Please don’t expect a detailed review of what Liam Gallagher played - that seems fairly pointless given that it was the 30th anniversary of Definitely Maybe, but this was certainly an opportunity to check out a new (and now quite publicised) venue. This is mostly written in a car (not whilst driving) to offer some first impressions, as opposed to a really detailed analysis.
The Co-op Live Arena seems pretty decent. Clearly big (23,000 capacity) which makes it even bigger than London’s O2, but seemingly more intimate, mainly because of its height. Also, it’s more squared shaped, so even the back of the floor was not too far from the stage. The floor seemed less crowded anyway! The sound was impressive and the visuals seemed to be working, unlike on Pearl Jam two nights before. As this venue has been designed for live music, it is likely to be the shape of things to come. Parking was plentiful, extortionate perhaps, but my kind chauffeur had already pre-paid!
Outside a police van and sniffer dogs looked a touch foreboding - none of this for James or Elbow in Birmingham, but better to be prepared, I guess. Nearly nine quid a pint takes beer pricing to new ridiculous levels, how long till 10 quid, one wonders. I’m old enough to remember the furore of when it passed £1 a pint. That said, there are Co-op self-service style units which are marginally better value and certainly have good food and drink choices. Service is efficient, and Manchester’s delicious local Seven Brothers IPA is on tap - not all bad. Toilet signage could be better. The symbols denoting men and women were virtually similar. Perhaps this was the Co-op making a particular point, maybe a design flaw. Fortunately ,when Liam Gallagher is playing you just join the queue of bucket hats, England shirts and the most inebriated to be in the most likely one. The longest queue in the gents was for the cubicles rather than the urinals - I wonder why…..
Definitely a younger crowd vibe inside the venue. How many are old enough to have been at Knebworth first time round? I did get to see Oasis two and a half times in their career, and none of the gigs were brilliant. The half comes from the V Festival in Staffordshire when I saw half their set before watching Iggy Pop. That was the night they split, so I caught the first half of their last gig. I have seen Liam and Noel a number of times since and firmly believe they are better apart. Liam at Knebworth in 2022 was superb, and I’m looking forward to Noel (and the wonderful Johnny Marr) is a few weeks at the beautiful Warwick Castle, thirty minutes’ walk from home.
Villanelle, with Liam’s sons Lennon and Gene, open proceedings. Some of my research suggests that both are in the band, other sources suggest only Gene. They are politely received but nothing that enthusiastic. I do worry that if they cannot win over an enthused Manchester crowd on a Definitely Maybe rendition then they will struggle elsewhere. I cannot remember much about them particularly. They seemed mediocre. I’m sure Elijah Hewson (Bono’s son) from Inhaler can attest to a the burden of having a famous dad.
Soon Cast are on and playing the hits you’d expect, but John Power seems slightly behind in his vocals early on. This is especially noticeable on Sandstorm at the start but seems to persist. I recall this a couple of years back when I saw them at a festival. A pity, as I really liked them in the mid 90s. Walk Away gets a good reception as expected, and I look forward to hearing that played by the BBC when England lose on a penalty shootout to Germany Berlin in a couple of weeks’ time, or much earlier perhaps!
Then comes a great on-screen countdown through the years for Liam Gallagher. I’m sure that many in the audience have gone beyond their living memory by the time we get to 1999. It is nice that a new generation have discovered Britpop. I Am The Resurrection is sung by the audience with such gusto that the main event could have already started. Liam’s voice is good, no doubt enhanced by a very new sound system and well-designed acoustics.
The first five or so songs are naturally from Definitely Maybe, including the ‘lasagne song’ Digsy’s Dinner. At that point it gets more interesting in terms of Cloudburst, I Will Believe and Half The World Away, which is dedicated to Liam’s dog Buttons. I don’t ever remember hearing any of these ever sung by Liam before, and I can’t ever recall even hearing D’yer Wanna Be A Spaceman. Again, his vocals on Half A World Away were impressive, different to Noel’s rendition, but decent. Nice also to get a bit of variety song wise. Lock All The Doors got us chatting in the car home. Does this earn Noel even more money than the other songs played? We even discussed the possibility of Noel earning more than Liam this year from shows whilst playing far smaller venues, due to the number of big gigs on this tour. I suspect royalty payments must be tricky to calculate. Married With Children finishes the main set. My mind goes back to the first time I saw Oasis at Knebworth. I wasn’t married at that point and my first kid was four years away. A nice moment of reflection. My two sons are only a couple of miles west of me in Central Manchester seeing one another. Timings sadly did not allow me to see them.
We had positioned ourselves just in front of the mixing desk. This proved advantageous as we didn’t have people barging past us all night for toilet / bar visits. The other advantage was beer throwing related! Admittedly, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been and what got thrown seemed to go into the centre. It was interesting to see all the equipment draped in plastic, showing the band a clearly aware of how stupid some of their fans are. That said, perhaps the £9 is mostly enough of a disincentive for the canny Mancunian? I found the audience in the whole OK, and mostly politely boisterous. My expectations were low which might have helped. During the encore Live Forever I finally get small amount of beer in terms of collateral damage. I guess I’ve been quite lucky. We miss I Am The Walrus. Certainly not my favourite Beatles song, and it allows us a very speedy car park exit.
So overall an impressive venue (8/10), an impressive show (8/10) and a moderately well behaved audience (6/10). I’ll be seeing Liam again at TRNSMT in Glasgow in a couple of weeks. Gerry Cinnamon is on the same bill. I’ll be wearing my Gore-Tex waterproof, and not just for the inclement Scottish weather.