of the set was loud and chaotic with the fans pinballing around in front of the stage. Just as the initial buzz wore off and you were hoping for the gig to settle down, something was up. Liam’s vocals hadn’t been at their strongest, but when he marched off stage during Digsy’s Dinner, it was obvious things weren’t going to plan.

After another lengthy wait, this time not to wind up their manager, Noel came back with his acoustic guitar. The acoustic set had become a recent addition to the tour, but it usually featured much later on in the set, and only for a short period. It had been well received as had the B-sides Noel sung on but there was now a level of pressure and responsibility being placed on the acoustic set. Unbeknownst to the crowd, Liam was probably back at the hotel by the time Noel took centre stage.

There were more than enough acoustic and acoustic friendly songs to allow Noel to play for quite a while, but there was a whole air of uncertainty about it. The legend around the gig has it that someone came on stage to inform Noel that the tour bus was ready to roll, and this comment was picked up on mic, but if it was, I never made it out and there certainly wasn’t any swell of uprising in the crowd. Sure there were folk mouthing off and moaning but on the whole, people wanted to hear the songs, and when Noel played, people either shut up and listened or sang along.

He did seem slightly uncomfortable up there by himself though, and he almost apologetically asked if we would like to hear the new single Whatever. It was still a week or two away from being released, and I hadn’t managed to catch it on the radio. This is one area where there is a marked difference between then and now. I can remember the first radio plays of new songs being a big thing and something to fit into your schedule whereas now with the internet always running and virtually everything being available when you need it, you don’t need to fit your schedule around radio shows!

So the new single was thrown into the mix with the All The Young Dudes singalong as well. I’m not sure if it was during this song, but there’s a window or hatch on the right hand side of the stage (from the audience viewpoint) and Bonehead was taking the opportunity to look down at his gaffer doing all the hard work.

The rest of the band, minus Liam, was hauled out for an electric run through of some songs with Noel on vocals. I must admit, I like Noel’s vocals (maybe partly because of this set), but for the raw power of the songs on the first album, it was apparent that you needed Liam behind the mic to really do them justice.

At the end of the set, the lights went up and someone quickly ran on stage telling the crowd to hold on to their tickets because the band will return for another show.

None of us actually thought much of it at the time, shrugging it off and cynically thinking it was a way to ensure that the crowd never vandalised the venue or headed to the tour bus to cause trouble on the way out! Of course, with the Barrowlands, any attempt at vandalism may have resulted in an improvement to the décor."