‘Still Changing After All These Years’ – Noel Gallagher live in New York


Noel-Gallagher's-High-Flying-Birds

Noel Gallagher @ Webster Hall NYC (Photo: Paul Bachmann for Live4ever)




It’s funny to think, after all these years, that Noel Gallagher is at the moment changing more profoundly than at any other time in his career.

While on second solo album ‘Chasing Yesterday‘ the change was hardly seismic, it was change nonetheless. In approach its recording was as far removed from Oasis in its introverted, minimalist nature as could be imagined, while the make-up of the album itself at least had hints at a more broad musical range ready to be explored further in time.

Live too, things have been taken up a notch since world tour dates started with a bang and a trip around UK arenas back in March.

Where the nature of the 2011-12 production reflected the pleasing, but safe nature of debut solo album ‘Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds‘, this tour instead is developing a life all of its own.

At the Webster Hall in New York last night (May 7th), it was up on the stage where the changes were most apparent.

Do The Damage‘ set the tone for a more racy affair. Flying in the face of previous opener ‘(It’s Good) To Be Free‘ – the Oasis fan favourite melted down into a mid-paced acoustic dirge three or four years ago – the ‘Chasing Yesterday’ bonus track puts things in a different gear from the off, a gear maintained on other highly charged highlights such as ‘In The Heat Of The Moment‘, ‘Lock All The Doors‘ and ‘You Know We Can’t Go Back‘.

Even ‘The Mexican‘, such an unfathomable plod in album form, is bright and infectious live, carried along by a seemingly reluctant frontman having the time of his life every time it’s performed.

Of course, Gallagher knows what puts the meat on the bones of his live show, yet the improvement here is marked too. For perhaps the first time, in ‘Champagne Supernova‘ a reworking of an Oasis classic really makes sense in the nest of the High Flying Birds.

Stripped back acoustically from the ever-present stadium rock monster it once was, the track has been reborn; in this naked, vulnerable form bringing a tear to the eye of all those across the globe whose highs, lows and heartaches it has for two decades triumphantly soundtracked.

New York’s been good to Noel over the years, and a sold-out Webster Hall with iconic rock photographer Bob Gruen in attendance paid homage to this long, fruitful association with the huge closing sing-a-long of ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger‘.

It’s the one unchangeable aspect of the evening – an anthem for the ages which truly will live forever.

Check out Live4ever’s exclusive photo gallery from the New York show at this link.

Dave Smith


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