Liam Gallagher
Brighton Centre
This year, two prominent conservative Britons staked their careers on doing the very thing they’d promised not to do. For Theresa May, going to the country went horribly wrong; for Liam Gallagher, going it alone has gone like a dream.
Liam’s solo debut, As You Were, sold 100,000 copies in a week, doing more business in three days than his previous album, with Beady Eye, had managed in its whole life. More to the point, for someone caught up in the worst fraternal fallout since The Book Of Genesis, Liam’s album outsold the one Noel released a few weeks later, even though that too went to No 1.
In June I saw Liam’s first solo show in a sweaty Manchester club. Six months on, he has been filling the nation’s arenas. In another six months, he will headline Finsbury Park. At this rate he’ll soon be back at Knebworth.
For Liam Gallagher, going it alone has gone like a dream with his solo debut, As You Were, selling 100,000 copies in a week
Maybe it’s to do with Theresa. A lot of people feel thwarted, left out or lost and – just like in 1995, when Oasis made their mark under another calamitous Conservative government – the sneer in Liam’s voice acts as a spokesman for those feelings.
He has no moves and only one gear, but he recognises his own limitations. You can trust him not to pop up as a football pundit, as Noel did the other weekend. This show is just the club gig with a video screen added, but it works.
On stage, like a small boy protesting at being taken to a party, Liam keeps his coat on throughout. He delivers songs in batches: two by Oasis, followed by five solo, three Oasis, three solo, five Oasis, and nothing at all by Beady Eye. As you were, indeed.
The solo songs are just good enough, pub-rock workouts, co-written with songwriters for hire. But it’s the oldies, written by Noel while under the influence of Lennon & McCartney, that get the moshpit heaving – Morning Glory, Some Might Say, Live Forever.
Liam kept his coat on throughout the concert like a small boy protesting at being taken to a party
Wonderwall, Oasis’s second-best song, is held back for a triumphal second encore. The best, Don’t Look Back In Anger, is left out, presumably because it was originally sung by Noel. As it’s been one of the songs of the year, the emblem of Manchester’s undaunted response to the arena bomb, this feels like a missed opportunity. Instead, Liam closes with Bob Marley’s Natural Mystic, converting it from reggae to rock without making it his own.
But the ending doesn’t change the story, which states that he is, once again, a rock ’n’ roll star.
Liam Gallagher is on tour June 15 to August 18, liamgallagher.com
THIS WEEK’S CD RELEASES
By Adam Woods
Fiona Kennedy Time to Fly Pixie Productions, Out Now
Rating: 
Kennedy’s first album in a decade is a beguiling collection of twinkling Celtic country-pop with a Gaelic Christmas carol, a tender Always on My Mind, and a song written with Beth Nielsen Chapman for her husband on their 30th anniversary. Always on My Mind, and a song written with Beth Nielsen Chapman for her husband on their 30th anniversary.
Neil Young The Visitor Reprise, Out Now
Rating:
Whether grooving lumpily or offering up twilit country folk, The Visitor has a messy madness about it. Though it sometimes overplays its eco theme or backs a bad hunch – as on cackling, eight-minute samba Carnival – there’s real, ragged spirit in these songs.