Noel Gallagher - The Biography by Lucian Randall

Author:Lucian Randall [Lucian Randall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782190912
Publisher: John Blake
Published: 2012-11-07T05:00:00+00:00

Maine Road stadium was the home of Gallagher’s beloved Manchester City. It stood in the Moss Side district of the city and the club was based there from 1923 until their move east in 2003 to the new City of Manchester stadium. There had been plans for other sporting uses for the old site, but the following year Maine Road was demolished to make way for residential properties. As fellow Man City fan and Bolton-born broadcaster of early Oasis numbers Mark Radcliffe said, ‘Maine Road was one of the last grounds connected … closely to working class housing.’

For those very personal and emotional reasons, a gig at Maine Road was a homecoming for Gallagher in every sense. And there were two – on 27 and 28 April after one night sold out just as fast as the Earls Court show had the previous year. Out came the Union Jack Supernova with the band augmented by musicians including a string section. Songs from the sets also made it to the …There and Then video and DVD release. It was a triumph with even the b-sides received as if they were No 1s. There was even the traditional inter-brother grumble to liven things up further. On the second night the Gallaghers had a few words in the middle of ‘Whatever’ and while his younger brother stalked off to one side, Noel took over the vocals. But by their standards even this was rather good natured and while Liam rattled his tambourine, soaking up the atmosphere on stage with an oversized, handrolled cigarette, an entirely unrattled Noel finished the song, segueing into the Beatles’ ‘Octopus’s Garden’. The customary encores of ‘I Am the Walrus’ and b-side cover ‘Cum on Feel the Noize’ completed the victory parade.

Following the first gig, Gallagher spoke of how he was overwhelmed by thoughts of when he used to come to the ground as a kid and of one of his team’s finest goalies. ‘I used to come every Saturday, watch big Joe Corrigan and all the rest of it and now it’s us. It’s like, “Yes, thank you…” Just need to take some time to think – I’m all over the place. After Sunday [28th, second gig] it’s gonna be three months off. Got to be. I’m still mad for it, we all are, but I gotta have some time out.’

It seemed as if it wasn’t possible to top the emotion of Maine Road, but Gallagher always planned to go bigger. On 7 May the next move in the master plan was unveiled first thing in the morning on Chris Evans’ breakfast show. On 10 and 11 August, they would play in the grounds of Knebworth House in the Hertfordshire countryside just north of London. The demand was phenomenal. Even though 250,000 tickets were made available in total, it wasn’t anywhere near enough. More than 2.5 million people scrambled to attempt securing their place in what was effectively more of a mini-festival than a regular gig. Gallagher ended

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.